Anita Desai ruminates on art and memory, illusion and disillusion, and the sharp divide between life’s expectations and its realities in three novellas. Set in India in the not-too-distant past, the stories’ dramas illuminate the ways in which Indian culture can nourish or suffocate.

For the first time, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edna Buchanan takes on a novel of romance and suspense in this gripping saga of star-crossed lovers in the Florida of past and present.

In the middle of a rainy Swedish summer, a little girl is abducted from a crowded train. Inspector Alex Recht and his special team of federal investigators are assigned to what at first appears to be a classic custody fight. But when the child is found dead with the word “unwanted” scribbled on her forehead, the case soon turns into the investigation team’s worst nightmare.

When Harvard University English professor Gilbert Reedy is mysteriously murdered, Lizzy and Diesel take up his 20-year quest for the Luxuria Stone, an ancient relic believed by some to be infused with the power of lust. Tearing through Boston catacombs, government buildings and multi-million dollar residences, they’ll leave behind a trail of robbed graves, public disturbances and general mayhem.