Lisa April Smith – författare

Dangerous Lies follows the lives of Jake Stern and Tina Davis. After losing his parents and sister in a fire, Jake is raised by his grandparents. As he transforms from a traumatized boy to an exceptional student athlete and finally to an ambitious assistant DA, he learns to hide a crippling fear behind a stony mask.

Until she turns thirteen, Bettina (Tina) Berenson is a shy, bookish girl rejected by both parents. But her life radically changes when her father starts taking her to the places he frequents: racetracks, prizefights, nightclubs, and the occasional company of gangsters he admires. Reveling in the attention Tina’s striking beauty generates, he’s oblivious to the potential danger to his impressionable daughter. And when he dies two years later, the distraught and lonely fifteen-year-old girl is easy prey for a charismatic crime lord.

When a vicious mobster goes on trial, fate brings Jake and Tina together. Tina, former mob mistress, is the key witness, and Jake, the prosecuting attorney, is repelled by her past but obsessed with her physical presence. But someone wants Tina dead, and in order for her to testify, Jake has to keep her alive.

For the first time, author Lisa April Smith merges her proven skill at delivering unforgettable characters and page-turning suspense with historic fiction.

Based on exhaustive research and set in the Chinese cradle of civilization, the Yellow River basin, Forgotten Tales of China is a sweeping saga of survival, sacrifice, indomitable perseverance, bravery, and betrayal. Starting forty thousand years ago with cave dwellers who communicate almost solely through sign language, this epic novel transports listeners through the millennium, culminating in China’s Bronze Age, 1600 BC, during the reign of a mad degenerate Xia king.

Palm Beach, 1961. Socialite, irresistible rascal, and devoted father Jack Morgan stages his suicide to shield his beloved daughters from scandal and disgrace. His daughter Charlotte (Charlie) is an over-indulged twenty-three-year-old girl struggling to cope with the loss of her beloved father, her sister’s resulting mental breakdown, and the discovery that she’s now penniless. Fortunately, Raul, an admiring young attorney, offers assistance to the traumatized young woman.

As terrified as she is about paying for her sister’s costly treatment and her own daily survival, Charlie soon realizes that she must learn what drove her father to kill himself. With Raul’s much-needed ego-bolstering, she pursues a career that makes practical use of her lanky five-foot-eleven frame. Despite roadblocks and emotional upheavals, she embarks on an ocean-spanning journey that leads to a family she doesn’t know, distressing truths about her father, crimes great and small, and a diabolical villain.

All the twists, suspense, danger, crime, romance, and sizzle that kept readers of Exceeding Expectations turning the pages long into the night are back in Paradise Misplaced, along with Charlie, Jack, and Naomi—three unforgettable characters.

In Manhattan, being recently dumped by her soulmate becomes the least of Charlotte (Charlie) Morgan’s problems after she is viciously pushed off a subway platform in front of an oncoming train. Her modeling career seems over, and she may not walk again. Throughout her lengthy hospital stay, the police have no success finding her assailant or determining a motive. A handsome detective recovering from similar injuries is assigned to be her physical therapy partner. Concerned that her attacker will try again, he urges her to draw up a list of anyone she might have angered or rejected. Eliminating those who don’t fit a compiled description of her attacker leaves just one suspect: a millionaire power broker with a famous art collection.

In his quest for his next wealthy wife, lovable lothario/con man Jack is in Buenos Aires romancing women he meets at a fashionable hotel. To finance this precarious existence, Jack exploits foreign tourists and local land barons. Whether he succeeds, falls short, or fails miserably at his quest depends on how entertaining he can be.

Understandably bitter Naomi is in Israel working on an archaeological dig while seeking temporary relief from her demons with one-night stands and meaningless affairs. Unwilling to be yet another in a series of her lovers, a rough-hewn widowed farmer relentlessly pursues her.

On three continents, with thousands of miles separating them, will Charlie, Jack, and Naomi meet? Will their individual stories end in triumph or disaster?

The title for The Second Best Time comes from a Chinese proverb: “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now.” And it suits a story of three people at a crossroads in their lives: Jack Caine (a.k.a. Jack Morgan), former lothario and sometimes con man, now the owner of a successful gallery in the United Kingdom; his daughter Charlie (Charlotte) Morgan Francesco, thirty-two and an art consultant; and new to the series, Kat (Kathleen O’Connor Shironsky), a twenty-four-year-old street-smart, unemployed bookkeeper.

Dying of cancer and worried about his immortal soul, that rascal Jack confesses his long list of sins to the Reverend Nigel. The stunned but sympathetic clergyman convinces Jack that his most heinous sin was the one perpetrated on his daughters, who believe that he committed suicide. Both men agree that seeing their father suddenly reappear, only to die a painful death shortly after, would cause additional harm. Filled with guilt and remorse, Jack swears to see to it that his beloved daughters are content, safe, and protected, but anonymously. Typical of Jack, the plan he hatches is as convoluted and ingenious as it is entertaining.

Seated on a park bench, struggling to find the courage to face social condemnation by leaving a miserable marriage to a husband with multiple sclerosis, Charlie meets Kat, whose boss was just arrested by the FBI for tax evasion. But losing her job is the least of Kat’s problems. Savings account emptied, three months behind on the rent, her husband has mysteriously disappeared. The mismatched pair join forces to overcome adversity and fight crime with brains, grit, and humor. And yes, along the way, some attractive gentlemen help provide the sizzle.