Melinda Clayton has 7 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 5 narrators. The most-rated is Appalachian Justice.
A Woman Misunderstood
Summary
On a sweltering July morning in rural Tennessee, 50-year-old Rebecca Reynolds visits the family farm, where she literally stumbles across the mutilated bodies of her parents and younger sister, a sister who had spent life in a wheelchair after a birth fraught with complications. Rebecca's first thought is to call 911. Her second is to find her estranged sister, Lena, who was disowned by the family years before. Her third is to wonder how long it will be before Lena is arrested for the murder of their family. As the police gather evidence pointing to Lena, the sisters turn to attorney Brian Stone. Convinced of Lena's innocence, he agrees to take on the case. But in a family ripped apart by dysfunction, is anyone truly innocent?
©2016 Melinda Clayton (P)2017 Melinda Clayton
Making Amends
Summary
On a beautiful fall evening, in the middle of a game of hide-and-seek, five-year-old Bobby Clark is kidnapped by his estranged father, a shiftless man with a history of domestic violence and drug abuse. Bobby's twin brother Ricky watches, terrified, from his hiding place behind the bougainvillea, while mother Tabby, who also struggles with addiction, lies inebriated on the living room floor. Bobby isn't seen by his loved ones again until a fateful morning 25 years later, when video of his arrest dominates the morning news. He has been charged with the murder of his father, but before the trial can begin, he manages to escape. As Tabby and Ricky absorb the news of Bobby's return and subsequent escape, Tabby is convinced he'll come home to the quiet Florida street from which he was taken so long ago. But when events begin to spiral out of control, she's left to wonder: is a child born to be evil, or shaped to be evil? And in the end, when it's time to make amends, does it really matter?
©2015 Melinda Clayton (P)2016 Melinda Clayton
Entangled Thorns
Summary
Beth Sloan has spent the majority of her life trying to escape the memories of a difficult childhood. Born into the infamous Pritchett family of Cedar Hollow, West Virginia, she grew up hard, surrounded not only by homemade stills and corn liquor but by an impoverished family that more often than not preferred life on the wrong side of the law. After the mysterious death of her brother, Luke, at the age of 13, 17-year-old Beth and her younger sister, Naomi, ran away from home, never to return. As the years passed, Beth suppressed the painful memories and managed to create a comfortable if troubled life with her husband, Mark, and their two children in an upscale suburb outside of Memphis, Tennessee. But the arrival of an unwelcome letter threatens to change all that. Against her better judgment, and at the urging of her sister, Naomi, Beth agrees to return to Cedar Hollow, to the memories she's worked so hard to forget. When old resentments and family secrets are awakened, Beth must risk everything to face the truth about what really happened to Luke that long-ago summer night.
©2013 Melinda Clayton (P)2015 Melinda Clayton
Child of Sorrow
Summary
When 14-year-old foster child Johnathan Thomas Woods is suspected of murder, an old letter and a tacky billboard advertisement lead him to the office of attorney Brian Stone. Recognizing the sense of hopelessness lurking under John’s angry façade, Stone is soon convinced of his innocence. When John offers up his lawn-mowing money as payment, Stone realizes this is a case he can’t refuse. In the face of overwhelming evidence assembled by the prosecution, Stone and his team find themselves in a race against time to save an angry boy who’s experienced more than his fair share of betrayal, a boy who more often than not doesn’t seem interested in saving himself.
©2020 Melinda Clayton (P)2020 Melinda Clayton
Return to Crutcher Mountain
Summary
No one with Jessie's history of childhood trauma could make it through unscathed, and Jessie is no exception. As recounted in Appalachian Justice, Jessie is an adult survivor of horrendous childhood abuse suffered at the hands of her stepfather. At the age of 13, on a stormy night on top of Crutcher Mountain, Jessie was rescued by reclusive mountain woman Billy May Platte. Now, at the age of 47, Jessie is a success, at least by all outward appearances. But underneath it all, Jessie still struggles to reconcile the broken pieces of her past. Little does she know, Billy May's dying wish may just bring her the peace she so desires. In honor of Billy May's final request, Jessie has invited an agency that works with children with developmental disabilities to establish a wilderness retreat on top of Crutcher Mountain. Everything has come together beautifully, until a series of strange events threatens to shut down the operation. Unsure what to expect, Jessie returns to West Virginia in search of answers and finds more than she bargained for. Along the way she falls in love with the residents of the Platte Lodge for Children, none more so than 10-year-old Robby O'Brien, a freckle faced, earnest little boy who was diagnosed at birth with Down Syndrome and who, upon the death of his grandfather, finds himself alone in a scary world. As Jessie searches for answers, determined to save not only the Lodge but Robby as well, she must open her heart to the truths she discovers and place her trust in a lonely little boy. It's only by doing so that she can save herself.
©2013 Melinda Clayton (P)2015 Melinda Clayton
Blessed Are the Wholly Broken
Summary
After the heartbreak of losing their newborn son to a previously undiagnosed genetic condition, Phillip and Anna Lewinsky managed to patch their lives back together and move forward, filling the emptiness with friends, work, and travel. When Anna unexpectedly finds herself pregnant again at the age of 43, Phillip is thrilled to have a second chance at fatherhood in spite of Anna's objections. As desires clash, misunderstandings abound, and decisions are irrevocably made, the foundation of their marriage begins to crumble until only tragedy remains.
©2013 Melinda Clayton (P)2016 Melinda Clayton
Appalachian Justice
Summary
Deep in the mountains of Appalachia, Billy May Platte learned the hard way that 1940s West Virginia was no place to be gay: "We was sheltered in them hills. We didn't know much of nothin' about life outside of them mountains. I did not know the word lesbian; to us, gay meant havin' fun and queer meant somethin' strange."' In 1945, when Billy May was 14 years old and alone, three local boys witnessed an incident in which Billy May's sexuality was called into question. Determined to teach her a lesson she would never forget, they orchestrated a brutal attack that changed the dynamics of the tiny coal mining village of Cedar Hollow, West Virginia forever. Thirty years after the brutal attack, living in solitude on top of Crutcher Mountain, Billy May discovers the hideout of a young girl - a girl who just happens to be the daughter of one of the boys who attacked Billy May so long ago. No one knows better than Billy May the telltale signs of abuse, and she must quickly make a decision. Will she withdraw into the solitude in which she has lived since the horrific attack, or will she risk everything to save the girl from a similar fate? In spite of the heartbreaking incidents that take place in the novel, the book is ultimately a tribute to the resiliency of the human spirit and a celebration of the beauty of second chances. Underneath it all, Appalachian Justice is also a powerful love story, though certainly not a conventional one.
©2010 Melinda Clayton (P)2013 Melinda Clayton