Adult

Alexandra Southwood is missing. Held in a room against her will, she’s forced to imagine how her husband, Marc, and her two daughters are coping in the wake of her disappearance. She’s shown news clips of Marc standing in front of the cameras desperately appealing to the public for information on her whereabouts. In her solitude, she tortures herself with visions of her family’s devastated new reality. Marc’s pain is visceral. He thinks of nothing but his wife. When the police discover Alexandra’s bloody belongings by the river, turning their missing persons case into a murder investigation, he cannot accept that she is lost to him. He embarks on his own journey, through the dark maze of the art world that so gripped his wife, following a trail that leads him to find answers to questions he never wanted to ask.

Claire and Matt are no longer together but decide that it would be best for their daughter, Scarlett, to have a “normal” family Christmas. They can’t agree on whose idea it was to go to the Happy Forest holiday park, or who said they should bring their new partners. But someone did, and it’s too late to pull the plug. Claire brings her new boyfriend, Patrick, a seemingly sensible, eligible from a distance Ironman in Waiting. Matt brings the new love of his life, Alex, who’s funny, smart and extremely patient. They all drink a little too much after Scarlett’s bedtime, overshare classified secrets about their pasts…and before you know it, their holiday is a powder keg that ends where this novel begins --- with a tearful, frightened call to the police.

A woman is found murdered in her new apartment in the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo. Living a quiet life, with nothing remarkable in her past and no known enemies, this newcomer’s murder is as baffling as it is unlikely. Detective Kyochiro Kaga of the Tokyo Police Department is also a newcomer to the area. Assigned to the task force investigating the murder, Kaga interviews the various local people somehow connected to the victim. But the more he pulls on the loose threads of a simple life, the greater the number of potential suspects emerge. To prevent the murderer from eluding justice, Kaga must unravel all the secrets of the local residents, finding out the truth behind their interactions with the victim. Buried somewhere in the woman’s seemingly uncomplicated life is the one clue that will lead to the murderer.

Despite the notion of female solidarity, almost every office has its feud, usually between two women. In THE FEUD, a work friendship goes bad…very bad. Soon Nikki and Roberta engage in a series of betrayals that threatens one with the loss of her boyfriend and reputation, and the other with the loss of her home and her family. Nikki smokes weed, while Roberta drinks wine. They each have their little helpers, but can anything really help them achieve peace? The book is set in the mid-’90s, when the internet was new and cell phones were rare. The two women use these emerging technologies in their increasingly damaging war with each other until they find themselves alone in a stalled elevator.

After a practice in June 2018, a Thai soccer coach took 12 of his young players to explore a famous but flood-prone cave. It was one of the boys’ birthday, but neither he nor the dozen resurfaced. Worried parents and rescuers flocked to the mouth of a cave that seemed to have swallowed the boys without a trace. When water unexpectedly inundated the cave, blocking their escape, they retreated deeper inside, taking shelter in a side cavern. ABC News Chief National Correspondent Matt Gutman recounts this amazing story in depth and from every angle, exploring their time in the cave, the failed plans and human mistakes that nearly doomed them, and the daring mission that ultimately saved them.

He hides in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment. Each kill is calculated, planned and executed like clockwork. Struggling to balance her personal and professional life, young DS Becca Vincent has landed the biggest case of her career --- and she knows that it will make or break her. But she can’t catch the culprit alone. Together with facial recognition expert Joe Russell, she strives to get a lead on the elusive murderer, who is always one step ahead of them. Time is not on their side. The body count is rising, and the attacks are striking closer and closer to home. Can Becca and Joe uncover the connection between the murders before the killer strikes the last name from his list?

On the night of October 3, 1922, as Edith Thompson and her husband, Percy, were walking home from the theater, a man sprang out of the darkness and stabbed Percy to death. The assailant was none other than Edith’s lover, Freddy Bywaters. When the police discovered his relationship with Edith, she --- who had denied knowledge of the attack --- was arrested as his accomplice. Her passionate love letters to Bywaters, read out at the ensuing trial, sealed her fate, even though Bywaters insisted Edith had no part in planning the murder. They were both hanged. Laura Thompson charts the course of a liaison with thrice-fatal consequences, and investigates what a troubling case tells us about perceptions of women, innocence and guilt.

When Ruby first marries the dashing Frenchman she meets in a coffee shop, she pictures a life strolling arm in arm along French boulevards. But it’s 1938, and war is looming on the horizon. Unfortunately, her marriage soon grows cold and bitter --- all while the Germans flood into Paris. When her husband is killed, Ruby discovers the secret he had been hiding --- he was a member of the French resistance --- and now she is determined to take his place. She becomes involved in hiding Allied soldiers who have landed in enemy territory. But her skills are ultimately put to the test when she begins concealing her 12-year-old Jewish neighbor, Charlotte, whose family was rounded up by the Gestapo.

The women of Hope River trust midwife Patience Hester, whose skill in delivering babies is known for miles around. But though the Great Depression is behind them, troubles are not, for Europe is at war…and it can only be a matter of time before the U.S. enters the fray. And while some are eager to join the fight, Patience’s husband, Daniel, is not. Daniel is a patriot --- but he saw too much bloodshed during the First World War, and has vowed never to take up arms again. His stance leaves Patience and their four children vulnerable --- to the neighbors who might judge them, and to the government, who imprison Daniel for his beliefs. Patience must support their family and fight for her husband’s release despite her own misgivings.

Bellow, at 49, is at the pinnacle of American letters --- rich, famous, critically acclaimed. The expected trajectory is one of decline: volume one, rise; volume two, fall. Bellow never fell, producing in the latter half of his life some of his greatest fiction (MR. SAMMLER'S PLANET, HUMBOLDT'S GIFT), winning two more National Book Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize. At 80, he wrote his last story; at 85, he wrote RAVELSTEIN. In this volume, his life away from the desk, including his love life, is if anything more dramatic than in the first. In the public sphere, he is embroiled in controversy over foreign affairs, race, religion, education, social policy, the state of culture, the fate of the novel.