Brenda Spalding – författare

A Dance of Death, Romance, and MurderVisitors hiking Manasota State park in Florida are horrified to discover the partial remains of an apparent alligator attack. Finding evidence of poaching, Park Ranger Seth Grayson and Florida Wildlife Commission Officer Liz Corday are determined to find out who sent the victim to his death.  The poachers will stop at nothing to protect their illegal profits. The body count mounts and threats are made, putting Seth's and Liz's life on the line.Realizing they are attracted to each other; emotions get complicated for Liz and Seth. Is it only catching the poachers drawing Seth and Liz together, or is there something deeper and more lasting? "e;What other authors and wildlife officials say about, The Alligator Dance"e;Spalding combines mystery with a little romance skillfully in her eminently readable style. - Author DL Havlin, winner of 14 writing awards including 5 Royal Palm Literary AwardsAn exciting tale of greed and corruption and what it takes to protect Florida's endangered animals and those that fight for them. -  Susan Klaus - Award-winning author of the Christian Roberts Thriller Series.Brenda Spalding's attention to detail in her research is flawless. A thriller that will keep you turning the pages to the very end. -  Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission Officer Bill Robb

A Tale of Greed, Murder, and KidnappingFlorida's wildlife is under threat. Fish and Wildlife Officer Seth Grayson discovers an old poacher, Hap Dunbar, involved in trafficking Florida's freshwater turtles. His grandsons are collecting turtles for their grandpa, unaware it's illegal.The traffickers threaten Dunbar's family, forcing him to cooperate and collect more turtles. Dunbar refuses, is beaten, and eventually murdered, and his grandsons are kidnapped and forced to collect turtles for the traffickers.Officer Grayson and his partner, on and off the job, Officer Liz Corday, race against time to bring the boys home and stop the shipment of turtles from leaving Florida. But the job is not done when one of the traffickers is still on the loose.A vicious Asian organization is at the heart of the operation where turtles are worth killing for.

What could be so interesting in a chair found in a consignment shop that some one is willing to kill for? Detective Harlow is on the case again in Sarasota, Florida. A new and lethal drug is making its way into the area. The street name is bath salts, but you would not want to take a bath in this mix of meth and heroin. Harlow and his partner, Detective Sergeant Makowski, team up with medical examiner, Dr. Clair Murphy to put a stop to the deaths.Harlow, divorced, looks for companionship in Dr. Murphy, but soon realizes that maybe there could be more to their relationship.

The finding of a body in a Florida wildlife preserve, Florida Fish and Wildlife officers are told the man died from a poisonous cobra bite. How did the man come into contact with such a dangerous reptile?Officers Seth Grayson and Liz Corday join forces with Special Agent Pat Miller from the Federal Wildlife commission. Together they try to track down the black-market dealers that are illegally importing venomous snakes from around the world.A man living on the edge of society with his pet python, Suzie, soon provides a clue when a drug dealer is killed by Suzie. Freddy Aldridge has to play both sides to stay one step ahead of the law and stay alive.Seth and Liz find the trail stretches from Atlanta to Sarasota. They have to stop the trade before anyone else dies.The finding of a body in a Florida wildlife preserve, Florida Fish and Wildlife officers are told the man died from a poisonous cobra bite. How did the man come into contact with such a dangerous reptile?Officers Seth Grayson and Liz Corday join forces with Special Agent Pat Miller from the Federal Wildlife commission. Together they try to track down the black-market dealers that are illegally importing venomous snakes from around the world.A man living on the edge of society with his pet python, Suzie, soon provides a clue when a drug dealer is killed by Suzie. Freddy Aldridge has to play both sides to stay one step ahead of the law and stay alive.Seth and Liz find the trail stretches from Atlanta to Sarasota. They have to stop the trade before anyone else dies.

Doors are slamming and the spirits at the Green Lady Inn are not happy with the guests that have arrived for the first artist retreat.Mega Durant's deceased cousin Lucinda is sending her cryptic messages again about paintings and death and Megan has to decipher them before they come true.An art auction in the townhall leads to her friend Zack Longstreet being injured. Was he the death that was fore-told?The police have their hands full with two more deaths and Megan receives yet more messages.Megan's daughter, Elizabeth, is talking to the fuzzy lady in the wall who is looking for her child. Unexpectedly, help arrives when Megan's friend brings someone from Ireland to help Lucinda. Can they also catch a murderer?It's murder, and mystery with a touch of spooky in Salem , Massachusetts at the Green Lady Inn.This is the final book in the popularGreen Lady Inn Mystery SeriesThe Forger's Palette Brenda M. Spalding

Megan is twisting her claddagh ring around her finger again. Trouble is coming again.Her friend and neighbor, Zack, and owner of the Longstreet art gallery is furious when a pesky realtor rent the space next door that he wanted tobuy to expand his gallery.Meanwhile two new guest have arrived at the Green Lady and have opened a shop that is more than it seems.Another guest arrives from Ireland and she help Megan understand her gifts. The guest casually shares a room with the inn's resident ghost.

Megan is opening her guest house and ready to start a new chapter. Strange messages and eerie messages have her on edge. A valuable painting goes missing from the Longstreet gallery and a guard is killed. The gallery owner is hurt and suspicion falls on one of Megan's guests.

Megan, an art gallery owner in New York, is shocked and deeply saddened by her grandmother's unexpected death. She rushes to Salem to take care of the details, but she's not prepared to handle the danger that faces her. Her grandmother, Corey Elizabeth Bishop, had secrets that were about to blow Megan's mind. In the midst of uncovering the truth, the big city girl discovers love alongside family heirlooms worth far more than simply money. Just who were Megan's ancestors and who does that make her now?

A jewel robbery and murder in Boston bring unexpected trouble to the Green Lady in when Jake bring home a witches spell box not know that a thief has hidden diamonds inside it. The thief will stop at nothing to get them back. Lucinda, the resident ghost is sending more messages and Megan has to race against time to protect a mother and child from an abusive husband and keep a murderer from claiming any more victims.

"e;The Preserve"e; is a gripping fictional narrative set in the Big Cypress National Preserve, where law enforcement officers Seth Grayson and Liz Corday, a married couple working for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, find themselves entangled in a web of environmental crime, murder, and personal challenges.The story begins with the discovery of a dead body near an oil drilling site in the preserve. The victim, Adam Hernandez, a federal agent tracking Florida panthers, is found under suspicious circumstances. As Seth and Liz investigate, they uncover a series of interconnected crimes, including illegal orchid trafficking, oil drilling controversies, and a mysterious eco-warrior shooting arrows at park visitors.The investigation leads to Professor Newsom, a botany professor coerced into trafficking rare and endangered orchids. His involvement with a Colombian cartel and a notorious smuggler, Bandaleri, reveals a larger operation that includes drug trafficking. Meanwhile, the eco-warrior, Max Weller, a disgruntled veteran, escalates his attacks, culminating in the kidnapping of Nick Halleran, the oil refinery manager.Seth and Liz, supported by Agent Pat Miller and the Collier County Sheriff's Office, race against time to rescue Halleran and stop Weller. The climax unfolds at the Dade-Collier Training Airport, where Newsom attempts to receive a shipment of illegal orchids and drugs. A dramatic confrontation ensues, leading to the arrest of Newsom and the Colombians, while Weller meets a tragic end in the jaws of alligators.Amid the chaos, Seth and Liz navigate personal milestones, including Seth's decision to join the Seminole Tribal Council and Liz's unexpected pregnancy. The story concludes with the couple embracing their future as they balance their roles as protectors of the environment and soon-to-be parents."e;The Preserve"e; masterfully blends environmental themes, crime investigation, and personal growth, offering readers a thrilling and thought-provoking journey through the beauty and challenges of the Big Cypress National Preserve.

Green lady Inn in Salem Massachusetts is not quite ready for business when guests start to appear at its door.Added to her visions, she is hearing strange messages and knows that danger is lurking.Her gift is getting stronger and she needs to learn more about how to control it, if she can.A valuable painting goes missing from the Longstreet Gallery. A guard is found dead and the gallery owner is injured. Is one ofher guests a thief and if so which one?"e;I love the mixture of mystical intrigue, humor and heart in this book...in fact, it's a continuation of the same magicalcombination from the first book in this series. The Salem setting adds to the sense of the metaphysical connection between theheroine's past and present, and it's a pleasure to follow her journey as she steps into the powers of her family lineage.

After the death of her mother, high-school history teacher Gabby Rivera relocates with her husband, Eric, to a small Florida town for his new job. Their craftsman-style home sits directly across from Manatee Springs State Park, a place that unsettles Gabby in ways she cannot explain. The land feels watchful, heavy with meaning, as though it recognizes her.Gabby soon learns the park occupies the forgotten site of Angola, a thriving maroon settlement destroyed in 1821 during U.S. military raids. Official records reduce Angola to a footnote—if they mention it at all—but Gabby begins to encounter gaps, altered documents, and warnings passed down through generations. At the same time, she senses the presence of Josiah, a young man who lived in Angola before the raid. Through Josiah's voice, the novel reveals daily life in the settlement community, joy, preparation, and the quiet knowledge that freedom sometimes required movement.Josiah's memories expose the truth behind the Saltwater Railroad, a perilous escape route that carried self-emancipated people south by canoe through Florida's waterways and across open sea to the Bahamas and beyond. As Gabby's research deepens, descendants begin to surface—elders recalling whispered rules, teenagers discovering erased lineages, and families who carried Angola's memory across water and time.Gabby's growing determination draws resistance from institutional forces determined to keep Angola's history quiet. A local historian and county officials frame silence as stewardship, while pressure mounts on Gabby's career and Eric's livelihood. As intimidation escalates—from bureaucratic threats to physical barriers erected around the park—the land itself seems to push back, refusing to be erased.When descendants arrive to speak names aloud and submit testimony, the story reaches a turning point. Gabby publicly reads the names removed from the record in 1821, breaking a two-century-long enforced silence. The attempt to suppress the truth collapses under the weight of witness testimony, documentation, and collective memory. The park is reclaimed—not as a monument to tragedy, but as a living site of resistance and survival.In the aftermath, Josiah's watch finally ends. The land is protected, the Saltwater Railroad is named, and Angola is restored to history—not perfectly, but honestly. Gabby accepts that telling the truth carries consequences as well as healing, and commits herself to ensuring the story is never buried again.Told through interwoven perspectives of the living and the dead, this novel explores how history survives through community, how silence is maintained by power, and how memory—once spoken—cannot be erased.

It's 1938. The carnival has come to town—and a deadly hurricane is closing in. As floodwaters rise and violent winds tear through the tight-knit Lake community of Newton, fear and suspicion spread just as quickly as the storm itself.Michael Flannigan, the eldest son of a proud Irish family, finds himself torn between duty and desire when he falls for Katya, a beautiful Russian fortune teller traveling with the carnival. But winning her heart means facing the fierce disapproval of both his family and her stubborn father, Boris Koslov.Meanwhile, Michael's loyal friend Tony Pellegrino has fallen for Michael's sister, Ellen. To the Flannigans, Tony's carnival ties and questionable reputation make him the last man they would ever accept into their family.Then tragedy strikes. Local boy Johnny Russo is discovered dead in Silver Lake, and suspicion quickly falls on the carnival workers. As police hunt for a killer hiding among the chaos, the storm bears down with unstoppable fury. With the roads disappearing beneath floodwaters and the winds growing stronger by the hour, escaping justice—and Mother Nature—may be impossible.Long after the carnival packs up and moves on, the Lake neighborhood of Newton will never be the same. From those turbulent days came a unique language and culture born from carnival life—phrases and traditions proudly passed down through generations and still spoken today.