These 16 short stories remind readers how family is at the core of human experience and how relationships, especially those between parent and child, rely on the power of love to overcome challenges. Five stories feature historical content, touching on issues still relevant today. Eleven contemporary stories also pose challenging situations, including a father and daughter on the run with an AMBER alert issued about them and a woman’s adult son missing after crashing his car in the desert.

Former criminal defense attorney Angeline Porter has killed two leaders of an extortionist mob in self-defense, and the new leaders want her money and her dead. How long will she have to hide out in the hot, humid hills of Kauai? Then she discovers something startling—she has a sister she never knew about. But FBI agent Gerard Duvernet tells her this sister has connections to the same mob that’s after Ang. Will justice or blood ties win out?