Adult

As a staff writer at a prestigious tech publication, our 24-year-old narrator reports on the achievements of smug Silicon Valley billionaires and start-up bros, while her own request for a raise gets bumped from manager to manager. And when her longtime boyfriend, J, decides to move to a quiet upstate New York town for grad school, she sees an excuse to cut and run. Moving is supposed to be a grand gesture of her commitment to J and a way to reshape her sense of self. But in the process, she finds herself facing misgivings about her role in an interracial relationship. Captivated by the stories of her ancestors and other Asian Americans in history, she must confront a question at the core of her identity: What does it mean to exist in a society that does not notice or understand you?

In the frozen tundra of Greenland, a group of modern-day researchers stumble on a shocking find: a medieval ship buried a half-mile below the ice. Inside the captain’s cabin is a clockwork gold map embedded with an intricate silver astrolabe. Once activated, the moving map traces the path of Odysseus’ famous ship as it sailed away from Troy. But the route detours as the map opens to reveal a fiery river leading to a hidden realm underneath the Mediterranean Sea. It is the subterranean world of Tartarus, the Greek name for Hell. When word of Tartarus spreads, the phantasmagoric horrors found in Homer’s tales are all too real --- and whoever possesses them can use their awesome power to control the future of humanity. Now, Sigma Force must prevent a tyrant from igniting a global war and cross the very gates of Hell.

In the town of Night Vale, there’s a faceless old woman who secretly lives in everyone’s home, but no one knows how she got there or where she came from...until now. Told in a series of eerie flashbacks, the story of The Faceless Old Woman goes back centuries to reveal an initially blissful and then tragic childhood in the early 19th century, her rise in the criminal underworld of Europe, a nautical adventure with a mysterious organization of smugglers, her plot for revenge on the ones who betrayed her, and ultimately her death and its aftermath, as her spirit travels the world for decades until settling in modern-day Night Vale. Interspersed throughout is a present-day story in Night Vale, as The Faceless Old Woman guides, haunts and sabotages a man named Craig.

The Olander family embodies the modern American Dream in a globalized world. Jaya, the cultured daughter of an Indian diplomat, and Keith, an ambitious banker, meet in a London pub in 1988 and make a life together in suburban California. Their strong marriage is built on shared beliefs and love for their two children: headstrong teenager Karina and young son Prem. But love and prosperity cannot protect them from sudden, unspeakable tragedy, and the family’s foundation cracks as each member struggles to seek a way forward. When Karina heads off to college for a fresh start, her search for identity and belonging leads her down a dark path, forcing her and her family to reckon with the past, the secrets they’ve held and the weight of their choices.

Sophie Chesterton is London’s “It Girl”. She knows all the right people, goes to all the right parties, and wears all the right clothes…and her rich parents pay for everything. But deep down she suspects that her best “friends” --- and her posh lifestyle --- are nothing but shallow fakes. Then one evening Sophie’s life takes a shocking, drastic turn, and her father decides it’s high time for the party girl to make her own way in the world. Forced to earn a meager living as a lowly assistant to a “glamour” photographer, live in a shabby flat with four smelly boys, and eat baked beans from the can --- Sophie is desperate to get her old life back, at any cost. But does a girl really need diamonds to be happy?

Nobody knows the people of Wooster, Ohio, better than switchboard operator Vivian Dalton. Vivian and the other women who work at Bell on East Liberty Street connect lines and lives. They aren’t supposed to listen in on conversations, but they do, and they all have opinions on what they hear. One cold December night, Vivian listens in on a call between that snob Betty Miller and someone whose voice she can’t quite place, and hears something shocking. Betty’s mystery friend has news that, if true, will shatter Vivian’s tidy life in Wooster, humiliating her and making her the laughingstock of the town. Vivian is going to get to the bottom of that rumor. She wants the truth, no matter how painful it may be.

Sara Medlar, her niece Kate and their friend Jack need a change of scenery, so Sara arranges for them to visit an old friend in England. Upon arrival at Oxley Manor, a centuries-old estate converted to a luxury hotel, Kate and Jack quickly realize that Sara is up to something. They learn that she also has invited a number of others to join them. Decades earlier, two people ran off together from Oxley and haven’t been heard from since --- and Sara wants to solve the case. As the people who were there the night the two went missing, the guests find themselves cast in a live mystery-theater event. In reenacting the events of that night, Sara, Jack and Kate are once again at the heart of a mysterious case that only they are able to solve. But someone is willing to continue to kill to keep the truth about Oxley Manor buried, and none of the guests are safe.

Annie Stoddard was the smartest girl in her small public high school in Georgia, but now that she’s at Carter University, it feels like she has “Scholarship Student” written on her forehead. Bea Powers put aside misgivings about attending college in the South as a biracial student to take part in Carter’s Justice Scholars program, but it seems everyone has a different idea of what justice is. Stayja York works at the Coffee Bean, doling out almond milk lattes to entitled co-eds, while trying to put out fires on the home front and save for her own education. Their three lives intersect unexpectedly when Annie accuses fourth-year student Tyler Brand of sexual assault. Once Bea is assigned as Tyler’s student advocate, the girls find themselves on opposite sides as battle lines are drawn.

Tess has worked hard to keep her past buried. Now she’s the wife to a respected professor at an elite boarding school, where she also teaches. Her 17-year-old son, Rudy, whose dark moods and complicated behavior she’s long worried about, seems to be thriving. But one morning she gets a text from Rudy, asking for help. When she picks him up, she finds him drenched and shivering, with a dark stain on his sweatshirt. Four hours later, Tess learns that Lila Zeller, Rudy’s girlfriend, has been found dead on the beach, not far from where she found Rudy just hours before. As the investigation into Lila’s death escalates, Tess finds her family attacked on all sides. What first seemed like a tragic accidental death is turning into something far more sinister.

Years ago, bookseller and mystery aficionado Malcolm Kershaw compiled a list of the genre’s most unsolvable murders --- which he titled “Eight Perfect Murders” --- chosen from among the best of the best. But no one is more surprised than Mal, now the owner of the Old Devils Bookstore in Boston, when an FBI agent comes looking for information about a series of unsolved murders that look eerily similar to the killings on Mal’s old list. And the FBI agent isn’t the only one interested in this bookseller who spends almost every night at home reading. A killer is out there, watching his every move --- a diabolical threat who knows way too much about Mal’s personal history, especially the secrets he’s never told anyone, even his recently deceased wife.