Adult

Murderpalooza, the premier thriller writers conference, is meant to be an exciting celebration of the genre and its preeminent writers. But when bestselling author and industry favorite Kristin Bailey is found dead in her hotel room, four rival authors --- a midlister, an egomaniac, a has-been and a newbie --- also get targeted by an anonymous social media account and wonder if they’re next. First, they find themselves bonding to try to find out who’s behind it. As the account taunts them, it slowly reveals secrets that each of them have connected to Kristin --- secrets that make them a suspect in each other’s eyes. Soon, they are turning on each other and silently accusing each as a killer. Time is running out until the awards ceremony, where the social media account has promised a big reveal.

In a little town in the south of France in the 1960s, a dazzling encounter with Love itself changes the life of infant orphan Marie-Jeanne forever. As a girl, Marie-Jeanne realizes that she can see the marks Love has left on the people around her --- tiny glowing lights on the faces and hands that shimmer more brightly when the one meant for them is near. Before long, Marie-Jeanne is playing matchmaker. As she grows up, Marie-Jeanne helps her foster father, Francis, begin a mobile library that travels throughout the many small mountain towns in the region of Nyons. She finds herself bringing soulmates together every place they go --- and there are always books that play a pivotal role in that quest. However, the only person that Marie-Jeanne can’t seem to find a soulmate for is herself.

Montserrat is a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star. Then Tristán discovers that his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives --- even if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed. Now the director wants Montserrat and Tristán to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse. But Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her, and Tristán begins seeing the ghost of his ex-girlfriend.

When Josephine arrives at the Salpêtrière asylum, she is covered in blood, badly bruised and suffering from amnesia. She is quickly diagnosed with what the Paris papers are calling “the epidemic of the age”: hysteria, a disease so baffling and widespread that Doctor Jean-Martin Charcot, the asylum’s famous director, devotes many of his popular public lectures to the malady. But as Josephine’s fame grows, her memory starts to return --- and, with it, images of a terrible crime she’s convinced she’s committed. Haunted by these visions, she starts spiraling into seeming insanity. Laure, a ward assistant, begins to plot their escape from the Salpêtrière and its doctors. First, though, she must confirm whether Josephine is truly a madwoman, doomed to die in the asylum --- or a murderer, destined for the guillotine.

Now a widow and an empty-nester, Joan Sample has become something of a recluse. But now she has gathered the courage to take some long-awaited steps: hiring someone to tame her overgrown garden, joining a grief support group, and even renting out a room to a local college student. Across town, Maggie Herbert works mornings as a barista before rushing to afternoon nursing classes. She lives with her alcoholic father and struggles to pay the household bills. Her circumstances brighten when she finds a room for rent in Joan’s home. But will Maggie’s budding attraction to one of her favorite customers ruin the harmony she’s only recently found with Joan? Meanwhile, what is Joan to make of the mysterious landscaper who’s been revitalizing her garden --- a man who seems to harbor a past loss of his own?

In the war-ravaged borderlands of Ukraine, a Russian mercenary unit has gone rogue. Its members are the most criminally violent, psychologically dangerous combatants to ever set foot upon the modern battlefield. As they move from village to village, committing horrific war crimes, they meet little resistance as all able-bodied men are off fighting the war. Simultaneously, a team of Russian soldiers has been dispatched by the Kremlin to loot truckloads of art and priceless cultural treasures hidden away in a host of churches, museums and private homes. When multiple American aid workers are killed, America’s top spy is sent in to settle the score. But in a country so vast, will Scot Harvath be able to find the men in question and, more importantly, stop them before they can kill again?

Reclusive Sally Diamond causes outrage by trying to incinerate her dead father. Now she’s the center of attention, not only from the hungry media and police detectives, but also from a sinister voice from a past she does not remember. As she begins to discover the horrors of her early childhood, Sally steps into the world for the first time, making new friends, big decisions, and learning that people don’t always mean what they say. But who is the man observing Sally from the other side of the world, and why does he call her Mary? And why does her new neighbor seem to be obsessed with her? Sally’s trust issues are about to be severely challenged.

ONLOOKERS is an astute new story collection about people living in the same Southern town whose lives intersect in surprising ways. Peaceful Charlottesville, Virginia, drew national attention when white nationalists held a rally there in 2017; the repercussions of this horrific event are still felt today. Confederate monuments such as General Robert E. Lee atop his horse were then still standing. The statues are a constant presence and a metaphoric refrain throughout this collection, though they represent different things to different characters. Some landmarks may have faded from consciousness but provoke fresh outrage when viewed through newly opened eyes.

When Sarah Taylor arrives at the exclusive St. Ambrose School, she’s carrying more baggage than just what fits in her suitcase. St. Ambrose’s queen bee, Greta Stanhope, picks Sarah as a target from day one. Thankfully, Sarah makes an ally out of her roommate, Ellen “Strots” Strotsberry, a cigarette-huffing, devil-may-care athlete. Also down the hall is Nick Hollis, the devastatingly handsome RA, and the object of more than one St. Ambrose student’s fantasies. Between Strots and Nick, Sarah hopes she can make it through the semester, dealing with not only her schoolwork and a recent bipolar diagnosis, but Greta’s increasingly malicious pranks. But when scandal unfolds, and someone ends up dead, her world threatens to unravel in ways she never could have imagined.

Julia and Sienna Larkin are sisters-in-law, connected by Julia’s husband and Sienna’s brother, Jason. More than that, the two are devoted best friends and business partners. Recently, Jason has been putting in long hours to secure a promotion at work, so when his boss is found brutally murdered --- his lips sewn shut --- the Larkins are shocked and unsettled, especially as local gossip swirls. A few days later, Julia and Sienna’s lives are upended when Jason gets into a car accident and is placed in a medically induced coma. Worse, the police arrive with news that he’s the prime suspect in the murder investigation. With Jason unable to respond --- and with Julia and Sienna working to clear his name --- the two women find their friendship threatened for the first time.