Adult

When Fliss, the daughter of the Fitzmaurice clan, is found deadi, what seems like a tragic accident stirs more suspicion than closure for those who’ve traded favors with her family. There is Ben, Fliss’ brother. And Martin, Ben’s best friend, who is happy to re-enter the Fitzmaurice orbit. He can’t help but notice that Ben’s wife, Serena, seems to have discovered in middle age that her privileged existence is more like a gilded cage. Or that Ben and Serena’s daughter Cosima, has become an environmental activist fighting against everything her parents seem to stand for. Where does Richard Take, Ben's disgraced colleague, determined to make his big comeback, fit in? And circling them all is Andrew Jarvis and his money --- has he been their loyal hero or the one who has thrown his weight around just to keep them all in check?

Caleb was driving home for Christmas. Steven was pounding beers at a local bar. Matthew was out looking for his ex-girlfriend. Leo was walking in the woods on a winter night. Then they disappeared. Years later, their bodies turn up in icy rivers hundreds of miles apart. What connects them? Some of their loved ones believe the official answers. Meanwhile, Caleb, Steven, Matthew and Leo find one other in the murky depths of the afterlife. Each tells his story in his own way, speaking his version of truth, confessing his desires and grievances and even his hopes for a future he still somehow believes belongs to him. Each revelation brings the reader deeper into their intertwined fates, along a journey through the landscapes of identity, intimacy and the haunting echoes of unresolved grief.

Twelve-year-old Zach's father Bram, whose business is in dire need of cash, has put together a father-son backcountry ski weekend to wine and dine his biggest investors. Schooled in outdoor survival by his mother, Zach is eager to prove himself to the hypercritical Bram. But Zach knows to be on high alert around Bram and he sees the way the group ignores the increasingly threatening conditions. As the adults recklessly test the limits of the outdoors, Zach worries he might be in even more danger than he realized. Could the men around him prove more violent than the unforgiving weather and the strange creature lurking in the dark? Zach will have to rely on his wits if he hopes to make it home safely. But he knows all too well that the wilderness can be unpredictable even at the best of times. And at the worst? Deadly.

Read alone, each story in Lauren Groff’s electric collection is an individual triumph, bold, agile and packed with power. Read together, they hum in exhilarating resonance. These nine stories reflect and expand upon a shared theme: the ceaseless battle between humans’ dark and light angels. Among those we see caught in this match are a young woman suddenly responsible for her disabled sibling, a hot-tempered high school swimmer in need of an adult, a mother blinded by the loss of her family and a banking scion endowed with a different kind of inheritance. Motivated by love, impeded by the double edges of other peoples’ good intentions, they try to do the right thing for as long as they can. 

Marybeth Pickett gets the call she has always dreaded: her husband Joe is in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head. Joe was found in his pickup at Antler Creek Junction, a crossroads connecting three ranches. Each road leading to a dangerous family. Each family with a different bone to pick with the local game warden. Marybeth and the new sheriff assume that Joe was ambushed by one of the families, but they have no idea which one since Joe didn’t say where he was going or why. With Joe unconscious and fighting for his life with Marybeth at his side, Sheridan, April and Lucy split up and investigate each of families to uncover the truth of what happened to their father, before it’s too late.

Fresh off an acquittal, Ramsey Devlin doesn’t think the law applies to him. This becomes apparent when Jesse finds him passed out, drunk and on the side of the road. After Devlin takes a swing at him and Jesse swiftly dumps him in the drunk tank, Jesse realizes he’s made an enemy. Devlin makes it his life’s mission to use his money and influence to provoke Jesse. Jesse has every reason to want Devlin out of his town. But when he vanishes and bloodstains are found on the carpet of his monstrous seaside mansion, Jesse finds himself the main suspect in Devlin’s disappearance. Suspended from his position as chief, Jesse must solve the case and prove his own innocence.

When private investigator Shyla Sinclair is invited to the looming mansion of eccentric billionaire Saxton Braith, she’s more than a little suspicious. The last thing she expects to see that night is Braith’s assistant driving an iron rod straight through the back of his skull. Scratch that --- the last thing she expects to see is Braith’s resurrection afterward. Braith can’t die, it turns out, but he has no explanation for his immortality and very few intact memories of his past. Which is why he wants to pay Shyla millions to investigate him and bring his long-buried history to light. Shyla can’t help but be intrigued, but she’s also trapped by the offer. Braith has made it clear that he knows she’s the only person he can trust with his secret, because he knows all about hers.

Deepa and Ruchi are 12 years old when they meet at their Catholic school in India, but their connection is swift and lasting. When, in their 20s, Deepa marries a doctor and moves from India to the suburbs of Connecticut, Ruchi quickly finds an engineer bound for the same state and follows her friend across the world. But life in the United States is different than either woman expects. Deepa's daughter seeks affection Deepa refuses to give, and Ruchi's son resists her smothering care. At the same time, Deepa and Ruchi find their closeness tested by a growing class disparity, competing family needs and the differences in their desires. Ultimately, when Ruchi discovers a dangerous secret about Deepa's husband's wealth, both women are forced to weigh the tangled bonds of their friendship with their lives, and their families', in the burgeoning Indian American community.

Hakara risked her life to find her long-lost sister, Rasha, only to lose her all over again. Now she and her Unanointed rebels hunt for the shapeshifter Lithuas, knowing that defeating her would strike a blow to the plans of the tyrant god Kluehnn. Rasha once longed to be reunited with Hakara. No longer. Now she is a Godkiller and proud to serve Kluehnn’s divine will. Yet she also harbors doubts about Kluehnn’s teachings. When she is sent to destroy Hakara and her allies, Rasha will have to decide where her loyalty truly lies. As the two sisters hurtle towards a bloody reunion, Sheuan continues her shadowy games of intrigue to uncover the secret that killed her father, while her cousin, Mullayne, seeks the tomb of Tolemne. There, Mull believes he’ll find the answers he desires.

Maya, an artist, and Noah, a quantum physicist, share an insatiable curiosity about the world. But their happy marriage has a shadow over it: Serena, the child Noah had with his first wife, who died before she turned four. When Noah is invited by the Janus Project to unravel the secrets of time travel, he jumps at the opportunity. At a laboratory deep in the Texas desert, he begins participating in a dangerous experiment that could result in something he thought impossible: seeing his daughter again. Meanwhile, Maya embarks on a journey back to her own past in Japan, and to a formative lover who once shattered her heart. As Noah and Maya grapple with hope and despair, new information emerges that the experiments might not be exactly what they seem.