Kirjahaku

You Are My Song is Book Three in "The Carousel Trilogy." The nineteen-fifties. Elvis is wearing "Blue Suede Shoes." Country music reigns supreme at the Grand Old Opry in Nashville. But in a small Tennessee town Jamie Logan - a good-hearted young man with a superb tenor voice - stars in his high school's musical theater production and begins an unlikely, almost magical journey that could take him to the pinnacle of the opera world. The path is far from simple. Jamie just wants to sing. He is ill-prepared for the jealousy, rivalry and politics he encounters on his way. Family crises and even a hate crime also sidetrack him and threaten to undermine his journey. But Jamie has a voice beautiful beyond belief - and the love of a woman who inspires him to believe in himself. His desire to sing becomes his reason for being. Will that be enough?

How I Grew Up is Book One in "The Carousel Trilogy," stories of three friends whose lives were changed by one event when they were high school students."You'll Never Walk Alone." The words from that song in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel held an especially poignant meaning for Melanie Stewart, who went on stage in the leading role of Julie Jordan mere weeks after her parents were victims of a senseless murder, perpetrated by her own sister's troubled husband. She was just eighteen, a high school senior who dreamed of Hollywood stardom and her first real kiss. With the support of her two older sisters, who had problems of their own to deal with in the lingering aftermath of the horror, and her good friends, Mel auditioned for her high school's spring musical the week after her parent's funeral. Rehearsals for the production began almost immediately. In the weeks leading up to the performance, Melanie learning she was stronger than she knew and being involved in the show helped her begin to heal. The story takes place in small-town America in the nineteen fifties.

One brother can't remember. The other can't forget. Andrew and Jacob Cameron are tied together by a bond more powerful than blood. As young children, they experience a horrific event that tears their family apart. Then just as they complete their high school years, the Vietnam War intensifies. Both young men serve in the military: Andrew in the Marine Corps, Jake as a Green Beret.Each brother is damaged by his service in Vietnam, Jake in a way that will change his life forever. Andrew, always protective of his rakish younger brother, is determined to restore Jake and their relationship to normalcy. But when Jake disappears, Andrew's life is left in shambles. His loving parents, his always supportive wife Mary, even his burgeoning career as an artist seem not to be enough to alleviate the pain of Andrew's frantic question: Where is my brother?Susan Moore Jordan, author of "The Carousel Trilogy" (How I Grew Up, Eli's Heart, and You Are My Song) and Jamie's Children, draws from her life experiences as a voice teacher and stage director while seamlessly weaving together stories that explore the power music has to inspire and heal. In Memories of Jake, Jordan adds the creative power of art as a family deals with tragedy, war, injury, and illness and finds healing, inspiration, and resolution.

September 1964--Aside from babysitting a colleague's rambunctious dog, life seems serene at the McKee home in Cincinnati-until Augusta's beau, Homicide Detective Malcolm Mitchell, receives a chilling phone call in the middle of the night from a mysterious crime kingpin. Midnight or not, friends and colleagues immediately convene. And within hours, the hunt for Augusta McKee-amateur sleuth, former opera singer and professor of music, last seen at a production staff meeting for her spring musical at Cliffside College-is on. Malcolm learns how perilous her situation is and what is being demanded in exchange for her safe return. He and his partner, Detective Jim Edmonds, muster their department's forces and assistance from the FBI as the danger mounts. To discover Augusta's location, Malcolm must piece together a trail of cryptic clues from Augusta herself. There is a deadline to meet, and time grows short. Where is Augusta? Can Malcolm find her in time to save her life? And can someone PLEASE stop that dog from barking?

Cincinnati, 1963: One-time opera singer Augusta McKee, professor of music on two college campuses, is successfully navigating her busy life in stiletto-shod feet-until she comes up against a shocking road block. Halfway through rehearsals for a production of "The Pirates of Penzance," Augusta receives the awful news that her leading lady has been murdered. But "the show must go on," and while forging ahead to make that happen, Augusta stumbles upon pertinent information which could lead to the identity of the perpetrator. First, though, Augusta must convince Homicide Detective Malcolm Mitchell that what she has uncovered can help him solve the case. While the strong-willed diva and the dashing detective clash at their first meeting, their dissonant chord becomes harmonious when Augusta and Malcolm continue to cross paths and discover a shared passion for opera ... and a strong desire to catch the killer. A murder mystery, "The Case of the Slain Soprano" is a departure for Susan Moore Jordan, whose previous historical novels follow characters as they deal with physical, mental, and emotional life challenges with the help of music. Jordan, a singer, teacher, and former musical theater director, has written about her adventures in "More Fog, Please" 31 Years Directing Community and High School Musicals. She resides in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.

Cincinnati, September 1963: Augusta McKee, former opera singer and current professor of voice on two college campuses, finds herself immersed in mystery from the top of her well-coiffed head to the tip of her beloved stilettos.Augusta's beau, handsome Homicide Detective Malcolm Mitchell, is dealing with a tough case: the murder of a "John Doe"-a victim shot gangland-style and dumped from a car near Parkside Playhouse in lovely Eden Park, not far from a pagoda reputedly haunted by the ghost of a woman murdered decades earlier. And to add to the mystery, a possible eyewitness has vanished into thin air. While Malcolm is busy chasing down leads, Augusta's attention is focused on the student production she is directing, dramatic scenes from opera which feature on-stage ghosts-just in time for Halloween. Offstage, eerie happenings on the Conservatory campus and a menacing ex-student become increasingly troubling distractions, until Augusta begins to wonder: could Malcolm's case and her mysterious spirits somehow be connected? Her search for the answer soon leads our favorite sleuth to the alarming realization that ghosts are the least of her worries.

Pocono Mountains, June, 1966Augusta McKee, amateur sleuth, professor of music, and former opera singer, is invited to perform in the musical Carousel at the Pocono Playhouse in Northeastern Pennsylvania. With the encouragement of her husband, Cincinnati P.D. Homicide Detective Malcolm Mitchell, she accepts this chance to be on a stage again, in an area where she spent happy summers as a child experiencing the beauty of the mountains and the Delaware Water Gap.Two nights after the show opens, a woman's body is found in the theater's parking lot. An old beau of Augusta's, Evan Llewellyn, who plays the male lead in the show, is the prime-in fact, the only-suspect in the murder. Because the victim was from Cincinnati, Malcolm becomes involved in the case and joins Augusta in the Poconos.Llewellyn's past as the child of coal miners in the nearby Anthracite Region of Pennsylvania emerges as an essential element in the case. While searching for clues to the murder, Augusta and Malcolm learn of past and present destruction created by mining and witness firsthand the devastation caused by the Carbondale underground mine fire.As the puzzle pieces of the case fall into place, Augusta finds herself in a harrowing, life-threatening confrontation with the killer-at a remote, long-abandoned coal mine.

"A TREMENDOUS PIECE OF WORK THAT RESONATES IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS--IN PARTICULAR THE WAY MUSIC AFFECTS US AS NOTHING ELSE DOES." -- A READER Lindsey Cameron, a gifted young soprano, believes herself called to a life in music and single-mindedly focuses on pursuing a career in opera. But a life-shattering tragedy involving her two college housemates changes everything. Overwhelmed by shock and grief, Lindsey struggles to say goodbye to one friend while helping her surviving friend on his long road to recovery. Just as her life seems back on track, Lindsey falls head over heels in love with Nate Cohen, a charming and talented baritone on his way to opera stardom. The young lovers appear destined for a fairy-tale ending, but cracks have begun to appear in Lindsey's resolve for a career in Opera World. Her profound experiences with suffering and pain have opened her mind to other possibilities in a life lived for music. Love, loss, conviction, and passion merge in this heartfelt story that unravels how, even in life's darkest, most difficult hours, music gives us healing, hope-and joy.

Cincinnati, October 1967 -- Eugene Geller, the handsome and popular Cantor of Rockdale Temple-located in the racially tense Avondale neighborhood of Cincinnati-disappears without a trace during a night of rioting in the "long, hot summer" of 1967. Was Gene a casualty of the riot? Has he run away with one of his paramours? Or has he been the victim of foul play by his long-suffering wife or an angry ex-lover or a jealous husband?Augusta McKee, Chair of the Opera Department at the Conservatory and amateur sleuth, is helping her husband, Chief of Detectives Malcolm Mitchell, unravel this mystery. Augusta is also in the midst of planning the Conservatory's spring opera, Mozart's The Magic Flute, a fairy tale of good and evil. Her wish is the opera's positive message and its multi-ethnic cast will help return hope and calm to her tense city. But her first-time ethnic casting of lead roles causes her to receive anonymous threatening notes-and worse.Malcolm and the police are close to solving the Geller case-but now Augusta's life is in imminent danger. How will they find and stop the person targeting her?

1953 --One magical summer in a small town in Tennessee, lovely teenager KRISSY PORTER meets a visitor from New York, ELI LEVIN, a young piano prodigy born with a serious heart defect and not expected to live past the age of thirty. They play piano duets, talk about baseball, eat banana splits, and begin to fall in love-until their budding romance is ended by interference from Eli's over-protective family.The star-crossed sweethearts manage to find their way back to each other years later while both are college students. They marry on Krissy's twentieth birthday.Their shared love of music is a vital part of their life together. Once he begins his career, Eli's rise is meteoric. Krissy, too, achieves a successful career in the world of music.Intensely devoted and passionate from the beginning, the couple is ever aware of their greatest challenge: living their best lives while never knowing when the various repairs to Eli's heart might give out.

Cincinnati, March 1970 Augusta McKee-professor, voice teacher, and opera director at the Conservatory-is realizing a lifelong dream as she directs a production of Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann in Cincinnati's magnificent Music Hall. Former student and now colleague Allan Meissner, recently returned from a tour of duty in Vietnam, is set to perform one of the leading roles in the Offenbach opera, starring as the villain, a character with four distinctly different personalities-and a true tour-de-force for a basso. Two weeks before Allan's opera performance, Augusta receives a shocking phone call from her husband, Malcolm Mitchell, Chief of Detectives for the Cincinnati Police Department, informing her that a friend of Allan's has been found murdered. The news becomes even more startling when Allan is arrested and charged with the murder, throwing Augusta's upcoming opera production-not to mention Allan's entire future- into jeopardy. Solving this crime of passion becomes a race against the clock, a race with unexpected twists and collateral damage. As the pursuit to identify and apprehend the murderer intensifies, life imitates art when Augusta, determined to restore Allan's good name and reputation, joins the detectives to bring an elusive and dangerous villain to justice.

'A thoughtful, superbly paced historical novel looking at the emotional damage of war. A FINALIST and highly recommended.' The Wishing Shelf Book Awards***"I was born somewhere over the South China Seain a military transport plane ..." Jake Cameron is facing the struggle of his life. A helicopter crash in Vietnam leaves Jake with total amnesia, and the young Green Beret returns home to a family he doesn't know and can't remember. As he attempts to piece together the life he once had, fragmented memories from his childhood serve only to increase his desperation. Unable to be the son and brother his family has lost, Jake sets out to learn whatever he can about the man he was. When he uncovers a dark family secret, he decides to protect the people he loves by disappearing.Susan Moore Jordan's new historical novel, Man With No Yesterdays, follows Jake on his journey as he fights to find himself ... a journey that takes him into his past, connects him with other Vietnam veterans, and eventually leads him to situations, places, and a love he would never have dreamed possible.