Raised in a secluded island mansion deep in the woods and kept isolated by her true crime-obsessed parents, Dahlia Lighthouse is unable to move beyond the disappearance of her twin brother, Andy, when they were 16. After several years away and following her father’s death, Dahlia returns to the house, where the family makes a gruesome discovery: buried in their father’s plot is another body --- Andy’s, his skull split open with an ax. Dahlia is quick to blame Andy’s murder on the serial killer who terrorized the island for decades, while the rest of her family reacts to the revelation in unsettling ways. As Dahlia grapples with her own grief and horror, she realizes that her eccentric family, and the mansion itself, may hold the answers to what happened to her twin.

Born into slavery on the tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat, Doll bought her freedom --- and that of her sister and her mother --- from her Irish planter father and built a legacy of wealth and power as an entrepreneur, merchant, hotelier and planter that extended from the marketplaces and sugar plantations of Dominica and Barbados to a glittering luxury hotel in Demerara on the South American continent. Vanessa Riley’s novel brings Doll to vivid life as she rises above the harsh realities of slavery and colonialism by working the system and leveraging the competing attentions of the men in her life: a restless shipping merchant, Joseph Thomas; a wealthy planter hiding a secret, John Coseveldt Cells; and a roguish naval captain who will later become King William IV of England.

On the day that Thatcher Hutton, a war-weary soldier, arrives in Foley, Texas, a local woman goes missing. Thatcher, the only stranger in town, is suspected of her abduction, and worse. Standing between him and exoneration are a corrupt mayor, a crooked sheriff, a notorious cathouse madam, a sly bootlegger, feuding moonshiners…and a young widow whose soft features conceal an iron will. What was supposed to be a fresh start for Laurel Plummer turns to tragedy. Left destitute but determined to dictate her own future, Laurel plunges into the lucrative regional industry, much to the dislike of the good ol’ boys, who have ruled supreme. Her success quickly makes her a target for cutthroat competitors, whose only code of law is reprisal.

Sheriff Heidi Kick has a dead body on her hands, a homeless young man last seen alive miles from the Bad Axe. Chillingly, the medical examiner confirms what Sheriff Kick has been experiencing in her own reoccurring nightmares of late: the victim was buried alive. As the relentless summer heat bears down and more bodies are discovered, Sheriff Kick also finds herself embroiled in a nasty reelection campaign. These days her detractors call her “Sheriff Mommy,” and as her family troubles become public, vicious rumors threaten to sway the electorate and derail her investigation. Vietnam veteran Leroy Fanta, editor-in-chief of the local paper, believes that Heidi’s strange case might be tied to a reclusive man writing deranged letters to the opinions section for years.

Leigh Collier is an up-and-coming defense attorney and is managing to successfully coparent through a pandemic. But her ordinary life masks a childhood no one should have to endure. On a Sunday night at her daughter’s school play, she gets a call from one of the firm's partners who wants Leigh to come on board to defend a wealthy man accused of multiple counts of rape. When she meets the accused face-to-face, she realizes it’s no coincidence that he’s specifically asked for her to represent him. He may know what happened over 20 years ago, and why Leigh has spent two decades avoiding her past. The only person who can help is her younger, estranged sister Callie --- the last person Leigh would ever want to drag into this after all they’ve been through.

Lawyer Andy Carpenter and his wife, Laurie, enjoy walking their dogs, Tara and Sebastian. When out for one of their strolls, their simple ritual isn’t so simple anymore. Across the street, a man is mistreating his dog. Three things happen at once: Andy yells, Laurie runs to stop the abuse, and so does a closer passerby, who so thoroughly beats the owner that both are arrested when the cops arrive. Andy scoops up the dog and takes him to the Tara Foundation, the dog rescue organization that’s always been his true passion. Meanwhile, at the police station, the passerby is identified as Matthew Jantzen, and he’s wanted for murder. Andy and Laurie are struck by the fact that Jantzen, a man on the run, would nevertheless intervene to help a dog, and decide to find out more.

Marisa Rosso can’t understand why everyone else is getting on with their lives as she still struggles to get over the death of her beloved grandfather. Retreating further and further from normal life, she moves to the remote tidal island of Mount Polbearne, at the foot of Cornwall, hoping for peace and solitude, while carrying on her job as a registrar, dealing with births, weddings and deaths. Unfortunately --- or fortunately? --- the solitude she craves proves elusive. Between her noisy Russian piano-teaching neighbor, the bustle and community spirit of the tiny village struggling back to life after the quarantine, and the pressing need to help save the local bakery, can Marisa find her joy again at the end of the world?

Taryn Moore is young, beautiful and brilliant. So why would she kill herself? When Detective Frankie Loomis arrives on the scene to investigate the girl’s fatal plunge from her apartment balcony, she knows in her gut there’s more to the story. Her instincts are confirmed when surprise information is revealed that could have been reason enough for Taryn’s suicide --- or a motive for her murder. To English professor Jack Dorian, Taryn was the ultimate fantasy: intelligent, adoring and completely off limits. But there was also a dark side to Taryn, a dangerous streak that threatened those to whom she turned her affections --- including Jack. And now that she’s dead, his problems are just beginning. After Frankie uncovers a trove of sordid secrets, it becomes clear that Jack may know the truth.

Ruby Heartwood, a traveling psychic, has always lived a life on the move. She needs no one, and no one needs her. Until one night, when she is camped by the side of the road, a fierce thunder and lightning storm erupts. In the middle of the downpour, she hears a distinct voice telling her to "let me in." In jumps a little black and white dog, and to Ruby's astonishment, she can hear the dog's thoughts. Has she been struck by lightning? Did the storm do this? Is she losing her mind? It turns out that Ruby can hear many dogs' thoughts. She decides to set up semi-permanent residency in the town of Harmony Farms until she can sort out what is going on and who the dog, Hitch, belongs to. But some people in Harmony Farms don't want her there. And it seems that events keep preventing Ruby from leaving.

After discovering her sister Tanya dead on the floor of her fashionable New York City townhouse, Letty Carnahan is certain that the culprit is Tanya’s ex: sleazy real estate entrepreneur Evan Wingfield. So she grabs Tanya’s Mercedes and hits the road with her four-year-old niece, Maya. Letty sheds her old life and checks into an uncertain future at The Murmuring Surf Motel, the winter home of a close-knit flock of retirees and snowbirds who regard this odd-duck newcomer with suspicion and downright hostility. As Letty settles into the motel’s former storage room, she tries to heal Maya’s heartache and unravel the key to her sister’s shady past, all while dodging the attention of the owner’s dangerously attractive son Joe, who just happens to be a local police detective.