Bøker i Ballads of Paradise-serien

"Early Pines is a man at loose ends. On temporary leave from his job as a detective with the Paradise Police Department, he's a man with too much time on his hands. And, at just over three years sober, empty time isn't easy time. When his old friend, cowboy ex-priest, Jake Morales, invites him to tag along to a Tucson rodeo, he jumps at the distraction. Maybe the interstate would have been a better idea. A blown pickup tire, a flat spare, a hundred and six degrees - not good. No choice but to thumb a ride to the nearest town. If you can call it a town. One Horse, Arizona, is exactly what it sounds. A gas station-garage that hasn't seen paint since the fifties, a few scattered adobes, centered by a sun bleached and sagging tavern called Bob's Place. The woman behind the bar is definitely not Bob. Tall, dark, and desert beautiful, Cleo Lane inherited the place from her deceased father. She loves One Horse, but she's up to her ears in problems. The bar barely makes ends meet, and on top of it, she has a sister, Cali, out on the coast that seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. Early's got the time - a road trip would do him good. And, besides, the lady is definitely not a Bob. A long drive with a lady like Cleo? Just what the doctor ordered"--

"To say Bones isn't thrilled with his dead-end job at the Venus Motel would be an understatement. But when you're fifteen with no family, expecting any prospects for your future feels pretty pointless. You just have to roll with the whims of the powers that be. And the motel owner, Calico Foster, can't keep herself afloat, much less rescue a lost kid. A job is all she can offer. Why Jimmy La Roux chooses the Venus to land at when he rolls out of the desert and into the parking lot is more than anyone knows. But with a rattle of Harley pipes and a cloud of dissipating dust, he roars in, fresh from blasting through the cosmos, ready to change all of their lives. Complete with jeans, boots, hair and muttonchops swept back from cosmic winds, and muscles like ropes, he looks like he could take on any sorrow and wrestle it into submission. And he's wielding a magic box that makes anything that goes into it disappear forever...Welcome to the Venus Motel, where a million stars dance above the neon and things are almost never what they seem. With a cast of characters including a blues-playing magician biker, a broken singer running away from her past, a couple of down-and-out crooks, a lovelorn cowboy, and a famous author drowning his demons in a bottle of rum, Venus Sings the Blues is vivid, quirky ride into the desert Southwest"--

"Literary Americana fiction filled with humor and heart. When his wife, Angel, is killed in a head-on collision, Gomez Gomez feels he can't go on--so he doesn't. He spends his days in the bushes next to the crash site drinking Thunderbird wine, and his nights cradling a coffee can full of Angel's ashes. Slow, sure suicide, with no one for company but the snakes, Elvis's ghost, and a strange kid named Bones. Across town, Father Jake Morales plays it safe, haunted by memories of the woman he left behind, hiding his guilt, loss, and love behind a thick wall of cassock and ritual. Then a shady business deal threatens the town--and his good friend Gomez Gomez--and Father Jake can't just stand by and watch. But what happens when the rescuer is the one in need of saving? The Beautiful Ashes of Gomez Gomez is quirky, heartfelt, and deeply human. Lives and hopes collide in the town of Paradise, stretching across decades and continents in this epic story of forgiveness, redemption, and love"--