Every week for 20 years, three friends meet in a leafy enclosure under the Verrazzano Bridge: Gertie, a feisty Norwegian divorcée and former athlete; Maria, a family-obsessed Italian American widow; and Corinna, a book-loving, hash-smoking eccentric. Together they sit and watch the sea as the ships --- and the last years of their lives --- sail by. On the eve of Gertie’s 80th birthday, they realize that time is running out. Gertie decides she wants to travel the world. Maria secretly plots to reunite Gertie and Corinna with their estranged families. And Corinna falls in love. As the three women strike out in different directions, a series of events unfolds that threatens to destroy the most precious thing of all: their friendship.

Charlotte Lucas has made an unfortunate marriage to the loquacious William Collins, reckoning that his tedious conversation is a small price to pay for the prosperous home and family she hopes to gain. However, trouble brews within the first months of marriage, and she is upset and angered by his presumptuous tendency to interfere with her friendships. To ease the strain of their relationship, Charlotte leaves her husband to visit the fashionable city of Bath with several women companions. Although the marital frost between Charlotte and William begins to thaw, that tranquility lasts only briefly, for events in Bath have resulted in an unfortunate, even calamitous, consequence. Charlotte devises a solution to the advantage of all that combines bold connivance and compassionate duplicity.

Fifteen-year-old equestrian prodigy Roan Montgomery has only ever known two worlds: inside the riding arena, and outside of it. Both, for as long as she can remember, have been ruled by her father, who demands strict obedience in all areas of her life. The warped power dynamic of coach and rider extends far beyond the stables, and Roan's relationship with her father has long been inappropriate. She has been able to compartmentalize that dark aspect of her life, ruthlessly focusing on her ambitions as a rider heading for the Olympics, just as her father had done. However, her developing relationship with Will Howard, a boy her own age, broadens the scope of her vision.

Bridey Kelly has come to Greenway House, the beloved holiday home of Agatha Christie, in disgrace. A terrible mistake at St. Prisca’s Hospital in London has led to her dismissal as a nurse trainee, and her only chance for redemption is a position in the countryside caring for children evacuated to safety from the Blitz. Greenway is a beautiful home full of riddles, but the biggest mystery might be the other nurse, Gigi, who is like no one Bridey has ever met. When a body washes ashore near the estate, Bridey is horrified to realize this is a victim not of war, but of a brutal killing. As the local villagers look among themselves, Bridey and Gigi discover they each harbor dangerous secrets about what has led them to Greenway.

Every night, as Faye puts her daughters to bed, she thinks of her own mother, Jeanie, who died when she was eight. The pain of that loss has never left her, and that’s why she wants her own girls to know how very much they are loved by her --- and always will be, whatever happens. Then one day, Faye gets her heart’s desire when she is whisked back into the past and is reunited not just with her mother but with her own younger self. Jeanie doesn’t recognize grown-up Faye as her daughter, but the two women become close friends and share all kinds of secrets --- except for the deepest secret of all, the secret of who Faye really is. Faye worries that telling the truth may prevent her from being able to return to the present day, to her dear husband and beloved daughters.

In Baxter’s Beach, Barbados, Lala’s grandmother Wilma tells the story of the one-armed sister. It’s a cautionary tale, about what happens to girls who disobey their mothers and go into the Baxter’s Tunnels. When she’s grown, Lala lives on the beach with her husband, Adan, a petty criminal with endless charisma whose thwarted burglary of one of the beach mansions sets off a chain of events with terrible consequences. A gunshot no one was meant to witness. A new mother whose baby is found lifeless on the beach. A woman torn between two worlds and incapacitated by grief. And two men driven into the Tunnels by desperation and greed who attempt a crime that will risk their freedom --- and their lives.

Christa Parravani was 40 years old, in a troubled marriage and in bad financial straits when she learned she was pregnant with her third child. Six weeks into the pregnancy, she requested an abortion. And in the weeks and months that followed, nurses and doctors became unavailable to provide Christa with reproductive choice. By the time she understood that she would need to leave West Virginia to obtain a safe, legal abortion, Christa had run out of time. So she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Keats. And another frightening education began: available healthcare was dangerously inadequate to her newborn son’s needs. Indeed, environmental degradations and poor health care endangered Christa’s older children as well.

The annual Halloween block party is the pinnacle of the year on idyllic suburban cul-de-sac Ivy Woods Drive. An influential group of neighborhood moms, known as the Ivy Five, plans the event for months. Except the Ivy Five has been four for a long time. When a new mother moves to town, eager to fit in, the moms see it as an opportunity to make the group whole again. This year’s block party should be the best yet...until the women start receiving anonymous messages threatening to expose the quiet neighborhood’s dark past --- and the lengths they’ve gone to hide it. As secrets seep out and the threats intensify, the Ivy Five must sort the loyal from the disloyal, the good from the bad.

Jo Wright always swore she’d never step foot on Little Bridge Island --- not as long as her nemesis, bestselling author Will Price, is living there. Then Jo is given an offer she can’t refuse: an all-expense paid trip to speak and sign at the island’s first-ever book festival. Even though arrogant Will is the last person Jo wants to see, she could really use the festival’s more-than-generous speaking fee. Will is not only at the festival, he seems genuinely sorry for his past actions --- and more than willing not only to make amends, but to prove to Jo that he’s a changed man. Things seem to be looking up until disaster strikes, causing Jo to wonder: Do any of us ever really know anyone?

Lawyer Andy Carpenter can finally take a breath; he’s almost back on dry land after a family Caribbean cruise forced on him by his wife, Laurie, to get into the Christmas spirit. Andy can’t wait to get back to the Tara Foundation, the dog rescue organization that’s always been his true passion. But before the boat even docks, Andy gets several calls from his partner, Willie Miller. He needs to see Andy as soon as the Carpenters are back on solid ground. When Andy arrives home, he finds that all is not calm or bright, and Willie needs his help. Willie’s old cellmate, Tony Birch, has been arrested for murder. Andy doesn’t necessarily believe in Tony, but Willie does. And Andy believes in Willie, which is why Andy decides to take the case.

Teenage Eulabee and her magnetic best friend, Maria Fabiola, own the streets of Sea Cliff, their foggy oceanside San Francisco neighborhood. They know Sea Cliff’s homes and beaches, its hidden corners and eccentric characters --- as well as the upscale all-girls’ school they attend. One day, walking to school with friends, they witness a horrible act. Or do they? Eulabee and Maria Fabiola vehemently disagree on what happened, and their rupture is followed by Maria Fabiola’s sudden disappearance --- a potential kidnapping that shakes the quiet community and threatens to expose unspoken truths.

John Brown was a charismatic and deeply religious man who heard the God of the Old Testament speaking to him, telling him to destroy slavery by any means. When Congress opened Kansas territory to slavery in 1854, Brown raised a band of followers to wage war. His men tore pro-slavery settlers from their homes and hacked them to death with broadswords. Brown’s violence pointed ambitious Illinois lawyer and former officeholder Abraham Lincoln toward a different solution to slavery: politics. Lincoln spoke cautiously and dreamed big, plotting his path back to Washington and perhaps to the White House. Yet his caution could not protect him from the vortex of violence Brown had set in motion.