My Name is Doris
When an amnesiac discovers a dead man and gun at her feet, she escapes to a small town in the grips of anti-communism fervor.
In 1956, a young woman finds herself with a dead man and gun at her feet and has no memory of what happened or who she is. Hoping her amnesia will pass soon, she escapes to small town Devondale, where she meets an interesting young man who wants to paint her portrait and probe her mind to unlock the meaning of her bad dreams—but he holds secrets of his own.
Events come to a head when a slip-up brings her past to the town, amid its growing anti-communism targeting a beloved librarian.
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The Sandpuppy
College professor Roy reveres high moral standards in his lectures, but a new artist in town puts his personal morality to the test.
Dr. Roy Bettencourt, who prides himself on being a very moral man, is a professor of Morality Poetry at Seaside City College. His marriage to Diana isn't perfect but is stable, even though they suffer with his deep, dark bedroom secret.
When Roy is summoned to Mayor Chilblain's office, he's given an ultimatum—either convince the sexy new artist in town to sell her beach house so a pet real estate development project can move forward or lose his cushy job at the college. Now Roy not only has to protect his job but also his morality and marriage, while risking exposure of his deep, dark, bedroom secret in a courtroom climax.
Watusi back to 1965, back to the days of hootenannies, surfer gangs, and free love.
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Tight Spots
Society makes a plain Jane an outcast, so she goes to live among other outcasts.
When Jane Krump moves into the Tobacco Road rooming house in 1962, she's alone and in need of a husband fast, so the vivacious Cedric comes to her aid. While he's advocating this plain Jane snag the powerful Animal Control Commissioner, she's interested in anyone younger. And employed. And not a sex pervert.
Inspired by the lady power she's discovered in a pivotal girdle novel, she takes action, resulting in shocking consequences—including the threat of death.
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Fancy Meeting You Here
During a film's publicity campaign, movie star Janice hosts a teen contest, and an old flame reappears with his contest-winning daughter.
Movie star Janice Reid is queen of the lady films—lady lawyer, lady doctor, etc. Her newest film, a departure from the lady franchise, will require a big, personal publicity campaign to woo her young fans into theaters, so she invites a contest winner into her home for several days. However, her plans for magazine fodder turn into a rekindling of an old romance with the fan's dad.
But affairs of the heart are never easy, and complications built on deception arise, complications leading from Un-American accusations to madness and, ultimately, to tragedy.
Backpedal to 1951, to the dark days of McCarthyism, when a single word from the wrong person could mean freedom or imprisonment.
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Cantaloupe
Advertising hotshot Pixie Pilar finds herself stranded in the boonies and missing an entire month.
When most women miss a month, they're either pregnant or menopausal, but Pixie Pilar, Copy Chief of Packaged Goods at a Manhattan ad agency, has literally lost a month. From her last memory in June, 1957, to the moment she "awakens" at a fruit salad factory assembly line and proceeds to smash cantaloupes, a month has passed, and no one around her can tell her where she is or how she got there, because they speak a language she's never heard before.
She makes it to the sheriff's office of this small town, where everyone is currently trapped due to a road-blocking, transmission line-breaking storm, and finally gets some information in English but nothing about her. Sheriff Vantrees spurs her to reveal her career girl struggles for clues, while he tries to keep her lawbreaking antics in check.
The mystery is picked at like a knee scab, revealing a beau with a secret, Canadian contraband, and cantaloupes as the keys to unlock Pixie's recent past.
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Copweb
While a swooning doctor threatens psychiatrist Brent's marriage to a dissatisfied beauty, stage curtains jeopardize his career as head of a Gendarme Therapy mental clinic.
Esteemed psychiatrist Dr. Brent Havidol has, by all appearances, an enviable life as the head of a mental clinic specializing in a self-policing environment for privileged young adults. But appearances can be deceiving, as his disintegrating marriage and attraction to a new lady psychologist complicate matters. However, the complications arising from the introduction of live theater produced and performed by the patients are what put his reputation and career on the line.
New patient Kip, who has a crush on the play's girl director, comes to her rescue by providing a stage curtain solution, but an opening night calamity leads to compounding misfortunes. Misplaced affections and bad assumptions flame a VD scare and muddy relationships across both staff and patients. Events snowball to test and rock the foundation of the clinic's therapeutic model.
Set in 1955, COPWEB shines a light on professionals who get so wrapped up in their own lives they forget about the mental problems their unstable patients have.
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Blessed Event
Robot designer Nel's hard-earned success is threatened by a young stranger who turns up at her door.
It's 1950, and Nel Havermayer is a successful, cutting-edge lady robot designer, who has a well-ordered life, with love interest novelist Perry and best friend bon vivant Tooty. All is well, until the day a young man claiming to be her son appears at her door, and his very existence threatens her career.
Luckily, Tooty helps her ride the outrageous events that follow, as they try to put a lid on the damage wrought by Boy Doe. Through it all, she learns who and what are most important to her.
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Beyond the Florist
A rich, new man becomes Rhoda's ticket to escaping her stinking flower town and psychoist husband.
Beautiful Rhoda Malone is a bored, restless housewife who wants to escape Dependaboro, a small flower town with a stench that's wilting her. However, her husband Fred, the local psychoist, has no desire to leave the townspeople whose mental health relies on him.
When wealthy, handsome Trent Boscum breezes into town on his seaplane with plans to build a new flower factory there, Rhoda decides he'll be her ticket out of the petunia-picking, snapdragon-scented, bee-bitten burg. She wastes no time bedding him and makes plans to anoint him husband number two.
Now, she has to figure out, short of murder, how to get rid of husband number one. But like a Dependaboro rose bush, things get thorny and seedy, with kidnapping, violence, and movie fandom all playing a role.
Set in 1949, this noir tale harkens back to those days when being labeled a communist was worse than child molester. Just like today.
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From the Belly of Sin
While on a dead-end missing person's case, private dick Pinky hits more curves than a file-mile back road—or a Hollywood dame.
Private dick Pinky Manley gets reeled into a missing person's case by a plain Jane with a cockamamie story, leading him from the boulevard of broken dreams to one dead end after another. A fading movie star, femme fatale, confirmed bachelor, and more flesh out this 1947 hardboiled tale of murder, dope, blind ambition, and monsters.
Shadow Pinky as he covers Hollywood's seamy, sinful side.
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