Adult

New York Times bestselling writer Pat Conroy (1945–2016) inspired a worldwide legion of devoted fans numbering in the millions, but none are more loyal to him and more committed to sustaining his literary legacy than the many writers he nurtured over the course of his 50-year writing life. In sharing their stories of Conroy, his fellow writers honor his memory and advance our shared understanding of his lasting impact on 20th- and 21st-century literary life in and well beyond the American South.

Becca, newly single and newly unemployed, wants to believe she has psychic powers. With nothing but time, and a desire for empowerment, she’s studying to become a witch. What she doesn’t know is that her three cats --- Harriet, Laurel and Clara --- are the ones with the real power. And when Harriet --- “a cream-colored longhair with more fur than commonsense” --- conjures a pillow for her own comfort, Becca believes her spells are finally working. Could that be why Trent, the coven’s devilishly handsome leader, has been showing her special attention? Or why Suzanne, a longtime coven member, draws her aside to share a secret --- a confidence that may lead to murder?

Balancing the responsibilities of a new house and the joys of a new romance, Dr. Katie LeClair is finally ready to start enjoying life. But danger arrives just as the town of Baxter, Michigan, is gearing up for its annual Halloween festival --- and once again, this doctor-turned-sleuth will have to unmask a killer in their midst. Trouble comes in threes this Halloween. Katie sees a new patient who has just been released from prison for a murder he says he didn’t commit. Inexplicably, the patient suddenly goes missing. And matters take an even more sinister turn when a college student who had been investigating Katie’s old murder case is found dead in the woods near Baxter.

The golden age of cinema is dawning, and Santa Fe is in the grip of movie fever when director Luther Bishop arrives for the filming of his new cowboy flick. Maddie Vaughn-Alwin’s cousin, Gwen Astor, is in town with a bit part in the movie --- but Gwen finds herself caught in a whirlwind of mischief before shooting even begins. However, the plot only thickens when the detestable director is found hanging in his office. When it comes to light that Gwen was having a torrid affair with Luther, she gets pegged as the prime suspect, much to Maddie’s dismay. But Maddie knows that Luther had his fair share of enemies, and there’s no shortage of contenders.

Sir Robert Carey has just foiled a double plot against King James. He rides for Leith hunting the would-be assassin now identified as Joachim Hochstetter, also known as Jonathan Hepburn. Has he taken ship for the Continent, or ridden nearly 130 miles south and west into England? There at Keswick, his family, originally from Augsburg, runs a mining operation that pays a royalty to Queen Elizabeth in gold. It's ruled by the widow Radagunda Hochstetter, his mother. Sir Robert's other problem? His dour, difficult and now treasonous henchman, Sergeant Henry Dodd, has disappeared somewhere on the snowy moors. Why can't anyone find Dodd's body?

Flamboyant actor Leo Pierson's Art Nouveau treasures have been stolen, including a one-of-a-kind Lalique glass dragonfly he claims is cursed. David Randall, 302 Grace Street's private eye, agrees to recover the valuables before he realizes that murder has raised its ugly head in the Parkland art community. Samuel Gallant of the museum board is missing, until Randall and his landlord/consultant Camden find Gallant's body stuffed in a museum closet. When another board member suffers a fatal accident and the art critic for the Parkland Herald is attacked, Randall suspects that the stolen dragonfly is indeed cursed.

After accidentally sinking a barge painted like the Yellow Submarine, detectives Arthur Bryant and John May are relegated to babysitting Monty Hatton-Jones, the star prosecution witness in the trial of a disreputable developer whose prefabs are prone to collapse. The job for the demoted detectives? Keep the whistle-blower safe for one weekend. The task proves unexpectedly challenging when their unruly charge insists on attending a party at the vast estate Tavistock Hall. With falling stone gryphons, secret passageways, rumors of a mythical beast, and an all-too-real dismembered corpse, the bedeviled policemen soon find themselves with “a proper country house murder” on their hands.

Alexandra Southwood is missing. Held in a room against her will, she’s forced to imagine how her husband, Marc, and her two daughters are coping in the wake of her disappearance. She’s shown news clips of Marc standing in front of the cameras desperately appealing to the public for information on her whereabouts. In her solitude, she tortures herself with visions of her family’s devastated new reality. Marc’s pain is visceral. He thinks of nothing but his wife. When the police discover Alexandra’s bloody belongings by the river, turning their missing persons case into a murder investigation, he cannot accept that she is lost to him. He embarks on his own journey, through the dark maze of the art world that so gripped his wife, following a trail that leads him to find answers to questions he never wanted to ask.

Claire and Matt are no longer together but decide that it would be best for their daughter, Scarlett, to have a “normal” family Christmas. They can’t agree on whose idea it was to go to the Happy Forest holiday park, or who said they should bring their new partners. But someone did, and it’s too late to pull the plug. Claire brings her new boyfriend, Patrick, a seemingly sensible, eligible from a distance Ironman in Waiting. Matt brings the new love of his life, Alex, who’s funny, smart and extremely patient. They all drink a little too much after Scarlett’s bedtime, overshare classified secrets about their pasts…and before you know it, their holiday is a powder keg that ends where this novel begins --- with a tearful, frightened call to the police.

A woman is found murdered in her new apartment in the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo. Living a quiet life, with nothing remarkable in her past and no known enemies, this newcomer’s murder is as baffling as it is unlikely. Detective Kyochiro Kaga of the Tokyo Police Department is also a newcomer to the area. Assigned to the task force investigating the murder, Kaga interviews the various local people somehow connected to the victim. But the more he pulls on the loose threads of a simple life, the greater the number of potential suspects emerge. To prevent the murderer from eluding justice, Kaga must unravel all the secrets of the local residents, finding out the truth behind their interactions with the victim. Buried somewhere in the woman’s seemingly uncomplicated life is the one clue that will lead to the murderer.