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Kara Galway thought moving home to Texas after years in New England would put her life back in perspective. An up-and-coming defense attorney, she intends to concentrate on her career and on spending time with her Texas Ranger brother, Jack, and his wife, Susanna. But fate has something else in store.
First, Kara's good friend and mentor, Connecticut governor Mike Parisi, dies under suspicious circumstances. Then the children of the new governor, Kara's best friend, Allyson Stockwell, show up unannounced at Kara's home in Austin. It's clear the children are scared out of their wits--and hiding something. Something connected to their mother's new role as governor and to Mike's death. And then there's Sam Temple, the Texas Ranger she can't believe she's fallen head over heels in love with.
Now Kara has to return to Allyson's home, Stonebrook Cottage, with the children to unravel what exactly is going on. Are the children really in danger? What secrets is Allyson hiding? And what is she going to do about Sam Temple, who has followed her to Connecticut and has no intention of leaving without her?
Carla Neggers has been writing fiction since she first climbed a tree with pad and pen at age eleven. Now her books, with their powerful blend of chilling suspense and daring romance, regularly appear on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. An avid hiker and kayaker, Carla lives with her family in Vermont, not far from Quechee Gorge. For more information on her latest books and to contact Carla, please visit: www.carlaneggers.com.
He couldn't swim, an embarrassment not a half-dozen people knew.
His big, tough body belly-flopped into the water of his elegant pool and dropped hard and deep, hitting the blue-painted bottom that so beautifully reflected the summer sky. He managed to push up off the bottom and out of the water and yell for help.
"I can't swim!" No help would come. His voice barely rose above the gurgling fountain halfway down the classic, kidney-shaped pool. His own damn fault. He'd refused to let his state trooper bodyguards out back with him. If I get stung by a bee, I'll yell bloody murder. You'll hear me. What the hell else could happen?
Someone could try to kill him. He'd rented a house for the summer in Bluefield, a picturesque town in northwest Connecticut. Stockwell country. People assumed he wanted to be close to his lieutenant governor, Allyson Lourdes Stockwell, so they could strategize. The truth was, he was worried about her. Allyson had problems. Big problems.
Hadn't occurred to Big Mike to worry about himself.
"Help!" As he splashed and kicked, he saw the bluebird that he'd been trying to save. It was barely alive, soaked in the chlorinated water,slowly being sucked toward the pool filter.
They were both doomed, him and the bluebird. It was a juvenile, its feathers still speckled. It looked as if it had a broken leg. It couldn't have been in the water long.
Clever. His death would look like an accident. Michael Joseph Parisi drowned this afternoon in his swimming pool apparently while trying to rescue an injured bluebird ...
Christ. He'd look like an idiot. Some murdering son of a bitch had dumped the bird in the deep end, knowing he'd bend over and try to scoop it up. Bluebirds were his hobby, his passion since his wife died six years ago. They'd had no children. His desire to help restore the Eastern bluebird population in Connecticut and his personal interest in bluebirds weren't a secret.
Not like not knowing how to swim. That was a secret. Hell, everyone knew how to swim.
His mother had regularly dumped his ass in the lake as a kid, trying to get him to learn. It didn't work. She'd had to get his brother to fish him out.
Was the bastard who'd planted the bluebird watching him flail and yell?
It'd look like a goddamn accident. Rage consumed him, forced him up out of the water, yelling, swearing, pushing for the edge of the pool. It was so damn close. Why couldn't he reach it? What the hell was he doing wrong? He could hear his mother yelling at him. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Michael, you're such a wienie. Swim, for the love of God.
These days a mother like Marianne Parisi would be arrested for child abuse or put on pills or something. Total nutcase, his mother was, though she meant well. She died of a stroke when Mike was twenty-four, still thinking her second son would never amount to shit.
The pool water filled his nose and mouth, burned his eyes. He coughed, choking, taking in even more water. He couldn't breathe.
There'd be a lot of crocodile tears at his funeral. Allyson would do fine as governor ...
Who the hell was he kidding? Allyson had her head in the sand. He'd tried to help her, and he knew that was why he was drowning now.
Murdered. They'd have to cut him open. They'd find out he hadn't hit his head or had a heart attack or a stroke. He'd drowned. The autopsy wouldn't pick up where he'd been poked in the ass. It'd felt like a stick or a pole or something. The pool was fenced in, but the deep end backed up to the woods. His murderer could have hid there and waited for Mike to come outside, then tossed in the bluebird when he had his back turned.
Easier to shoot him, but that wouldn't have looked like an accident.
He stopped yelling. He stopped flailing. The faces of the living and the dead jumbled together in his head, and he couldn't distinguish which was which, couldn't tell which he was. Thoughts and memories, sounds came at him in a whirl. He could see bluebirds all around him, dozens of them, iridescent in the sunlight.
Ah, Mike, you had it good.... But all of that was done now. He prayed the way he'd learned in catechism class so long ago.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee ... His mother came into the bright light now, shaking her head, not with disgust this time, but with love and bemusement, as if she hadn't expected him so soon. His wife was there, too, smiling as she had on their wedding day thirty years ago.
They held out their hands, and Big Mike laughed and walked toward his wife and his mother, and the bluebirds, into the light.
* * *
Austin was in the grip of its fifteenth consecutive day of ninety-plus-degree weather, a quality of Texas summers Kara Galway had almost forgotten about during her years up north. Even with air-conditioning, she was aware of the blistering temperatures and blamed the heat for her faint nausea. The heat and the seafood tacos she'd had for lunch.
Not Sam Temple. He was another possibility for her queasy stomach, but not one she wanted to consider.
She'd been putting in long hours since Big Mike's death two weeks ago, but memories of their long friendship would sneak up on her no matter how deep she buried herself in her legal work. Kara had met him through her friend Allyson Lourdes Stockwell, now the governor of Connecticut. She and Kara had gone to law school together, before Allyson's husband died of cancer and left her with two toddlers to raise on her own.
Excerpted from Stonebrook Cottage by Carla Neggers Copyright © 2002 by Harlequin Enterprises
Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Anonymous
Posted May 24, 2013
I enjoyed this story.. It was 267 pages of good reading.
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Posted April 19, 2013
Great book it is a must read
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Posted March 20, 2013
Carla Neggers holds your interest all the way.
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Posted February 22, 2013
I really enjoy Carla Neggars' books and this one did not disappoint me. Nice easy read.
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Posted January 27, 2013
Another great one!
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Posted December 29, 2012
Hello?
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Posted December 29, 2012
Hello. He smiled.
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Posted December 29, 2012
The 14 year old girl looks at hin from high up tree.
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Posted October 13, 2003
Stonebrook cottage has Kara Galaway Texas born and bred moving back home after spending time in New England. She moves home to find whatever she feels is missing in her life and when a dear friend dies suspiciously and her godchildren runaway her life turns upside down. She lies to her brother Jack and the man who has captured her heart Sam Temple, both are Texas Rangers. She kicks into full attorney mode and feels her duty to her godchildren and her best friend; the childrens mother makes all of her decisions justifiable regardless of how many laws she breaks in the process. This is a very good story and the plus for me was this book contains characters that I fell in love with from her novel The Cabin. The Texas Rangers were enjoyable in the first book and I am so happy that she returns them in this book. I hope she has another story in mind for Kara, Jack and Sam. I can hardly wait.
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 13, 2002
Kara Gelway is a defence lawyer who moved to Texas from Connenticut. Her brother Jack is a Texas Ranger, Her grandkids were in trouble and ran from a dude ranch in Texas and came to her house. Her good friend was the governor Mike Parisi was killed and the kids seen who did it. Some one wis following them. Being a lawyer her wanted to find out who killed him. A Texas ranger Sam came up to help and keep them alive. Come to find out the friend of the governor his sister killed the governor.
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Posted October 15, 2002
Definitely a good story, but it took me three days to get past the first two chapters because of the overwhelming number of characters introduced. It was actually hard to follow the dialogue when there were two pages of character description interspersed in the conversations. If you can wade through it, though, the rest of the book moves quickly.
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Posted July 30, 2002
Kara Galway, an up and coming defense attorney, had recently moved back to Texas from Connecticut. She would be spending time with Jack, her Texas Ranger brother, and his family. Instead, during an art exhibit, she got a call on her cell phone informing her that her good friend and Connecticut governor, Mike Parisi, had died under suspicious circumstances. Kara returned to Connecticut to be with her best friend, Allyson Stockwell, who had become the new governor. <BR><BR> Texas Ranger Sam Temple followed Kara. Sam was Kara's alibi for the night Parisi died. Sam's instincts kept telling him something BIG was happening and he was determined to butt in.<BR><BR> Allyson Stockwell had two children, Henry and Lillian. She feared for their safety because she was being stalked. So Allyson sent them off to camp. However, the kids were hiding a deadly secret. When they realized someone was after them, they ran away from camp to their godmother, Kara. <BR><BR> <B>It was all about to come to a head! </B><BR><BR> **** Tension runs high in this thriller by Carla Neggers. The author keeps things interesting by having sub-plots and co-characters that the readers cannot help but find intriguing. I hated to see the book end and am looking forward to the next release. **** <BR><BR> Reviewed by Detra Fitch.
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Overview
Kara Galway thought moving home to Texas after years in New England would put her life back in perspective. An up-and-coming defense attorney, she intends to concentrate on her career and on spending time with her Texas Ranger brother, Jack, and his wife, Susanna. But fate has something else in store.
First, Kara's good friend and mentor, Connecticut governor Mike Parisi, dies under suspicious circumstances. Then the children of the new governor, Kara's best friend, Allyson ...