"It is a dark and stormy Puget Sound winter--until the arrival of Lioness Lazos. Even the weather takes notice when Lioness appears, as if out of nowhere, waiting tables in a diner. As though compelled, a complicated family brings the young woman into their lives. Energetic Joanna, academic Abe, and lovelorn Lily each fall under Lioness's spell, and she in turn awakens their long-hidden dreams and desires. As an impossibly beautiful spring leads into...

"Called in to consult after a young woman disappears, Tracy Crosswhite has the uneasy feeling that this is no ordinary missing-persons case. When the body turns up in an abandoned well, Tracy's suspicions are confirmed. Estranged from her family, the victim had balked at an arranged marriage and had planned to attend graduate school. But someone cut her dreams short. Solving the mystery behind the murder isn't Tracy's only challenge. The detective...