Oxford, Mississippi, 1933. Abandoned by her mother one Christmas Eve, 11-year-old Meg Lefleur is now one of the unadoptable "big girls" at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum. Birdie Calhoun, unmarried and outspoken, has come to Oxford to ask her socialite sister to help the struggling family she's left behind. But as the Depression tightens its grip, Birdie discovers that her sister's seemingly charmed life is a tapestry of lies. Then Birdie encounters Charlie, a woman running low on luck with little left to lose. When their fates --- and Meg’s --- converge, Charlie comes up with an audacious plan to claim what's rightfully theirs. But in a place and time where hypocrisy is rife and women's freedom is fragile, even the smallest act of defiance can have dangerous consequences. 

Meet Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick: 81 years old, gloriously grumpy, fiercely independent, and never without a hot cup of tea --- or a cutting remark. She minds her own business in her quiet Melbourne suburb, until a neighbor turns up dead and the whispers start flying. Because Elsie hasn’t always been Elsie. Once upon a headline, she was Mad Mabel Waller --- Australia’s youngest convicted murderer. But was she really mad, or just misunderstood? Either way, she’s kept her secret buried for decades. Enter seven-year-old Persephone, a relentless little chatterbox who has just moved in across the road; Joan, who appears to have it in for Elsie; and a healthy dose of public interest. So Mabel does what she’s always done best --- she takes matters into her own hands.

Miss Kitty, a feline internet sensation, has disappeared, and Chet and Bernie have been hired to find her before her many followers realize something is wrong. Miss Kitty belongs to Bitty, a sweet teenage girl who lives with her mom. Bitty and her mother are struggling financially, but the arrival of Miss Kitty and the chance discovery of her social media appeal has changed everything. Bitty now has sponsors and a high-powered agent, and real money is flowing in. With Miss Kitty gone, the family's income is on the line. The case presents a slew of challenges for Chet and Bernie. For one thing, a potential witness is a pig named Senor Piggy, who may be in possession of an important piece of evidence. For another, it seems like a possible perp has been killed twice --- and there's evidence implicating Bernie in the crime.

As a new resident of Golden Grove, an independent living community for active seniors, Sally wants to do everything in her power to start off on the right foot. But between navigating unspoken social rules of the community and leaving two struggling adult children back at home, fitting in becomes harder than she expected. So when she sees flyers advertising the Scrabble Club, she thinks she might as well give it a try. She quickly realizes her faux pas when she walks into the library to find just one man, Walter Kretzer. Walter has taken his Scrabble club a pinch too seriously in the past, but when he meets Sally and discovers she is something of a prodigy at the game, he can't help but feel that his fate is about to change. As he draws Sally into the world of high-stakes Scrabble tournaments, his feelings for her grow and inspire him to take a hard look at his life.

Harold may be an aging mutt --- but Amelia May, the romance novelist who adopted him, taught him a thing or two about the human heart before she died. And she left Harold with a final task: to help her partner, Miguel, find love again. Unfortunately, the grief-ridden recluse rarely goes out, not even to the bookstore he and Amelia owned together. Now it’s in danger of going under, and to make matters even worse, a renowned author doesn’t show up for his event. Miguel and Harold set out to find the no-show and insist he fulfill his obligation. Instead they’re greeted by his sister, Fiona, who is intent on protecting her brother’s privacy. But her precocious 11-year-old daughter, who’s also named Amelia, immediately befriends Harold…and he can’t help but wonder if his Amelia was right when she said there are no coincidences in life.

Sunset Hall is abuzz with anticipation of Bernadette’s upcoming wedding. But her best friend, Agnes Sharp, isn’t a fan of her plan to leave the house share and its residents behind. Nevertheless, Agnes and the not-so-sprightly gang of pensioners launch into wedding-planning mode after a spot opens at the high-class Foxglove Manor --- in just two weeks. Just when they think they have the guest list squared away, a threatening note appears at the house. Agnes and the others decide to handle it themselves, not wanting to cause the betrothed stress. With some assistance from a private investigator, Agnes digs into the case of the poison-pen letter, determined to ensure the wedding goes off without a hitch…aside from the bodies they’ve already had to hide from the bride.

1937. It’s been seven years since the dust storms started in Colorado. High school student Martha Helen Kessler and her family are luckier than most; they still eke out a living from the land. Even so, evidence of the Dust Bowl’s grim impact on families is everywhere. When Martha Helen’s compassionate mother insists they take in Otis Hobbs, a handsome drifter who saves a local boy from a vicious storm, she quickly discovers a darker side to their rural community. Suspicion, jealousy and prejudice grip their neighbors --- and emotions reach a frenzy after Martha Helen’s best friend, Frankie, disappears and is then found murdered. Ultimately, Martha Helen is forced to make sense of her conflicting feelings and loyalties in order to help find retribution and to reconcile the difference between the law and justice.

Alex Carter is thrilled to be in lush, tropical Hawaii for her new assignment: to study and protect hawksbill turtles. From global warming to poaching to the simple fragility of a turtle’s nest, these creatures are under constant threat. And as excited as Alex is to swim, explore and relax, she’s also ready to be these turtles’ fiercest protector. Alex looks forward to a break from the danger of her past assignments, but she soon finds that environmental crime can happen anywhere. As a massive hurricane approaches, armed thieves storm onto the beach where Alex and her volunteers are desperately trying to move turtle eggs to safety out of the storm surge. When the gunmen take one of her volunteers hostage, and Alex tracks them to a nearby paleontology museum, she suspects that there’s more to these mysterious criminals than meets the eye.

Ireland, 1918. In a world brutalized by the Great War and devastated by the Spanish flu, 22-year-old Rynn Carmichael is suddenly pulled into the war of independence when Donal O’Reilly, the boy she has loved for most of her life, takes up gunrunning in support of the rebellion. Raised in a small Irish village on the shores of Donegal Bay, Rynn is working as a nurse in a convalescent home for soldiers wounded in the Great War when she overhears a British officer gloating over the trap that has been set for Irish gunrunners bringing a boat full of smuggled arms ashore. Knowing that Donal must be involved, she rushes out at midnight to warn the incoming boat, only to find herself caught up in a terrifying and tragic series of events.

Two years ago, Detective Mitch Haskell lost his wife to a vicious act of retribution, and he has since attributed her murder to two men. Roland Malone is a ruthless executioner and drug dealer who fronts as a restaurant owner. He performs his handiwork at the biddings of Oz, the faceless kingpin of a drug trafficking operation whose name alone evokes terror. Detective John Bowie has forced Mitch to get therapy to sort himself out. Dr. Dylan Reede is immediately empathetic to the pain she senses beneath Mitch’s cavalier attitude and wisecracking. But from the moment he breezes into her office, Dylan finds it a struggle to maintain the professional and personal boundaries that keep her own tragic past at a safe distance. As Mitch begins to close in on Oz and Malone’s operation, they’re prepared to stop him by any means necessary.