Welcome to a garden of novels

... at the heart of every crime there's a family, someone you love ... 

The Ninth Step

Livie Saunders is fluent in the language of flowers; she taught the meanings to her fiancé, Cotton O’Dell, but then Cotton vanished without explanation on their wedding day forcing Livie to learn the language of desolation. Heartbroken, she buries her wedding gown beneath a garden pond and she resolves to move on, but there are nights when she slips . . . into a sequined red dress and a pair of stiletto heels, a stranger’s bed, a little anonymous oblivion that is not without consequence. Still, she recovers a semblance of ordinary life and imagines she is content. But then, six years later, Cotton returns and her carefully constructed world shatters. The old questions bite like flies. Questions that Cotton O’Dell prays he can answer. He prays that Livie, whom he has never stopped loving, will be moved to forgive him. But there is more than Livie to be concerned about. There is Cotton’s act of cowardice that caused him to become a fugitive in the first place . . . that crime he committed for which the legal clock is still ticking. That thing he did that will shock Livie to her core once she learns of it. Livie is desperate to trust Cotton, but then he goes missing again. Time telescopes, avenues of escape close, and as lives hang in the balance, choice dithers between mercy and revenge. And a decision that will take only a moment will carry the consequences of a lifetime.
 

The Ninth Step is a story of redemption, of being brought to your knees in the sober light of day to face a monstrous error and yet somehow finding the strength to stand up, to try and make it right. Even if that decision breaks your heart, endangers your freedom and ultimately threatens your life.
 
 

“Barbara Taylor Sissel crafts a sure-handed, beautiful garden of a novel on ground tilled by Jodi Picoult and Anita Shreve. Firmly confronting issues of human frailty, redemption, and letting go, The Ninth Step is a story about what is, but it aches with the stories of what might have been as one man's quest for forgiveness leads him to the impossible task of forgiving himself, and the lives of the people he's wronged are drawn into a shattering spiral of events. Sissel's vibrant voice, rich characters, and deft plotting draw the reader in and keep pages turning to the gripping, unexpected end.” ~ Joni Rodgers, NYT bestselling author of Crazy for Trying and Sugarland

The Reviews
 

“The Ninth Step is an unforgettable story of loss, forgiveness, and the true cost of redemption, as beautifully-written as it is compelling.” ~
Bestselling author, Colleen Thompson



The Volunteer

In the fall of 1999, psychologist Sophia Wilmot is compelled by the court to give testimony on behalf of a death row inmate that results in his sentence being overturned. It is an act that brings her unwanted media attention, a notoriety and reputation that given her past and its secrets, she can ill afford. Soon other prisoners’ families come seeking her assistance. There is one family in particular, the wife, children, and brother of Jarrett Capshaw, that is especially insistent. Forty-one days ago Jarrett’s request to die was granted by the State of Texas, and he became a dead man walking, a man they call a volunteer.

Jarrett has his own secrets. Most notably, it is rumored he knows the whereabouts of the missing Mayan codex that lies at the heart of his crimes. The U.S. and South America are equally anxious to recover the priceless artifact that scholars believe holds the key to the Mayan-posed mystery of 2012. As pressure increases on Jarrett to give up the location of the ancient codex in exchange for his life, Sophia is drawn into a relationship with his wife and, in particular, with Jarrett’s oldest son, Thomas. There will be consequences, she knows. There will be a price to pay. But not even Sophia is prepared for it when the brutal truth is exposed, the unalloyed facts that, incredibly, deliver Jarrett’s fate straight into Sophia’s hands. The execution clock is ticking. She has the power to save him, if she chooses. If he will let her. And in the end, it could destroy her.

"THE VOLUNTEER is a story of so many things that are not talked about -- you can only learn about them by noticing the empty shape that people talk around. It's exactly like negative space in art, when you depict the object by drawing the space around it." ~ Darla Tagrin, Artist


 

The Reviews:



The Last Innocent Hour

An act of murder caught in an explosion of lightning. A scream swallowed up by thunder. She pulls herself along the balcony railing hand-over-hand, peering down into the inky blackness. Too late, whispers a voice in her brain. Bang, bang you're next, taunts a voice before her. . . . 

Something twisted is stalking the Cunningham family. It lurks at the periphery of Beth’s vision. Her husband Charlie can’t help, if she could even remember him; he’s doing time for a murder he didn’t commit. The small child Beth was found with, whom she doesn’t know either, was taken to foster care. There isn’t much time now. If Beth doesn’t recall the hideous events that stole her memory soon, the killer will strike again, and someone else will die.

 

This is a plot worthy of Daphne du Maurier ... a compelling tale of innocence lost. ~Amy Rabinovitz, The Houston Chronicle

A circumstantial crime, a local conspiracy and no convenient Perry Mason. In The Last Innocent Hour, Sissel's writing is strong and the characters and their motivations clearly drawn. ~ Bev Vincent, author of The Road to the Dark Tower, the Bram Stoker Award nominated companion to Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, and The Stephen King Illustrated Companion

The Last Innocent Hour is a taut psychological suspense thriller, exciting and quite dark with no light in sight adding an almost gothic feel. ~ The Midwest Book Review 

Sissel's first novel is a worthy achievement ... along the lines of Iris Johansen. Frightening ... poignant. Sissel's strength lies in her multi-dimensional characters ... that make the reader react--with fear, with relief, with anger, with tenderness. ~ Maureen O'Connor, Book Browser Review

The Last Innocent Hour will ensnare you in a web of family secrets and suspense, powerful crisp writing and characters so real you'll think you've met them. ~ bestselling romantic suspense author, Colleen Thompson
 




 

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As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe