Adult

Twelve-year-old William Eng has lived at Seattle’s Sacred Heart Orphanage ever since his mother’s listless body was carried away from their small apartment five years ago. On his birthday --- or rather, the day the nuns designate as his birthday --- William and the other orphans are taken to the historical Moore Theatre, where William glimpses an actress on the silver screen who goes by the name of Willow Frost. Struck by her features, William is convinced that the movie star is his mother.
 

A jury found Katherine McCall not guilty of her sister’s murder. Not everyone agreed with the decision, and Kat’s only choice was to go into hiding. But she carried a dark secret with her, one that made her worry she might actually have had something to do with Sara’s death. Now, 10 years later, Kat receives a chilling anonymous letter that makes the past impossible to ignore.

While in Rome, American Jesuit priest Thomas Kelly is called upon to reclaim a centuries-old document that was stolen from the Vatican. An enigmatic letter guides him to the work of a 19th-century poet, in which Thomas discovers cryptic messages that might lead to the missing manuscript. His search is unexpectedly entwined with that of Italian art historian Livia Pietro, who tells him that destructive forces are threatening to expose the document’s contents.

Nate Piven, a rising star in Brooklyn’s literary scene, has his pick of both magazine assignments and women. In this 21st-century literary world, wit and conversation are not at all dead. Is romance? Nate thinks of himself as beyond superficial judgment, yet constantly struggles with his own status anxiety --- he is drawn to women, yet has a habit of letting them down.

Over the years, Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus have faced a number of tough challenges at home and on the job. Consumed by chasing serial killers and psychopaths, they never forgot their first priority: raising their close-knit family and sustaining the bonds of love, devotion and trust that define their marriage. But two very different cases will challenge their most heartfelt beliefs and lead them to reevaluate everything they hold dear.

The Blakes are newcomers to a small town in Normandy. Fred is really Giovanni Manzoni, an ex-goodfella turned stool pigeon who’s been relocated from New Jersey to France by the FBI’s witness protection program. He’s got a two-million-dollar bounty on his head, and when imprisoned mobster Don Mimino gets wind of their location, it’s Mafia mayhem à la Josh Bazell’s Beat the Reaper, or like The Godfather as if written by Carl Hiaasen.

Unable to control his racing thoughts, Ben is consumed by his obsessions --- especially Diana Hotchkiss, who Ben knows he can never have. When Diana is found dead outside her apartment, his infatuation drives him on a hunt to find out what happened to the love of his life. Ben soon discovers that the woman he pined for was hiding a shocking double life. And now someone is out to stop Ben from uncovering the truth about Diana's illicit affairs.

In his first Italian travelogue in a decade, Tim Parks delivers a charming and funny portrait of Italian ways by riding its trains from Verona to Milan, Rome to Palermo, and right down to the heel of Italy. Through memorable encounters with ordinary Italians, Parks captures what makes Italian life distinctive. He also explores how trains helped build Italy and how their development reflects Italians’ sense of themselves.