Böcker av Ann Shepphird

Ever wonder what it would be like to be able to hire the team from "Mission: Impossible" to solve your relationship woes? A young communications professor attempts to make that happen in "The War Council."After the love of her life leaves her for a job on the other side of the world, Professor Maggie McGrew is devastated. To Maggie, his leaving-and not taking her with him-was just not logical. Instead of merely mourning the breakup, Maggie pours herself into the study of love. She comes up with the concept of a paramilitary-style relationship counseling service that she calls "The War Council," because, as they say, all is fair in love and war. Maggie then enlists her friends and colleagues-from fellow professors to a university psychologist and the rugby coach-to serve in a variety of roles on the council. Maggie's best friend Kathy (the psychologist) hates everything about the War Council but reluctantly agrees to be a member. Kathy also wants to help Maggie get over the boyfriend that left so she uses some of Maggie's own concepts to set her up with a new beau. When Maggie discovers the truth about the new man in her life and Kathy's role in bringing them together and the ex-boyfriend suddenly returns, she learns that love is anything but logical. In this humorous look at love-the first in the University Chronicles series-each of the main characters tells their version of the events that surround the creation of the War Council and the effect it had on their lives.

The last thing Samantha Powers expected to do on her first official trip as a travel writer was help solve a murder. Samantha ("Sam") Powers, a 34-year-old investigative reporter, has returned to her hometown of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, to take care of her ailing father, the town's former police chief. At the urging of a family friend, she takes a job as the new travel columnist for Carmel Today, a local lifestyle magazine. After a few months of writing about area hotels and restaurants and navigating the office dynamics at her new position, Sam sets out on her first big press trip to a luxury resort on the Hawaiian island of Maui. There she meets her fellow travel writers and the resort representatives hosting the trip, all of whom become suspects when one of the writers-someone almost everyone had a reason to want to kill-is found dead in his suite. Sam's detective skills come in handy as she helps the handsome (and, yes, single) Maui detective solve the crime. "Destination: Maui" is the first in the Destination Murder Mystery series, which combines exotic locales and a behind-the-scenes look at the travel industry with the twists and turns expected from a good mystery.