Marta Tandori
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TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE by Marta Tandori
A young runaway takes refuge in a makeshift shack under the Hollywood Freeway, forcing the autistic woman in it to find milk for her sickly newborn – a search that ultimately ends in tragedy when the woman is run down by a hit-and-run driver after a violent confrontation with several teenagers. When one of those teenagers, seventeen-year-old Karen Devane, is implicated in the woman’s homicide, the tabloids are quick to exploit the tragedy, thanks to Karen’s recent antics as a spoiled Tinseltown “celebrat” riding on the coattails of her famous grandmother, the legendary Kate Stanton. Complicating matters is the dead woman’s daughter, who’s determined that Karen be held accountable for her mother’s death, even after the charges against Karen are dropped. With tensions between Karen and her family near breaking point and the paparazzi relentlessly hounding her every move, Karen makes a startling discovery which finally puts her on the road to redemption – and links the dead woman to her beloved grandmother.
Karen’s discovery raises a host of troubling questions for Kate, forcing her to revisit the horrors of her past in search of answers. But Kate soon realizes that some questions are better left unasked after a seemingly random shooting leaves her granddaughter fighting for her life and Kate scrambling to stay one step ahead of a killer who’s determined to end her life in order to save his own.
TURN A BLIND EYE by Marta Tandori
Eight years ago, Michigan retirees, Jack and Beverly Donnelly, had helped Libby Newton recover from an unspeakable tragedy. Now the tables are turned and it’s the old couple who need Libby’s help when the most recent consequences of Beverly’s progressing dementia have left the old couple homeless. Libby, now the general manager of Banyan Bay Resorts, one of Orlando’s premier timesharing properties, secretly stashes the old couple in a new luxury unit intended for the resort’s VIP guests until she can find them a new home.
But the problems start almost immediately as Beverly’s dementia leaves her in a state of constant confusion over her unfamiliar surroundings and when she announces that she’s seen “Thanksgiving pilgrims” unloading boxes behind the resort’s pizzeria, Beverly’s announcement falls on deaf ears – until Rebecca Kendall, an attorney from Seattle, shows up at the resort a short time later, trying to retrace the last steps of her nineteen-year-old daughter, who’d abandoned her old life to embrace the Amish ways, only to be found dead in a south Florida motel six weeks earlier. Libby doesn’t believe the two incidents are connected until Beverly is found dead a short time later, the tragic victim of a double homicide.
With the help of her sister, Mia, who’s in Florida doing an exposé on one of the world’s most elusive treasure hunters, the amateur female sleuths retrace Beverly’s last steps – only to stumble upon a killer who soon has the sisters convinced that poor Beverly had been the sanest one of them all. In this wild ride of a murder mystery that starts in Orlando, the timeshare capital of the world and ends in a Key West adventure, the two sisters learn firsthand that honoring family secrets can be just as deadly as smuggling forbidden cargo…
THE TIES THAT BIND by Marta Tandori
In this standalone prequel to TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE…Four years ago, Brooke Connelly made the biggest mistake of her life when she betrayed her mobster boyfriend by tipping off the intended victim of his next hit. Thanks to her timely intervention, Chaz Longo was able to flee Las Vegas while Brooke opted to stay behind; a decision that nearly cost Brooke her life after she was beaten and left for dead by her boyfriend in retaliation for her betrayal. In desperation, Brooke turned to one of the most powerful men in Las Vegas for protection – unaware that her arrangement with Clint Staebler was non-negotiable and permanent.
Brooke has since relocated to L.A., where she’s the general manager of a popular restaurant and nightclub, both owned by Clint Staebler. With her recent engagement to a prominent Beverly Hills doctor and the impending arrival of their baby through a surrogate, Brooke is determined to cut all ties to her past but the cards seem to be stacked against her when her fiancé is enlisted to treat Chaz Longo, barely alive after foolishly returning to Vegas and crossing paths with Brooke’s former boyfriend. Brooke’s life is further complicated when her fiancé finds out about her past relationship with Clint Staebler and demands to know where her loyalties lie, especially after Chaz is later gunned down in Clint’s nightclub and Brooke is strangely reluctant to quit her job. Caught between a murderer and a man who refuses to let her go at all costs, Brooke plays her one trump card in the hopes that it will be powerful enough to sever her ties to her past, once and for all.
