Salman Rushdie turns his extraordinary imagination to life’s final act with a quintet of stories that span the three countries in which he has made his work: India, England and America. “In the South” introduces a pair of quarrelsome old men and their private tragedy at a moment of national calamity. In “The Musician of Kahani,” a musical prodigy from the Mumbai neighborhood featured in MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN uses her magical gifts to wreak devastation on the wealthy family she marries into. In “Late,” the ghost of a Cambridge don enlists the help of a lonely student to enact revenge upon the tormentor of his lifetime. “Oklahoma” plunges a young writer into a web of deceit and lies as he tries to figure out whether his mentor killed himself or faked his own death. And “The Old Man in the Piazza” is a powerful parable for our times about freedom of speech.

Madeline and Wes Drake have invited 200 of their closest friends and family to their sprawling horse ranch for the most anticipated event of the year: a “pistols and pearls” gender reveal party so sensational it is sure to make headlines. But the party descends into chaos when the celebratory explosive misfires, leaving one woman dead and a trail of secrets. As the aftershocks of the bloody party ripple across the small town, Agent Jamie Saldano is brought on the scene to investigate. Battling his own demons from the past, Saldano unearths a web of deceit spun around the Drakes. The appearance of some unexpected houseguests only deepens the mystery. And as tensions mount, it becomes clear that the explosion wasn’t just an unlucky accident. But who was the target, and why? 

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a solid citizen named Owen McKay suddenly went mad and killed his wife and child. Locked in a padded cell and monitored on video, he was nonetheless discovered dead from a projectile fired into his head. As Cameron Winter begins to ask questions, he finds that Tulsa officials have been intimidated into silence by a killer who once tried to attack Winter during his days as a government assassin. What’s more, another mysterious death --- just like McKay’s --- has taken place in Connecticut. And both murders seem linked to a sinister billionaire who once clashed with Winter’s old mentor, the Recruiter. Winter’s past and present are coming together in a single dangerous conspiracy.

El Paso, Texas: Rebecca Carter awoke on a morgue table with only two desires: to find her daughter, Moonflower, and to sate her gnawing hunger. Rebecca sets out on a desperate quest, fighting her murderous craving for blood and pursued by a vengeful FBI agent. One night, a young man lures Monica Carter through the mountain scrub with the scent of human blood, promising that he and his little brother will feed her and keep her safe. Somehow they know her nickname --- Moonflower --- and the truth of what she is. Can she trust them? When FBI Special Agent Sarah McGrath learns that Rebecca’s body has disappeared from the morgue, she’s on the next plane to El Paso. Rebecca is responsible for the death of her partner, and McGrath wants answers. But she never expected them to come from a shadowy figure within the Bureau.

New Year’s Eve, 1932. Hercule Poirot and Inspector Edward Catchpool arrive on the tiny Greek island of Lamperos to celebrate the holiday with what turns out to be a rather odd community of locals living in a dilapidated house. A dark sense of foreboding overshadows the beautiful island getaway when the guests play a New Year’s Resolutions game after dinner, and one written resolution gleefully threatens to perform “the last and first death of the year.” Hours later, one of the home’s residents is found dead on the terrace. In light of the shocking murder, Poirot reveals to Catchpool the real reason he’s brought him to the island --- the life of another community member has been threatened. Now both men resolve to ensure that the first murder will be the last.

Shannon Wells is a private investigator who helps women with nowhere else to go. Last year, a woman named Faith Selby came to Shannon with a strange request: Find out who I really am. Shannon soon discovered that Faith was hiding a whole other life, but was unable to penetrate the web of mystery the woman had built around her past. Now Faith is dead. The only clue to who she was and why she was murdered is an old photograph of a little girl in the rain outside a Midwestern motel. The hunt for answers takes Shannon from the hot beaches of Florida to a remote small town in Michigan as she peels away layer after layer of a shocking cold case that has rippled violently into the present. With each secret she uncovers, the danger around her grows --- and forces Shannon to confront the demons hiding in her own past.

The human crew sent to prepare the first colony on Mars arrives to find the new base half-destroyed and the three robots sent to set it up in disarray. The machines have formed alliances, chosen their own names, and picked up some disturbing beliefs. Each must be interrogated. But one of them is missing. In this barren, hostile landscape where even machines have nightmares, the astronauts will need to examine all the stories --- especially their own --- to get to the truth.

Henry Hotard was on the verge of fame, gaining a following and traction with his eerie ghost-hunting videos. Then his dreams came to a screeching halt. Now, he's learning to navigate a new life in a wheelchair, back on the reservation where he grew up. And he’s being haunted. His girlfriend, Jade, insists he just needs time to adjust to his new reality as a quadriplegic, that it’s his traumatized mind playing tricks on him, but Henry knows better. As the specter haunting him creeps closer each night, Henry battles to find a way to endure, to rid himself of the horror stalking him. Worried that this dread might plague him forever, he realizes the only way to exile his phantom is by confronting his troubled past and going back to the events that led to his injury. It all started when he whistled at night.

Author Kara Parsons is at a book signing in the town where she was raised. Before it’s over, a young girl approaches with a copy of Kara’s book containing a handwritten inscription: I am a missing child. Most people would alert the police, but Kara knows what happens to the young and vulnerable when the system fails them. She turns to her former therapist, Arles Shepherd, who finds something off about this girl who refuses to reveal her own name. What is she running from? And how much of what she says can be believed? When a man with a gun manages to locate Arles’ remote wilderness home, the true threat is revealed, and Arles and Kara go on the run. But to save this child, Arles must allow her to be found. And that’s when the real danger begins.

In early 1985, Michael J. Fox’s days were already dedicated to rehearsing and taping the hit sitcom “Family Ties,” but then the chance of a lifetime came his way. Soon, he committed his nights to a new time-travel adventure film being directed by Robert Zemeckis and produced by Steven Spielberg --- Back to the Future. Fox’s nightly commute from a soundstage at Paramount to the back lot at Universal Studios, from one dream job to another, would become his own space-time continuum. In FUTURE BOY, Fox tells the remarkable story of playing two landmark roles at the same time. Using new interviews with the cast and crew of both projects, the result is a vividly drawn and eye-opening story of creative achievement by a beloved icon.