Books with author Melanie Jackson

Amateur detective and singing sensation Dinah Galloway has enough on her plate without having to worry about being pursued by a vengeful stalker. The red-headed twelve-year-old is in the running to sing in commercials promoting beautiful British Columbia. To clinch the job, Dinah has to get fit at a wellness retreat on Salt Spring Island. Veggies? Exercise? Yech! Grudgingly, though, Dinah admits that her lifestyle could be a little healthier. Off to Salt Spring she goes, along with the two other finalists: one friendly, the other the last word in sulky. Her friends Talbot and Pantelli make their usual disruptive appearances, along with Dinah's ever-anxious mother and cool, elegant sister Madge. Hoping to shed not only pounds but her crazed pursuer, Dinah learns the true meaning of personal best—it truly is how you play the game, not whether you win or lose.

Hans, the donkey, has been let go from his job at the petting zoo and goes to Bremen Town to seek his fortunes at the music festival. Along the way he meets an unemployed dog and cat and another fellow musician who happens to be a rooster. At the outskirts of Bremen Town they are approached by a hare who wants to help a kind farmer who has been kidnapped by thieves. The musicians agree to detour from their new career path long enough to take part in an adventure.

Dinah Galloway--budding diva, enthusiastic gourmand and amateur detective--is back. This time she has taken to the high seas with a gig in the lounge of an Alaska-bound cruise ship. Also aboard are her mother and her older sister Madge, a moody professor of First Nations art, an elderly woman with romantic intentions toward an even older man, an aspiring thief with gooseberry-colored eyes, and a priceless Native mask that seems to be attracting far too much attention. Also on the ship is Talbot St. John, class heartthrob, with whom Dinah has a running feud. The mask is on its way to a museum to be returned to its ancestral home, but is stolen moments before its delivery. When Dinah is pushed into a glacial lake, the mystery becomes more dangerous and the pool of suspects deepens. As Dinah entertains the passengers and eats her way up the Northwest Coast, a number of potential suspects emerge.

Dinah Galloway, fresh from her adventures with spies and bucktooth burglars, is back in a hilarious new adventure. Chosen for a lead role in the musical version of Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone, eleven-year-old Dinah--amateur detective, budding singer and unabashed owner of a huge appetite--is once again embroiled in a mystery that puts her in peril and offers plenty of opportunities for humor and good food. When Dinah wins the part of Coretta Cuff, a singing detective, in an adaptation of what many consider the first detective novel, she finds that all is not as it seems around the theater. The producer, trying to unload a bunch of knockoffs of his priceless ring--the famed Murdock Moonstone--has orchestrated a publicity stunt with the actual ring in attendance on opening night. Dinah is convinced that there is a plot to steal the gem. Armed with her freckled nose for mystery and her unerring sense of right and wrong, Dinah attempts to uncover the culprit before the curtain rises. Assisted by her long-suffering friend and ardent tree-lover, Pantelli, and her over-protective, glamorous older sister Madge, Dinah brings down the house in this second installment of the Dinah Galloway mystery series.

Zack Freedman has complete control and feels a sense of calm on the high wire. If only he could say the same about the rest of his life. His fellow youth circus performer and roommate, Cubby, hates him, and his aunt dumps a yappy, excitable dog on him. When a necklace is stolen during a circus performance and the victim of the theft threatens to shut down the circus, Zack is desperate to solve the mystery so he can keep his place on the wire.

Mel Jackson has transformed his memories of growing up in rural Ohio during the 1950’s and 60’s into emotional and entertaining narratives permeated with family dynamics. Runaway is a heartfelt, gripping account of a young boy’s longing for the love of his father and the long journey he took searching for it. The father was a hard working man but an alcoholic who found it hard to show his family the love they needed. The story travels many miles, over railroad trestles and through back country roads, encountering various characters, both family and strangers. It ultimately led the runaway to being institutionalized in the Columbus State Hospital. Sometime later, the boy, later a man, found himself reflecting on times lost at his father’s bittersweet funeral. It’s a story of love, hate and forgiveness.

Mel Jackson's daughter presented him with a diary on Father's Day and asked him to leave a legacy of words, memories to read to her children after he was gone. The author decided to acquaint her to his father whom she had never known. Here is an attempt to set to paper an experience that, to a young boy, made no sense. At times when telling his childhood stories to his children, it was to cause them to laugh. This time it is to inform, sadden and also amuse. There is no attempt to vilify, but only describe a young boy's longing for the love of his father. Mel Jackson was born in Columbus, Ohio. He and his wife reside in south central Florida.