Tam May

The importance of customer service is widely emphasized in business today. This book offers the first comprehensive analysis of the organization and dynamics of front-line work. The volume is based on a four-year study of over a thousand employees and eight leading companies in the United States, Australia, and Japan.On the Front Line reveals similarities and differences found in work environments—such as variance in authority relations and division of labor—as well as significant contrasts between management approaches used in Japan and those used in the United States and Australia. By examining how work differs among service, sales, and knowledge-based settings, it also shows how bureaucratic, entrepreneurial, and network forms of organization coexist in the informational economy.This seminal analysis of work in the service sector offers both a benchmark for consultants working with customer-contact organizations and valuable information for anyone concerned with the changing nature of work.

Three sisters couldn't be more different, but they share one thing in common - a taste for crime It's 1921, and Americans are still reeling from the effects of World War I. In Gyver, CA, on the California/Nevada border, three sisters own the only funeral home in town. The eldest, Eve, takes care of the administration and accounting. Middle sister Helena uses her scientific and medical knowledge for the more hands-on side of the business. Eighteen-year-old Violet, the youngest, skirts the edge of a flapper lifestyle, preferring parties and jazz to funeral services and burials.Then, Gyver County's newly appointed district attorney asks for their assistance in identifying the body of a young woman found along a remote part of the river. At first, the police think it's suicide. Only it isn't - it's murder As far as the sisters are concerned, murder is police business. Their business is to see that the dead are laid to rest. But District Attorney Oliver Clarke needs their help, and they can't say no.What follows is a twisted tale with only a few clues to help untangle it: a missing engagement ring, a piece of rope, and a torn lapel.Will Eve and her sisters succeed in bringing justice to a dead, innocent young woman?From the author of the Adele Gossling Mysteries comes a new series set in the tumultuous early years of the Jazz Age. Follow the adventures of three sisters who battle life and death in a nation moving into the modern age faster than it can handle.Early reviews: "I really couldn't put it down ""This was an interesting murder mystery""The three Grave sisters, Eve, Helena and Vi are wonderful " Don't forget to check out the other books in the Grave Sisters Mysteries

On a quiet morning in 1906, an earthquake of horrendous magnitude shakes one of California's most vibrant cities. Buildings crumble to the ground. Fires destroy everything from South of the Slot's dilapidated buildings to Nob Ill's most ornate mansions, leveling nearly eighty percent of San Francisco.Radical suffragist and progressive reformer Elsie Blessings calls her friends Adele Gossling and Nin Branch to her side at the Presidio's refugee camp to help destitute women and children as San Francisco begins the slow process of rebuilding. Adele's brother, Jackson, and Sheriff Hatfield accompany them as volunteers to help maintain law and order amidst the chaos of the ruined city.While citizens come together to pick up the pieces of their homes and lives among the rubble, somebody thinks it's just the right time for murder.Includes an Author's Note with background on the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906

A lady's maid is getting too big for her britches. But does that justify murder?Everybody in town agrees: Arabella Parnell thinks far too highly of herself. She worked her way up to lady's maid for one of Arrojo's finest families, personal friends of the mayor. She attends parties given by the lady of the house as if she were the guest of honor. She writes letters to the daughter of her wealthy former employer as if they were comrades. She flirts with some of the most prominent men in the county.So the Arrojo police are hardly surprised when they find her dead among the shrubbery in a wealthy bachelor's conservatory.And yet, amateur sleuth and suffragist Adele Gossling can't help but wonder: Who was Arabella Parnell really? Was she just a servant with arrogant manners and too much self-assurance? Or was she the victim of the pride and passions of powerful men, one of whom did her in? With a hair comb, a brooch, and a candlestick to go on, can Adele solve this case?Read how Adele and her psychic friend Nin unravel a shocking and twisted case inspired by a real-life, early 20th-century unsolved crime Enjoy the sixth book of this series featuring the sleuth with, as one reviewer puts it, "a wonderful mixture of sassiness and sensitivity." Don't forget to check out the other books in the Adele Gossling Mysteries

Vivian has more in common with her nemesis than she wants to believe.Waxwood, 1900: For Vivian Alderdice, the twentieth century begins with a new start. Now a working woman and progressive reformer, she's forsaken Nob Hill for the more modest Waxwood. She's laid Penelope Alderdice's specter to rest at last. Granted, her life isn't the one she was born into. Instead of a Nob Hill socialite, she sells strawberry sodas at her friend's drugstore and helps working-class women improve their education. But she has no complaints about the calmness and predictability of her days.Vivian's peaceful existence is thrown into turmoil when the man who ruined her brother's life appears like another specter she must exorcise.At first, Vivian hates him with a passion. But when she sees how his own undiscovered past has destroyed him, leaving him helpless in the hands of a cousin who hates him worse than she does, she finds herself feeling compassion for him.Is it his journey Vivian will discover in the dark forest of guilt and betrayal or her own?Read the powerful conclusion of the Alderdice family saga set in the enlightened times of the Progressive Era.Discover for yourself whether Vivian will complete her self-actualization and find peace and forgiveness in the future.

Sometimes the past refuses to stay in the past.Waxwood, 1899: Vivian Alderdice is twenty-six, unmarried, and has no prospective suitors. Her brother's tragic plight the year before left the family on shaky ground in Nob Hill society. Their social position depends on Vivian capturing the heart of a wealthy Canadian bachelor determined to become a member of their exclusive society. But to win him, she and her mother must spend the summer in Waxwood.Waxwood brings back memories of Vivian searching for her grandmother's identity and uncovering family secrets she wasn't prepared to deal with, but she's determined to leave all that behind her.Then a young man she meets on the train brings those skeletons out of the closet again, and Vivian finds herself torn between her fulfilling her social obligations or tracing a past that might lead to uncovering more family secrets.Will Vivian's summer unravel family truths that might destroy her family forever? Or will those months unearth a more authentic version of herself and where she stands as the new century approaches?If you enjoy coming-of-age stories with a touch of romance and suspense, read the continuation of Vivian's story set in America's Gilded Age.Get Pathfinding Women today and read about the summer that will change Vivian's life forever

Every young man needs a father figure in his life. Jake just lost his.Waxwood, 1898: At nineteen, Jake Alderdice loses his grandfather, the only paternal figure he ever knew. His mother expects him to take his place as the new head of the family but Jake hardly has the qualities expected of a Gilded Age patriarch. He is contemplative rather than aggressive, hesitant instead of ambitious, and artistic rather than materialistic. And now, he has no one to guide him.When the family fulfills Malcolm Alderdice's last request - to visit Waxwood, the coastal town where he wooed and won Penelope Alderdice - Jake befriends an older but illusive man prepared to teach him all he needs to know about Gilded Age manhood.But is his new mentor all he claims to be? Or is he a wolf in sheep's clothing bent on leading Jake into a diabolical version of the Gilded Age man?Will Jake discover the true meaning of Gilded Age masculinity or redefine it?Book 2 of the Waxwood Series is a touching coming-of-age story set during the unsettling years of America's late nineteenth century.Get False Fathers today and read about Jake's rocky road to maturity. THE WAXWOOD SERIESThe Specter (Waxwood Series: Book 1)Pathfinding Women (Waxwood Series: Book 3)Dandelions (Waxwood Series: Book 4)

To what lengths will one go to exorcise a specter?One rainy morning in 1892, people gather to mourn the death of San Francisco socialite Penelope Alderdice. Among them is a strange little woman named Bertha Ross, who claims to have known "Grace" in the 1850's in the small town of Waxwood. But Penelope's granddaughter, Vivian, has never heard of Grace or Waxwood.Bertha reveals surprising details about Grace's life in Waxwood, including a love affair with Evan, an artist and member of Brandywine, Waxwood's art colony.Vivian's mother, Larissa, insists Bertha is an imposter who has come not to mourn a woman she knew in her youth but to stir up trouble. Vivian, however, suspects the key to her grandmother's life and her own lies in Waxwood. She journeys to Brandywine where she meets Verina Jones, Evan's niece, and discovers a packet of letters her grandmother wrote forty years ago about her time in Waxwood.As Vivian confronts the specter that holds the truth to secrets buried in the family consciousness, she examines her grandmother's life as a mid-19th century debutante and her own as a Gilded Age belle. Will she find her way out into the world as an autonomous being, or will she be haunted by the specter of her grandmother's unhappiness all her life?To learn more about the Waxwood Series, please click here.