Adult

Magic is seeping out of the world, leaving the witches who have relied on it for countless centuries increasingly hopeless. Young Alice Marin is using magic’s waning days to delve into the mystery of numerous disappearances in the occult circles of New Orleans. Alice disappeared once, too --- caged in an asylum by blood relatives. Recently freed, she fears her family may be more involved with the growing crisis than she ever dared imagine. Yet the more she seeks the truth about her family’s troubled history, the more she realizes her already-fragile psyche may be at risk.

Agatha Christie burst onto the literary scene in 1920, with THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES; her last novel was published in 1976, a career longer than even Arthur Conan Doyle’s 40-year span. The truth is that it was due to the success of writers like Anna Katherine Green in America; L. T. Meade, C. L. Pirkis, the Baroness Orczy and Elizabeth Corbett in England; and Mary Fortune in Australia that the doors were finally opened for female crime writers. So, while Agatha Christie may still reign supreme, it is important to remember that she did not ascend that throne except on the shoulders of the women who came before her --- and inspired her --- and who are now removed from her shadow once and for all.

Officially, Thomas Laker is an employee of the NSA. His real employer, known as the Gray Outfit, is not listed --- anywhere. When a Washington, D.C., insider is killed in a bomb explosion, Laker teams up with cryptographer Ava North on a desperate search for clues. The only thing certain is that another act of terrorism is imminent. Delving into the dangerous past when America was drawn into global conflict, they discover one of history’s greatest --- and deadliest --- secrets. In the wrong hands it can unleash unimaginable destruction. Now, to keep his homeland from plunging into its darkest hour, Laker will have to defend everything he believes in.

Laura has it all. A successful career, a long marriage to a rich husband, and a 23-year-old son, Daniel, who is kind, handsome and talented. Then Daniel meets Cherry. Cherry is young, beautiful and smart but hasn’t led Laura’s golden life. And she wants it. When tragedy strikes, a decision is made and a lie is told. A lie so terrible it changes their lives forever.

Maggie is entirely devoted to her husband Thomas, their two beautiful children, and to God --- until what begins as a platonic intellectual and spiritual exchange between writer Maggie and poet James transforms into an erotically charged bond that challenges Maggie’s sense of loyalty and morality, drawing her deeper into the darkness of desire.

Following a traumatic incident in London, journalist Jennifer Dorey has returned home to Guernsey, taking a job as a local newspaper reporter. When she finds a drowned woman on a beach, Jennifer uncovers something much bigger and more sinister than she first thought. Jennifer enlists the help of DCI Michael Gilbert, an officer on the verge of retirement, to investigate a pattern of similar deaths over the last 50 years. They follow a dark trail of island myths and folklore to the illegitimate son of a Nazi soldier, whose painstakingly executed work has gone undetected so far. But as Jennifer gets closer to the truth of the killer’s identity, she finds herself stepping deeper into his grasp.

June is in transition, reeling from her divorce and trying to stay sober. She returns to the Oregon coast where she grew up, and must decide what to do with her late and much-loved grandparents’ charming cedar-shingled home, a place haunted by memories of her childhood. Jameson comes highly recommended to renovate the old house to sell, and from their first contact, he senses a connection with June. He too is unmoored as he struggles to redefine his marriage in the aftermath of loss. But what can the future hold as long as they are gripped so firmly by the past?

LBJ's towering political skills and his ambitious slate of liberal legislation are the stuff of legend: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start and environmental reform. But what happened after the bills passed? One man could not and did not go it alone. Joshua Zeitz reanimates the creative and contentious atmosphere inside Johnson's White House as a talented and energetic group of advisers made LBJ's vision a reality. Bill Moyers, Jack Valenti, Joe Califano, Harry McPherson and the other staff members who comprised LBJ's inner circle were men as pragmatic and ambitious as Johnson, equally skilled in the art of accumulating power or throwing a sharp elbow.

A threat is called into the LAPD Bomb Squad, and when tragedy ensues, the fragmented unit turns to Dick Stahl, a former Bomb Squad commander who now operates his own private security company. Just returned from a tough job in Mexico, Stahl is at first reluctant to accept the offer, but his sense of duty to the technicians he trained is too strong to turn it down. On his first day back at the head of the squad, Stahl’s three-person team is dispatched to a suspected car bomb. And it quickly becomes clear to him that they are dealing with an unusual mastermind --- one whose intended target seems to be the Bomb Squad itself.

Rancher George Cullen doesn’t like the Santa Fe Railroad’s plan to drive a spur through his town. He intends to put up a fight --- even though everyone else in Trinidad, New Mexico, including his own daughter, stands on the side of the railroad. Sheriff Caleb York rides out to the Bar-O to reason with his old friend. But Cullen’s ex-partner, Burt O’Malley, is back in town after a 20-year stint in the pen. And hired gun Alver Hollis, aka the Preacherman, has shown up with two cronies, claiming they’re in town for a big poker game. With the whole town on the verge of a shootout, Caleb keeps a firm grip on his Colt .44. Soon enough, he’ll take dead aim to keep the peace.