Travis Devine has become a pro at accomplishing any mission he's given. But this time it’s not his skills that send him to Seattle to aid the FBI in escorting orphaned, 12-year-old Betsy Odom to a meeting with her uncle, who’s under investigation for RICO charges. Instead, he’s hoping to lay low and keep off the radar of an enemy --- the girl on the train. But as Devine gets to know Betsy, questions begin to arise around the death of her parents. Devine digs for answers, and what he finds points to a conspiracy bigger than he ever could’ve imagined. It finally might be time for Devine and the girl on the train to come face to face. Devine is going to find out the difference between his friends and his enemies --- and in some cases, they might well be both.

When the Southern Reach trilogy was first published a decade ago, it was an instant sensation. Each volume climbed the bestseller list; awards were won; the books made the rare transition from paperback original to hardcover; the movie adaptation became a cult classic. And yet, for Jeff VanderMeer, there was never full closure to the story of Area X. There were a few mysteries that had gone unsolved, some key points of view never aired. There were stories left to tell. Structured in three parts, each recounting a new expedition, ABSOLUTION is a brilliant, beautiful and ever-terrifying plunge into unique and fertile literary territory. There are some long-awaited answers here, to be sure, but also more questions and profound new surprises.

These new, recent and reformulated stories by Joyce Carol Oates, collected here for the first time, showcase a wide range of crime fiction and psychological suspense. A young, insecure woman finds her relationship changing as she grows more and more dependent on a man who likes to take her on long walks beside a dangerously roaring creek. Another woman, nervous around men, not quite knowing how to act when paid a compliment, becomes flustered when a doctor suggests they go out for coffee, or possibly a drink. She finally decides that she will join him when he suggests they meet at his home. A man is so forgetful that his wife panics and yells into his phone, asking where their daughter has gone. A woman resents that a colleague has achieved greater success and thinks she ought to do something about it.

Retired intelligence operative Brad Trasker heads security at a remote aerospace facility when there’s a major breach. A photo of their top-secret AI-designed hydrogen engine has surfaced online. Trasker’s investigation into who did it soon leads to a start-up in Bangkok, where its three software developers have disappeared, along with nearly a million dollars in investment money. Following their tracks, Trasker hits a dead end. The start-up’s HQ is a padlocked crime scene. No one --- not the cagey locals, the mobbed-up gangs or the Royal Thai Police --- is keen on answering Trasker’s questions. But their message is clear: get out of Bangkok or die. Hunted by assassins, Trasker is drawn into the same complex high-tech underworld of cryptocurrency, digital espionage and betrayal that swallowed up the runaway coders.

Gemma Guillory has lived in the Australian Outback enclave of Rainier her entire life. Her once charming town is now remembered for one reason and one reason only: three innocent people died there at the hands of a serial killer. The last stop on the Rainier Ripper’s trail of deaths 15 years ago was her picturesque little tea shop. She knows that the consequences of catching the Ripper still haunt her policeman husband and their marriage to this day, and some of her neighbors are desperate enough to welcome a dark tourism company keen to cash in on Rainier’s notoriety as the “Murder Town.” When the tour guide is killed by a Ripper copycat on Gemma’s doorstep, the unease that has lurked quietly in the original killer’s wake explodes into the light, and Gemma is drawn into the investigation.

With a number of hit titles and a highly anticipated movie tie-in, celebrated novelist Columbia Jones is at the top of her game. Fans around the world adore her. But on the final night of her latest book tour, one face in the crowd makes the author collapse. And by the next morning, she’s lying dead in a pool of blood. Columbia’s death shocks the world and leaves Darian, her daughter and publicist, reeling. The police have nothing to go on --- at first. But then details emerge, pointing to the author’s illicit past. It turns out many people had motive to kill Columbia. And with a hungry reporter and frustrated cop on the trail, her secrets won’t stay buried long. But how many lives will they shatter as the truth comes out?

On a sunny morning in June, Margaret Carpenter wakes up to find a new iPhone on her doorstep. She switches it on to find a text from her best friend, Charity Atwater. The problem is, Charity has been missing for over a month. Most people in town --- even the police --- think she’s dead. Margaret and Charity have been lifelong friends. They share everything and know the most intimate details about one another. Except for the destructive secret hidden from them both. A secret that will trigger a chain of events ending in tragedy, bloodshed and death. And now Charity wants Margaret to know her story --- the real story. In a narrative that takes place over one feverish day, Margaret follows a series of increasingly disquieting breadcrumbs as she forges deeper into the mystery of her best friend --- a person she never truly knew at all.

When professor turned crime-fighter Brandt "Doc" Savage and his girlfriend, Kira Sunlight, land on a desert island in the middle of the Atlantic, they think they've found a perfect utopia. An escape from their tumultuous pasts. But they don't have long to enjoy their newfound peace before they are violently separated and dragged to opposite ends of the Earth. Doc's search for Kira takes him from the coast of Brazil to northern Europe and the jungles of the Congo, and he discovers they are entangled in a global conspiracy that is bigger than he ever could have imagined.

Welcome to Eris: an island with only one house, one inhabitant, one way out. Unreachable from the Scottish mainland for 12 hours each day. Once home to Vanessa, a famous artist whose notoriously unfaithful husband disappeared 20 years ago. Now home to Grace, a solitary creature of the tides, content in her own isolation. But when a shocking discovery is made in an art gallery far away in London, a visitor comes calling. And the secrets of Eris threaten to emerge.

Cameron Winter is troubled in heart and mind. He’s plagued by memories of his time as a government operative investigating a notorious Turkish sex trafficker. The fact that the mission was left unfinished still haunts him and threatens to tear him apart. In the midst of his painful soul-searching, Winter crosses paths with an ex-flame --- his first love --- and the chance encounter ignites a passion he thought was long lost. But just as soon as she wanders back into Winter’s life, the woman vanishes, leaving Winter scrambling to track her down. His pursuit takes him deep into a world rent by partisan violence, where extremists clash and Winter sides with no one. As he faces his most dangerous case yet, victory might simply mean getting out alive.