Books
Broken Angels
In rural western New York, three-year-old Layla Babcock disappears from her parents' mobile home. Her father, Jon Babcock, insists she is lost in the hundreds of acres of state forest land behind their home. But many residents in the nearby village of Welton suspect she has been kidnapped or murdered.
​ Layla's mother, Abby, is deeply despondent and of little help. As the months pass by with no resolution, Abby disappears with her threadbare suitcase and a few belongings, leaving her husband and two teenage sons, Zach and Kyle, behind.
Still more questions go unanswered. Did Abby run away from her abusive husband, or was she murdered?
​ The townsfolk of Welton-everyone from the bikers at the Hotel Welton, the local watering hole, to the patrons of the Friday-evening fish fry at Shelly's Café-get caught up in the mystery and the family's misery. In the end, the long-awaited answers spring from rather unexpected sources, including angel visions of a café cook and the vandalized sculpture of an ex-New York City artist.
The Market Women of
Diamond Square
When Katherina “Katya” Wessel takes over a fruit stand at Pittsburgh’s Diamond Market House, she assumes she’s simply working to support herself and her invalid father. But she finds something else.
A sisterhood of hucksters.
Shrewd, outspoken, hardworking--and hard drinking--market women. Women who congregate in the saloons around Diamond Square and make them their own.
The election of 1913 throws this world into turmoil. The new mayor announces that the market house will be demolished. With encouragement from the Billy Sunday revival, the mayor also cracks down on “vice.” By “vice” he means liquor, motion pictures, pool halls, dancing, street musicians—and women gathering in saloons without a male escort.
The market women fight back, but taking on city hall is an uphill battle. For Katya, the battle is complicated by her often confusing attraction to Ester, a Russian Jewish immigrant. After Ester is arrested and disappears, Katya makes it her mission to find her. When the city of Pittsburgh decides to tear down the “new” market house almost fifty years later, Ester’s fate is finally made clear.