Sophie Littlefield

A Manhattan socialite turns her spin instructor into a fitness superstar to impress her friends. But can she keep her little project under control? Or has she created a monster? Julia Summers seems to have it all: a Fifth Avenue apartment, a successful husband, and two adorable children attending the best private school in the city. She relishes wielding influence over her well-heeled girlfriends . . . but her star appears to be fading. That's why, when stranded in Manhattan for the summer as the entire Upper East Side flees to the Hamptons, Julia is on the hunt for the next big thing--the hot new fad that will put her back on top. Enter Flame, the next elite fitness craze. Seductive and transformative, Flame is exactly what Julia needs--and demure, na ve instructor Tatum is her ticket in. Turning Tatum from giggly blonde to trendy guru proves hard work. Yet Julia's triumphant comeback at summer's end doesn't quite go as planned, and when things suddenly get ugly, she realizes she's in way over her head. And Tatum begins to grasp just how much power her newfound stardom holds. . . Then, with Julia's life already spiraling out of control, her husband is arrested for fraud and bribery. As her so-called friends turn their backs on her, and Tatum pursues her own agenda, Julia is forced to rethink everything she knew about her world to reclaim her perfect life. But does she even want it back? Hilarious and incisive, Sophie Littlefield and Lauren Gershell's That's What Frenemies Are For provides an engrossing glimpse into the cutthroat moms' club of the Upper East Side.

Ring in the season with this charming short-story trilogy by internationally-bestselling authors Juliet Blackwell, Sophie Littlefield, and Rachael Herron. Darling Bay's favorite Santa Claus has just died, but before the beloved Earl passed, he wrote a few really important letters. The letters are acting as matchmakers in Earl's absence, and three couples get pushed together by his ribbons of ink. Merriment shimmers, hearts are gladdened, and kisses are stolen during the storm that moves into Darling Bay over the holiday weekend. The storm threatens to shut down the whole town, but as hearts waken, will love triumph over all as Earl pulls heartstrings from above? Don't miss this heartwarming holiday charmer.

Maris used to be a loving, happy mother. Then her daughter was murdered. Who is she now? A man stands on the edge of the Golden Gate Bridge. His son killed Maris's daughter. Now she holds his life in her hands. At one word from her, he'll jump... Should Maris let him live, or die? And will this shocking offer free her, or destroy her? This is a powerful thriller about guilt, retribution and motherhood.

In the dark days of war, a mother makes the ultimate sacrifice Lucy Takeda is just fourteen years old, living in Los Angeles, when the bombs rain down on Pearl Harbor. Within weeks, she and her mother, Miyako, are ripped from their home, rounded up--along with thousands of other innocent Japanese-Americans--and taken to the Manzanar prison camp. Buffeted by blistering heat and choking dust, Lucy and Miyako must endure the harsh living conditions of the camp. Corruption and abuse creep into every corner of Manzanar, eventually ensnaring beautiful, vulnerable Miyako. Ruined and unwilling to surrender her daughter to the same fate, Miyako soon breaks. Her final act of desperation will stay with Lucy forever...and spur her to sins of her own.

A Bad Day for Mercy is a terrific addition to this incredibly original and entertaining series. For those who haven't yet discovered the wonder of Sophie Littlefield, it's high time to join the fun A call from Stella Hardesty's little sister brings the news that Stella's step-nephew, Chip, has been threatened with serious bodily harm if he doesn't settle his unpaid gambling debts. Stella makes the drive to Chip's home in Wisconsin, only to walk in on a wee-hours dismemberment. Chip and his Russian girlfriend, Natalya, insist the man was left, already dead, on their porch. Suspicious but compelled to help family, Stella tracks down other suspects, including the deceased's business partner, a purveyor of black-market Botox, and a jilted violist. Matters are complicated by the unexpected arrival of BJ Broderson, who has picked the worst possible time to pursue his amorous intentions toward Stella. Meanwhile, thoughts of Sheriff "Goat" Jones make Stella blush and wonder where, and with whom, she will spend her fifty-first birthday.

When Prosper homegirl turned big-city businesswoman Priss Porter returns to town with a body in her trunk, she calls Stella Hardesty to dispose of it. Her uppity ways don't convince Stella to take the job, and Priss attempts to blackmail her with a snapshot of Stella doing what she does best: curing woman-beaters by the use of force. Stella refuses to cooperate and goes home, only to hear later that Priss and her brother, Liman, have gone missing after calling in a disturbance. Stella is implicated when Sheriff "Goat" Jones discovers the scarf she left behind at the house. He warns her to stay local but Stella and her partner, Chrissy Shaw, go looking for Priss in Kansas City, where they discover that she runs an unusual business. When Priss herself--along with two other bodies--turns up in a pond belonging to one of Stella's ex-clients, Stella must investigate a host of suspects, including a crooked but libidinous female judge, a coterie of jealous male escorts, and a Marxist ex-professor. A Bad Day for Scandal is the third in Sophie Littlefield's award-winning, critically acclaimed series. Written with passion, humor, and guts, this is a mystery to be savored.

A New York Times Notable Book Stella Hardesty, avenger of wronged women, is getting cozy with Sheriff "Goat" Jones when a tornado blows none other than Goat's scheming ex-wife, Brandy, through the front door. Adding to the chaos, the tornado destroys the snack shack at the demolition derby track, pulling up the concrete and unearthing a woman's body. The main suspect for the dumping is Neb Donovan. Years ago, Neb's wife asked Stella for help getting him sober. Stella doesn't believe the gentle man could kill any woman, and she promises his frantic wife she'll look into it. Former client Chrissy Shaw, now fully employed at Stella's sewing shop, helps with snooping around as Stella must negotiate with the unpredictable Brandy and the dangerously alluring sheriff. A Bad Day for Pretty is the thrilling sequel to Sophie Littlefield's award-winning debut featuring Stella Hardesty, one of the most applauded and exciting new heroines in crime fiction today.

Winner of the Anthony Award for Best First Novel Stella Hardesty dispatched her abusive husband with a wrench shortly before her fiftieth birthday. A few years later, she's so busy delivering home-style justice, helping other women deal with their own abusive husbands and boyfriends, that she's barely got time to run her sewing shop. Since Stella works outside of the law, she's free to do whatever it takes to be convincing--as long as she keeps her distance from the handsome devil of a local sheriff, Goat Jones. When young mother Chrissy Shaw asks Stella for help with her no-good, husband Roy Dean, it looks like just another standard job. But then Chrissy's two-year-old son is taken, and Stella finds herself up against a much more formidable enemy. Sophie Littlefield's A Bad Day for Sorry won an Anthony Award for Best First Novel and an RT Book Award for Best First Mystery. It was also shortlisted for Edgar, Barry, Crimespree, and Macavity Awards, and it was named to lists of the year's best mystery debuts by the Chicago Sun-Times and South Florida Sun-Sentinel.