Adult

It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend. One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how. They're going to need to ask it a lot.

Year 2142: Earth is 40 years past a near-collision with the asteroid Sessho-seki. Akira Kimura, the scientist responsible for eliminating the threat, has reached heights of celebrity approaching deification. But now, Akira feels her safety is under threat, so after years without contact, she reaches out to her former head of security, who has since become a police detective. When he arrives at her deep-sea home and finds Akira methodically dismembered, this detective will risk everything --- his career, his family, even his own life --- and delve back into his shared past with Akira to find her killer.

Meet Persephone Wilder, a displaced genius posing as the wife of an American diplomat in Namibia. She suspects her husband is not actually the ambassador’s legal counsel but a secret agent in the CIA. The consummate embassy wife, she takes the newest trailing spouse, Amanda Evans, under her wing. Amanda arrives in Namibia mere weeks after giving up her Silicon Valley job so her husband, Mark, can have his family close by as he works on his Fulbright project. But once they’re settled in the sub-Saharan desert, Amanda sees clearly that Mark, who lived in Namibia two decades earlier, has other reasons for returning. The situation grows even more fraught when their daughter becomes involved in an international conflict and their own government won’t stand up for her.

In the span of 15 years, Dr. Thomas Neill Cream murdered as many as 10 people in the United States, Britain and Canada, a death toll with almost no precedent. Poison was his weapon of choice. Largely forgotten today, this villain was as brazen as the notorious Jack the Ripper. Structured around the doctor’s London murder trial in 1892, when he was finally brought to justice, THE CASE OF THE MURDEROUS DR. CREAM exposes the blind trust given to medical practitioners, as well as the flawed detection methods, bungled investigations, corrupt officials and stifling morality of Victorian society that allowed Dr. Cream to prey on vulnerable and desperate women, many of whom had turned to him for medical help.

In weekly phone calls to his daughter in Australia, widower Hubert Bird paints a picture of the perfect retirement. But it's a lie. In reality, Hubert's days are all the same, dragging on without him seeing a single soul. Until he learns that his daughter is coming for a visit. Now Hubert faces a seemingly impossible task: to make his real life resemble his fake life before the truth comes out. Along the way, Hubert stumbles across a second chance at love, renews a cherished friendship, and finds himself roped into an audacious community scheme that seeks to end loneliness once and for all. Life is certainly beginning to happen to Hubert Bird. But with the origin of his earlier isolation always lurking in the shadows, will he ever get to live the life he's pretended to have for so long?

Escaping New York City and the espionage case that made her question everything, recently widowed FBI Agent Lina Connerly returns home to sell the house she has inherited in tony Greenfield, California. Adrift and battling insomnia, she discovers that her father's sleepy hometown has been transformed into a Silicon Valley suburb on steroids, obsessed with an annual exam called The Wonder Test. When students at her son's high school go missing, reappearing under mysterious circumstances on abandoned beaches, Lina must summon her strength and her investigative instincts, pushing her own ethical boundaries to the limits in order to solve the crimes. Meanwhile, an old espionage case called Red Vine keeps calling her back into the fold.

On screen, Danny Trejo the actor is a baddie who has been killed at least a hundred times. Off screen, he’s a hero beloved by recovery communities and obsessed fans alike. But the real Danny Trejo is much more complicated than the legend. Raised in an abusive home, Danny struggled with heroin addiction and stints in some of the country’s most notorious state prisons from an early age before starring in such modern classics as Heat, From Dusk till Dawn and Machete. Now, in this funny, painful and suspenseful memoir, Danny takes us through the incredible ups and downs of his life, including meeting one of the world’s most notorious serial killers in prison and working with legends like Charles Bronson and Robert De Niro.

While her friends wish for meet-cutes worthy of their favorite rom-coms, Julia is ready to give up on love. A writer for a popular website, love becomes the last thing on her mind when impending layoffs threaten her job. As Julia searches for the ultimate pitch to impress her boss, she stumbles upon a resort offering guests a chance to live out their romantic comedy dreams. She literally falls into a not-quite-meet-cute involving an aggressive seagull and an adorably awkward guy named Luke, who is also participating in the rom-com experience. Julia hides the fact that she is there to do a story, but Luke harbors a few secrets of his own. Their feelings deepen quickly. But could their love be real when they haven't been honest about their true identities?

Joan Lurie has written a seething article exposing a notorious newspaper tycoon as a sexual predator. But after getting brutally attacked on the night it goes live, she moves into a highly secure apartment in Manhattan called the Refuge. Joan should be safe here, so how can she explain the cryptic incidents that are happening? Lillian Day is Joan’s new 96-year-old neighbor at the Refuge. In 1941, Lillian witnessed a murder that sent her into hiding, and she hasn’t come out since. Melissa Osgood has burning questions about her husband’s recent death. When she discovers a suspicious paper trail that he left behind, she realizes how little she knew about her marriage. As their lives intersect, each woman must stay one step ahead of those who are desperate to make sure the truth is never uncovered.

When people begin disappearing from the island, Nantucket Police Chief Henry Kennis is baffled. The victims are not random --- they're all Nantucket High School alumni. And the only clues left behind are pennies dropped at the sites of the kidnappings. Has someone come back to the island with a sinister grudge to settle? Sippy Bascomb and Doug Fraker were childhood best friends --- bonded as fellow victims of bullying at the hands of their classmates. The two men hadn't seen each other in years, but when Sippy comes across Doug's blog airing grievances from the past, the two reconnect and hatch a plan to return to the island. Both seek revenge, but Doug wants their tormentors to face a tribunal and appoints himself judge, jury and executioner.