Adult

Each of the six stories in YOUR DUCK IS MY DUCK, Deborah Eisenberg’s first collection since 2006, has the heft and complexity of a novel. With her own inexorable but utterly unpredictable logic and her almost uncanny ability to conjure the strange states of mind and emotion that constitute our daily consciousness, Eisenberg pulls us as if by gossamer threads through her characters --- a tormented woman whose face determines her destiny; a group of film actors shocked to read a book about their past; a privileged young man who unexpectedly falls into a love affair with a human rights worker caught up in an all-consuming quest that he doesn't understand.

Lucius is a 22-year-old medical student when World War I explodes across Europe. He enlists, expecting a position at a well-organized field hospital. However, upon his arrival, he discovers a freezing outpost ravaged by typhus. The other doctors have fled, and only a mysterious nurse named Sister Margarete remains. But Lucius has never lifted a surgeon's scalpel. And as the war rages across the winter landscape, he finds himself falling in love with the woman from whom he must learn a brutal makeshift medicine. Then one day, an unconscious soldier is brought in from the snow. He seems beyond rescue, until Lucius makes a fateful decision that will change the lives of doctor, patient and nurse forever.

Retired romance author Sara Medlar finds herself back in her hometown of Lachlan, Florida, remodeling the grand old mansion she admired as a child. Then her niece, Kate, is offered a job in Lachlan --- a start in what could be a very successful career in real estate. She accepts immediately, but with so little saved up, she’ll have to approach her estranged yet incredibly famous aunt for a place to stay. Jackson Wyatt already has his own room at the mansion and irritates Kate to no end. However, when two skeletons are accidentally uncovered in the quiet town, this unlikely trio is suddenly thrust together by a common goal: to solve a mystery everyone else seems eager to keep under wraps.

Jessie Sloane is on the path to rebuilding her life, renting a new apartment and applying for college. But when the college informs her that her social security number has raised a red flag, Jessie discovers a shocking detail that causes her to doubt everything she’s ever known. Finding herself suddenly at the center of a bizarre mystery, Jessie tumbles down a rabbit hole, which is only exacerbated by grief and a relentless lack of sleep. She begins to see things until she can no longer tell the difference between what’s real and what she’s only imagined. Meanwhile, 20 years earlier and 250 miles away, another woman’s split-second decision may hold the key to Jessie’s secret past. Has Jessie’s whole life been a lie, or have her delusions gotten the best of her?

College professor Sam Teagarden stumbles upon a decades-old government cover-up when an encoded document mysteriously lands in his inbox, followed by a cluster of mini-drones programmed to kill him. That begins a terrifying flight from upstate New York, to Washington, to Key West, as Teagarden must outfox teams of hitmen equipped with highly sophisticated technology. While a fugitive, he races to decode the journal, only to realize the dreadful truth --- it’s the reason he’s being hunted because it details criminal secrets committed by the U.S. in the 20th century. If he survives and publishes the decoded diary, he’ll be a heroic whistleblower. But there is no guarantee. He may also end up dead.

The Anthony-nominated collection of crime stories without guns is back for Volume 2. Two dozen more crime writers have come together to raise their voices and take pen in hand to call for a sensible and reasoned debate about guns in America. In stories of crime, mystery and suspense, these authors have left the guns out to show for a short while that we can do without them and the plot doesn’t fall apart. The top priority in these stories is to entertain with thrilling action and suspense that readers know and love about a crime story. To do so without guns leads to some creative leaps from writers who spin tales of simians on the loose, androids with buried secrets, punk rock shows and tattoo shops.

Millions of people around the world are heavily invested in the motivations, decisions and destinies of their favorite superheroes. In SUPERHERO ETHICS, Travis Smith investigates what they are saying and what messages about life they are communicating. Throughout the book, Smith frames his analysis around a single question: Which superhero embodies the kind of ethical character we should strive to emulate in today’s society? He arrives at his choice by structuring the book as a contest. He takes 10 top superheroes and pits them one against another, chapter by chapter. The hero who better exemplifies how we ought to live advances to the final round. By the end of the book, a single superhero emerges victorious and is crowned most exemplary for our times.

Eddie Bennison is at the top of his game, one of the most successful and popular golfers out there, until Tee Time, a national golf magazine, publishes a story that destroys his reputation. Now Eddie, championed by cunning lawyer Charlie Mayfield, must defend himself in court. But proving libel is extremely difficult, and the truth has a way of coming out, especially when the trial becomes a national spectacle. Eddie and Charlie are in for the fight of their lives, proving that what was written in that article was nothing but bad lies.

About 40 miles east of Pittsburgh is the small town of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, the place Arnold Palmer called home. The world knew Palmer as The King. But the Palmer Latrobe knew was funnier, goofier, saltier and less grandiose than the one justifiably loved around the globe. In ARNOLD PALMER: Homespun Stories of the King, journalist, Latrobe resident and accidental Palmer insider Chris Rodell draws upon over 100 interviews with the golf great conducted over 20 years, providing an intimate, charming and at times irreverent glimpse at the icon outside the spotlight.

The body of a young woman turns up in an abandoned well. Estranged from her family, the victim had balked at an arranged marriage and had planned to attend graduate school. But someone cut her dreams short. Solving the mystery behind the murder isn’t Tracy Crosswhite’s only challenge. The detective is keeping a secret of her own: she’s pregnant. And now her biggest fear seems to be coming true when a new detective arrives to replace her. Meanwhile, Tracy’s colleague, Vic Fazzio, is about to take a fall after his investigation into the murder of a local community activist turns violent and leaves an invaluable witness dead. Two careers are on the line. And when more deadly secrets emerge, jobs might not be the only things at risk.