Meeting a troubled five-year-old girl during the holiday season, social worker Patricia Addison and her husband, Mark, find themselves working through past sorrows and reevaluating their faith.

Caring for her family on their mid-20th-century tobacco farm after the loss of her parents, 15-year-old Ivy connects with Grace County social worker Jane, who strains her personal and professional relationships with her advocacy of Ivy's family, whose dark secrets test Jane's resolve against racial tensions and state-mandated sterilizations.

AMISH COUNTRY REFUGE When an unknown assailant attacks Sarah Gardner shortly after she moves to Apple Creek, she doesn't know which of her fears has come true. Is someone trying to tell her that meddling strangers aren't welcome in this tight-knit Amish community, or has her abusive ex-boyfriend found her? The social worker doesn't want to run again, not when she's finally putting down roots. But she may not have a choice, unless deputy sheriff Nick...

"Cold Creek is a place with a dark history, especially for the Lockwoods. Now adults, the three Lockwood sisters are still recovering from the events that led to the destruction of their family when they were children. Determined to move forward, Tess and Kate are making fresh starts, ready to put bad--even deadly--memories to rest and settle happily in the small but booming town. And they're hoping their older sister, Charlene, can do the same. Char...

"A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret. Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages. When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel...

"Book one in a mystery series featuring a queer, nameless amateur detective is ambisexual Kinsey Millhone meets Canadian Lisbeth Salander. Rescued from torpor and poverty by the need to help a good friend deal with the murder of her beloved granddaughter, our downsized-social-worker protagonist and her cat, Bunnywit, are jolted into a harsh, street-wise world of sex, lies, and betrayal, to which they respond with irony, wit, intelligence (except for...

"The witty, queer accidental detective of the Epitome Apartments is back. While helping to solve a community murder, she also needs to convince police that she didn't revenge-kill the man who took everything from her. The nameless amateur sleuth of The Adventures of Isabel and What's the Matter with Mary Jane? has often said that death is too good for Lockwood Chiles -- who is in prison for killing her beloved partner, Nathan, and her close friend...