Castlegar & District Public Library

As The Kite Runner and The Swallows of Kabuldid for the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, this slim, profound novel illuminates the plight of those living under the Islamic State as well as the spirit of the Yazidi people.

Pearl's job is to make people happy. Every day, she provides customers with personalized recommendations for greater contentment. She's good at her job, her office manager tells her, successful. But how does one measure an emotion? Meanwhile, there's Pearl's teenage son, Rhett. A sensitive kid who has forged an unconventional path through adolescence, Rhett seems to find greater satisfaction in being unhappy. The very rejection of joy is his own kind of "pursuit of happiness." As his mother, Pearl wants nothing more than to help Rhett - but is it for his sake or for hers? Certainly it would make Pearl happier. Regardless, her son is one person whose emotional life does not fall under the parameters of her job - not as happiness technician, and not as mother, either.

"From a beloved, award-winning writer, the much-anticipated novel about what happens when two families go on a tropical vacation--and the children go missing. When Liv and Nora decide to take their families on a holiday cruise, everyone is thrilled. The ship's comforts and possibilities seem infinite. The children--two eleven-year-olds, an eight-year-old, and a six-year-old--love the nonstop buffet and the independence they have at the Kids' Club. But when they all go ashore in beautiful Central America, a series of minor misfortunes leads the families farther and farther from the ship's safety. One minute the children are there, and the next they're gone. What follows is a riveting, revealing story told from the perspectives of the adults and the children, as the once-happy parents--now turning on one another and blaming themselves--try to recover their children and their lives. Celebrated for her ability to write vivid, spare, moving fiction, Maile Meloy shows how quickly the life we count on can fall away, and how a crisis changes everyone's priorities. The fast-paced, gripping plot of Do Not Become Alarmed carries with it an insightful, provocative examination of privilege, race, guilt, envy, the dilemmas of modern parenthood, and the challenge of living up to our own expectations"--Provided by publisher.

A shocking, twisted novel of psychological suspense about one woman's attempt to be better than ordinary Twenty-six-year-old Maggie Barnes is someone you would never look at twice. Living alone in a month-to-month sublet in the huge city of London, with no family but an estranged sister, no boyfriend or partner, and not much in the way of friends, Maggie is just the kind of person who could vanish from the face of the earth without anyone taking notice. Or just the kind of person MI5 needs to infiltrate the establishment and thwart an international plot that puts all of Britain at risk. Now one young woman has the chance to be a hero--if she can think quickly enough to stay alive.

On the eve of his execution, eighteen-year-old Willie Jones sits in his cell in New Iberia awaiting his end. Across the state, a truck driven by a convict and his keeper carries the executioner's chair closer. On a nearby highway, Willie's father Frank lugs a gravestone on the back of his fading, old mule. in his office, the DA who prosecuted Willie reckons with his sentencing, while at their gas station at the crossroads outside of town, married couple Ora and Dale grapple with their grief and their secrets. As various members of the township consider and reflect on what Willie's execution means, an intricately layered and complex portrait of a Jim Crow-era Southern community emerges. 

Thirty-four-year-old Harry Crane works as an analyst for the US Forest Service. When his wife dies suddenly, he is unable to cope. Leaving his job and his old life behind, harry makes his way to the remote woods of northeastern Pennsylvania's Endless Mountains, determined to lose himself. But fate intervenes in the form of a fiercely determined young girl named Oriana. She and her mother, Amanda, are struggling to pick up the pieces of their own tragedy - Amanda stoically holding it together while Oriana roams the forest searching for answers. And in Oriana's magical, willful mind, she believes that Harry is the key to righting her world. After taking up residence in the woods behind Amanda's house, Harry reluctantly agrees to help Oriana in a ludicrous scheme to escape his tragic past. In so doing, an unlikeliest of elements - a wolf, a stash of gold coins, a fairy tale called the The Grum's Ledger and a wise old librarian named Olive - come together to create a golden adventure that will fulfill Oriana's wildest dreams and open Harry's heart to a whole new life.

Starring in a cult TV show was a blessing for Marnie Davante, especially now that her former fame can support her future dream of starting a children's theater. So she'll work the convention circuit. But then a costar is brazenly murdered in front of her. With a killer who vanishes into thin air with seemingly inhuman skill, and strange events plaguing Marnie, she feels she can't even trust her own senses. Although his dear departed parents were famous actors, PI Bryan McFadden is about as far from Hollywood as you can get. The former military man is reluctant to get involved in such a bizarre case, but it quickly becomes obvious that Marnie is in grave danger, and he is compelled to help. It's unclear if the killer is an obsessed fan or something more sinister. Could the show's cast be curses? How can Bryan keep Marnie safe when it becomes apparent there's a force determined to make this her final curtain call?

Josie and Frank Moore are happy...at least, Josie thinks they are. As parents are two young girls in the Chicago suburbs, their days can be both busy and monotonous, and sometimes Josie wonders how she became a harried fortysomething mother rather than a driven career woman she once was. But Frank is a phenomenal father, he's handsome and charismatic, and he still looks at his wife like she's the beautiful woman he married more than a decade ago. Josie isn't just happy - she's lucky. Until one Saturday morning when Josie borrows her husband's phone to make a quick call and sees an email that shatters her world. Now Josie feels as if she is standing at the edge of a sharp precipice. As she looks back at pivotal moments in the relationship she believed would last forever, she is also plunged ahead, surprising everyone (especially herself) with how far she will got to uncover the extent of her husband's devastating secret.

Five years after a series of Dante-inspired killings stunned Boston, a politician is found in a London park with his neck crushed by an enormous stone device etched with a verse from the Divine Comedy. When other shocking deaths erupt across the city, all in the style of the penances Dante memorialized in Purgatory, poet Christina Rossetti fears her missing brother, the artist and write Dante Gabriel Rossetti, will be the next victim. The unwavering Christina enlists poets Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson, and Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes to decipher the literary clues, and together these unlikely investigators unravel the secrets of Dante's verses to find Gabriel and stop the killings. Racing between the shimmering mansions of the elite and the seedy corners of London's underworld, they descend further into the mystery. But when the true inspiration behind the gruesome murders is finally revealed, Christina must confront a more profound terror than anyone had imagined.

Reeling from deceptions involving the people she loves, Poppy feels as if her world has tipped sideways. Maybe her colleague Annalise is right -- Poppy needs to let loose and blow off some steam. What better way to vent than social media? With Annalise, she creates a private Facebook group that quickly takes off. Suddenly, Poppy feels like she's back in control. She has a place in the world again and she's learning that her life choices are worth celebrating -- until someone begins leaking the group's private posts and stirring up a nasty backlash, shattering her confidence. Feeling judged by disapproving female colleagues and her own disappointed children, Frankie, too is careening towards a breaking point. She also knows something about her boss -- sensitive knowledge that she feels guilty holding back. As things begin to slide disastrously out of control, carefully concealed secrets and lies are exposed with devastating -- forcing these women to face painful truths about their lives and the things they do to survive.

"Kim Lord is an avant-garde figure, feminist icon, and agent provocateur in the L.A. art scene. Her groundbreaking new exhibition Still Lives is comprised of self-portraits depicting herself as famous, murdered women -- the Black Dahlia, Chandra Levy, Nicole Brown Simpson, among many others -- and the works are as compelling as they are disturbing, implicating a culture that is too accustomed to violence against women. As the city’s richest art patrons pour into the Rocque Museum’s opening night, all the staff, including editor Maggie Richter, hope the event will be enough to save the historic institution’s flailing finances. Except Kim Lord never shows up to her own gala. Fear mounts as the hours and days drag on and Lord remains missing. Suspicion falls on the up-and-coming gallerist Greg Shaw Ferguson, who happens to be Maggie’s ex. A rogue’s gallery of eccentric art world figures could also have motive for the act, and as Maggie gets drawn into her own investigation of Lord’s disappearance, she’ll come to suspect all of those closest to her. Set against a culture that often fetishizes violence, Still Lives is a page-turning exodus into the art world’s hall of mirrors, and one woman’s journey into the belly of an industry flooded with money and secrets." -- Provided by publisher.

In the 1920s, Zoya Andropova, a young refugee from the Soviet Union, finds herself in the alien landscape of an elite all-girls New Jersey boarding school. Having lost her family, her home, and her sense of purpose, Zoya struggles to belong, a task made more difficult by the malice her peers heap on scholarship students and her new country's paranoia about Russian spies. When she meets the visiting writer and fellow Russian émigré Leo Orlov - whose books Zoya has privately obsessed over for years - her luck seems to have taken a turn for the better. But she soon discovers that Leo is not the solution to her loneliness: he's committed to his art and bound by the sinister orchestrations of his brilliant wife, Vera. As the reader unravels the mystery of Zoya, Lev, and Vera's fate, Zoya is faced with mounting pressure to figure out who she is and what kind of life she wants to build. Grappling with class distinctions, national allegiance, and ethical fidelity - not to mention the powerful magnetism of sex - Invitation to a Bonfire investigates how one's identity is formed, irrevocably, through a series of momentary decisions, including how to survive, who to love, and whether to pay the complicated price of happiness.

Sweeping and panoramic, this is the epic and intimate story of a young woman who chafes at the stifling routine and tradition of her small, turn-of-the-century Italian village. When an opportunity presents itself for her to emigrate to America, her hunger for escape compels her to leave everything behind for the gleaming promises await her and her young husband in Mr. Ford's factories. Determined to survive, and perhaps even thrive, young Jane finds herself navigating not just a new language and country, but a world poised upon the edge of economic and social revolution--and war. As [she] searches for inner fulfillment while building a young family, the tide of history ebbs and flows. From the chaos of Ellis Island to the melting pot of industrial Detroit, [this narrative] spills over with colorful characters and vivid period details. Riva paints an authentic portrait of immigrant America and poignantly captures the ever evolving nature of the American dream. -- amazon.com.

""Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes untangle the slippery threads of insanity and deadly secrets as they investigate a disappearance in the New York Times bestselling series that Lee Child called "the most sustained feat of imagination in mystery fiction today." A June summer's evening, on the Sussex Downs, in 1925. Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes are strolling across their orchard when the telephone rings: an old friend's beloved aunt has failed to return following a supervised outing from Bedlam. After the previous few weeks--with a bloody murder, a terrible loss, and startling revelations about Holmes--Russell is feeling a bit unbalanced herself. The last thing she wants is to deal with the mad, and yet, she can't say no. The Lady Vivian Beaconsfield has spent most of her adult life in one asylum after another, yet she seemed to be improving--or at least, finding a point of balance in her madness. So why did she disappear? Did she take the family's jewels with her, or did someone else? The Bedlam nurse, perhaps? The trail leads Russell and Holmes through a lunatic asylum's stony halls to the warm Venice lagoon, where ethereal beauty is jarred by Mussolini's Blackshirts, where the gilded Lido set may be tempting a madwoman, and where Cole Porter sits ata piano, playing with ideas.."--

New York, 1799. A cauldron of opportunity and oppression in a new world of possibility. Thanks to Alexander Hamilton, America has recovered from the financial panic of 1792, but the young country is still finding its way. New lawyer Justice Flanagan, fresh from university, returns to discover who murdered his father. But the city has changed, and the ghosts of the past are all too present, even before bodies appear in alleyways - young women, brutally murdered. Justy teams up with Kerry O'Toole, a childhood friend and the mixed-race daughter of an escaped slave and an Irish gangster, to discover the truth, only to reveal a massive fraud that the perpetrators are determined to keep secret at any cost. And as the body count rises among the rich and the downtrodden alike, the looming crisis could topple the nation.

The Four Lands are under siege. Wielding a magical ability virtually impossible to combat, mysterious invaders defeat the most fearsome Troll armies, then focus their savagery on the Druid order -- and all hope seems lost. Eventually the invaders reveal a more human face, but understanding their motives in no way mitigates the brutality of their actions. Dar Leah, once the High Druid’s Blade, has crossed paths -- and swords -- with their ruthless leader before. So he knows that if any hope exists, it rests in the hands of the Druid Drisker Arc, now trapped inside vanished Paranor. As Drisker races to find the ancient knowledge that could free him, Dar goes in search of Tarsha Kaynin, the young woman blessed with the powerful gift of the wishsong, whose magic could draw Drisker back into the world of the living. But little do they know that what appeared to be a formidable invading force may only be the forerunner of a much larger army -- one intent on nothing less than total conquest.

When she was sixteen years old, Angela Wong, one of the most popular girls in school, disappeared without a trace. Nobody ever suspected that her best friend, Georgina Shaw, now an executive and rising star at a major Seattle company, was involved in any way. Certainly not Kaiser Brody, who was close to both girls back in high school. But fourteen years later, Angela Wong's remains are discovered in the woods near Geo's childhood home. And Kaiser, now a detective with the Seattle PD, finally learns the truth: Angela was a victim of Calvin James. The same Calvin James who murdered at least three other women. To the authorities, Calvin is a serial killer. But to Geo, he's something else entirely. Back in high school, Calvin was Geo's first love. Turbulent and often volatile, their relationship bordered on obsession from the moment they met right up until the night Angela was killed. For fourteen years, Geo knew what had happened to Angela and told no one. For fourteen years, Geo carried the secret of Angela's death until she was arrested and sent to prison.While everyone thinks they finally know the truth, there are dark secrets buried deep. And what happened that fateful night is more complex than anyone really knows. Now, just as Geo is being released from prison, the obsessive past catches up with the deadly present when new bodies begin to turn up, killed in the exact same manner as Angela Wong. How far will someone go to bury her secrets and hide her grief? How long can you get away with a lie? How long can you live with it?

"The stakes were already high enough at Giovanni Galante’s poker table that night in Chicago. Poker. Dealer’s choice. Seven players. A million-dollar cash buy-in. But after a superpowered mishap, the most high-profile criminals in the city are scattered throughout the past and their schemes across time threaten the stability of the world. Perfect for current fans and new readers alike, Low Chicago is an all-new time travel adventure that highlights the criminal underworld of 1920s Chicago, featuring a fresh cast of characters from the Wild Cards universe." -- Provided by the publisher.

It's Nantucket wedding season, also known as summer-the sight of a bride racing down Main Street is as common as the sun setting at Madaket Beach. The Otis-Winbury wedding promises to be an event to remember: the groom's wealthy parents have spared no expense to host a lavish ceremony at their oceanfront estate. But it's going to be memorable for all the wrong reasons after tragedy strikes: a body is discovered in Nantucket Harbor just hours before the ceremony-and everyone in the wedding party is suddenly a suspect. As Chief of Police Ed Kapenash interviews the bride, the groom, the groom's famous mystery-novelist mother, and even a member of his own family, he discovers that every wedding is a minefield-and no couple is perfect.

"When a British tourist fails to turn up for a luxurious cooking vacation in Bruno's usually idyllic Dordogne village of St. Denis, the worried hostess is quick to call on Bruno for help. Monica Felder is nowhere to be found, and her husband, a retired British major, is unreachable. And not long after Bruno discovers that Monica was traveling with a mysterious Irishman (her lover?), the two turn up dead. The Irishman's background in intelligence and his connection to Monica's husband only raise more questions for Bruno. Was she running away? How much does her husband really know? What's the real story behind a scandal buried in the threesome's military past? Meanwhile, the star of the girls' rugby team, a favorite of Bruno's, is pregnant, putting at risk her chances of being named to the French national squad. Bruno's search for the truth in both cases leads him to places he hadn't intended to go--but, as ever, he and his friends take time to savor the natural delights of the Dordogne. Santé!"--Provided by the publisher.

When Nils Shapiro is shot through the arm with an arrow, he knows he is getting closer to discovering what happened to missing teenager Linnea Engstrom. He should be in the hospital recovering from his near-fatal injury, but the clock is ticking. Linnea could be anywhere, and someone doesn't want her found. As bodies start piling up, the clues lead Nils and his partner, Anders Ellegaard, north to Warroad, a small, quiet town with many secrets to hide.

In 1921, two young Americans meet in Verdun, the city in France where one of the most devastating battles of the war was waged. Tom is an orphan from Chicago, a former ambulance driver now gathering bones from the battlefield; Sarah is an expatriate from Boston, searching for the husband who wandered off from his division and hasn't been seen since. Quickly, the two fall into a complicated affair against the ghostly backdrop of the ruined city. Month later, Sarah and Tom meet again at the psychiatric ward of an Italian hospital, drawn there by the appearance of a mysterious patient the doctors call Douglas Fairbanks (after the silent film actor) - a shell-shocked soldier with no memory of who he is. At the hospital, Tom and Sarah are joined by Paul, an Austrian journalist with his own interest in the amnesiac. Each is keeping a secret; each has been shaken by the horrors of war. Decades later, Tom, now a successful screenwriter, encounters Paul by chance in LA, still grappling with the questions raised by this gorgeous and incisive novel: How to begin again after unfathomable trauma? How to love after so much loss? And who, in the end, was Douglas Fairbanks?

"Sweetbitter meets The Nightingale in this page-turner about a woman who returns to her family's ancestral vineyard in Burgundy to study for her Master of Wine test, and uncovers a lost diary, a forgotten relative, and a secret her family has been keepingsince WWII"-- Provided by publisher.

As an Indian wedding gathers a family back together, parents Rafiq and Layla must reckon with the choices their children have made. There is Hadia: their headstrong, eldest daughter, whose marriage is a match of love and not tradition. Huda, the middle child, determined to follow in her sister’s footsteps. And lastly, their estranged son, Amar, who returns to the family fold for the first time in three years to take his place as brother of the bride. What secrets and betrayals have caused this close-knit family to fracture? Can Amar find his way back to the people who know and love him best? A Place for Us takes us back to the beginning of this family’s life: from the bonds that bring them together, to the differences that pull them apart. All the joy and struggle of family life is here, from Rafiq and Layla’s own arrival in America from India, to the years in which their children—each in their own way—tread between two cultures, seeking to find their place in the world, as well as a path home. 

Mark Renton is finally a success. An international jet-setter, he now makes significant money managing DJs, but the constant travel, airport lounges, soulless hotel rooms and broken relationships have left him dissatisfied with his life. He's then rocked by a chance encounter with Frank Begbie, from whom he'd been hiding for years after a terrible betrayal and the resulting debt. But the psychotic Begbie appears to have reinvented himself as a celebrated artist and--much to Mark's astonishment--doesn't seem interested in revenge. Sick Boy and Spud, who have agendas of their own, are intrigued to learn that their old friends are back in town, but when they enter the bleak world of organ-harvesting, things start to go so badly wrong. Lurching from crisis to crisis, the four men circle each other, driven by their personal histories and addictions, confused, angry--so desperate that even Hibs winning the Scottish Cup doesn't really help. One of these four will not survive to the end of this book. Which one of them is wearing Dead Men's Trousers?

Bhima, the unforgettable main character of Space Between Us, returns in this triumphant sequel. Poor and illiterate, Bhima had faithfully worked for the Dubash family, an upper-middle-class Parsi household, for more than 20 years. Yet after courageously speaking the truth about a heinous crime perpetrated against her own family, the devoted servant was cruelly fired. Bhima's fortunes take an unexpected turn when her path intersects with Parvati, a bitter, taciturn older woman. The two acquaintances soon form a tentative business partnership. As they work together, these two women seemingly bound by fate grow closer, each confessing the truth about their lives and the wounds that haunt them.

In a former life, Nick Lutz sold cars in the Golden State. He has a wife and young son, and they struggled along until a potential customer hijacked the car Nick was demonstrating and shot him in the head. the incident sets off a bad-luck domino effect, and he loses an eye, his job, his family, and, eventually, his self-respect. With nothing left, Nick heads for Mexico, where he sheds his former self among an eclectic group of expats and locals, who fondly name him "Pirata" on account of his eye patch. There on the beaches of Sabanita, Nick and his buddy Winsor drink, surf, and - most of all - escape, buoyed away from their pasts on south swells and Tecate. nothing epic. That is until Winsor's girlfriend, Meagan, ends this abusive relationship and flees with her two boys to the safety and solace of Nick's beachside casita. A monsoon season fling of convenience turns into a torrid love affair as new loyalties and dark secrets are shaped into something like a family. But when the local policia struggle to identify a body that washed up in the surf, Nick realizes his secrets - and sins - have caught up with him. And there are dangerous new surprises that have yet to roll in with the tide...

When Isabelle Poole meets Dr. Preston Grind, she's fresh out of high school, pregnant with her art teacher's baby, and totally on her own. Izzy knows she can be a good mother but without any money or relatives to help, she's left searching. Dr. Grind, an awkwardly charming child psychologist, has spent his life studying family, even after tragedy struck his own. Now, with the help of an eccentric billionaire, he has the chance to create a "perfect little world"--to study what would happen when ten children are raised collectively, without knowing who their biological parents are. He calls it the Infinite Family Project and he wants Izzy and her son to join. This attempt at a utopian ideal starts off promising, but soon the gentle equilibrium among the families disintegrates: unspoken resentments between the couples begin to fester; the project's funding becomes tenuous; and Izzy's growing feelings for Dr. Grind make her question her participation in this strange experiment in the first place. Written with the same compassion and charm that won over legions of readers with The Family Fang, Kevin Wilson shows us with grace and humor that the best families are the ones we make for ourselves.--Page 4 of cover.

"The Bram Stoker Award-winning author of A Head Full of Ghosts adds an inventive twist to the home invasion horror story in a heart-palpitating novel of psychological suspense that recalls Stephen King’s Misery, Ruth Ware’s In a Dark, Dark Wood, and Jack Ketchum’s cult hit The Girl Next Door. Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake. Their closest neighbors are more than two miles in either direction along a rutted dirt road. One afternoon, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen but he is young, friendly, and he wins her over almost instantly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologizes and tells Wen, 'None of what’s going to happen is your fault.' Three more strangers then arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out: 'Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world.' Thus begins an unbearably tense, gripping tale of paranoia, sacrifice, apocalypse, and survival that escalates to a shattering conclusion, one in which the fate of a loving family and quite possibly all of humanity are entwined. The Cabin at the End of the World is a masterpiece of terror and suspense from the fantastically fertile imagination of Paul Tremblay." -- Provided by publisher.

"A gorgeous illustrated edition of a classic novella from the #1 bestselling author of A Game of Thrones -- a chilling mystery set on a seemingly haunted spaceship, soon to be an original series on SYFY. Featuring fifteen original full-color illustrations, this is the definitive edition of an electrifying tale that combines the deep-space thrills of Alien, the psychological horror of The Shining, and, of course, the inimitable vision of George R. R. Martin. When a scientific expedition is launched to study a mysterious alien race, the only ship available is the Nightflyer, a fully autonomous vessel manned by a single human. But Captain Royd Eris remains locked away, interacting with his passengers only as a disembodied voice -- or a projected hologram no more substantial than a ghost. Yet that’s not the only reason the ship seems haunted. The team’s telepath, Thale Lasamer, senses another presence aboard the Nightflyer -- something dangerous, volatile, and alien. Captain Eris claims to know nothing about the elusive intruder, and when someone, or something, begins killing off the expedition’s members, he’s unable -- or unwilling -- to stem the bloody tide. Only Melantha Jhirl, a genetically enhanced outcast with greater strength, stamina, and intelligence than other humans, has a chance of solving the mystery -- and stopping the malevolent being that’s wiping out her shipmates. But first she has to keep herself alive." -- Provided by publisher.

"Finn and Layla are young, in love, and on vacation. They’re driving along the highway when Finn decides to stop at a service station to use the restroom. He hops out of the car, locks the doors behind him, and goes inside. When he returns Layla is gone—never to be seen again. That is the story Finn told to the police. But it is not the whole story."

"Keiko Furukura had always been considered a strange child, and her parents always worried how she would get on in the real world, so when she takes on a job in a convenience store while at university, they are delighted for her. For her part, in the convenience store she finds a predictable world mandated by the store manual, which dictates how the workers should act and what they should say, and she copies her coworkers’ style of dress and speech patterns so that she can play the part of a normal person. However, eighteen years later, at age 36, she is still in the same job, has never had a boyfriend, and has only few friends. She feels comfortable in her life, but is aware that she is not living up to society’s expectations and causing her family to worry about her. When a similarly alienated but cynical and bitter young man comes to work in the store, he will upset Keiko’s contented stasis -- but will it be for the better? Sayaka Murata brilliantly captures the atmosphere of the familiar convenience store that is so much part of life in Japan. With some laugh-out-loud moments prompted by the disconnect between Keiko’s thoughts and those of the people around her, she provides a sharp look at Japanese society and the pressure to conform, as well as penetrating insights into the female mind. Convenience Store Woman is a fresh, charming portrait of an unforgettable heroine that recalls Banana Yoshimoto, Han Kang, and Amélie." -- Provided by publisher.

"From the author of the international bestseller The Swede comes an electrifying thriller set in the terrorist -- and pirate-infested world of the Horn of Africa -- where the sea caresses the desert, alliances shift like sand, and a Swedish detective can count on nothing but his own shrewdness to survive. A Swedish army lieutenant drops dead on a shooting range in the desert. Was it an unfortunate accident -- or something more nefarious? Ernst Grip, an agent of the Swedish security police, is sent to the Horn of Africa to find out. Once he’s on the ground, however, he quickly discovers he’s on his own. No one wants him snooping around -- especially not the U.S. Embassy’s CIA station. Which is no surprise, given that military transport planes are leaving from the base carrying untraceable pallets loaded with cash. What’s more, Grip’s investigation is complicated by another dangerous situation. Somali pirates have kidnapped a wealthy Swedish family during the adventure of a lifetime: a sailing trip from Sweden to the Great Barrier Reef. Why, Grip wonders, is no one back home willing to pay the ransom in order to save these innocent lives? Solving the mystery of the soldier’s death isn’t the end of Grip’s involvement -- it’s a tipping point that leads him deep into a web of intrigue, greed, and dark dealings ensnaring both allies and enemies...and a world where no one can be trusted. After the Monsoon explores the tough compromises made every day in pursuit of the greater good. How do you know which is the lesser of two evils? And what is the cost of betraying one interest to save another? In this provocative, pulse-pounding, and sophisticated thriller, Robert Karjel vividly creates a world in which the stains of innocent blood cannot be cleansed, and the sins of good men forced to make impossible choices cannot be washed away." -- Provided by publisher.

From a wrong number to a friendship that would impact both their lives, this begins with two unlikely friends - the world's most respected scientist and a schoolgirl from New Jersey. From their first conversation Mimi Beaufort had a profound effect on Einstein and brought him, in his final years, back to life. In turn he let her into his world. This riotous, charming and moving novel spans almost a century of European history and shines a light on the real man behind the myth.

520 "The Woman in the Window"...opens with a woman, naked except for her high-heeled shoes, seated in front of the window in an apartment she cannot, on her own, afford. In this exquisitely tense narrative reimagining of Edward Hopper's Eleven A.M., 1926, the reader enters the minds of both the woman and her married lover, each consumed by alternating thoughts of disgust and arousal, as he rushes, amorously, murderously, to her door. In "The Long-Legged Girl," an aging, jealous wife crafts an unusual game of Russian roulette involving a pair of Wedgewood teacups, a strong Bengal brew, and a lethal concoction of medicine. Who will drink from the wrong cup, the wife or the dance student she believes to be her husband's latest conquest? In "The Sign of the Beast," when a former Sunday school teacher's corpse turns up, the blighted adolescent she had by turns petted and ridiculed confesses to her murder--but is he really responsible? Another young outsider, Horace Phineas Love, Jr., is haunted by apparitions at the very edge of the spectrum of visibility after the death of his tortured father in "Night-Gaunts," a fantastic ode to H.P. Lovecraft.

Warden Torin Kerr has created a place and purpose for others who are like her, a way to use their training for good. Her past catches up with her when Big Yellow returns. Torin has no choice but to be Gunnery Sergeant Kerr once again in her efforts to keep the peace.

Merry and Sam can hardly believe their luck. What a beautiful new life they've found in Sweden with their infant son, Conor. Their old careers, and their old cares, all left behind in New York. It's a new start, and everything is perfect. Then Merry's closest friend, Frank, visits. Ever since their entangled childhoods, Frank and Merry have loved each other - and fought - like sisters. Frank slips seamlessly into Swedish life, winning over baby Conor, Sam, and even the neighbors. But soon old, toxic rivalries reemerge. Merry starts to feel her domestic paradise is under threat. And Frank realizes that behind closed doors, marriage and motherhood look very different from the image presented to the world. But everyone inside the house has reason to fear what the others might see. And as the dark truth slowly begins to show through the cracks, Merry, Frank, and Sam will go to desperate lengths to keep their picture-perfect lives intact.

Summer 1977. The Blyton Summer Detective Club (of Blyton Hills, a small mining town in Oregon's Zoinx River Valley) solved their final mystery and unmasked the elusive Sleepy Lake monster - another low-life fortune hunter trying to get his dirty hands on the legendary riches hidden in Deboën Mansion. And he would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling kids. 1990. The former detectives have grown up and apart, each haunted by disturbing memories of their final night in the old haunted house. There are too many strange, half-remembered encounters and events that cannot be dismissed or explained away by a guy in a mask. And Andy, the once intrepid tomboy now wanted in two states, is tired of running from her demons. She needs answers. To find them she will need Kerri, the one-time kid genius and budding biologist, now drinking her ghosts away in New York with Tim, an excitable Weimaraner descended from the original canine member of the club. They will also have to get Nate, the horror nerd currently residing in an asylum in Arkham, Massachusetts. Luckily Nate has not lost contact with Peter, the handsome jock turned movie star who was once their team leader...which is remarkable, considering Peter has been dead for years. The time has come to get the team back together, face their fears, and find out what actually happened all those years ago at Sleepy Lake. It's their only chance to end the nightmares and, perhaps, save the world.

On a late summer day, Julia Swann is on the phone with her husband, Michael, when the call abruptly goes dead. Then the news rolls in: A bomb has gone off at Penn Station, where Michael was waiting for a train home. New York City is in a state of chaos. A frantic Julia races to the city to look for Michael, her panic interwoven with memories of meeting and falling in love with the husband she's now desperate to find. When someone finds a flier she's posted and tells her they may have seen her husband, her dreams seem to be answered. Yet as she tries to find him, her calls go unanswered. Weaving between the aftermath of the explosion and Julia's memories of her life with Michael, new developments raise troubling questions. Did Michael survive the explosion? Why hasn't he contacted her? What was he doing when their last call was cut off? Was he - or is he still - the man she fell in love with?

Brooklyn has it all covered. She's triple-checked her wedding to-do list, and everything is on track for the upcoming ceremony with the love of he life, security expert Derek Stone. Not everyone has been as lucky in love as Brooklyn. Her old library college roommates Heather and Sara lost touch twelve years ago when Sara stole Heather's boyfriend. Brooklyn was caught in the middle and hasn't seen her former besties since their falling-out. When they both arrive in town for the annual librarians' convention, Brooklyn is sure drama will ensue. But she's touched when the women seem willing to sort out their differences and gift her rare copies of The Three Musketeers and The Blue Fairy Book. Brooklyn's prewedding clam is shattered when one of her formerly feuding friends is found murdered and Brooklyn determines that one of the rare books is a forgery. She can't help but wonder if the victim played a part in this fraud, or if she was targeted because she discovered the scam. With a killer and con artist on the loose, Brooklyn and Derek - with the unsolicited help of their meddling mothers - must catch the culprit before their big day turns into a big mess.

"When his former employer goes missing, Gideon Crew, reeling from his terminal diagnosis, pursues the long-awaited translation of the Phaistos Disc, an ancient tablet that could end or save his life."--Provided by the publisher.

"An original full-length novel set in the Halo universe and based on the New York Times bestselling video game series! Just hours following their climactic battle on the Forerunner planet Genesis, the Spartans of Blue Team and Fireteam Osiris find themselves running for their lives from the malevolent machinations of the now-renegade artificial intelligence Cortana. But even as they attempt to stay one step ahead, trouble seems to find Spartan Edward Buck no matter where he turns. A secret mission enacted by the Office of Naval Intelligence could possibly help turn the tide, and has Buck reluctantly agreeing to reform his old team, Alpha-Nine. Because if the band is really getting back together for this one, that means everybody--including the Spartan who Buck never wants to see again, the one who committed the ultimate betrayal of trust."

Running wild before she can even walk, Hero goes on a dangerous road trip with an aunt, later takes up with her feral, bad-boy cousin, investigates a crime, kills a best friendship with a few aggressively-applied home truths, falls in conflicted love with the cousin, then determinedly, if unconvincingly, falls out.

Janie Treeborne lives on an orchard at the edge of Elberta, Alabama, and in time, she has become its keeper. A place where conquistadors once walked and where the peaches they left behind now grow, Elberta has seen fierce battles, violent storms, and frantic change - and when the town is once again threatened from without, Janie realizes it won't withstand much more. So she tells the story of its people: of Hugh, her granddaddy, determined to preserve Elberta's legacy at any cost; of his wife, Maybelle, the postmaster, whose sudden death thrown the town into chaos; of Maybelle's lover, Lee Malone, a black orchardist harvesting from a land where he is less than welcome; of the time Janie kidnapped her own Hollywood-obsessed aunt and tore the wrong people apart.

Criminal defense investigator Cecil Younger spends his days coaching felons on how to avoid incriminating themselves. He and his colleague have even started writing a helpful handbook with tips such as: don't wear the tennis shoes you stole to court when the guy you stole them from will be there to testify and his name is still written inside of them. But when Cecil follows a lead from a defendant and walks out of a shady apartment complex with a suitcase containing fifty thousand dollars in cash, he suddenly finds himself in violation of one of his own rules: nothing good comes of walking around with a lot of someone else's money. And the suitcase is only the beginning. Delivered in the form of a statement to a panel of three judges, we find a reluctant, deeply unlucky investigator who, in a single day, manages to find a deep freeze full of drug-stuffed fish, witness a murder at close range, and have his teenage daughter kidnapped and held as collateral.

"Across the ranchlands and cities of his home state, Rory Yates's discipline and law-enforcement skills have carried him far--from local highway patrolman to the honorable rank of Texas Ranger. A tough case in Waco has jeopardized Yates's chances at promotion, and he decides to take time off to recharge with his family in their small-town hometown, Redbud. He arrives and finds a horrifying crime scene--and a scathing accusation: he is named a suspect in the murder of his ex-wife, Anne, a devoted teacher whose only controversial act ever was deciding to end her marriage to a Ranger. In search of the killer, Yates follows the Ranger creed--never to surrender--into the inferno of the most twisted and violent minds he's ever encountered. That code just might bring him out alive." -- back.

"In the new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline, Mary DiNunzio's ruthless nemesis Nick Machiavelli is back...with a vengeance. When three men announce that they are suing the Rosato & DiNunzio law firm for reverse sex discrimination--claiming that they were not hired because they were men--Mary DiNunzio and Bennie Rosato are outraged. To make matters worse, their one male employee, John Foxman, intends to resign, claiming that there is some truth to this case. The plaintiffs' lawyer is Nick Machiavelli, who has already lost to Mary once and is now back with a vengeance --determined not to not only win, but destroy the firm. It soon becomes clear that Machiavelli will do anything in his power to achieve his end...even after the case turns deadly. The stakes have never been higher for Mary and her associates as they try to keep Machiavelli at bay, solve a murder, and save the law firm they love...or they could lose everything they've worked for. Told with Scottoline's trademark gift for twists, turns, heart, and humanity, this latest thriller asks the question: Is it better to be loved, or feared... Feared, the sixth entry in the acclaimed Rosato & DiNunzio series, expertly explores what happens when we are tempted to give in to our own inner darkness."--

“It's winter in the Catskills and the weather outside is frightful, but Mitchell's Inn is so delightful! The cozy lodge nestled deep in the woods is perfect for a relaxing--maybe even romantic--weekend away. The Inn boasts spacious old rooms with huge wood-burning fireplaces, a well-stocked wine cellar and opportunities for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing or just curling up with a book and someone you love. So when the weather takes a turn for the worse and a blizzard cuts off the electricity--and all contact with the outside world--the guests settle in for the long haul. The power's down but they've got candles, blankets and firewood--a genuine rustic experience! Soon, though, a body turns up--surely an accident. When a second body appears, they start to panic. Then they find a third body. Within the snowed-in paradise, something--or someone--is picking off the guests one by one. They can't leave, and with no cell service, there's no prospect of getting the police in until the weather loosens its icy grip. The weekend getaway has turned deadly. For some couples, it's their first time away. For others, it will be their last. And there's nothing they can do about it but huddle in and hope they can survive the storm.”--

A transformative and necessary work--as completely unexpected as it is inspired--by the award-winning author of the bestselling novels All My Puny Sorrows and A Complicated Kindness. The sun rises on a quiet June morning in 2009. August Epp sits alone in the hayloft of a barn, anxiously bent over his notebook. He writes quickly, aware that his solitude will soon be broken. Eight women--ordinary grandmothers, mothers and teenagers; yet to August, each one extraordinary-- will climb the ladder into the loft, and the day's true task will beginches This task will be both simple and subversive: August, like the women, is a traditional Mennonite, and he has been asked to record a secret conversation. Thus begins Miriam Toews' spellbinding novel. Gradually, as we hear the women's vivid voices console, tease, admonish, regale and debate each other, we piece together the reason for the gathering: they have forty-eight hours to make a life-altering choice on behalf of all the women and children in the colony. And like a vast night sky coming into view behind the bright sparks of their voices, we learn of the devastating events that have led to this moment. Acerbic, funny, tender, sorrowful and wise, Women Talking is composed of equal parts humane love and deep anger. It is award-winning writer Miriam Toews' most astonishing novel to date, containing within its two short days and hayloft setting an expansive, timeless universe of thinking and feeling about women--and men--in our contemporary world.

The daughter and granddaughter of prominent Manhattan lawyers, Meredith McKenzie is destined for the best of everything: top schools, elite social circles, the perfect marriage. Spending her childhood in Germany as her father prosecutes NAzi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials, Meredith soaks up the conflict between good and evil as it plays out in real time. When her family returns to the United States, she begins blazing her own trail, swimming against the tides, spurred on by her freethinking liberal grandfather, determined to become a lawyer despite her traditional, conservative father's objections. She rebels against her parents' expectations for her debutante ball and other conventions. She forges a lifelong friendship with a young German Jewish woman whose family died in the concentration camps. And while her grandfather rises to the Supreme Court, Meredith enlists in the most pressing causes of her time, fighting for civil rights and an end to the Vietnam War. Encompassing the remarkable people Meredith meets, the historic events she witnesses, and the sacrifices she must make, this is the story of a woman changing her world as she herself is changed by it.

"The Lost for Words Bookshop by Stephanie Butland is a compelling, irresistible, and heart-rending novel, perfect for all book lovers. Loveday Cardew prefers books to people. If you look carefully, you might glimpse the first lines of the novels she loves most tattooed on her skin. But there are some things Loveday will never, ever show you. Into her hiding place - the bookstore where she works - come a poet, a lover, and three suspicious deliveries. Someone has found out about her mysterious past. Will Loveday survive her own heartbreaking secrets?"

Carcassonne 1562: Nineteen-year-old Minou Joubert receives an anonymous letter at her father's bookshop. Sealed with a distinctive family crest, it contains just five words: SHE KNOWS THAT YOU LIVE. But before Minou can decipher the mysterious message, a chance encounter with a young Huguenot convert, Piet Reydon, changes the course of her life forever. For Piet has a dangerous mission of his own, and he will need Minou's help if he is to get out of La Cité alive. Toulouse: As the religious divide deepens in the Midi, and old friends become enemies, Minou and Piet both find themselves trapped in Toulouse, facing new dangers as sectarian tensions ignite across the city, the battle lines are drawn in blood and the conspiracy darkens further. Meanwhile, as a long-hidden document threatens to be found, the mistress of Puivert is obsessed with uncovering its secret and strengthening her power...

In the midst of a scandal that threatens a perfect life, how far are you willing to go to protect the ones you love? Nina Browning married a third-generation Nashvillian, enjoys a newly lavish lifestyle thanks to the sudden success of her husband's tech business, and has a son, Finch, who just got accepted to Princeton. Thomas Talone is a single dad, works multiple jobs and has a daughter, Lila, who was recently accepted to Nashville's most prestigious private high school on a scholarship. They couldn't be prouder. Then scandal strikes, and the worlds of these very different families collide. Lila passes out at a party, drunk and half-naked. Finch snaps a picture, types out a caption and click-- sends it out to a few friends. The photo spreads quickly, and soon heated reactions bubble throughout the already-divided community. Before long, the families find themselves in the midst of an ethical war as their community takes sides, throws blame and implodes. The gray area between right and wrong grows thick, and Nina and Tom are forced to question every assumption they've held about love and family loyalty.

"Mackenzie Cooper took her eyes off the road for just a moment but the resulting collision was enough to rob her not only of her beloved daughter but ultimately of her marriage, family, and friends -- and thanks to the nonstop media coverage, even her privacy. Now she lives in Vermont under the name Maggie Reid, in a small house with her cats and dog. She's thankful for the new friends she's made -- though she can't risk telling them too much. And she takes satisfaction in working as a makeup artist at the luxurious local spa, helping clients hide the visible outward signs of their weariness, illnesses, and injuries. Covering up scars is a skill she has mastered. Her only goal is to stay under the radar and make it through her remaining probation. But she isn't the only one in this peaceful town with secrets. When a friend's teenage son is thrust into the national spotlight, accused of hacking a powerful man's Twitter account, Maggie is torn between pulling away and protecting herself -- or stepping into the glare to be at their side. As the stunning truth behind their case is slowly revealed, Maggie's own carefully constructed story begins to unravel as well. She knows all too well that what we need from each other in this difficult world is comfort. But to provide it, sometimes we need to travel far outside our comfort zones."

"A dazzling new novel of friendship and redemption in the face of tragedy and loss set in 1980s Chicago and contemporary Paris, by the acclaimed and award-winning author Rebecca Makkai In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico's funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico's little sister. Thirty years later, Fiona is in Paris tracking down her estranged daughter who disappeared into a cult. While staying with an old friend, a famous photographer who documented the Chicago crisis, she finds herself finally grappling with the devastating ways AIDS affected her life and her relationship with her daughter. The two intertwining stories take us through the heartbreak of the eighties and the chaos of the modern world, as both Yale and Fiona struggle to find goodness in the midst of disaster"--

Caught between two worlds, Caleb Stoltz is bound by a deathbed promise to raise his orphaned niece and nephew in Middle Grove, where life revolves around family, farm, faith — and long-held suspicions about outsiders. When disaster strikes, Caleb is thrust into an urban environment of high-tech medicine and the relentless rush of modern life. Dr. Reese Powell is poised to join the medical dynasty of her wealthy, successful parents. Bold, assertive, and quick-thinking, she lives for the addictive rush of saving lives. When a shocking accident brings Caleb Stoltz into her life, Reese is forced to deal with a situation that challenges everything she thinks she knows — and ultimately emboldens her to question her most powerful beliefs. Then one impulsive act brings about a clash of cultures in a tug-of-war that plays out in a courtroom, challenging the very nature of justice and reverberating through generations, straining the fragile threads of faith and family.

"In the new novel from the bestselling author of Final Girls, The Last Time I Lied follows a young woman as she returns to her childhood summer camp to uncover the truth about a tragedy that happened there fifteen years ago. Two Truths and a Lie. The girls played it all the time in their tiny cabin at Camp Nightingale. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and first-time camper Emma Davis, the youngest of the group. The games ended when Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out of the cabin in the dead of night. The last she--or anyone--saw of them was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips. Now a rising star in the New York art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings--massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches that cover ghostly shapes in white dresses. The paintings catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the socialite and wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale. When Francesca implores her to return to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor, Emma sees an opportunity to try to find out what really happened to her friends. Yet it's immediately clear that all is not right at Camp Nightingale. Already haunted by memories from fifteen years ago, Emma discovers a security camera pointed directly at her cabin, mounting mistrust from Francesca and, most disturbing of all, cryptic clues Vivian left behind about the camp's twisted origins. As she digs deeper, Emma finds herself sorting through lies from the past while facing threats from both man and nature in the present. And the closer she gets to the truth about Camp Nightingale, the more she realizes it may come at a deadly price"-- Provided by publisher.

Android Angel is planning an attack on the Polity, and is searching for a terrible weapon to carry out his plans - a Jain super-soldier. But what exactly the super-soldier is, and what it could be used for if it fell into the wrong hands, will bring Angel and Orlandine's missions to a head in a way that could forever change the balance of power in the Polity universe.

A sweeping saga about womanhood, loyalty, war, religion, family, food, motherhood, and marriage, 'The Madonna of the Mountains' is a poignant look at the span of one woman's life as the rules change and her world becomes unrecognizable.

Two young stunt flyers confront ugly truths and family secrets during the U.S. internment of Japanese citizens during World War II.

Call them outcasts, call them savages—they’ve been called worse, by their own mothers—but Jackal is proud to be a Grey Bastard. He and his fellow half-orcs patrol the barren wastes of the Lot Lands, spilling their own damned blood to keep civilized folk safe. A rabble of hard-talking, hog-riding, whore-mongering brawlers they may be, but the Bastards are Jackal’s sworn brothers, fighting at his side in a land where there’s no room for softness. And once Jackal’s in charge—as soon as he can unseat the Bastards’ tyrannical, seemingly unkillable founder—there’s a few things they’ll do different. Better. Or at least, that’s the plan. Until the fallout from a deadly showdown makes Jackal start investigating the Lot Lands for himself. Soon, he’s wondering if his feelings have blinded him to ugly truths about this world, and the Bastards’ place in it. In a quest for answers that takes him from decaying dungeons to the frontlines of an ancient feud, Jackal finds himself battling invading orcs, rampaging centaurs, and grubby human conspiracies alike—along with a host of dark magics so terrifying they’d give even the heartiest Bastard pause. Finally, Jackal must ride to confront a threat that’s lain in wait for generations, even as he wonders whether the Bastards can—or should--survive. Delivered with a generous wink to Sons of Anarchy, featuring sneaky-smart worldbuilding and gobs of fearsomely foul-mouthed charm, The Grey Bastards is a grimy, pulpy, masterpiece—and a raunchy, swaggering, cunningly clever adventure that’s like nothing you’ve read before.

On an early morning in November, a couple boards a private plane bound for Geneva, flying into a storm. Soon after, it simply drops off the radar, and its wreckage is later uncovered in the Alps. Among the disappeared is Matthew Werner, a banking insider at Swiss United, a powerful offshore bank. His young widow, Annabel, is left grappling with the secrets he left behind, including an encrypted laptop and a shady client list. As she begins a desperate search for answers, she determines that Matthew's death was no accident, and that she is now in the crosshairs of his powerful enemies. Meanwhile, ambitious society journalist Marina Tourneau has finally landed at the top. Now that she's engaged to Grant Ellis, she will stop writing about powerful families and finally be a part of one. Her entry into the upper echelons of New York's social scene is more appealing than any article could ever be, but, after the death of her mentor, she agrees to dig into one more story. While looking into Swiss United, Marina uncovers information that implicates some of the most powerful men in the financial world, including a few who are too close to home. The story could also be the answer to Annabel's heartbreaking search-- if Marina chooses to publish it.

Growing up, Nora Watts only knew one parent - her father. When he killed himself, she denied her grief and carried on with her life. Then a chance encounter with a veteran who knew him raises disturbing questions Nora can’t ignore - and dark emotions she can’t control. To make her peace with the past, she has to confront it. Finding the truth about her father’s life and his violent death takes her from Vancouver to Detroit where Sam Watts grew up, far away from his people and the place of his birth. Thanks to a disastrous government policy starting in the 1950s, thousands of Canadian native children like Sam were adopted by American families. In the Motor City, Nora discovers that the circumstances surrounding Sam’s suicide are more unsettling than she’d imagined. Yet no matter how far away Nora gets from Vancouver, she can’t shake trouble. Back in the Pacific Northwest, former police detective turned private investigator Jon Brazuca is looking into the overdose death of a billionaire’s mistress. His search uncovers a ruthless opiate ring and a startling connection to Nora, the infuriatingly distant woman he’d once tried to befriend. He has no way to warn or protect her, because she’s become a ghost, vanishing completely off the grid. Focused on the mysterious events of her father’s past and the clues they provide to her own fractured identity and that of her estranged daughter, Nora may not be able to see the danger heading her way until it’s too late. But it’s not her father’s old ties that could get her killed - it’s her own.

A couple decide to take a six-month "intermission" in their marriage to see if they still want the life they've built.

Beneath Winthrop Island's patrician surface, there are really two clans - the summer families with their steadfast ways and quiet obsessions, and the working class of Portuguese fishermen and domestic workers who earn their living on the water and in the laundries of the summer houses. After nearly two decades, Miranda Schuyler returns to the island and begins a fierce, inexorable quest for justice to the man she once loved - even if it means uncovering every last one of the secrets that bind together the families of Winthrop Island.

Widowed Texas Ranger and single dad John Ruiz hardened his heart years ago. Day after day, he tracks the roughest criminals in the Lone Star State, leaving little room for love. So when John butts heads with the beautiful nurse who's helping his young son, he's floored by how quickly the sparks fly. Ever since her mother's and brother's brutal murders, Sunny Marlowe has devoted her life to helping save others. Adorable Tonio Ruiz is just another youngster she's trying to help--or so she tells herself. Little does she know he's John's son. When her life comes under fire, can one mysterious rancher rescue her?

A rumor, a remote cabin in Norway, and an American intelligence operative charged with stopping the next world war before it begins - Scot Harvath's mission is one of the deadliest he has ever undertaken. Across Europe, a secret organization has begun attacking diplomats. Reminiscent of the Red Brigades and the Red Army Faction of the 1970s, these faceless terrorists appear to have the same goals. But in the shadowy realm of international espionage, looks are always deceptive. As a prelude to war, one of the world's most dangerous intelligence agencies has been charged with preparing the battlefield. Their job - to demoralize the enemy and win the conflict before it even begins. To do so, they will sow as much chaos, dissent, and destruction as possible. There's only one obstacle standing in their way. Dispatched to Europe, Scot Harvath and his team have been tasked with a critical assignment - to do whatever it takes to keep America and her NATO allies from being dragged into war. But with his mentor out of the game, Harvath must play an additional role; one which he has spent his entire career avoiding, and one which he believes he is ill prepared to take on. In his most important operation ever, will he be able to thread this perilous needle? Or, will it end up being the downfall of America and the West?

Seventeen-year-old Laura Bow has invented a rudimentary artificial intelligence, and named it Organon. At first it's intended to be a sounding-board for her teenage frustrations, a surrogate best friend; but as she grows older, Organon grows with her. As the world becomes a very different place, technology changes the way we live, love and die; massive corporations develop rival intelligences to Laura's, ones without safety barriers or morals; and Laura is forced to decide whether to share her creation with the world. If it falls into the wrong hands, she knows, its power could be abused. But what if Organon is the only thing that can stop humanity from hurting itself irreparably?

Cormac Reilly is the detective assigned with the re-investigation of a seemingly accidental overdose twenty years ago--the overdose of Jack and Maude's drug and alcohol addled mother. When Jack's body turns up in the river Corrib in Galway, he is under increasing pressure to charge Maude for the murder of their mother, and connect it with Jack's death, when his colleague Danny uncovers a piece of evidence that will change everything.

Wealthy young widow Frances Wynn, the American-born Countess of Harleigh, moves from the English countryside to Victorian London, where accusations that implicate her in her late husband's death cause her to begin her own investigation.

Every June, the quiet beach town of Ogunquit is overtaken by wealthy families who hire local young women like Amy Latimer and Hayley Franklin to care for their children. Best friends since childhood, Amy and Hayley are eager to secure lucrative summer jobs. Amy wants to finance her upcoming move to Boston. Hayley hopes to squirrel away enough money so that her mom can finally leave her abusive husband.... But the passing weeks bring complications and revelations, altering friendships, testing the bond between mothers and daughters, and proving that the ripples from a single season can last forever.

1399: England's crown is under threat. King Richard II holds onto his power by an ever weakening thread, with exiled Henry of Lancaster back to reclaim his place on the throne. For Elizabeth Mortimer, there is only one rightful King - her eight-year-old nephew, Edmund. Only he can guarantee her fortunes, and protect her family's rule over the precious Norther lands bordering Scotland. But many, including Elizabeth's husband, do not want another child-King. Elizabeth must hide her true ambitions in Court, and go against her husband's wishes to help build a rebel army. To question her loyalty to the King places Elizabeth in the shadow of the axe. To concede would curdle her Plantagenet blood.

"Claire wakes in a hospital room with no memory of how she got there or why. She tries to piece together her past by looking at a box of photos saved by her husband and her best friend, but she senses a mystery at the center of these fragments. Is Charlie still her husband? Is Rachel still her friend?" -- Provided by publisher.

Set in modern Shanghai, a debut by a Chinese-American writer about a prodigal son whose unexpected return forces his newly wealthy family to confront painful secrets and unfulfilled promises. After years of chasing the American dream, the Zhen family has moved back to China. Settling into a luxurious serviced apartment in Shanghai, Wei, Lina, and their daughter, Karen, join an elite community of Chinese-born, Western-educated professionals who have returned to a radically transformed city. One morning, in the eighth tower of Lanson Suites, Lina discovers that a treasured ivory bracelet has gone missing. This incident sets off a wave of unease that ripples throughout the Zhen household. Wei, a marketing strategist, bows under the guilt of not having engaged in nobler work. Meanwhile, Lina, lonely in her new life of leisure, assumes the modern moniker taitai-a housewife who does no housework at all. She is haunted by the circumstances surrounding her arranged marriage to Wei and her lingering feelings for his brother, Qiang. Sunny, the family's housekeeper, is a keen but silent observer of these tensions. An unmarried woman trying to carve a place for herself in society, she understands the power of well-kept secrets. When Qiang reappears in Shanghai after decades on the run with a local gang, the family must finally come to terms with the past and its indelible mark on their futures. From a silk-producing village in rural China, up the corporate ladder in suburban America, and back again to the post-Maoist nouveaux riches of modern Shanghai, What We Were Promised explores the question of what we owe to our country, our families, and ourselves.

1880s. Returning to Philadelphia, Violet Mitchell never expected to find her brothers living on the edge of financial ruin while their father seeks new wealth in Montana's gold fields. Morgan Callahan, exploiting a mother lode of silver, finds a woman claiming to be his late partner's daughter wanting to be taken to her father's mine. Suspecting she's a schemer trying to steal his land, he has no qualms about holding her at his camp. Determined to claim what rightfully belongs to her family, Violet summons up the courage, grit, and spunk to cope with the hazards and discomforts of an untamed land and the stranger who holds her fate in his hands.

Frances Metcalfe is struggling to stay afloat. A stay-at-home mom whose troubled son, Marcus, is her full-time job, she thought that the day he got accepted into the elite Forrester Academy would be the day she started living her life. Overweight, insecure, and lonely, she is desperate to fit into Forrester's world. But after a disturbing incident at the school leads the other children and their families to ostracize the Metcalfes, she feels more alone than ever before. Until she meets Kate Randolph. Kate is everything Frances is not: beautiful, wealthy, powerful, and confident. And for some reason, she's not interested in being friends with any of the other Forrester moms - only Frances. As the two bond over their disdain of the Forrester snobs and the fierce love they have for their sons, a startling secret threatens to tear them apart. Because one of these women is not who she seems. Her real name is Amber Kunik. And she's a murderer.

"Hawaii, 1944. The Pacific battles of World War II continue to threaten American soil, and on the home front, the bonds of friendship and the strength of love are tested. Violet Iverson and her young daughter, Ella, are piecing their lives together one year after the disappearance of her husband. As rumors swirl and questions about his loyalties surface, Violet believes Ella knows something. But Ella is stubbornly silent. Something--or someone--has scared her. And with the island overrun by troops training for a secret mission, tension and suspicion between neighbors is rising. Violet bands together with her close friends to get through the difficult days. To support themselves, they open a pie stand near the military base, offering the soldiers a little homemade comfort. Try as she might, Violet can't ignore her attraction to the brash marine who comes to her aid when the women are accused of spying. Desperate to discover the truth behind what happened to her husband, while keeping her friends and daughter safe, Violet is torn by guilt, fear and longing as she faces losing everything. Again" --Publisher description.

When Jonah and Raff wake up on Monday, their mother Lucy isn't there. Although Jonah is only nine, he is the big brother, and knows enough about the world to keep her absence a secret. If anyone found out she'd left them alone, it could be disastrous for him and Raff. With growing unease, he puzzles over the clues she's left behind. And who, in their diverse south London community, might know more about her than he does?

"With her career in tatters and her marriage receding in the rear-view mirror, ex-RCMP corporal Lacey McCrae trades her uniform for a tool belt and the Lower Mainland for the foothills west of Calgary. Amid the oil barons, hockey stars, and other high rollers living in the wilderness playground is her old university roommate, Dee Phillips. Dee's glossy life was shattered by a reckless driver. Now she's haunted by a nighttime prowler only she can hear. As snowmelt swells the Elbow River, threatening to close the only bridge back to civilization, Lacey must control her fears and find out who has reason to want Dee silenced. A missing hockey player and the strange behaviour of the neighbours throws shadows of doubt on several locals. But just when Lacey starts to put the pieces together, it seems that she may be putting a target on her own back. Someone has a secret, and they'll go to great lengths to ensure it is never revealed."-- Provided by publisher.

"In this gripping new work of suspense from the author of The Double Game, a young woman discovers a nefarious truth at the heart of the CIA's operations in postwar Berlin and goes on the run for her life; years later she's gruesomely murdered along with her husband, and her daughter begins to chase down these startling secrets from her past. West Berlin, 1979. Helen Abell oversees the CIA's network of safe houses, rare havens for field agents and case officers amidst the dangerous milieu of a city in the grips of the Cold War. Helen's world is upended when, during her routine inspection of an agency property, she overhears a meeting between two people unfamiliar to her speaking a coded language that hints at shadowy realities far beyond her comprehension. Before the day is out, she witnesses a second unauthorized encounter, one that will place her in the sight lines of the most ruthless and powerful man at the agency. Her attempts to expose the dark truths about what she has witnessed will bring about repercussions that reach across decades and continents into the present day, when, in a farm town in Maryland, a young man is arrested for the double murder of his parents, and his sister takes it upon herself to find out why he did it." -- Provided by publisher.

October 1815: There is only one place Kendra Donovan wants to travel - back to her own time period in the twenty-first century. But since that's not happening, she agrees instead to travel with her new guardian, the Duke of Aldridge, to one of his smaller estates in Lancashire. Their journey takes them through Yorkshire, a region whose breathtaking beauty masks a simmering violence brought on by the Industrial Revolution, which pits mill owner against worker. When Kendra and the Duke encounter a band of Luddites on a lonely, fog-shrouded road, the Duke informs the authorities in the nearby village of East Dingleford that mischief may have been done at the local mill. However, it isn't just mischief but murder that is discovered, when the body of the mill manager, Mr. Stone, is found brutally bludgeoned to death in his office. The Constable is certain the radical-minded Luddites committed the murder. One look at the crime scene and Kendra knows they did not, prompting the Duke to shock the locals by volunteering their services to catch the real killer. Joined by lover Alec and Bow Street Runner Sam Kelly, Kendra must sort through the puzzle of Stone's rather unsavory life, picking apart alibies and dissecting carefully created deceptions from a growing list of suspects. As a special agent for the FBI, Kendra thought she'd encountered every kind of evil. But when another, even more vicious murder rocks East Dingleford, Kendra realizes that they're dealing with a stone-cold killer - one who has a shocking secret that he will do anything to protect.

"In 1952, bootlegger Rory Docherty has returned home to the fabled mountain of his childhood, a misty wilderness that holds its secrets close and keeps the outside world at gunpoint. Slowed by a wooden leg and haunted by memories of the Korean War, Rory runs bootleg whiskey for a powerful mountain clan in a retro-fitted '40 Ford coupe ... In the mill town at the foot of the mountains--a hotbed of violence, moonshine, and the burgeoning sport of stock-car racing--Rory is bewitched by the mysterious daughter of a snake-handling preacher. His grandmother ... opposes this match for her own reasons, believing that 'some things are best left buried'"--Amazon.com.

Jane loses everything when her teenage daughter is killed in a senseless accident. Jane is devastated, but sometime later, she makes one tiny stab at a new life: she moves from San Francisco to the tiny seaside town of Half Moon Bay. She is inconsolable, and yet, as the months go by, she is able to cobble together some version of a job, of friends, of the possibility of peace. And then, children begin to disappear. And soon, Jane sees her own pain reflected in all the parents in the town. She wonders if she will be able to live through the aching loss, the fear all around her. But as the disappearances continue, she begins to see that what her neighbors are wondering is if it is Jane herself who has unleashed the horror of loss. Half Moon Bay is a chilling story about a mother haunted by her past. 

"If one more person mentions Bad Bachelors to Reed McMahon, someone's gonna get hurt. A PR whiz, Reed is known as an "image fixer" but his womanizing ways have caught up with him. What he needs is a PR miracle of his own. When Reed strolls into Darcy Greer's workplace offering to help save the struggling library, she isn't buying it. The prickly Brooklynite knows Reed is exactly the kind of guy she should avoid. But the library does need his help. But as she reluctantly works with Reed, she realizes there's more to a man than his reputation. Maybe, just maybe Bad Bachelor #1 is THE one for her"--Page 4 of cover.

In 1944, American naval officer Lt. Wyatt Paxton arrives in London to prepare for the Allied invasion of France. He works closely with Dorothy Fairfax, a "Wren" in the Women's Royal Naval Service. Dorothy pieces together reconnaissance photographs with thousands of holiday snapshots of France--including those of her own family's summer home--in order to create accurate maps of Normandy. Maps that Wyatt will turn into naval bombardment plans. As the two spend concentrated time together in the pressure cooker of war, their deepening friendship threatens to turn to love. Dorothy must resist its pull. Her bereaved father depends on her, and her heart already belongs to another man. Wyatt too has much to lose. The closer he gets to Dorothy, the more he fears his efforts to win the war will destroy everything she has ever loved

In this audacious, lightning-paced thriller, a smart-mouthed, white-collar drug dealer - a hilariously irreverent antihero - seeks revenge when an unknown enemy takes out a contract on him. Jack Price is having a bad day. What he absolutely did not need was for someone to execute his grouchy old neighbor as if she was a drug mule. Questions will be asked, and Jack is a small businessman in a competitive sector hobbled by red tape and, you know: laws. Just because the product Jack trades in is cocaine, people assume it’s all guns and murders, but that is the old cocaine business and Jack is all about the new one: high-tech, high-end and on-demand. But when Jack begins making some inquiries with a view to calming the whole thing down, someone hires the Seven Demons to kill him. You bring those people in to kill generals and presidents and take down countries, not to mess with a guy who’s just trying to get along. The thing is that the Seven Demons and their client have misunderstood the situation. Jack is not upset. In fact, he’s grateful for the clarification. Jack is the kind of guy who adapts well to new business models. He has a unique approach to executive problem solving. In fact, Jack is batshit crazy. And when you mess with Jack, there is a Price to be paid.

Life is meant to be savoured, but that's not easy with no family, limited prospects and a past you'd rather not talk about. Still, Callie Smith doesn't know how to feel when she discovers she has a brother and a sister - Malcolm, who grew up with affection, wealth and privilege, and Keira, a streetwise twelve-year-old. Callie doesn't love being alone, but at least it's safe. Despite her trepidation, she moves into the grand family home with her siblings and grandfather on the shores of Lake Washington, hoping just maybethis will be the start of a whole new life.

The 1950s vintage ocean liner Queen Isabella is making her final voyage before heading to the scrapyard. For the guests on board, among them Christine Thorne, a former journalist turned Maine farmer, it's a chance to experience the bygone mid-20th century era of decadent luxury cruising, complete with fine dining, classic highballs, string quartets, and sophisticated jazz. Smoking is allowed but not cell phones--or children, for that matter. The Isabella sets sail from Long Beach, CA into calm seas on a two-week retro cruise to Hawaii and back. But this is the second decade of an uncertain new millennium, not the sunny, heedless fifties, and certain disquieting signs of strife and malfunction above and below decks intrude on the festivities. Down in the main galley, Mick Szabo, a battle-weary Hungarian executive sous-chef, watches escalating tensions among the crew. Meanwhile, Miriam Koslow, an elderly Israeli violinist with the Sabra Quartet, becomes increasingly aware of the age-related vulnerabilities of the ship herself and the cynical corners cut by the cruise ship company, Cabaret. When a time of crisis begins, Christine, Mick, and Miriam find themselves facing the unknown together in an unexpected and startling test of their characters.

When write Eliza Fontaine is rescued from the bottom of a hotel pool just a few weeks before her first novel is going to be published, her family assumes that it's another failed suicide attempt. But Eliza swears she was pushed. The problem is she remembers little of that nights, a result of a large quantity of alcohol she consumed and a worsening struggle with memory loss due to a brain tumor. Feeling ignored and vulnerable, she takes it upon herself to find the truth. As she searches for answers, something very peculiar begins to happen: The people closest to her start to confuse the events in her novel with those in her real life. The dividing line between fact and fiction seems to be dissolving, and even Eliza is becoming uncertain about where her protagonist's story ends and her begins. She glimpses a shadowy presence hovering nearby, a mirror image of herself...but is it all in her head or is there really someone following her, studying her, wishing to do her harm? Perhaps the answers to all her questions already exist in the pages of her novel, if only she could put the pieces together in the right way. As the publication date draws closer, an increasingly fragile Eliza is left not knowing who she can trust, uncertain of her own past, and terrified that finding out the truth will lead her not to her salvation but to her undoing.

Boston rare-book dealer Peter Fallon and his girlfriend, Evangeline Carrington, are headed to California, where their search for a lost journal takes them into the history of Gold Rush. The journal follows young James Spencer, of the Sagamore Mining Company, on a spectacular journey from staid Boston, up the Sacramento River to the Mother Lode. During his search for a "lost river of gold," Spencer confronts vengeance, greed, and racism in himself and others, and builds one of California's first mercantile empires. In the present, Peter Fallon's son asks his father for help appraising the rare books in the Spencer estate and reconstructing Spencer's seven-part journal, which has been stolen from the California Historical Society. Peter and Evangeline head for modern San Francisco and quickly discover that there's something much bigger and more dangerous going on, and Peter's son is in the middle of it. Turns out, that lost river of gold may be more than a myth. Past and present intertwine as two stories of the eternal struggle for power and wealth become one.

"Outwardly, Jovan is the lifelong friend of the Chancellor's charming, irresponsible Heir. Quiet. Forgettable. In secret, he's a master of poisons and chemicals, trained to protect the Chancellor's family from treachery. When the Chancellor succumbs to an unknown poison and an army lays siege to the city, Jovan and his sister Kalina must protect the Heir and save their city-state. But treachery lurks in every corner, and the ancient spirits of the land are rising...and angry." -- Amazon.com.

When Jonathan moves back to Israel at seventeen, he is eager to join the army and defend the Jewish state that his grandfather - a Salonican Jew whose community  was wiped out by the Nazis - helped establish. But he is also conflicted about the possibility of having to monitor the occupied Palestinian Territories, a concern that only grows more urgent when he meets Nimreen and Laith, the twin daughter and son of his mother's friend. From that winter morning, the three become inseparable, wandering the streets on weekends, piling onto buses toward new discoveries. They share joints on the beach, trading snippets of poems, intimate secrets, resentments, and dreams. Forced to confront the suffering of his Palestinian friends and their families under Israeli rule, Jonathan starts to question his deeply ingrained loyalties. As he is pulled in different directions, he grapples with what it means to be just one person in a violent historical struggle with so much at stake. And then that fateful day arrives, the one that lands Jonathan in prison and changes his relationship with the twins forever.

Comic book artist Mike Mason arrives at San Diego Comic-Con, seeking sanctuary with other fans and creators - and maybe a chance to reunite with his ex - but when his romantic rival is found murdered, Mike becomes the prime suspect. To clear his name, he'll have to navigate every corner of the con, from zombie obstacle courses and cosplay flash mobs to intrusive fans and obsessive collectors, as he unravels a dark secret behind one of the industry's most legendary creators. Along the way he's sketching everything he sees and don't be surprised if these drawings include a handful of important clues. This illustrated mystery will appeal to comic book fans and anyone who appreciates an unconventional whodunit.

A simple hunting accident becomes an intricate mystery as the secrets of an isolated community are threatened.

"When seventeen-year-old Rainy comes home late one evening and finds her mother dead of a suicide, she has no reason to suspect that her death is directly tied to the fact that her father, the notorious Sam Cain, has escaped from prison and is coming for her because he is convinced that both Rainy and her mother know where the stolen money is hidden"-- Publisher description.

In March of 1603, as she helps to nurse the dying Queen Elizabeth of England, Frances Gorges dreams of her parents' country estate, where she learned to use flowers and herbs to become a much-loved healer. When King James of Scotlant succeeds to the throne Frances is only too happy to stay at home. His court may be shockingly decadent, but his intolerant Puritanism sees witchcraft in many of the old customs - punishable by death. Yet when her ambitious uncle forces Frances to return to the royal palace, having bought her a position as a lady in the bedchamber of the young Princess Elizabeth, she becomes a ready target for the twisted scheming of the Privy Seal, Lord Cecil. As a dark campaign to destroy both King and Parliament gathers pace, culminating in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, Frances is surrounded by danger, finding happiness only with the King's precocious young daughter and with Tom Wintour, the one courtier she feels she can trust. But Wintour has a secret that, when revealed, places Frances in conflict with her royal charge and in fear for her own family.

Set in a 5th century post-Roman Britain besieged by invading war bands of Saxons and Franks, Irish and Picts, Giles Kristian's epic new novel will tell - through the warrior's own words - the story of Lancelot, the most celebrated of all King Arthur's knights. And it's a story that’s ready to be re-imagined for our times. It’s a story imbued with the magic and superstition that was such an integral part of the enchanted landscape of Britain during this dark times. Many of the familiar names from Arthurian mythology will be here - Mordred and Gawain, Morgana and, of course, Merlin -as will be those vital icons of the legend such as the Round Table and the sword in the stone but these will be reinvented, reforged for a new generation of readers. -- Amazon

"Annie Marlow has been through the worst. Rocked by tragedy, she heads to the one place that makes her happy: oceanside in the Pacific Northwest, the destination of many family vacations when Annie was a teenager. Once there, Annie begins to restore her broken spirit, thanks in part to the folks she meets: a local painter, Keaton, whose large frame is equal to his big heart -- and who helps Annie fix up her rental cottage by the sea; Mellie, the reclusive, prickly landlord Annie is determined to befriend; and Britt, a teenager with a terrible secret. But it is Keaton to whom Annie feels most drawn. His quiet, peaceful nature offers her both comfort and reprieve from her grief, and the two begin to grow closer. Then events threaten to undo the idyll Annie has come to enjoy. And when the opportunity of a lifetime lands in her lap, she is torn between the excitement of a new journey toward success and the safe and secure arms of the haven -- and the man -- she’s come to call home. In this heartwarming tale, Annie finds that the surest way to fix what is damaged within is to help others rise above their pain and find a way to heal." -- Provided by publisher.

Quinn and Graham's perfect love is threatened by their imperfect marriage. The memories, mistakes, and secrets that they have built up over the years are now tearing them apart. The one thing that could save them might also be the very thing that pushes their marriage beyond the point of repair. A profound novel about a damaged couple whose potential future hinges on promises made in the past. Can a resounding love with a perfect beginning survive a lifetime between two imperfect people?

Gael Foess, daughter of a self-interested investment banker and a once-formidable orchestral conductor, and sister to a vulnerable younger brother, strives to build a life raft in the midst of economic and familial collapse. Moving by wits alone, she cuts a swathe through the leather-lined, coke-dusted social clubs of London, the New York gallery scene, and the birth-throes of the Occupy movement.

Tricia Miles, mystery bookstore owner and amateur sleuth, throws a housewarming cocktail party in her new apartment. She even cooks all the food herself, which is quite a feat for someone who previously could not boil water. But when one of her guests is fatally poisoned, Tricia is left to wonder if her cooking is to blame--or if there is something much more sinister at play. Either way, she is once again in hot water with her ex-lover Chief Baker. Meanwhile, the charming town of Stoneham is being disrupted by a vandalism crime wave. It is the hot topic in the race for chamber of commerce president, which sees Tricia pitted against two bitter rivals. With all that is going on, can Tricia find the killer before she is the next item on the menu?

aIn the Ancient World, one army was feared above all others. 401 BC. The Persian king Artaxerxes rules an empire stretching from the Aegean to northern India. As many as fifty million people are his subjects. His rule is absolute. The sons of Sparta, those whose fathers and grandfathers fell at Thermopylae and perished in the Peloponnesian Wars, work as mercenaries for Persian princes eager to play the game of thrones. When Cyrus the younger, brother to the Great King, lays claim to his father's crown, he does so with an elite army of Spartans at his side. Yet battles can be won -- or lost -- with a single blow. Princes fall. And when the dust of civil war settles, the Spartans are left stranded in the heart of an enemy's empire, without support, without food and without water. Far from home, surrounded by foes, it falls to the young soldier Xenophon to lead the survivors against Artaxerxes' legendary Persian warriors. Drawing on one of history's most epic stories of adventure, The Falcon of Sparta masterfully depicts the ferocity, heroism, and savage bloodshed that was the ancient World.

"The refugee. The dreamer. The penitent. From war-torn Syria to small-town Ireland, three men, scarred by all they have loved and lost, are searching for some version of home. Each is drawn towards a powerful reckoning, one that will bring them together in the most unexpected of ways."--

Bert and Betty Brown have got themselves a little angel. Bert found him in his top pocket when he was driving his bus. Bert and Betty's friends think he's lovely. But acting head teacher Mrs Mole is not so sure. Nor is Professor Smellie. Or the mysterious bloke in black who claims to be a School Inspector. Then there's Basher Malone-big, lumbering Basher Malone. He really doesn't like Angelino. And it looks like he's out to get him.

Mark, Todd, and Zola came to law school to change the world, to make it a better place. But now, as third-year students, these close friends realize they have been duped. They all borrowed heavily to attend a third-tier, for-profit law school so mediocre that its graduates rarely pass the bar exam, let alone get good jobs. And when they learn that their school is one of a chain owned by a shady New York hedge-fund operator who also happens to own a bank specializing in student loans, the three know they have been caught up in The Great Law School Scam. But maybe there's a way out. Maybe there's a way to escape their crushing debt, expose the bank and the scam, and make a few bucks in the process. But to do so, they would first have to quit school. And leaving law school a few short months before graduation would be completely crazy, right? Well, yes and no...