Lillian Porter is thrilled to accept a nanny position out west, until she arrives and hears troubling rumors that her employer caused his wife's death. But the accusation doesn't align with the man she comes to know--and love. When Woody is arrested on suspicion of attacking his housekeeper, can Lillian find the truth in time to save them both from tragedy?

From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author: a rollicking murder mystery set in Gold Rush California, as two young prostitutes follow a trail of missing girls. Monterey, 1851. Ever since her husband was killed in a bar fight, Eliza Ripple has been working in a brothel. It seems like a better life, at least at first. The madam, Mrs. Parks, is kind, the men are (relatively) well behaved, and Eliza has attained what few women have:...

Twelve-year-old Jeremiah "Jem" Coulter knows that Goldtown, California, has seen the last of the gold rush. But the flecks of gold he and an old prospector, "Strike," find in their played-out claim on Cripple Creek spur Jem's hope of striking it rich.

She's finally claimed her independence . . . how far will she go to keep it? A brilliant engineer, Jilly Stiles has been educated since childhood to help run her father's lumber dynasty. With the company safe from her stepfather after the marriages of her two sisters, Jilly can now focus on her dream of building a mountaintop railroad--and never marry. Nick Ryder came into Jilly's life when he saved her mother from her no-good stepfather, and he's...

"In 1895 San Francisco young debutantes don't commit suicide at festive parties, particularly not under the eye of Sabina Carpenter. But Virginia St. Ives evidently did, leaping from a foggy parapet in a shimmer of ghostly light. The seemingly impossible disappearance of her body creates an even more serious problem for the firm of Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services. Sabina hadn't wanted to take the assignment, but her partner...

"Twelve-year-old Jem Coulter couldn't be more excited. His sheriff father must escort a prisoner to Sacramento, and he's leaving the ranch in Jem's care. ... However, Jem quickly discovers that being the 'man of the family' for two weeks is not how he imagined it. Everything goes wrong. A wolf threatens the herd, and an injured stranger invades the Coulters' lives. Then Jem's horse goes missing, along with Pa's good rifle ... Jem won't let his father...

Olivia Brighton finds herself widowed and working her brother's restaurant in San Francisco during the height of the rush for gold. Even though she receives at least twenty marriage proposals a day, she will never marry a gold miner. Her brother's friend Joseph Sawyer has gotten caught up in local politics and the plight of Chinese in forced labor. The more Joseph gets pulled into investigating crime in the city, the less Olivia sees of the compassionate...

The Donner Party expedition is one of the most notorious stories in all of American history. It's also a fascinating snapshot of the westward expansion of the United States, and the families and individuals who sacrificed so much to build new lives in a largely unknown landscape.

In 1851 twelve-year-old Sarah is a free Black, happy living with her parents, grandparents, and brother on their own farm in Iowa; but her father has been bitten by the gold bug and wants to take the trail west to California, and after some argument it is decided that the the grandparents will stay on the farm, but the rest of the family will go; the journey will be difficult and dangerous, but if they survive extreme weather, difficult terrain, illness,...

Just turned twelve, Lily is the oldest of the three children in her Chinese American family living in San Francisco when the 1906 earthquake hits; her family has survived the quake, but as the city starts to burn Lily and her younger brother are separated from the others and must get to the safety of Oakland across the bay and hope that the rest of their family and friends are there waiting for them--but between the fire and the anti-Chinese violence...