Desperate to escape the ghosts of his failed marriage, Cole leaves London behind for a remote stretch of coast, relishing the respite from the noise, drama and relentless careerism that curdled his relationship and mental health. Leonora has made the same move for similar reasons. She’s living a short walk from Cole’s seaside cottage, preparing for her latest art exhibition. The pair forges a connection on the eroding bluff they call home. Then two young women activists raising awareness about gendered violence disappear while passing through. Cole and Leonora find themselves in the middle of a police investigation and the resulting media firestorm when the world learns of what happened. They quickly realize that they don’t know each other that well after all.

If you're lucky enough to get that bonus time, what are you going to do with it? For Glenda, Harmony and Jan, it's heading south to age feistily in side-by-side townhouses on St. Simons Island. One minute, they're just out of college and working together in Marshbury, Massachusetts. The next, they're using their golden parachutes to land just south of Savannah on the Golden Isles. They're ready for reinvention, not withering on the vine. Plus all this ageism is getting really old. So they hatch a plan to take care of Butt, the dishonest, lecherous head of their HOA. To ramp up their supershero skills, they get jobs working as role players at FLETC, the massive, hot-guy-filled Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. Because age is just a number when you’re taking names and kicking butt.

When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge Mountains. But in the aftermath of Ruby’s death, her adopted son, Camden, wants little to do with the house or the money --- and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Ten years later, his uncle’s death pulls Camden and his wife, Jules, back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but the legacy of Ruby is inescapable. And as Ashby House tightens its grip on Camden and Jules, questions about the infamous heiress come to light.

When 19-year-old Jill Moss goes missing near the Utah-Arizona border, everyone has an opinion. Only Norma Gallagher, a search-and-rescue volunteer, knows the real story. Norma already has found Jill, huddled in a cave and terrified that her abusive boyfriend, Jake, will kill her. To protect Jill from a dangerous man, Norma quietly delivers the girl to her grateful parents in California, even though she’s conflicted. Keeping Jill safe and hidden from Jake, the press and the public will be their secret. Five years later, the disappearance stirs a new media frenzy when Jake is arrested for the murder of Jill Moss --- and Norma knows he didn’t kill her. As Jake is about to stand trial, lust for retribution inflames public opinion, and Jill’s family refuses to come forward, forcing Norma to make a life-changing decision.

When eight-year-old Kathy Stone turns up on the side of the road a year after her abduction, the world awaits her harrowing story. But she doesn’t speak at all, not even to her own parents. Child therapist Robin Hart is the only one who’s had success connecting with the girl. Robin has been using play therapy to help Kathy process her memories. But as their work continues, Kathy’s playtime takes a grim turn: a doll stabs another doll, a tiny figurine is chained to a plastic toy couch. All of these horrifying moments, enacted within a Victorian doll house. Every session, another toy dies. But the most disturbing detail? Kathy seems to be playacting real unsolved murders. Soon Robin wonders if Kathy not only holds the key to the murders of the past but if she knows something about the murders of the future.

Maine, 1789: The Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice. Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine the cause of death. As the local midwife and healer, Martha is good at keeping secrets. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, every murder and debacle that unfolds in the town of Hallowell. In that diary she also documented the details of an alleged rape that occurred four months earlier. Now, one of the men accused of that heinous attack has been found dead in the ice. While Martha is certain she knows what happened the night of the assault, she suspects that the two crimes are linked. Over the course of one long, hard winter, Martha’s diary lands at the center of the scandal and threatens to tear both her family and her community apart.

After losing her beloved fiancé in an accident three years earlier, Lady Petra Forsyth announces in front of London’s loosest lips that she will never marry. A woman of independent means, Petra sees no reason to cede her wealth and freedom to any man now that the love of her life is gone. Instead, she plans to continue enjoying the best of society without any expectations. But when ballroom gossip suggests that a longtime friend has died of a fit due to her “melancholia” while in the care of a questionable physician, Petra vows to use her status to dig deeper --- uncovering a private asylum where men pay to have their wives and daughters locked away, or worse. Just as Petra has reason to believe her friend is alive, a shocking murder proves that more danger is afoot than she thought.

When Rivkah Milmanovitch arrives at Ellis Island, her husband is not waiting for her as promised. Alone and pregnant, she makes her way to the Lower East Side tenement of an old friend. Lottie Aarons, whose husband went out for a newspaper and never returned, takes Rivkah in, and they work side-by-side in dispiriting sweatshops. Rivkah gives birth to a daughter, Mimi, determined that her child will have a better life in America. Frederick Winthrop, a slum landlord, lives in one of Fifth Avenue‘s sumptuous mansions --- and preys on young girls. When he serendipitously meets 15-year-old Mimi, she is easily seduced, and her life takes an unexpected turn. But as she rises to international fame, she must struggle with the secrets of her past and protect those she loves.

Amanda Cole is a brilliant young CIA officer following in the footsteps of her father, who was a spy during the Cold War. One hot summer day, a Russian defector warns of the imminent assassination of a US senator. Though Amanda takes the warning seriously, her superiors don’t. Twenty-four hours later, the senator is dead. And the assassination is just the beginning. Corporate blackmail, covert manipulation, corrupt oligarchs: the Kremlin has found a dangerous new way to wage war. Teaming up with Kath Frost, a fearless older woman and legendary spy, Amanda races to unravel the international conspiracy. But as she gets closer and closer to the truth, a central question haunts her: Why was her father’s name written down in the senator’s notes? What does Charlie Cole really know about the Kremlin plot?

Dogs have been considered people’s best friend for thousands of years, but never has the relationship between humans and their canine companions been as vitally important as it is today. With all of the seismic shifts in today’s world, rates of anxiety and depression have been skyrocketing, and people have been turning to their dogs for solace and stability. In the United States alone, dog adoptions doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic. As people have brought furry friends into their lives for the first time or seized this opportunity to deepen the connections they already have, they are looking to understand how owning a dog can change their lives. Now, THE PUREST BOND explores the benefits our dogs can have on our physical, emotional, cognitive and social well-being, often without our realizing it.