Adult

The MacBrides lead a cozy life of upper class privilege, including tuition-free education at the prestigious private school where Rowan is headmaster, an altruistic righteousness inherited from magistrate Lydia. But when Rowan and his three children gather for the first time since Lydia’s passing at the family’s weekend home, years of secrets surface, and they discover in their midst a stranger who is convinced that Lydia was a murderer.

One night, Alice Alessio --- also known as Nurse Spandex --- is given the surprise of her life. Coming back from a secret tryst with a doctor, she peeks in to check on the newborn baby she was supposed to be watching, and finds a huge, writhing red-and-yellow snake in the bassinet instead. So begins the series of strange and disturbing events that start to plague a sleepy little community and confound the police.

When Dad Lewis is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he and his wife, Mary, must work together to make his final days as comfortable as possible. Their daughter, Lorraine, hastens back from Denver to help look after him. Her devotion softens the bitter absence of their estranged son, Frank, but this cannot be willed away and remains a palpable presence for all three of them.

A Kuskulana man is accused of murdering a young Kushtaka ne'er-do-well. But when the suspect disappears, members of both tribes refuse to speak to Sergeant Jim Chopin. When a second murder that looks suspiciously like payback occurs, Jim has no choice but to call in Kate Shugak for help. This time, though, her Park relationships may not be enough to sort out the truth hidden in the tales of tragedy and revenge.

Dick Henry --- aka the Shortcut Man --- becomes involved in a case featuring aging movie mogul Howard Hogue, who keeps a stable of young starlets available for his highly ritualized attentions. After Hogue’s star director assaults one of these women in a drug-fueled romp, Henry is drawn into a deeper mystery from years past involving a mysterious death on a boat and a missing screenplay written by what appears to be a homeless man.

Top plastic surgeon Elijah Creem is renowned for his skills in the operating room, as well as for his wild "industry parties." After Detective Alex Cross busts one of Creem's lavish soirees, three beautiful women are brutally murdered. While Alex is feeling the pressure to solve these cases, someone else is investigating him --- someone so obsessed and so twisted that they'll do anything to get the vengeance they require.

Judge Daniel Brennan is only days away from achieving a seat on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals bench when he’s brutally stabbed to death. When one tip leads New Jersey policeman Luke Somers to Steven Gallagher, Luke is instantly glorified for solving the case. Chris Gallagher raised his brother almost single-handedly; certain that Steven is innocent, he won’t rest until he sets the record straight.

In 1924, George Mallory departs on his third expedition to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Left behind in Cambridge, George’s young wife, Ruth, along with the rest of a war-ravaged England, anticipates news they hope will reclaim some of the empire’s faded glory. Through alternating narratives, what emerges is a story of love torn apart by obsession and the need for redemption.

By the time Amy B. Scher was 28 years old, she had lived through almost a decade of misdiagnoses, excruciating pain, brain lesions, bone marrow biopsies, blood transfusions and multiple hospital stays to treat her late-stage, chronic Lyme disease. When the best physicians in America labeled her condition incurable and potentially terminal, it was up to Amy to blaze her own path forward. Then, in a stroke of serendipity, she heard about an experimental treatment only available in India --- human embryonic stem cell therapy --- which had as much probability of killing her as it did of curing her. She boarded a plane with no idea of what awaited her: culture shock, radical medical treatment and, most surprising of all, life-affirming love.

In this tale revolving around not just parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Khaled Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most.