Showing results by author "Shani Struthers" in All Categories

Devastated by the deaths of her parents and disillusioned with life, Caroline Daynes is in America trying to connect with their memory. Travelling to her mother's hometown of Williamsfield in Pennsylvania, she is caught in a snowstorm and forced to stop at The Egress hotel - somewhere she'd planned to visit as her parents honeymooned there. From the moment she sets foot inside the lobby and meets the surly receptionist, she realizes this is a hotel like no other. Charming and unique, it seems lost in time with a whole cast of compelling characters sheltering behind closed doors.

An extreme land breeds extreme emotions. Comraich - Gaelic for Sanctuary - that's what this ancient fortress of a house in the Highlands of Scotland has offered its generations, a haven from the world beyond. The nesting instinct kicking in, a pregnant Jessamin decides that Comraich, which she shares with her partner Fionnlagh Maccaillin, needs refreshing. Getting to work in one of the spare bedrooms she makes a startling discovery, one that pulls her into a world of the intense and disturbing passions of others that have been here before.

A renovation. In the countryside. Just over an hour's train ride from London. An ideal family home. Sold unseen. At auction. Married couple Al and Liz Greenaway love London, but when they discover an impressive country property for sale. A fine house. Once. Solitary, romantic, isolated, and quiet. So quiet that, for the first time in years, Liz can hear her own thoughts as long buried memories emerge. And there's an echo in them, a whisper... For someone else in the house, memories are emerging too.

Jessamin Wade's husband is dead. She keeps him alive in her imagination, but she thinks she will hear him better if she goes somewhere quieter. Her destination is Glenelk in the Highlands of Scotland. Quickly, she meets the locals: her landlord, Fionnlagh Maccaillin; Maggie, who runs the village shop; and Stan, a frail, old man stricken with grief. Their lives entwining in mysterious ways, can they help each other to move on, or will they always belong to the ghosts that haunt them?

On a road trip to Baker City and the mountains of Oregon, Shady Groves, Ray Bartlett and their friends are looking forward to a few days’ vacation. On the way, they make an unscheduled motel stop where Shady encounters Missy Davenport, the proprietor, an old photograph of Missy too, and her family, horror attached to it.

Eleven stories chronicle the life and times of characters who cross paths and share destiny’s fire escape. Ghosts, gravity, romance, and secrets weave the communal narrative. Step into the elevator. Push any button, but try to remember your way back out. Not everybody makes it.

Life may have moved on to new challenges for Ruby Davis, now being a mother to baby Hendrix, but she's back at the helm of Psychic Surveys, her spiritual domestic clearance company, and the cases just keep getting stranger. A new client, Carrie-Ann Kendall, has suffered an accident at sea, one that - according to her - she shouldn't have survived. Visiting a clairvoyant who is apparently terrified by her presence, only confirms this notion. It is now up to Ruby and the team to find out whether Carrie-Ann has cheated death. If so, what are the consequences, and for how long?

Lucy Klein, 42, is not only obsessed with Highgate, she works there too, organising tours for those with an interest in some of the finest Victorian funerary architecture in existence. Single, and on the shy side, she is nonetheless content with her life, or so she thinks. When she meets the enigmatic Zak Harborne, she realizes what she’s been missing and quickly falls in love. Suddenly, it is the business of living that interests her.

As soon as Ava Kent spots Jed in her local rescue centre, she knows, just as much as he does, they are perfect for each other. It's love at first sight, and despite her husband's misgivings, she offers him a home. Not much is known of Jed, other than he is a stray picked up from the streets of Eastbourne, but he soon proves himself a loyal and loving companion - in fact, he's something of a lifesaver. When Ava suffers the traumatic birth of her first child alone at home, it's Jed that somehow escapes the house to find help.

Ruby Davis runs Psychic Surveys, a high street company specializing in domestic spiritual clearance. Having inherited her ability to see beyond the veil that separates this world and the next from her mother Jessica, she is busy helping grounded spirits to cross the great divide. In turn, Jessica inherited her gift from her mother Sarah, and Sarah from Rosamund.

After Arthur’s marriage to Guinevere – his betrayal – Morgan leaves Caer Arthur behind, bound for the mist-shrouded isle of Avalon. There, she hopes to find the mother she has never known: Viviane, the High Priestess. Having barely survived the crossing, she fears not only for her life, but for the child she carries – Mordred. Avalon is said to be a sanctuary, an ancient bastion of the Goddess in a land fast falling to the One True God. Yet peace eludes her as a hunger for power stirs.

Although Psychic Surveys remain busy, there’s been no real cases lately to get their teeth into, logical explanations found for most hauntings. That all changes when Ruby gets a call from Conor Byrne, who lives in the Republic of Ireland. The fear in his voice is genuine. Ruby, Theo, Ness and Corinna head over to the Emerald Isle to help Conor, and, of course, the distressed spirit – their aim to bring peace to the living and the dead. They arrive to find a dilapidated cottage in a rural area, and a man that’s barely alive.

1999: In the small town of Rutherford, Kansas, four teenagers work the night shift in a local store for the summer. Three are loners. One is new in town. Together they’re a perfect fit. 2010: Tupper, the owner of the store and a pillar of the community, dies. Of the night shift, only three return to their hometown for his funeral.