After the sudden death of his wife, Tom Kennedy believes that a fresh start will help him and his young son, Jake, heal. But the town of Featherbank has a dark past. Twenty years ago, a serial killer abducted and murdered five residents. Until Frank Carter was finally caught, he was nicknamed "The Whisper Man," for he would lure his victims out by whispering at their windows at night. Just as Tom and Jake settle into their new home, a young boy vanishes. His disappearance bears an unnerving resemblance to Carter's crimes, reigniting old rumors that he preyed with an accomplice. Now, detectives Amanda Beck and Pete Willis must find the boy before it is too late. And then Jake begins acting strangely. He hears a whispering at his window...

Charles is destined to succeed his father as an esteemed professor of history at Harvard, until an unorthodox lecture about faith leads him to ministry. How, then, can he fall in love with Lily after she tells him with certainty that she will never believe in God? James, the youngest son in a hardscrabble Chicago family, spent much of his youth angry at his alcoholic father and avoiding his anxious mother. Nan grew up in Mississippi, the devout and beloved daughter of a minister and a debutante. James' escape from his desperate circumstances leads him to Nan, and, despite his skepticism of hope in all its forms, her gentle, constant faith changes the course of his life. In THE DEARLY BELOVED, we follow these two couples through decades of love and friendship, jealousy and understanding, forgiveness and commitment.

Tikka Malloy was 11 and one-sixth years old during the long, hot, Australian summer of 1992. The TV news in the background chattered with debate about the exoneration of Lindy (“dingo took my baby”) Chamberlain. That summer was when the Van Apfel sisters --- Ruth, Hannah and the beautiful Cordelia --- mysteriously disappeared. Did they just run far away from their harsh, evangelical parents, or were they taken? While the search for the girls united the small community, the mystery of their disappearance was never solved, and Tikka and her older sister, Laura, have been haunted ever since by the loss of their friends and playmates. Now, years later, Tikka has returned home to try to make sense of that strange moment in time.

Before she became a glamorous fashion designer, Ellie de Florent-Stinson was a trailer-park teen about to turn 16. But a night of birthday celebration doesn’t go exactly as planned and descends into a night she’ll never be able to forget. Now, on the cusp of her 40th birthday, it appears Ellie has everything she ever wanted. Except everything is not quite as perfect as it looks on the outside, as Ellie is keeping many secrets. Hiding those skeletons has a cost, and it all comes to a head the night of her fabulous birthday party in the desert. Old and new friends and frenemies, stepdaughters and business partners, ex-wives and ex-husbands congregate, and the glittering facade of Ellie’s life begins to crumble.

Amy Whey's sweet, uncomplicated life begins to unravel when the mysterious and alluring Angelica Roux arrives on her doorstep one night. Amy knows that something wicked has come her way --- a she-devil in a pricey red sports car who seems to know the terrible truth about who she is and what she once did. Roux tells Amy that if she doesn’t give her what she asks for --- what she deserves --- she’s going to make Amy pay for her sins. To protect herself and her family, and save the life she’s built, Amy must beat the devil at her own clever game, matching wits with Roux in an escalating war of hidden pasts and unearthed secrets. Amy knows the consequences if she can’t beat Roux. What terrifies her is everything she could lose if she wins.

After a very public fight with her husband, Caroline Stark realizes that her life may not be as perfect as it seems: her husband is lying to her, money is disappearing, and there’s a stranger on the beach outside her house. As Caroline’s marriage and her carefully constructed lifestyle begin to collapse around her, she turns to the stranger, Aidan, for comfort…and revenge. After a brief and desperate fling, Aidan’s infatuation with Caroline, her family and her house becomes more and more destructive. But who is manipulating whom in this deadly game of obsession and control? Who will take the blame when someone ends up dead…and what is Caroline hiding?

Sloane, Ardie, Grace and Rosalita have worked at Truviv, Inc. for years. The sudden death of Truviv’s CEO means that their boss, Ames, will likely take over the entire company. Each of the women has a different relationship with Ames, who has always been surrounded by whispers about how he treats women. Those whispers have been ignored, but the world has changed, and the women are watching this promotion differently. This time, when they find out that Ames is making an inappropriate move on a colleague, they aren’t willing to let it go. Sloane and her colleagues’ decision to take a stand sets in motion a catastrophic shift in the office. Lies will be uncovered. Secrets will be exposed. And not everyone will survive.

In the 1980s, famed New Yorker writer Henry Grey and his poet wife Tillie throw Cape Cod’s most unmissable party each summer’s end, a legendary fête for the literary elite. Twenty-five-year-old aspiring writer Eve Rosen finagles her way into this Gatsbyesque orbit, which is completely different from her conventional, Jewish upbringing. But moving into one sphere means leaving another behind, and as Eve tries to negotiate the differences between her family values and this glittering world, she learns the risks of unbridled ambition and the importance of making her own choices about who she wants to be.

Recently widowed Eveleth “Evvie” Drake rarely leaves her house nearly a year after her husband’s death. Everyone in town, even her best friend, Andy, thinks grief keeps her locked inside, and Evvie doesn’t correct them. Meanwhile, Dean Tenney, former Major League pitcher and Andy’s childhood best friend, is wrestling with what miserable athletes living out their worst nightmares call the “yips”: he can’t throw straight anymore, and, even worse, he can’t figure out why. When he moves into an apartment at the back of Evvie’s house, the two make a deal: Dean won’t ask about Evvie’s late husband, and Evvie won’t ask about Dean’s baseball career. What starts as an unexpected friendship soon turns into something more.

In 1940, 19-year-old Vivian Morris has just been kicked out of Vassar College, owing to her lackluster freshman-year performance. Her affluent parents send her to Manhattan to live with her Aunt Peg, who owns a flamboyant, crumbling midtown theater called the Lily Playhouse. There Vivian is introduced to an entire cosmos of unconventional and charismatic characters. But when she makes a personal mistake that results in professional scandal, it turns her new world upside down in ways that it will take her years to fully understand. Now 89 years old and telling her story at last, Vivian recalls how the events of those years altered the course of her life --- and the gusto and autonomy with which she approached it.