In the dazzling glitter of 1900 Vienna, Adele Bloch-Bauer meets painter Gustav Klimt. Though they enjoy a life where sex and art are just beginning to break through the façade of conventional society, the city is also exhibiting a disturbing increase in anti-Semitism, as political hatred foments in the shadows of Adele’s coffee house afternoons and cultural salons. Nearly 40 years later, Adele’s niece Maria Altmann is a newlywed when the Nazis invade Austria. When her husband is arrested and her family is forced out of their home, Maria must summon the courage and resilience that is her aunt’s legacy if she is to survive and keep her family --- and their history --- alive.

In 1950, Ingrid Bergman has a baby out of wedlock with her Italian lover, film director Roberto Rossellini. Previously held up as an icon of purity, Bergman's fall shocked her legions of American fans. Growing up in Hollywood, Jessica Malloy watches as her PR executive father helps make Ingrid a star. Over years of fleeting interactions with the actress, Jesse comes to idolize Ingrid. In a heated era of McCarthyism and extreme censorship, Ingrid's affair sets off an international scandal that robs 17-year-old Jesse of her childhood hero. When the stress placed on Jesse's father begins to reveal hidden truths about the Malloy family, Jesse's eyes are opened to the complex realities of life --- and love.

Thomas Kell thought he was done with spying. A former MI6 officer, he devoted his life to the Service, but it has left him with nothing but grief and a simmering anger against the Kremlin. Then Kell is offered an unexpected chance at revenge. Taking the law into his own hands, he embarks on a mission to recruit a top Russian spy who is in possession of a terrifying secret. As Kell tracks his man from Moscow to London, he finds himself in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse, in which it becomes increasingly difficult to know who is playing whom. As the mission reaches its boiling point, the threat of a catastrophic terrorist attack looms over Britain. Kell is faced with an impossible choice: loyalty to MI6, or to his own conscience?

When the man who raped Scottsdale PI Lena Jones as a nine-year-old foster child is released from prison, Lena is waiting for him in the parking lot --- with a big knife. "Papa" Brian Wycoff survives their meeting, but the next day, his wife is found dead in their home. Terrified he will be next, Wycoff takes shelter in an RV on his brother-in-law's small ranch. A couple of days later, he is found tortured to death. When Lena takes up the case, her conscience is torn. Does a serial child rapist really deserve justice? That choice might not be left up to Lena when members of a local group, Parents of Missing Children, start working to prevent her investigation from succeeding. How far will they go to make sure she fails?

Piet Barol was a tutor before he came to South Africa, his wife, Stacey, an opera singer. In Cape Town they are living the high life, impersonating French aristocrats --- but their lies are catching up with them. The Barols’ furniture business is on the verge of collapse, and they need cheap, top-quality wood. Piet enlists two Xhosa men to lead him into a vast forest, in search of a fabled tree. He’s sure he’ll be able to buy what he needs for a few glass trinkets. But he’s underestimating the Xhosa, who believe the spirits of their ancestors live in this sacred forest. Battle lines are drawn. When Piet’s powers of persuasion fail him, he resorts to darker, more dangerous talents to get what he is determined to have.

Thomas McNulty, aged barely 17 and having fled the Great Famine in Ireland, signs up for the U.S. Army in the 1850s. With his brother in arms, John Cole, Thomas goes on to fight in the Indian Wars --- against the Sioux and the Yurok --- and, ultimately, the Civil War. Orphans of terrible hardships themselves, the men find these days to be vivid and alive, despite the horrors they see and are complicit in.

A middle-aged Irish immigrant, Billy has a gift for illusion --- making damaged objects look new. His companion, Charles, the smooth-tongued teenage son of a prostitute, is a natural salesman, just like the mythical father he’s never met. Longtime horse traders and partners, they’ve recently turned their talents to trading mules. But in the summer of 1916, these seasoned grifters skilled in the art of the underhanded deal have just been swindled themselves. They’re saddled with the one thing they may not be able to unload: a gorgeous, murderous black mare named The Midnight Cool.

With direct threats from Australia’s warring Right and the Left having quieted, wealthy Rowland Sinclair and his group of bohemian friends are on their way home to Sydney via New York after a lengthy stay in Europe. The wealthy Sinclair scion has treated his artist friends to first-class accommodations on the Cunard ship, the luxury liner of the day. Also on board are some members of the Theosophical Society, as well as an aggressively conservative Irish Catholic Bishop and his cohorts. Their clash ups the tensions in first class and presents the liner’s captain with a tricky situation when bodies start to drop.

When Major William Russell’s valet knocks on his bedroom door the morning after the 1909 New Year’s Ball and receives no response, he and the Major’s elderly secretary eventually task the English Commandant of Cavalry with breaking it down. The Resident is dead in his bed. The fabulously wealthy Maharaja, Sikander Singh, cannot resist an enigma. Wielding careful and deliberate logic to crack puzzles that leave less intelligent men confounded, he overcomes obstacles, false trails, and the growing hostility of the English Establishment. Will the Maharaja work through a surplus of suspects and motives before the British shut him down and cover up the truth about the Major’s death?

Elmwood Springs, Missouri, is a small town like any other, but something strange is happening at the cemetery. Still Meadows, as it’s called, is anything but still. THE WHOLE TOWN’S TALKING tells the story of Lordor Nordstrom, his Swedish mail-order bride, Katrina, and their neighbors and descendants as they live, love, die, and carry on in mysterious and surprising ways. Nordstrom created, in his wisdom, not only a lively town and a prosperous legacy for himself but also a beautiful final resting place for his family, friends and neighbors yet to come. “Resting place” turns out to be a bit of a misnomer, however. Odd things begin to happen, and it starts the whole town talking.