Adult

DOOMED follows Madison back to earth as a ghost, doomed to haunting her parents for a year.  In flashback we see her earlier childhood, including the death of the kitten whose dead body subsequently clogged the plumbing of the Beverly-Wilshire Hotel.  That death is not Madison's doing, but another death is.  Whether it's murder or self-defense, as a ten-year-old Madison kills someone horrifically, and that's the most-likely reason why she was damned in the first place.  We also begin to recognize a centuries-long conspiracy engineered to train and test Maddy for her role as the savior of all spiritual beings.

Nope, nothing subtle, here.

Detective Michael Bennett once managed to put charismatic and ruthless leader Manuel Perrine behind bars, the only official in the US ever to accomplish that. But now Perrine is out, and he has sworn to find and kill Bennett and everyone dear to him. He begins to embark on an escalating series of assassinations across the country, killings whose brazenness and audacity bring into question the possibility of safety and law in the US.

The time is June 1968, and America is in turmoil, engulfed in civil unrest in the midst of an unpopular war. As seen through the eyes of 21-year-old Whitney Dane, the summer with her family at Martha’s Vineyard should provide certainty and safety. By the end of that summer, the lives of Whitney and all those closest to her will change in dramatic ways.

There’s a new detective on the block, and his name is Cormoran Strike. Just when he’s down on his luck and close to broke, a case walks through the door that may make him rich and famous. Maybe a little famous anyway. The brother of a supermodel who was thought to have leapt to her death wants Strike to prove that she didn’t.

When journalist Ann Mah’s diplomat husband is given a three-year assignment in Paris, Ann is overjoyed. A lifelong foodie and Francophile, she immediately begins plotting gastronomic adventures à deux. Then her husband is called away to Iraq on a year-long post --- alone. Suddenly, Ann’s vision of a romantic sojourn in the City of Light is turned upside down. So, not unlike another diplomatic wife, Julia Child, Ann must find a life for herself in a new city.

In this sequel to THE WOLF GIFT, Reuben Golding, the newest of the Morphenkinder, is struggling with his new existence as a Man Wolf, as he learns to control his desires and bloodthirsty urges. Destiny continues to hound him as the forest echoes with howling winds carrying tales of a strange nether world, and of spirits --- centuries old --- who possess their own fantastical ancient histories and taunt with their dark, magical powers.

In Israel, a man clutching a backpack searches desperately for a boat. In Minnesota, Virgil Flowers gets a message from Lucas Davenport: You’re about to get a visitor. It’s an Israeli cop, and she’s tailing a man who’s smuggled out an extraordinary relic --- a copper scroll revealing startling details about the man known as King Solomon. As it turns out, there are very bad men chasing the relic, and they don’t care who’s in the way or what they have to do to get it.

Eighteen-year-old Ingeborg Strand feels destined to remain single --- until she meets a university student from Oslo. But tragedy strikes, and her dreams evaporate. At her mother's suggestion, she decides to leave Norway to start afresh in America. But who will accompany her? Is widower Roald --- an honest man with a young son --- the answer to her prayer?

When a horrific chairlift accident leaves 17-year-old competitive skier Lily Thomas paralyzed, she must come to grips with the fact that she not only will be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life, but will never fulfill her lifelong dream of winning Olympic gold. But just as all hope seems lost, Lily meets Teddy, a young man even more badly injured than herself, but as doggedly determined to live an enriching life.

Putting aside poetry in favor of music, and drawing on his classical bassoon training, Paul Chowder turns instead to his new acoustic guitar with one goal in mind: to learn songwriting. As he struggles to come to terms with the horror of America’s drone wars and ex-girlfriend Roz’s recent relationship with a local NPR radio host, Paul fills his days with Quaker meetings, Planet Fitness workouts, and some experiments with tobacco.