Central Kansas Library System

In April 1950, the rusting hulk of a steam locomotive rises from the waters of a Montana lake, revealing the remains of three men who died 44 years before and astonishing all those who look on. In 1906, the American West has been suffering a two-year crime spree: a string of bank robberies committed by one man who murders all witnesses, and then vanishes without a trace. The US government brings in the best man they can find - a no-nonsense detective...

Katie Russell loves working as a telephone operator in Mercy Falls, California. But since childhood she has been expected to marry well. Her family presses for an engagement to wealthy bachelor Bartholomew Foster and though he doesn't stir her heart, their engagement promises a secure financial future. Working the phone lines one evening, Katie overhears a chilling exchange between her friend Eliza and a familiar male voice. Katie soon learns that...

In 1910, New York socialite Olivia resists an arranged, socially advantageous marriage. The mysterious death of her sister Eleanor in Northern California is an unhappy but convenient excuse to go West. On the way, she is nearly drowned, and decides to hide her identity when she arrives in Mercy Falls.

In 1886, eighteen-year-old Mack Chance journeys from Pennsylvania to California to make a new life for himself, finding fortune, love, and power in Southern California, in a novel that spans from late-nineteenth-century San Francisco to 1921.

After witnessing the USS Arizona sink in Pearl Harbor - with his father aboard - fifteen year old Adam Pelko, along with his mother and young sister, moves from Hawaii to California. Without his dad, facing a new school and new surroundings is hard enough, but then Adam's best friend, Davi Mori, writes from Hawaii asking for help in finding his father. Davi and his family are Japanese Americans, and his father has been arrested and is imprisoned...

Corrie returns home to California after two years working as a reporter back East during the Civil War, and begins to plan for her future by entering into an unusual contract with her prospective husband, Christopher.

The Whip is inspired by the true story of a woman, Charlotte "Charley" Parkhurst (1812-1879) who lived most of her extraordinary life as a man in the old west. As a young woman in Rhode Island, she fell in love with a runaway slave and had his child. The destruction of her family drove her west to California, dressed as a man, to track the killer. Charley became a renowned stagecoach driver for Wells Fargo. She killed a famous outlaw, had a secret...

"When Fresno is hit with an unexpected outbreak of deadly scarlet fever, Andi Carter is scared. Her town friends are getting sick and school is closed until it passes. Far from the danger, at least Andi has her horse Taffy and plenty of work on the Circle C ranch to distract her. But is she really safe? First one ranch hand, then two, and then her brother Mitch fall ill. Mother is convinced that the only way to protect Andi from this terrible disease...