Chet the dog and P.I. Bernie are both music lovers. So when Lotty Pilgrim, a country singer from long ago, turns up at a local bar, they drive out to catch her act. Bernie is surprised to see someone who was once so big performing in such a dive, and drops a C-note the Little Detective Agency can’t afford to part with into the tip jar. The C-note is stolen right from under their noses, and before the night is over, it’s stolen again. Soon they’re working the most puzzling case of their career, a case that takes them back in time in search of old border-town secrets, and into present-day danger where powerful people want those secrets to stay hidden.

Inside a pristine home in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains, Zane Bigelow has learned to keep secrets. Strangers see his parents as a successful surgeon and his stylish wife, proud of their children. Only Zane and his sister know the terrible truth. Dominated by his father's rages --- and his mother's complicity --- Zane fears for his and little Britt's lives. Still he maintains the insidious lie that all is fine, while scribbling his real thoughts in a secret journal he must carefully hide away. Now, as a grown man struggling to build a new life, Zane will find that while his past may always shadow him, it will also show him that love and goodness can triumph --- and give him strength to draw on when he once again must stand up and defend himself and the woman he loves.

For Alice, life has never been better. With her second husband, she has a successful business, two children and a beautiful house. Alice knows that life could have been different if her first husband had lived, but Nathan’s arrival into her life gave her back the happiness she craved. Through the ups and downs of life, from celebratory nights out to comforting each other through loss, Alice knows that with her best friend Beth by her side, they can survive anything together. So when Nathan starts acting strangely, Alice turns to Beth for help. But soon, Alice begins to wonder if her trust has been misplaced.

Growing up in 1950s Detroit, Jo and Bethie Kaufman live in a perfect “Dick and Jane” house, where their roles in the family are clearly defined. But the truth ends up looking different from what the girls imagined. As their lives unfold against the background of free love and Vietnam, Woodstock and women’s lib, Bethie becomes an adventure-loving wild child who dives headlong into the counterculture and is up for anything (except settling down). Meanwhile, Jo becomes a proper young mother in Connecticut, a witness to the changing world instead of a participant. Neither woman inhabits the world she dreams of, nor has a life that feels authentic or brings her joy. Is it too late for them to finally stake a claim on happily ever after?

OUR SYMPHONY WITH ANIMALS is the first book by a physician to show how deeply the well-being of humans and animals are entwined. Interwoven throughout is Dr. Aysha Akhtar’s own story of being a young girl who was bullied in school and sexually abused by her uncle. Feeling abandoned by humanity, it was only when she met Sylvester, a dog who also had been abused, that she found strength for both of them. Against the backdrop of her inspiring story, Dr. Akhtar asks: What do we gain when we recognize our kinship with animals? She travels around the country to tell the stories of a varied cast of characters --- including a former mobster, an industrial chicken farmer and a Marine veteran --- and comes face to face with a serial killer.

Beekeeper Holly McNee Jensen quietly lives in a world of her own on Sullivan’s Island, tending her hives and working at the local island library. Holly calls her mother The Queen Bee because she’s a demanding hulk of a woman. Her mother, a devoted hypochondriac, might be unaware that she’s quite ill, but that doesn’t stop her from tormenting Holly. To escape the drama, Holly’s sister Leslie married and moved away, wanting little to do with island life. Holly’s escape is to submerge herself in the lives of the two young boys next door and their widowed father, Archie. Her world is upended when the more flamboyant Leslie returns, and both sisters, polar opposites, fixate on what’s happening in their neighbor’s home.

THE YANKEE WIDOW is the story of Caroline, the young wife and childhood sweetheart of Jacob, who together live on a farm raising their daughter, Rachel, just outside of Gettysburg. When Jacob joins the Northern army to do his duty and help save the Union, no one anticipates he will not return. Caroline gets news that he is wounded and has been taken to Washington, DC, with his regiment, and so she must find her way there and navigate the thousands of other wounded soldiers to find him. Thus begins this novel that focuses on the strong women and men of both sides and both races who sacrificed so much and loved so well during this critical juncture in American history.

THINGS MY SON NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT THE WORLD collects the personal dispatches from the front lines of one of the most daunting experiences any man can face: fatherhood. As he conveys his profound awe at experiencing all the “firsts” that fill him with wonder and catch him completely unprepared, Fredrik Backman doesn’t shy away from revealing his own false steps and fatherly flaws, tackling issues both great and small, from masculinity and mid-life crises to practical jokes and poop. In between the sleep-deprived lows and wonderful highs, Backman takes a step back to share the true story of falling in love with a woman who is his complete opposite, and learning to live a life that revolves around the people you care about unconditionally.

Suffocating in a dead-end marriage, Midwesterner Zoey Sullivan fled to New York and moved in with her older sister Ruth, a carefree, vivacious beauty with a string of eligible bachelors at her beck and call. When Zoey meets reclusive millionaire Tristan Malloy, she’s blown away by his kitchen and charmed by his impeccable gentlemanly manners. But despite his firm body, handsome looks and piles of cash, Tristan is shy and more than a little socially awkward. Zoey is sure that Tristan has all the right raw ingredients --- and she’s the right person to spice them up and turn him into a delectable dish. But Zoey is unprepared for just how well her makeover works.

On a sunny morning in late September, Shannon Blaine sets off for a jog along the rural roads near her home in Lake George, New York. It’s her usual a.m. routine, her “me time” after dropping the kids off at school…except on this day she never returns. Is her husband lying when he says he has no clue where she is? Could Shannon have split on her own, overwhelmed by the pressures of her life? Or is she the victim of a sexual predator who had been prowling the area and snatched her before she knew what was happening? True crime writer Bailey Weggins heads north from New York City to report on the mysterious disappearance. An anonymous tip soon leads her to a grisly, bone-chilling discovery.