Twin sisters Marisa and Clare Stockton were 16 when Clare’s body was found in Virginia’s James River. No arrests were made. Fourteen years later, Marisa’s friends and dedicated career as a photographer help her to cope with the open wound of the past. But she still feels the hurt. A recent car crash has erased 10 days of Marisa’s memories --- a black hole leading up to the accident that’s left her disoriented. Every text and phone call from that crucial missing time has vanished, along with her phone. And there’s the growing fear that her near-fatal accident was no accident at all. As dreams of Clare and nightmares of the crash begin to converge, so do two disturbing puzzles 14 years apart.

When a German businesswoman in 1979 San Francisco hires ex-con PI Colleen Hayes to find a missing relative, supposedly in town to visit, she thinks it’s a simple job. But she soon discovers that the “nephew” is linked to an international vigilante group hunting down ex-Nazis. Then the body of a mysterious woman turns up on San Francisco’s Municipal Railway, mirroring a murder committed the week before in Buenos Aires where the “nephew” had just been. Colleen’s search uncovers a World War II banknote and the 1942 SS ID of a German officer long thought dead. When Colleen fails to heed warnings to stop her investigation, her pregnant daughter is attacked.

In the aftermath of his wife’s apparent suicide, Jackson Robert Hunter wakes up outside a bar with a badly battered head and no memory. Revelations convince Jackson that his wife’s death wasn’t a suicide, but a murder, and he sets out to find the killer. While hunting the villain and struggling with his amnesia, Jackson discovers that his own backstory is a dark one, littered with broken hearts and dead bodies --- a wife he betrayed, a lover he abandoned, a squad of crooked cops he double-crossed, and a city that lives in fear of his name. Along the way he encounters a sister he didn’t know he had, a niece he failed to save, and a mentor ready to lead Jackson down the darkest of paths.

The U.S. attorney general, Susan D. Kenny, is missing. She walked out of the DOJ building in D.C. without a word to anyone, caught a taxi, and...vanished. A week later, Mortimer Angel, private eye (in training) and reluctant finder of famous missing persons, is surreptitiously contacted by a Secret Service agent and asked to fly to the nation’s capital to use his ineffable brand of skill, talent or just plain luck to help find the still-missing attorney general. Mort declines that dubious honor, but less than 12 hours later he is taken at gunpoint by --- who else? --- a gorgeous girl and dragged into the most risqué and improbable case of his career.

Her assignments were always to kill someone. That’s what a hitman --- or hitwoman --- is paid to do, and that is what she does. Then comes a surprise assignment --- keep someone alive. She is hired to protect Virginia Martin, the stunning and brilliant chief technology officer of a hot startup with an environmentally important innovation that will change the world. She’s confused about the “why” of her new commission, but she addresses it with her usual skill and stealth, determined to keep the young CTO alive against the ever-increasing odds. The spirit of an assassin --- and her nameless dog --- permeates this struggle to help a young woman as powerful forces mount against her.

Julie Welch’s sister, Fay Lariviere, disappears from their hotel in Morocco. Although she leaves a note that she’ll be back in two days, Fay doesn’t return. Julie’s anger shifts to worry --- and to fear when she discovers a stalker. Then, an attack meant for Julie kills another woman. Searching Fay’s luggage and quizzing the hotel staff, Julie discovers Fay’s destination --- a remote village in the Saharan desert. Convinced her sister is in danger and propelled by her own jeopardy, Julie rushes to warn Fay. By the time she reaches the village, Julie finds that Fay has traveled deeper into the desert. With a villager as her guide, Julie follows, only to be stranded in the Sahara when the guide abandons her. Julie is eventually reunited with Fay --- in a prison cell --- and learns the reasons for Fay’s secrecy.

On the laid-back island of Bonaire, every day is paradise until a seaweed-entangled human leg washes ashore. Combing the beach, retired cop Roscoe Conklin examines the scene and quickly determines that the leg belongs to the nephew of a close friend. The island police launch an investigation, but with little evidence and no suspects, their progress comes to a frustrating halt. Then, thanks to a unique barter with the lead detective, Conklin finds himself in possession of the case file. Sifting through the scant clues, eager to bring the killer to justice, Conklin struggles to maintain forward momentum. He has all the pieces. He can feel it. But he’d better get them snapped together soon. Otherwise, the body count will continue to rise.

Paying a harsh self-imposed penance for a terrible misstep on a case, former LAPD superstar detective Charlie Waldo lives a life of punishing minimalism deep within the woods. However, his PI girlfriend, Lorena, keeps drawing him back to civilization. When old adversary Don Q strongarms Waldo into investigating the seemingly mundane death of a vagrant, Lorena agrees he can work under her PI license on one condition: that he help with a high-maintenance celebrity client, wildly popular courtroom TV star Judge Ida Mudge, whose new mega-deal makes her a perfect target for blackmail. Reopening the coldest of cases, a decades-old fraternity death, Waldo begins to wonder if the judge is, in fact, a murderer --- and if he’ll stay alive long enough to find out.

Rick Cahill's fiancée, Leah Landingham, is pregnant with their first child, and Rick is doing PI work that pays well and keeps him out of danger. Then a doctor gives him the bad news about the headaches he’s been suffering --- CTE, which leads to senility and early death --- a secret he keeps from Leah and his best friend, Moira MacFarlane. When Moira asks him to monitor her son, Luke --- who’s broken a restraining order to stay away from his girlfriend --- a simple surveillance explodes into greed, deceit and murder. Luke goes missing, and Rick’s dogged determination compels him to follow clues that lead to the exploration of high finance and DNA cancer research. Ultimately, Rick is forced to battle sadistic killers as he tries to find Luke and stay alive long enough to see the birth of his child.

Ava Kirilova has reached the very top of her profession. After years and years of hard graft, pain and sacrifice as part of the London Russian Ballet Company, allowing nothing else to distract her, she is finally the poster girl for "Swan Lake." Even Mr K --- her father and the intense, terrifying director of the company --- can find no fault. Ava has pushed herself ahead of countless other talented, hardworking girls, and they are all watching her now. But there is someone who really wants to see Ava fall.