Adult

Cotton Malone is called to Sweden when the younger sister of King Wilhelm I is kidnapped. The ransom demand? Hand over an 800-year-old book, the Codex Gigas. Claimed as war loot from Bohemia in 1648, it’s been kept in Stockholm for nearly 400 years. Now the Czech Republic wants the codex back and Sweden has agreed to return it, but forces are at work to stop that deal from happening. The likely instigator? Russia. It’s up to Cotton and Cassiopeia Vitt to locate the king’s sister, secure the codex and thwart the Russians. Yet nothing is as it seems. Making matters worse, an array of conflicting personalities re-emerge from Cotton’s past, transforming an already chaotic international situation into something far more personal and deadly.

It is February, and the Scottish Highlands village of Lochdubh is dealing with heavy snow and freezing temperatures. Sergeant Hamish Macbeth can handle the weather, but with a surprise influx of high-society visitors for a Valentine's Day wedding at Tommel Castle Hotel, he has bigger problems. The guest list includes not one, but two women from his own romantic past! And Hamish isn't the only one disrupted by the arrival of the wedding party. The groom is involved in a series of incidents in the local pub. Tensions between guests and villagers escalate until, shortly after the lavish wedding ceremony, a body is found in the hotel dining room. The gruesome killing means Hamish suddenly has a murder investigation on his hands, one with a very long list of suspects.

June, 1960. Rough weather at sea leaves a group of strangers stranded on the idyllic Greek island of Utakos, all guests of the only local hotel. Nothing could prepare them for what happens next: Edith Mander, a quiet British tourist, is found dead inside a beach cabana. What appears at first glance to be a clear suicide reveals possible signs of foul play to Ormond Basil, an out-of-work but still well-known actor who in his glory days portrayed the most celebrated detective of all time. Accustomed to seeing him display Sherlock Holmes’ amazing powers of deduction on the big screen, the other guests believe that the actor is the best equipped to uncover the truth.

Catharine West’s parents built a life that was simple and community-focused. But as she grew older, the farm and family she was raised to love faded into something darker. It’s now been a decade since Catharine abandoned the farm and has done her best to reinvent her life, until an email from a journalist. Her first instinct is to ignore the stranger’s prying questions, but when she realizes the journalist knows far more, she reconsiders as she may be able to find her sister.

Vienna 1894. Augustin Rothmayer, the oddball gravedigger from Vienna’s Central Cemetery, is approached by Inspector Leopold von Herzfeldt with an unusual favor: he needs Augustin to teach him everything he knows about preserving a dead body, information vital to a new investigation. Opening an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus, employees of Vienna’s Museum of Art History have discovered the well- (and quite recently) preserved body of Alfons Strössner, famed professor of Egyptology. Some believe that the professor was the victim of an ancient curse. But neither Rothmayer nor von Herzfeldt give credence to such superstitious rumors. They are certain it was murder. The trail to unmask a killer leads them to fin-de-siecle Vienna’s unscrupulous upper class and to some eccentric and unusual places, including “mummy parties” and human zoos. 

The ritualistic murder of a British professor at the University of Exeter points to a startling cast of suspects: his own students. All evidence points to Sharyn Karr. Prior to the professor’s death, he had thrust a centuries-old book upon her. The professor begged her to keep the text safe, ending with a warning. Trust no one. Such a responsibility forces her into cooperation with Duncan Maxwell. Already, Duncan has proven himself a savant with encryptions. They discover the book’s opening words:  Herein lies the secret to my immortality. Come find me, if you dare. In an explosive chase across Europe, Sharyn must learn the true secret hidden in the text. It will send her and the others across history and deep into the heart of one of the world’s greatest mysteries, a secret buried at the roots of Western Civilization, a discovery that could topple empires and change humanity forever.

Tyler Green, convicted of murdering his friend Leo at a student house party in 1993, has been released after almost three decades in prison. He has always protested his innocence. On a warm evening in London, Tyler summons eight of his university friends who were present on that fateful night. Is it just a reunion --- or something else? With wine --- and accusations --- flowing liberally, the reunion descends into violent chaos, and one friend will end the night with their throat slit in the upstairs bedroom…the same way that Leo’s was in 1993. When Detective Inspector Maud O’Connor gets called to investigate, she has her own doubts about Tyler’s guilt, despite what his old friends, the rest of the Metropolitan Police Force, and even the Home Secretary would like her to believe.

Marla Gibbs has been a Hollywood icon for generations of fans. Now, at 93, she chronicles her climb from a difficult youth in which she yearned for safety and love, to the high-stakes world of Hollywood where she became a confident powerbroker learning to work behind the scenes for fair pay, access, and more creative control for herself and her colleagues. Told in her forthright voice, IT'S NEVER TOO LATE illuminates Gibbs' daring move to Los Angeles to rebuild her life after an abusive marriage, how she became an actor, and how she eventually learned to balance acting with show running. Though the authority she wielded behind the scenes created deep tensions on and off the set, her hard-luck young life had prepared her to succeed even as her tenacity was put to the test. Her experiences laid the groundwork for powerbrokers like Shonda Rhimes and Issa Rae.

In Michigan, Sarah’s childhood was defined by fear and silence. As a teenager, she saw a chance to escape and took it. Now, in 1999, she is an artist living on the rugged coast of Donegal, Ireland, where she is known as Saoirse --- a name that sounds like the sea and means freedom in the language of her adopted country. Her partner and two beloved daughters are regular subjects of her paintings, and together they have made the safe home she always longed for. But Saoirse's secrets haunt her. When her artwork wins unexpected acclaim at a Dublin exhibition, the spotlight of fame threatens to unravel the careful lies that hold her world together. Journalists and admirers begin to ask questions about the mysterious artist from Donegal, and she fears the unwanted publicity will expose all that she has done.

1552, Paris: The printing press is quickly spreading new ideas across Europe, threatening the power of church and state and unleashing a wave of book burning and heretic hunting. When frightened ex-nun Lysbette Angiers arrives one day at Charlotte Guillard’s printing shop with her manuscript, neither woman knows just how far the elite will go to prevent the spread of Lysbette’s audacious ideas. 1952, New York: Milly Bennett, is a seemingly ordinary housewife with a secretive past. She finds her life taking an unexpected turn as conspiracies spread amidst the paranoid clamors of McCarthy’s America. When a relic from her past presents her with a 400-year-old manuscript to decipher, she is pulled into a vortex of danger. The stakes couldn’t be higher when, 400 years apart, Milly, Lysbette and Charlotte each face a reality where the spread of ideas are feared and every effort is made to suppress them.