Violette Toussaint is the caretaker at a cemetery in a small town in Bourgogne. Casual mourners, regular visitors, and sundry colleagues--gravediggers, groundskeepers, and a priest--visit her to warm themselves in her lodge, where laughter, companionship, and occasional tears mix with the coffee she offers them. Her life is lived to the rhythms of their funny, moving confidences. Violette's routine is disrupted one day by the arrival of Julien Sole--local...

"Most of the Church's senior leaders have converged upon the city of Besancon in Burgundy, where Pope Urban's renegade papacy, now on the run from the Vatican's would-be usurper Borja, plans to offer an ecumenical olive branch to the other Christian denominations with which Rome has been at war. Fortunately, Urban has up-time help relying on Cardinal Protector Larry Mazzare's theological savvy, Sharon Nichol's medical skills, and a small contingent...

"Ariel Shepard is devastated by the sudden loss of her husband, but nothing could have prepared her for inheriting the rundown French château they'd visited on their honeymoon four years ago. With finances tight she has no choice but to swap her Manhattan apartment and city lifestyle for a renovation project in a peaceful French village. When Ariel hires an expert to help her uncover the legacy of her beautiful ruin, life only becomes more complicated....