In the year 937, the new king of England, a grandson of Alfred the Great, readies himself to go to war in the north. His dream of a united kingdom of all England will stand or fall on one field --- on the passage of a single day. At his side is the priest Dunstan of Glastonbury, full of ambition and wit (perhaps enough to damn his soul). His talents will take him from the villages of Wessex to the royal court, to the hills of Rome --- from exile to exaltation. Through Dunstan's vision, by his guiding hand, England will either come together as one great country or fall back into anarchy and misrule.

Before beginning her dream job as sous chef in one of Seattle’s hottest new restaurants, Josie Avery takes a summer position cooking at a lakeside lodge in the remote Alaskan town of Ponder. Josie falls for the rustic charms of the local community --- in particular, famed master swordsmith Palmer Saxon, who would like nothing more than to make Josie his wife. But Josie can’t imagine abandoning her mother and sacrificing her career to stay in this isolated town --- not even for a man she’s quickly coming to love. Fate has other plans, though. Josie misses the last boat out of town before winter sets in, stranding her in Ponder and putting her dream job at risk. As the holidays approach, Josie and Palmer must grapple with the complications that arise when dreams confront reality.

Winona Farmington once dreamed of graduating from college, moving to New York City and pursuing a career in publishing. Then real life got in the way when she left college and returned to her small Michigan hometown to care for her sick mother. Years later, stuck in a dead-end job and an unsatisfying relationship, Winnie has concluded that dreams were meant for others. She consoles herself by binge-watching the British television series “Beauchamp Hall,” enthralled by the sumptuous period drama set on a great Norfolk estate in the 1920s. On the day Winnie is passed over for a long-overdue promotion, she is also betrayed by her boyfriend and her best friend. Heartbroken, she makes the first impulsive decision of her conventional life --- which changes everything.

In a ruined house at the end of Yellow Street, an angry outcast hatches a scheme to take revenge for all the wrongs he has suffered. With the help of three alienated kids, he plans to hide razor blades, poison and broken glass in Halloween candy, maiming or killing dozens of innocent children. But as the clock ticks closer to sundown, will one of his helpers --- an innocent himself, in his own streetwise way --- carry out or defeat the plan?

Jim Sams has undergone a metamorphosis. In his previous life, he was ignored or loathed, but in his new incarnation, he is the most powerful man in Britain --- and it is his mission to carry out the will of the people. Nothing must get in his way: not the opposition, nor the dissenters within his own party. Not even the rules of parliamentary democracy.

Every autumn, John Pentecost returns to the farm where he grew up, to help gather the sheep down from the moors for the winter. Very little changes in the Endlands, but this year, his grandfather --- the Gaffer --- has died and John's new wife, Katherine, is accompanying him for the first time. Each year, the Gaffer would redraw the boundary lines of the village, with pen and paper but also through the remembrance of tales and timeless communal rituals, which keep the sheep safe from the Devil. But as the farmers of the Endlands bury the Gaffer and prepare to gather the sheep, they begin to wonder if they've let the Devil in after all.

Life is tough for a Gypsy detective in Budapest. The cops don’t trust you because you’re a Gypsy. Your fellow Gypsies, even your own family, shun you because you’re a cop. The dead, however, don't care. So when Balthazar Kovacs, a detective in the city's murder squad, gets a mysterious text message on his phone, he goes to work. The message has two parts: a photograph and an address. The photograph shows a man, in his early 30s, lying on his back with his eyes open, half-covered by a blue plastic sheet. The address is 26 Republic Square, the former Communist Party headquarters, and once the most feared building in the country. But when Kovacs arrives at Republic Square, the body is gone.

New York, 1993. Street-smart 17-year-old Lucy Adler is often the only girl on the public basketball courts. Lucy’s inner life is a contradiction. She is by turns quixotic and cynical, insecure and self-possessed, and, despite herself, is in unrequited love with her best friend and pickup teammate, Percy, the rebellious son of a prominent New York family. As Lucy begins to question accepted notions of success, bristling against her own hunger for male approval, she is drawn into the world of a pair of provocative feminist artists living in what remains of New York’s bohemia.

“Time travel” --- and its hazards --- are made literal in Joyce Carol Oates’ novel, in which a recklessly idealistic girl dares to test the perimeters of her tightly controlled (future) world and is punished by being sent back in time to a region of North America --- “Wainscotia, Wisconsin”--- that existed 80 years before. Cast adrift in time in this idyllic Midwestern town, she is set upon a course of “rehabilitation” --- but cannot resist falling in love with a fellow exile and questioning the constraints of the Wainscotia world with results that are both devastating and liberating. 

As winter deepens over the Blue Ridge Mountains, even the threat of snowstorms cannot derail this year’s Christmas run, not as long as Sister Jane has a say in it. With spirits high and traditions strong, a glorious parade of hunters in full holiday regalia gathers on the grounds of Tattenhall Station. But a blinding blizzard brings an early end to the sport. More disturbing: A horse soon returns without its rider. Gregory Luckham, the president of a powerful energy company pushing for a pipeline through central Virginia, is the missing hunter. A search is organized for what is presumed will be a dead, frozen body. What is discovered, however, chills everyone to the bone --- and points toward murder.

In this horror story set in colonial New England, a law-abiding Puritan woman goes missing. Or perhaps she has fled or abandoned her family. Or perhaps she has been kidnapped, and set loose to wander in the dense woods of the north. Alone and possibly lost, she meets another woman in the forest. Then everything changes. On a journey that will take her through dark woods full of almost-human wolves, through a deep well wet with the screams of men, and on a living ship made of human bones, our heroine may find that the evil she flees has been inside her all along.

Eunice Hunton Carter, Stephen Carter’s grandmother, was raised in a world of stultifying expectations about race and gender, yet by the 1940s, her professional and political successes had made her one of the most famous black women in America. But her triumphs were shadowed by prejudice and tragedy. Greatly complicating her rise was her difficult relationship with her younger brother, Alphaeus, an avowed Communist who --- together with his friend Dashiell Hammett --- would go to prison during the McCarthy era. Yet she remained unbowed. INVISIBLE tells the true story of a woman who often found her path blocked by the social and political expectations of her time. But Eunice Carter never accepted defeat.

Gretchen and Steve have been married for a long time. Living in San Francisco, recently separated, with two children and demanding jobs, they’ve started going to a marriage counselor. Unfolding over the course of 10 months and taking place entirely in the marriage counselor’s office, John Jay Osborn’s LISTEN TO THE MARRIAGE is the story of a fractured couple in a moment of crisis, and of the person who tries to get them to see each other again.

Marilla Cuthbert is 13 years old when her beloved mother dies in childbirth, and she suddenly must bear the responsibilities of a farm wife. Her one connection to the wider world is Aunt Elizabeth "Izzy" Johnson, her mother’s sister, who managed to escape to the bustling city of St. Catharines. Aunt Izzy’s talent as a seamstress has allowed her to build a thriving business and make her own way in the world. Emboldened by her aunt, Marilla dares to venture beyond the safety of Green Gables and discovers new friends and new opportunities. However, she soon finds herself caught up in the dangerous work of politics, and abolition --- jeopardizing all she cherishes, including her bond with her dearest John Blythe.

Preparations are underway for the Winter Fest, and everyone is hoping for a little holiday magic on the Finfarran peninsula. As Cassie Fitzgerald, fresh from Toronto, is about to discover, there’s more to the holidays on the west coast of Ireland than mistletoe and mince pies. Enchanted by the small town where her dad was born, Cassie makes friends and joins local librarian Hanna Casey’s writing group in Lissbeg Library. But the more she’s drawn into the festivities leading up to her first Irish Christmas, the more questions she wants to ask. As Christmas Eve approaches, it’s Cassie, the outsider, who reminds Lissbeg’s locals that love, family and friendship bring true magic to the season. But will her own, fractured family rediscover the joys of coming home?

This second volume of Michael Broers’ three-volume life of Napoleon covers the tumultuous years of 1805 to 1810, a period that marks the zenith of Napoleon’s power and military success. Like volume one, SOLDIER OF DESTINY, it is based on the new version of Napoleon’s correspondence, made available by the Fondation Napoléon in Paris. It is the story of Napoleon’s conquest of Europe --- and that of his magnificent Grande Armée --- as they sweep through the length and breadth of Europe.

Los Angeles burglar Junior Bender and his girlfriend, Ronnie, are in desperate need of cash to hire a kidnapper to snatch Ronnie’s two-year-old son back from her ex. A nameless woman in an orange wig has offered Junior 50 grand to break into the abandoned house of a recently deceased 97-year-old recluse, Daisy Horton, and steal a doll from her collection. Junior figures there must be something hidden inside the doll that can get him in a heap of trouble. It doesn’t take long for him to realize that he’s not the only one looking for the doll. When an old friend ends up murdered, Junior decides he will stop at nothing to figure out who the woman in the orange wig is, and why she wants the doll badly enough to leave a trail of bodies in her wake.

Set on the outskirts of Umuahia, Nigeria, and narrated by a chi, or guardian spirit, AN ORCHESTRA OF MINORITIES tells the story of Chinonso, a young poultry farmer who falls in love with a woman named Ndali after saving her life. But when Ndali’s wealthy family objects to the union because he is uneducated, Chinonso sells most of his possessions to attend a college in Cyprus. Upon his arrival, he discovers that he has been utterly duped by the young Nigerian who has made the arrangements. Penniless, homeless and furious at a world that continues to relegate him to the sidelines, Chinonso gets further away from his dream, from Ndali and the farm he called home.

Detective Amos Decker is visiting his hometown of Burlington, Ohio, when he's approached by convicted murderer Meryl Hawkins, the very first killer Decker ever put behind bars. But Hawkins claims he’s innocent. Now suffering from terminal cancer, it's his dying wish that Decker clear his name. It's unthinkable. The case was open and shut, with rock solid forensic evidence. But then Hawkins later turns up dead with a bullet in his head, and even Decker begins to have doubts. Is it possible that he really did get it wrong, all those years ago? Decker is determined to uncover the truth, no matter the personal cost. But solving a case this cold may be impossible, especially when it becomes clear that someone doesn't want the old case reopened.

Nero Augustus commands the Roman empire, ushering in an unprecedented era of artistic and cultural splendor. But in the 10th year of his reign, a terrifying prophecy comes to pass and a fire engulfs Rome, reducing entire swaths of the city to rubble. Rumors of Nero's complicity in the blaze start to sow unrest among the populace --- and the politicians. For better or worse, Nero knows that his fate is now tied to Rome's --- and he vows to rebuild it as a city that will stun the world. But there are those who find his rampant quest for glory dangerous. Throughout the empire, false friends and spies conspire against him, not understanding what drives him to undertake the impossible.

After Ya’ara Stein is forced out of her job at the Mossad --- the secret intelligence service of Israel --- she is called upon by the Prime Minister for a classified job. Known for her aptitude, beauty and deadliness, Stein is asked to set up a secret unit that will act independently, answerable only to the Prime Minister. This streamlined and deadly unit, filled with bright young men and women recruited and trained by Stein, quickly faces threats both old and new. Descendants of the lethal militant Red Army Faction have returned to terrorize Europe, and fears of a radical Islam splinter group force the unit to distinguish between facts and smoke screens.

In 1989, Jodi McCarty is 17 years old when she’s sentenced to life in prison. When she’s released 18 years later, she finds herself at a Greyhound bus stop, reeling from the shock of unexpected freedom but determined to chart a better course for herself. Not yet able to return to her lost home in the Appalachian Mountains, she heads south in search of someone she left behind, as a way of finally making amends. There, she meets and falls in love with Miranda, a troubled young mother living in a motel room with her children. Together they head toward what they hope will be a fresh start. But what do you do with your past --- and with a town and a family that refuses to forget, or to change?

Sylvie’s sister, Persephone, was killed 16 years ago, yet her murder remains unsolved. In the present day, Sylvie returns home to care for her estranged mother, Annie, as she undergoes treatment for cancer. Their once-close bond dissolved in the weeks after their loss, making for an uncomfortable reunion all these years later. Worse, Persephone’s former boyfriend, Ben, is now a nurse at the cancer center where Annie is being treated. Sylvie has always believed Ben was responsible for the murder, though she also carries her own guilt about that night. As she navigates the complicated relationship with her mother, Sylvie begins to uncover the secrets that fill their house --- and what really happened the night Persephone died.