Marcia Talley – författare

Hannah Ives is always ready to support others like herself who have been through the gauntlet of fear and uncertainty that a diagnosis of cancer often brings. So when friend and fellow survivor Dorothy Hart asks for help building sets for the Naval Academy''s upcoming production of Sweeney Todd, Hannah readily agrees.

But it means associating with an old foe -- a vindictive officer whose accusations once nearly destroyed Hannah''s home life. And when one corpse too many appears during a dress rehearsal of the dark and bloody musical, Hannah finds herself accused of murder -- and enmeshed in a web of treachery and deception that rivals the one that damned the "Demon Barber."

Caught up in a drama as sinister as any that has ever unfolded on stage, Hannah stands to lose everything unless she unmasks a killer before the final curtain falls ...

Cancer survivor Hannah Ives looked Death in the eye . . . and walked away victorious. But the terror she once felt in its shadow pales before the ice-cold fear that now grips her heart in the wake of an unthinkable crime: the kidnapping of Hannah''s innocent grandson.

One-year-old Tim vanished from the day care center at the luxurious upscale spa his parents recently opened, and the lack of a ransom note suggests the innocent child may have fallen into the hands of the worst sort of fiend. Hannah will find no peace until the boy is found and his abductor punished—not even taking comfort in the caring words of a dear friend and spiritual advisor whose own life and marriage may be haunted by something dark and sinister. But the hunt may be leading Hannah to places she never dreamed she''d have to go . . .

"One thing I’ve learned during a long career as a writer is that a good short story is one of the hardest things to write. To capture mood, character, tension, and a satisfying climax in a few pages requires more skill than having the luxury of a novel to get things right. That’s why I’m so impressed that the writers of Chesapeake Crimes seem to deliver quality work in anthology after anthology. This one is especially fun as the theme is holidays. And who hasn’t wanted to commit a murder at a family holiday celebration?" -- Rhys Bowen

Donna AndrewsTimothy Bentler-JungrShaun Taylor BevinsCarla CoupeMaddi DavidsonLinda EnsignBarb GoffmanKim KashAdam MeyerAlan OrloffKM RockwoodLauren R. SilbermanMarianne Wilski StrongArt TaylorRobin Templeton

"The diabolical sisters of the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime have raised the stakes: not only asking their astute members to offer up a gem of a short story, but to add a degree of difficulty. It has to be about the weather…. Rain, snowstorms, hurricanes. The glare of the sun. The shrouding fog. Clouds, mist, hail, and icy roads. The Chessies have used their writerly talent to embrace the weather, to relish it, and to provide us with a raft of meteorological (and deadly) delights." -- Hank Phillippi Ryan, bestselling author of the Jane Ryland series