It’s 1970 in rural California where Shirley Bennett, a 40-year-old Vietnam War widow, lives with her two sons. It’s a routine life until she sees Cash Pierce, a scruffy 11-year-old boy, trailing the fence alongside her Appaloosa, Phoenix. Abandoned by his father, his mother in jail, and being raised by his teenage brother, Cash is lonely and bullied, but smart as a whip and starved for attention. Shirley begins inviting him for dinners, providing lunch money, sewing his shirts, and offering the maternal care he desperately needs. Neither realizes that such simple acts of kindness create a bond that will span five decades and redefine family itself. Through war, loss, grief, illness, second chances and years of separation, they will meet again.

From growing up in York and being miffed at not getting the part of Mary in the school Nativity play, to playing before sold-out houses on Broadway and in London’s West End, Judi Dench has done it all. She walked the red carpets of Hollywood; turned James Bond’s M into the most astute, unflinching Head of MI6 anyone ever could have imagined; and won an Oscar, a Tony, Golden Globes, Oliviers and BAFTAs along the way. Yet despite the accolades, Judi has been accompanied by doubt. Is it any wonder she leaves a bag by the rehearsal room door in case she has to make a run for it? But stepping out of her comfort zone has been Judi’s guiding principle. Here she reveals all to Brendan O’Hea, her friend and writing partner.

American heiress Ruby Vaughn has long believed that her entire family died when the Lusitania sank in 1915. But then her solicitor brings news that her mother inexplicably survived the catastrophe, and he believes he’s found her in a Belgian hospital just across the channel. With trepidation, Ruby sets off for Belgium with a simple task --- to go to the hospital at Saint Oda’s priory, find her mother and bring her home. However, upon her arrival at the priory, she learns the woman she sought had died and been hastily buried days before. Stunned, Ruby refuses to believe that her mother is truly gone. The more Ruby inquires into the woman’s fate, the more suspicious the death becomes.

1960: Frustrated reporter Theresa Johnson receives a phone call from a Miss Pearce who claims her obituary about one of Pasadena’s last great hoteliers is wildly inaccurate. When Theresa arrives at mysterious Rosewood House, Miss Pearce proposes that Theresa help her settle old scores by writing her biography. 1903: When Adele Pearce arrives in California, she discovers why her mother has called her there: her father has squandered his fortune, and Adele must marry a wealthy American to save the family. Adele’s only comfort is Rosewood House and the beautiful garden she creates with the help of taciturn gardener Alexander Macalister. However, as Adele’s feelings for Alex flourish, a fire ignites in the San Gabriel Mountains above Rosewood House. Meanwhile, in 1960, Miss Pearce learns that history has a terrible habit of repeating itself.

“There’s a body in Lost Nation.” “Where?” demands Armand as he scribbles on the pad by his bed. But the line goes dead before Chief Inspector Gamache can question the caller. The head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec has no idea where Lost Nation is, or who woke him in the small hours of the morning at his home in Three Pines. So Armand is thrust into the surrounding forests in search of the mythical Lost Nation. And a body. The unidentified dead man appears to be from an era more than a century old. Adding to the mystery, the early morning call appears to have come from Armand’s friend and neighbor, Clara Morrow. While she denies any knowledge of it, it becomes clear there is some connection between her, the Morrow family, and Lost Nation.

In Victorian England, no woman --- not even a brilliant economist like Reina Martin --- is allowed to open her own bank account. Together with her mentor, the powerful banker William Farlow, Reina will build the first all-women’s bank, where women can manage their own financial security. But soon she is shocked to discover that her enigmatic butler, John Pembroke, is an undercover police detective. He’s been assigned to investigate Farlow, who’s suspected of financial crime on a scale so massive that it could destabilize the British economy. Pembroke needs Reina’s expertise for a high-stakes nighttime heist to obtain incriminating evidence. Now she faces the agonizing choice of betraying her mentor or turning her back on thousands of working-class families who stand to lose everything.

It’s 1982, New York City. Crime is on the rise, muggings are in the streets, and Batter Gray, a recent college graduate, is worried about his future. While his friends have real jobs, he’s folding T-shirts at the Gap. As for love? No. Not unless you count Sallie Mae, the student loan tyrant he hears from all the time. But when Batter gets a dream job at Peck & Peck, the most prestigious poetry quarterly in the world, his life moves into the literary fast lane. Soon Batter is knee-deep in the secret war between the two Editors in Chief, the famous Peck brothers --- twins and enemies --- as well as being privy to the private affairs of their 39 editors, whose professed mission is the same: Find originality. Reward creativity. Burn the rest. And by burn, they mean incinerate.

When Simone Hartwell’s college ex and first love, Kwame, resurfaces in her life, her carefully constructed domestic bliss threatens to crumble under the weight of old feelings and new dramas. Kwame, who built the journalism career Simone once dreamed of, is investigating a decades-old mystery of a young Black man who disappeared from The Tate School --- the same elite prep school that her husband’s family has attended for generations. When he discovers a startling connection to the Hartwells, it sets everyone on a collision course that will unearth long-held secrets, test loyalties, and force a major reckoning between the past and the future.

Recently laid off and searching for purpose, Jess reluctantly joins her best friend on a supposedly fun nighttime cemetery tour. Separated from her group by accident, she discovers a bunch of terrified boys and a strange, ancient key. Both lead to Green-Wood Cemetery’s surprisingly handsome resident arborist, Adam Chervinsky. Still dealing with the loss of their mother, Adam’s children are acting strangely. A haunting is afoot, and Jess seems to know more than she’s letting on. Sparks fly between Jess and Adam --- and the unquiet spirits of Green-Wood rise from their century-long slumber. As Jess and Adam delve deeper into the cemetery’s haunted history, they uncover a Gilded Age curse, a ghostly socialite, and a demonic pact that stretches across generations.

Owein arrives in England to marry Lady Cora of Leiningen, his dearest friend and confidante he’s known mostly through letters. However, Queen Victoria has other plans in store for the centuries-old wizard. The queen is obsessed with preserving magic, and she believes Owein is the key to pursuing her lofty ambitions. Torn from his family, his home and his betrothed, Owein is pushed into the Queen’s League of Magicians, where he learns that the Crown’s upheaval of his life is only the beginning of his problems. Meanwhile, Cora must push aside her broken heart and use her own spells and resources to uncover truths that the queen wants hidden. As new threats, former loves, untapped spells and even older souls than Owein collide, his next choice could be his last.