Adult

In an isolated village in the mountains of Andalusia, a mysterious Frenchwoman begins work on a dangerous memoir. It is the story of a man she once loved in the Beirut of old, and a child taken from her in treason’s name. The woman is the keeper of the Kremlin’s most closely guarded secret. Long ago, the KGB inserted a mole into the heart of the West --- a mole who stands on the doorstep of ultimate power. Only one man can unravel the conspiracy: Gabriel Allon, the legendary art restorer and assassin who serves as the chief of Israel’s vaunted secret intelligence service. Gabriel and the Russians will engage in a final epic showdown, with the fate of the postwar global order hanging in the balance.

Detective Emily Baxter is still reeling from the Ragdoll case, and from the disappearance of her friend, William “Wolf” Fawkes. Despite her reluctance to jump into another gruesome case, she’s summoned to a meeting of a new FBI/CIA/UK law enforcement task force in New York. There, she is presented with photographs of the latest copycat murder: a body contorted into a familiar pose, strung up from the Brooklyn Bridge, the word “BAIT” carved deep into its chest. As the media pressure intensifies, Baxter is ordered to assist with the investigation and attend the scene of another murder, again with a victim inscribed with a word: “PUPPET.” Baxter must shake off the grief and fear that have paralyzed her for the last year so she can stop another terrible killer before it’s too late.

Jen and Hugh Maddox have just survived every parent’s worst nightmare. Their 15-year-old daughter, Lana, was found bloodied, bruised and disoriented after going missing for four days during a mother-daughter vacation in the country. She lies mute in her hospital bed, unwilling or unable to articulate what happened to her during that period. Even when she returns to the family home and her school routine, Lana only provides the same frustrating answer over and over: "I can’t remember." Without telling Hugh or their pregnant older daughter Meg, Jen sets off to retrace Lana’s steps, a journey that will lead her to a deeper understanding of her youngest daughter, her family and herself.

A decade ago, psychologist Frieda Klein was sucked into the orbit of Dean Reeve, a psychopath who was obsessed with her. In the years since, Frieda has worked with --- and sometimes against --- the London police in solving their most baffling cases. But now she's in hiding, driven to isolation by Reeve. When a series of murders announces his return, Frieda must emerge from the shadows to confront her nemesis. Criminology student Lola Hayes has tracked Frieda down with a single-minded pursuit: she wants to delve inside the mind of a woman besieged by darkness. But in following every move Frieda makes, Lola is exposing herself to the same terrors --- and the same twisted fixation of a diabolical psychopath.

Seventeen-year-old Charlie still struggles with the dark legacy of her family name and the mystery surrounding her mother’s disappearance 10 years earlier. Determined to finally let go of the past, she throws herself into life at Knollwood, the prestigious New England school she attends. Charlie has been tapped by the A’s, the school’s elite secret society well known for terrorizing the faculty, administration and their enemies. To become a member of the A’s, Charlie must play The Game, a semester-long, diabolical high-stakes scavenger hunt. As the dark events of past and present converge, Charlie begins to fear that she may not survive the terrible truth about her family, her school and her own life.

Lauren has the perfect life…if she ignores the fact it’s a fragile house of cards, and that her daughter Mack has just had a teenage personality transplant. Jenna is desperate to start a family with her husband, but it’s just not happening. Her heart is breaking, but she’s determined to keep her trademark smile on her face. Nancy knows she hasn’t been the best mother, but how can she ever tell Lauren and Jenna the reason why? Then life changes in an instant, and Lauren, Mack, Jenna and Nancy are thrown together for a summer on Martha’s Vineyard. Somehow, these very different women must relearn how to be a family. And while unraveling their secrets might be their biggest challenge, the rewards could be infinite.

When Nora Watts’ father killed himself, she denied her grief and carried on with her life. Then a chance encounter with a veteran who knew him raises disturbing questions Nora can’t ignore --- and dark emotions she can’t control. To make her peace with the past, she has to confront it. Meanwhile, former police detective turned private investigator Jon Brazuca is looking into the overdose death of a billionaire’s mistress. His search uncovers a ruthless opiate ring and a startling connection to Nora, the infuriatingly distant woman he’d once tried to befriend. Focused on the mysterious events of her father’s past and the clues they provide to her own fractured identity and that of her estranged daughter, Nora may not be able to see the danger heading her way until it’s too late.

The year 1968 saw an extraordinary range of protests across much of the western world. Some of these were genuinely revolutionary --- around 10 million French workers went on strike and the whole state teetered on the brink of collapse. Others were more easily contained, but had profound longer-term implications --- terrorist groups, feminist collectives and gay rights activists could all trace important roots to 1968. 1968 is a striking and original attempt half a century later to show how these events, which in some ways still seem so current, stemmed from histories and societies that are in practice now extraordinarily remote from our own time.

In an age defined by hyper-connectivity and constant stimulation, Francine Prose makes a compelling case for the solitary act of reading and the great enjoyment it brings. WHAT TO READ AND WHY includes selections culled from Prose’s previous essays, reviews and introductions, combined with new, never-before-published pieces that focus on her favorite works of fiction and nonfiction, on works by masters of the short story, and even on books by photographers like Diane Arbus.

The daughter of Virginia gentry, Diana Cooke knew early that her parents had only one asset: their stately house, Saratoga, the largest in the commonwealth. Though they are land-rich, the Cookes do not have the means to sustain the estate. Without a wealthy husband, Diana will lose the mansion that has been the heart and soul of her family for five generations. The mysterious Captain Copperton is an outsider with no bloodline but plenty of cash, yet he is cruel as well as vulgar. Diana’s union with Copperton is brief and gives her a son she adores. But when her handsome, charming Ashton, now grown, returns to Saratoga with his college roommate, the real scandal and tragedy begins.