Girolamo Savonarola was a Dominican friar living in Florence at the end of the 15th century. An anti-corruption campaigner, his hellfire preaching increasingly spilled over into tirades against all luxuries that tempted his followers toward sin. These sermons led to the infamous "Bonfire of the Vanities” --- a series of fires lit throughout Florence for the incineration of everything from books, extravagant clothing, musical instruments, make-up and mirrors to paintings, tapestries and sculptures. Railing against the vice and avarice of the ruling Medici family, he was instrumental in their removal from power. Denise Mina brings a modern take to this fascinating historical story, drawing parallels between the febrile atmosphere of medieval Florence and the culture wars of the present day.

No one knows Margo’s real name. Her colleagues and patrons at a small-town public library know only her middle-aged normalcy, congeniality and charm. They have no reason to suspect that she is, in fact, a former nurse with a trail of premature deaths in her wake. She has turned a new page, so to speak, and the library is her sanctuary, a place to quell old urges. That is, at least, until Patricia, a recent graduate and failed novelist, joins the library staff. Patricia quickly notices Margo’s subtly sinister edge and watches her carefully. When a tragic incident in the library bathroom gives her a hint of Margo’s mysterious past, Patricia can’t resist digging deeper --- even as her new fixation becomes all-consuming and sends both women hurtling toward disaster.

At the end of the Vietnam War, when Beth Nguyen was eight months old, she and her father, sister, grandmother and uncles fled Saigon for America. Beth’s mother stayed --- or was left --- behind, and they did not meet again until Beth was 19. Over the course of her adult life, she and her mother have spent less than 24 hours together. OWNER OF A LONELY HEART is a memoir about parenthood, absence and the condition of being a refugee: the story of Beth’s relationship with her mother. Framed by a handful of visits over the course of many years --- sometimes brief, sometimes interrupted, sometimes with her mother alone and sometimes with her sister --- Beth tells a coming-of-age story that spans her own Midwestern childhood, her first meeting with her mother, and becoming a parent herself.

On the night of her high school graduation, a young woman follows her older sister, Debbie, to a bar. After the two share a bag of unidentified pills, the evening turns into a haze of sensual and risky interactions. Our unnamed narrator has always been under Debbie’s spell. Despite her own hesitations, she has always said yes to nights like these. That is, until Debbie disappears. Falling deeper into the life she cultivated with her sister, our narrator gets a job as an emergency room secretary where she steals pills to sell on the side. Cue Sasha, a Jewish refugee from the former Soviet Union who claims to be a psychic tasked with acting as the narrator’s spiritual guide. The nature of this relationship evolves and blurs, a kaleidoscope of friendship, sex, mysticism and ambiguous power dynamics.

1971. Ray Carney’s days moving stolen goods are over. It’s strictly the straight-and-narrow for him --- until he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter and decides to hit up his old police contact, Munson, fixer extraordinaire. But Munson has his own favors to ask of Carney. 1973. Pepper is Carney’s endearingly violent partner in crime who takes on a side gig doing security on a Blaxploitation shoot in Harlem. He finds himself in a freaky world of Hollywood stars, up-and-coming comedians, celebrity drug dealers, hustlers, mobsters and hit men. 1976. Carney's wife, Elizabeth, is campaigning for her childhood friend, the former assistant D.A. and rising politician Alexander Oakes. When a fire severely injures one of Carney’s tenants, he enlists Pepper to look into who may be behind it.

Bob Comet is a retired librarian passing his solitary days surrounded by books and small comforts. One morning, he encounters a confused elderly woman lost in a market and returns her to the senior center that is her home. Hoping to fill the void he’s known since retiring, he begins volunteering at the center. Here, as a community of strange peers gathers around Bob, and following a happenstance brush with a painful complication from his past, the events of his life and the details of his character are revealed. Behind Bob’s straight-man façade is the story of an unhappy child’s runaway adventure during the last days of the Second World War, of true love won and stolen away, of the purpose and pride found in the librarian’s vocation, and of the pleasures of a life lived to the side of the masses.

At the height of her career, the piano virtuoso Elsa M. Anderson --- former child prodigy who is now in her 30s --- walks off the stage in Vienna, mid-performance. Now she is in Athens, watching an uncannily familiar woman purchase a pair of mechanical dancing horses at a flea market. Elsa wants the horses too, but there are no more for sale. She drifts to the ferry port, on the run from her talent and her history. So begins her journey across Europe, shadowed by the elusive woman who seems to be her double.

Struggling artist Sadie Montgomery has been named a finalist in the national portrait competition of her dreams. But then she winds up with a rare condition where human faces look like jumbled puzzle pieces. With only a few weeks to paint the best portrait of her entire life, Sadie will do anything to reverse her condition and get back to work, but it’s anyone’s guess when (or even if) that will happen. Enter her dog’s charming veterinarian (who may or may not be Sadie’s daydream fiancé) and her bowling-jacket-wearing, Vespa-riding neighbor (who she can’t seem to stay away from) --- both vying for her attention and adding to the chaos. The truth is, seeing the world differently has its upsides. And love has an undeniable way of giving us courage. And the best way of looking is always, always with the heart.

Ken and Abby Gardner lost their mother when they were small. Their father, Adam, is a brilliant oceanographer who raised them mostly on his own. Ken is now a successful businessman with political ambitions and a picture-perfect family, and Abby is a talented visual artist who depends on her brother’s goodwill, in part because he owns the studio where she lives and works. As the novel opens, Adam is approaching his 70th birthday. He has always managed his bipolar disorder with medication, but he is determined to make one last scientific breakthrough. So he has secretly stopped taking his pills. Meanwhile, Abby and Ken are both harboring secrets of their own, and there is a new person on the periphery of the family --- Steph, who doesn’t make her connection known.

Cassandra Penelope Dankworth is a creature of habit. She likes what she likes (museums, jumpsuits, her boyfriend, Will) and strongly dislikes what she doesn't (mess, change, her boss drinking out of her mug). Her life runs in a pleasing, predictable order…until now. She's just been dumped. She's just been fired. Her local café has run out of banana muffins. Then, something truly unexpected happens: Cassie discovers she can go back and change the past. One small rewind at a time, Cassie attempts to fix the life she accidentally obliterated. But soon she'll discover she's trying to fix all the wrong things.