Adult

Although the hunting season is coming to a close, the foxes seem determined to put the members of the Jefferson Hunt Club through their paces. “Sister” Jane Arnold and her friends are enjoying some of the best chases they’ve had all season when the fun is cut short by the theft of Crawford Howard’s treasured Sir Alfred Munnings painting of a woman in hunting attire riding sidesaddle. When another painting goes missing five days later, Sister Jane knows it’s no coincidence. Someone is stealing paintings of foxhunters from foxhunters. But why? Then Delores Buckingham, once a formidable foxhunter, is strangled to death after her own Munnings sidesaddle painting is stolen. Now Sister is not just up against a thief --- she’s on the hunt for a killer.

Mariana Enriquez has been critically lauded for her unconventional and sociopolitical stories of the macabre. Populated by unruly teenagers, crooked witches, homeless ghosts and hungry women, they walk the uneasy line between urban realism and horror. The stories in her new collection are as terrifying as they are socially conscious, and press into being the unspoken --- fetish, illness, the female body, the darkness of human history --- with bracing urgency. A woman is sexually obsessed with the human heart; a lost, rotting baby crawls out of a backyard and into a bedroom; a pair of teenage girls can’t let go of their idol; an entire neighborhood is cursed to death when it fails to respond correctly to a moral dilemma.

On a spring morning in London’s Strand, the Speaker of the House of Commons is nearly killed by a van. It’s an absurd near-death experience, but the government is more interested in investigating the Speaker’s state of mind just prior to his accident. The task is given to the Peculiar Crimes Unit --- the only problem being that the unit no longer exists. Against impossible odds, the team is reassembled, and once again what should be a simple case becomes a lunatic farrago involving arson, suicide, magicians, academics, and a race to catch a killer with a master plan involving London churches. Joining their team this time is Sidney, a young woman with no previous experience, plenty of attitude --- and a surprising secret.

Meredith White was one of Hollywood’s most recognizable faces. But a personal tragedy cut her acting career short and alienated her from her family. For the last 15 years, Meredith has been living alone in San Francisco with two trusted caretakers. Then, on a muggy late summer day, a massive earthquake strikes Northern California. Without a moment’s hesitation, Meredith invites her stunned and shaken neighbors into her mostly undamaged home as the recovery begins. Without the walls and privacy of their own homes, one by one, new relationships are forged. In the heart of the crisis, Meredith finds herself venturing back into the world --- and suddenly sees her isolation, her estranged family and even her acting career in a whole new light.

Decimated by plague, the human population is now a minority. Robots --- complex AIs almost indistinguishable from humans --- are the ruling majority. Nine months ago, in a controversial move, the robot government opened a series of preserves, designated areas where humans can choose to live without robot interference. Now the preserves face their first challenge: someone has been murdered. Chief of Police Jesse Laughton on the SoCar Preserve is assigned to the case. As he digs for information, robots in the outside world start turning up dead from bad drug-like programs that may have originated on SoCar land. And when Laughton learns that his murder victim was a hacker who wrote drug-programs, it appears that the two cases might be linked.

After a disastrous blind date, Darcy Lowell is desperate to stop her well-meaning brother from playing matchmaker ever again. So she fibs and says her latest set up was a success. Elle Jones, an astrologer, dreams of finding her soul mate but knows it is not Darcy, who is way too analytical, punctual and skeptical for someone as free-spirited as herself. When Darcy’s brother --- and Elle's new business partner --- expresses how happy he is that they hit it off, Elle is baffled. Darcy begs Elle to play along, and she agrees to pretend they’re dating. But Darcy must help Elle navigate her own overbearing family during the holidays, and their arrangement expires on New Year’s Eve. The last thing they expect is to develop real feelings during a faux relationship.

While on a trip to Dublin to visit her parents, solicitor Benedicta “Ben” O'Keeffe runs into Luke Kirby --- the man who killed her sister --- freshly released from jail. On the surface he appears remorseful, conciliatory even, but his comment as she walks away makes her realize he is as evil as ever. Back in Glendara, she finds chaos. The Oak pub has burned down, and Carole Kearney, the Oak's barmaid, has gone missing. And then, while walking the dog up Sliabh Sneacht, Ben and her partner, Sergeant Tom Molloy, make a gruesome discovery: a body lying face down in the snow. Who could be behind this vicious attack on Glendara and its residents? And why disturb such a charming town at Christmas?

From Ancient Rome through 21st-century America, Denise Kiernan brings us a biography of an idea: gratitude, as a compelling human instinct and a global concept, more than just a mere holiday. Spanning centuries, WE GATHER TOGETHER is anchored amid the strife of the Civil War, and driven by the fascinating story of Sarah Josepha Hale, a widowed mother with no formal schooling who became one of the 19th century’s most influential tastemakers and who campaigned for decades to make real an annual day of thanks.

With THE OFFICE OF HISTORICAL CORRECTIONS, Danielle Evans zooms in on particular moments and relationships in her characters’ lives in a way that allows them to speak to larger issues of race, culture and history. She introduces us to Black and multiracial characters who are experiencing the universal confusions of lust and love, and getting walloped by grief --- all while exploring how history haunts us, personally and collectively. Ultimately, she provokes us to think about the truths of American history --- about who gets to tell them, and the cost of setting the record straight.

Two months a widow, Mallory Dent has made the impulsive decision to pack up and move on. In remote McNamara, nestled in the northern mountains, she can escape her grief, guilt and pain. But the day Mallory arrives, death follows her. A woman’s body is found floating in Loss Lake --- and it’s not the first death on these shores. Locals talk about a monster in the depths with an almost disturbing reverence. Sergeant Joel Benson understands Mallory’s unease. Years ago, his own brother was killed in the home Mallory now owns. But that was just a tragic accident. Wasn’t it? The more Mallory investigates, the more fearful she becomes. Maybe there are monsters in McNamara. Maybe some have followed her there.