Showing results by author "Sharon Mierke" in All Categories

In the early 1800s (1830s – 1860s) it has been estimated that as many as 300,000 men and women may have traveled from the eastern States to the unknown lands of the American west. Some were searching for a better life; some were argonauts, seeking adventure. Whatever the reason, it was not an easy journey. Thousands lost their lives along the trail. Eventually, however, the west was settled and those who survived had stories to tell. Bitter Honey is a fictional story, although some of the experiences in this book could have been a reality for many of those pioneers. The story begins in ...

Sarah's dream was to live in a valley. This might be an elusive dream for a young girl who, along with her brother Frank were orphaned early in life. Their parents died on the way to California in the early 1800's. Sarah and Frank were the only wagon survivors. How would two children survive the highwaymen, the raging grassfires, the cold winters and heartache? (Many words in this story reflect the times. e.g. From the late 1600's until the late 1800's, soldiers used an iron shell filled with pitch that burned at intense heat. It was called a carcass. The United States ordnance manual of ...

A poem written in 1929 by the author's mother was the inspiration for this story. Who has not wondered about old houses as they passed by? Who was the builder? Did he take pride in his work? Were the inhabitants always happy or were there hard times? How many people passed through the doors? Old House is a story about one house. It is located in a fictitious valley in the state of Montana U.S.A. Through the course of one hundred years, these are the people who lived, laughed, loved, and cried as they called this old house their home. Each chapter in the book is a story in itself. It begins ...

Return to Sarah's Valley is a follow-up story to Sarah's Valley, which was published in 2012 by the same author, Sharon Mierke. In Sarah's Valley, Patrick Smithson meets Frank Lawdry. Frank, who prefers his Abenaki name, Winnipesaukee, spends the night recalling his life story. He and his sister, Sarah, were left orphans when everyone on a wagon train died in a horrific tragedy. It was their story of survival. Return to Sarah's Valley continues where Sarah's Valley leaves off. Now an old man in his nineties, Patrick meets Michael Lawdry, one of Winnipesaukee's descendants, and tells him how...

Old Buelah Henry is dead. Esther Flynn found her body sprawled out on the frozen snow. Everyone said it was an accident. Everyone, that is, but Mabel Wickles. There was no way Buelah would go outside when it was thirty below without a jacket and boots. She knows she is right too when she receives a threatening phone call. Will she be the next victim?

When Taheesha Jones plans her business trip to Canada, she could never imagine how her world would be turned upside down overnight. While her family is held hostage, she must drive to Winnipeg, Canada, with a stranger sitting beside her. Will she ever see her family again? Or, her workmate, Maggie? How does this young man plan on crossing the border with her? Who does she say he is? What if she panics? Meanwhile, Frank Mantelli, small-time crook and dreamer, is certain he is on his way to becoming a millionaire. One job. One package. One border crossing. What could go wrong?

From her widow's walk, Bessie King watches and waits for her husband, Adam. For many months, day after day, she climbs that ladder and looks out over the Texas plains. Her sons watch and see her pain and heartache. Andrew, thirteen, slips away early one morning to search for his stepfather. After a year of waiting, Bessie is certain she has lost them both. She is now left to survive on the Texas panhandle with her son, Matthew, and an orphan Kiowa baby, she has named Ki. Mathew's anger grows as he sees his mother climbing to the widow's walk day after day, and coming down with tears in her ...

Abraham Whitechild had no knowledge of his start in life. He never knew his parents and he had a slight rememberance of living with the Blackfoot. One man did make an impression on his future, although he was not to fully understand that until it was too late. He chose his own direction in life. He was all alone but never lonely. His solitary life, however, came to an abrupt end. He was charged with a crime he did not commit. Now he was a wanted man - wanted, dead or alive for murdering an innocent woman. The wanted poster had his picture on it and his name. Suddenly, his simple life became...

Old Buelah Henry is dead. Esther Flynn found her body sprawled out on the frozen snow. Everyone said it was an accident. Everyone, that is, but Mabel Wickles. There was no way Buelah would go outside when it was thirty below without a jacket and boots. She knows she is right too when she receives a threatening phone call. Will she be the next victim?

In Mabel, Murder, and Muffins, Mabel and four other contestants win a trip to Las Vegas. When one of them, Grace Hobbs, is found murdered and left in the woods in Mabel's hometown of Parson's Cove, Mabel's sleuthing instincts heat up. Along with her friend, Flori Flanders, and retired sheriff, Reg Smee, Mabel goes on a hunt for the killer. A search that will take her all the way to Yellow Rose, Texas. It's then she realizes how complicated the mystery is when no one appears to be who they say they are. As Mabel says, 'it's like a story out of Alice in Wonderland.'

When a frozen corpse is discovered in a fishing shack on a nearby lake, most residents of Parson’s Cove assume the man succumbed to the blistery cold. However, after the body thaws, the coroner discovers that the man, one Victor Fleming, was actually beaten to death. Eye witnesses suggest that town bad boy Jakie Flanders was seen leaving the shack the night of the murder and was overheard threatening Fleming in town earlier. Add this to the fact that Victor Fleming was Jakie’s mother’s first cousin and was demanding money from her and Jakie’s motives for murder were piling up. ...

A marital spat at a carwash turns deadly - and Mabel Wickles, Parson's Cove's amateur sleuth, isn't buying the claim that the victim's wife bashed him over the head with a brick. However, when the woman confesses to the murder, Mabel decides to investigate the crime herself - along with help from her best friend Flori, her cat Sammy, and a busload of senior citizens.

When Beryl Swallows, ex-cop, receives a call from her former neighbor, Sam Galloway, saying that Anna Jones is missing, she decides to search for her. Beryl reaches out to Richard Wilson, her lawyer, and Tony Russo, her former partner, for help. What they discover is shocking! Did Anna Jones even exist?

When Beryl Swallows attended the funeral of a former schoolmate, Mary Lou Sanders, she had no idea that instead of renewing old friendships, she would be making new enemies. She also did not know that she would find herself immersed in a murder investigation - hired for big bucks by Mary Lou herself. The question was: Was Mary Lou murdered or did she really commit suicide as her note indicated? After not seeing her former friends, Lydia, Julia and Esther, for almost thirty years, they were virtually strangers or as she was to find out, virtual enemies.

Beryl Swallows is an ex-cop turned private investigator. While nursing an injury from years past, she finds one of her mother's diaries from 1986. A few years before this, her father, a police officer at the time, shot and killed an innocent man. He claimed the man had a weapon but none was ever found. When Beryl begins to read the diary, she is shocked by what she discovers. Although her mother's life had always been a mystery, she never realized what a secret life Rosie had lead. Could Rosie Swallows have been a cold-hearted killer?

When Mabel Wickles begins suffering from a recurring nightmare, Flori offers her some sage advice: write it out! Fourteen years before, in order to save Flori's life, Mabel had been forced to rob a bank. To escape from their kidnapper, the two women had to run through a thick forest. It is this chase that keeps returning to haunt Mabel. Will the advice work? Mabel figures there's no harm in trying, especially after the last nightmare caused her to fall down a flight of stairs. And so the story, Missed by a Hair, is created.

When Mabel Wickles decides to retire from being Parson's Cove's only amateur sleuth, she never dreams that she might be back to work on a cold case. There is no body; there are no clues, just a mother who left her husband and deserted her children many years ago. All Mabel has to go on is a young doctor newly arrived in town who seems to have too much money for a physician starting out, the missing woman's daughter who's recently secured a plush job at the local hospital, and her father, the local moonshiner. Most of the women in Parson's Cove are more intrigued with whether the handsome ...