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Mad Money (Madeline Carter) by Madeline Carter
From Booklist
White-collar crime turns nasty when stockbroker Madeline Carter's best friend, Jack, is shot to death right at the New York Stock Exchange. Unnerved by his murder, Madeline quits her job and moves to Los Angeles, where she rents an apartment on the Malibu property of a famous movie director. An insider's tip from Ernie, her former lover, causes Madeline to lose her money, something that shouldn't have happened. Unfortunately, she had passed the tip on to her mother, who also passed the tip on. Feeling responsible for several people's investments, Madeline goes to Langton Regional Group, the company in question, to find out for herself what's happening. She discovers that Ernie, their CEO, has been kidnapped, and the more Madeline investigates, the deeper into the whole mess she gets. On the upside, she finds unexpected love with Steve, a young Langton salesman. On the downside, someone uses her for target practice. Murder, mayhem, humor, romance, and great characters make this first book in the Madeline Carter series hard to put down.
The Garden by Gillian Linscott
[prev pub by Allison & Busby; author of Nell Bray series]
Holders Hope. Herefordshire.
In the long summer of the Edwardian age, the roots of a great garden are laid
But it's beauty and calm are deceptive - for this is a home with a secret.
For two generations the lives of two families are bound up with the garden.
The Allegri family, mine owners with the money to pay for it.
The Thomas family, mine workers from the Welsh valleys, whose care and skill help to shape it.
Three children – an unhappy rich girl, a musician and a boy dreaming of revolution – meet in the garden and share a secret that will affect the rest of their lives.
Over some of the most turbulent years of Britain’s history, through the First World War and the industrial strife and poverty of the 1920s, the garden grows, suffers and is almost destroyed by the forces that created it.
It waits, lost and overgrown, for a man from the twenty-first century with his own secret who will finally solve its mystery and bring a hope of its rebirth.