Adult

The suspicious drowning death of Captain Edward Eubank breaks archaeologist Faye Longchamp's heart. It also confuses her, because he was found in scuba gear and she's never heard him even mention scuba diving. During their last conversation, he told her that he believed he'd found a storied shipwreck, but when Faye checks it out, she finds nothing there. If there's no treasure, then why is her friend dead? But the situation quickly escalates beyond a murder mystery. Surrounded by a community struggling in the aftermath of a major hurricane that has changed the very landscape, Faye grapples not only with the loss of her friend, but with her fears for her daughter, who is being romanced by a man who may be very dangerous.

In this collection of four previously unpublished novellas, Joyce Carol Oates writes about women facing threats past and present. In the titular novella, an academic discovers a terrifying trauma from her past after inheriting a house from someone she has never heard of. Mia, the protagonist of “Miao Dao,” is a pubescent girl who befriends a feral cat that becomes her protector. A college sophomore realizes that she is pregnant in “Phantomwise: 1972” and allows a distinguished visiting professor to take her under his wing. Lastly, “The Surviving Child” is Stefan, whose mother, a famous poet, killed his sister and herself. Stefan’s father remarries, but his young wife is haunted by a dead poet’s voice dancing in the wind.

As a child, Natsuki doesn't fit in with her family. Her parents favor her sister, and her best friend is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut, who talks to her. He tells her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special quest to help her save the Earth. One summer, on vacation with her family and her cousin Yuu in her grandparents' ramshackle wooden house in the mountains of Nagano, Natsuki decides that she must be an alien, which would explain why she can't seem to fit in like everyone else. Later, as a grown woman, living a quiet life with her asexual husband, Natsuki is still pursued by dark shadows from her childhood, and decides to flee the "baby factory" of society for good, searching for answers about the vast and frightening mysteries of the universe.

When a lobster fisherman discovers a dead body in Scotland’s Firth of Forth, DCI Karen Pirie is called in to investigate. She quickly discovers that the case will require untangling a complicated web --- including a historic disappearance, art forgery and secret identities --- that seems to orbit around a painting copyist who can mimic anyone from Holbein to Hockney. Meanwhile, a traffic crash leads to the discovery of a skeleton in a suburban garage. Needless to say, Karen has her plate full. Meanwhile, the man responsible for the death of the love of her life is being released from prison, reopening old wounds just as she was getting back on her feet.

When Stephen and Jessica Rose settled in Nashville, they fell in love with their new city. Their only reservation: Where were the luscious peaches that Stephen remembered from his childhood in Georgia? Amid Nashville’s burgeoning food scene, the couple partnered with his hometown peach orchard to bring just-off-the-tree Georgia peaches to their adopted city. Since starting their company in 2012, Stephen and Jessica have attracted a quarter of a million followers on social media and have delivered more than 4.5 million peaches to tens of thousands of customers in 48 states. With THE PEACH TRUCK COOKBOOK, the couple brings the lusciousness of the Georgia peach and the savory and sweet charms of Southern cooking, as well as the story behind their success and an insider’s guide to the Nashville food scene, to readers everywhere.

Television producer Laurie Moran and her fiancée, Alex Buckley, the former host of her investigative television show, are just days away from their mid-summer wedding when things take a dark turn. Alex’s seven-year-old nephew, Johnny, vanishes from the beach. A search party begins, and witnesses recall Johnny playing in the water and collecting shells behind the beach shack, but no one remembers seeing him after the morning. As the sun sets, Johnny’s skim board washes up to shore, and everyone realizes that he could be anywhere, even under water.

For many long years, Atlee Pine was tormented by uncertainty after her twin sister, Mercy, was abducted at the age of six and never seen again. Now, just as Atlee is pressured to end her investigation into Mercy's disappearance, she finally gets her most promising breakthrough yet: the identity of her sister's kidnapper, Ito Vincenzo. With time running out, Atlee and her assistant, Carol Blum, race to Vincenzo's last known location --- and unknowingly stumble straight into John Puller's case, blowing his arrest during a drug ring investigation involving a military installation. Stunningly, Pine and Puller's joint investigation uncovers a connection between Vincenzo's family and a breathtaking scheme that strikes at the very heart of global democracy.

On the night he celebrates a big win, defense attorney Mickey Haller is pulled over by police, who find the body of a former client in the trunk of his Lincoln. He is immediately charged with murder but can’t post the exorbitant $5 million bail slapped on him by a vindictive judge. Haller elects to represent himself and is forced to mount his defense from his jail cell in the Twin Towers Correctional Center in downtown Los Angeles. He knows he’s been framed, whether by a new enemy or an old one. As his trusted team, including his half-brother, Harry Bosch, investigates, Haller must use all his skills in the courtroom to counter the damning evidence against him.

Alexis Carlisle and her cat café, ToeBeans, have shot to fame after she came forward as a victim of a celebrity chef’s sexual harassment. When a new customer approaches to confide in her, the last thing Alexis expects is for the woman to claim they’re sisters. Unsure what to do, Alexis turns to the only man she trusts --- her best friend, Noah Logan. Computer genius Noah left his rebellious teenage hacker past behind to become a computer security expert. Now he only uses his old skills for the right cause. But Noah has a secret: He’s madly in love with Alexis. When she asks for his help, he wonders if the timing will ever be right to confess his crush.

A lonely woodcarver longs for the companionship of a son. One day, Giuseppe --- better known as Geppetto --- carves for himself a pinewood boy, a marionette he hopes to take on tour worldwide. But when his handsome new creation comes magically to life, Geppetto screams…and the boy, Pinocchio, escapes into the night. Though he returns the next day, the wily boy torments his father, challenging his authority and making up stories --- whereupon his nose, the very nose his father carved, grows before his eyes. When the boy disappears after one last fight, the father follows a rumor to the coast and out into the sea, where he is swallowed by a great fish. He hunkers in the creature’s belly awaiting the day when he will reconcile with the son he drove away.