Due to worries that an unknown enemy will strike again, paramilitary operative and team leader Morgan Yancy is sent to a remote location and told to lay low and stay vigilant. He ends up in a small West Virginian mountain town where Isabeau “Bo” Maran is part-time police chief. Bo doesn’t need a mysterious man in her life. The harder they fight the intense heat between them, the closer Morgan and Bo become, even though she knows he’s hiding from something. But discovering the truth could cost Bo more than she’s willing to give. And when Morgan’s cover is blown, it might just cost her life.

Due to worries that an unknown enemy will strike again, paramilitary operative and team leader Morgan Yancy is sent to a remote location and told to lay low and stay vigilant. He ends up in a small West Virginian mountain town where Isabeau “Bo” Maran is part-time police chief. Bo doesn’t need a mysterious man in her life. The harder they fight the intense heat between them, the closer Morgan and Bo become, even though she knows he’s hiding from something. But discovering the truth could cost Bo more than she’s willing to give. And when Morgan’s cover is blown, it might just cost her life.

The tales in THE PIER FALLS take many forms: Victorian adventure story, science fiction, morality tale, contemporary realism. The characters are often isolated physically or estranged from their families, yet they yearn for connection. In aggregate, the stories become a meditation on the essential aloneness of the human condition but also on the connections, however tenuous and imperfect, that link people to one another. In the title story, an unnamed narrator describes with cool precision a catastrophe that strikes a seaside town, both tearing lives apart and bringing them together.

The tales in THE PIER FALLS take many forms: Victorian adventure story, science fiction, morality tale, contemporary realism. The characters are often isolated physically or estranged from their families, yet they yearn for connection. In aggregate, the stories become a meditation on the essential aloneness of the human condition but also on the connections, however tenuous and imperfect, that link people to one another. In the title story, an unnamed narrator describes with cool precision a catastrophe that strikes a seaside town, both tearing lives apart and bringing them together.

The tales in Mark Haddon’s lyrical and uncompromising new collection take many forms --- Victorian adventure story, science fiction, morality tale, contemporary realism --- but they all showcase his virtuoso gifts as a stylist and the deep well of empathy that made his three bestselling novels so compelling.

The characters here are often isolated physically or estranged from their families, yet they yearn for connection. In aggregate the stories become a meditation on the essential aloneness of the human condition but also on the connections, however tenuous and imperfect, that link people to one another. In the title story, an unnamed narrator describes with cool precision a catastrophe that strikes a seaside town, both tearing lives apart and bringing them together.

In the prize-winning story “The Gun,” a boy’s life is marked by the afternoon he encounters a semiautomatic pistol belonging to his friend’s older brother; in “The Island,” a Greek princess is abandoned on an island by her abductor; in “The Boys Who Left Home to Learn Fear,” a group of adventurers travel deep into the Amazonian jungle but discover the gravest danger lurking among their own number; and in “The Woodpecker and the Wolf,” a woman wonders whether she has chosen to travel to Mars only to escape the entanglement of human relationships back here on Earth.

Drawing inventively from history, myth, folktales and modern life, THE PIER FALLS showcases Haddon’s immense gifts of invention and penetrating insight.

Audiobook available, read by Clare Corbett and Daniel Weyman

Dr. Julie Devereux is an outspoken advocate for the right to die --- until a motorcycle accident leaves her fiancé, Sam Talbot, a quadriplegic. Sam begs to end his life, but Julie sees hope in a life together. When he passes away from an unexpected heart attack, an autopsy reveals that Sam died of an unusual heart defect, one seen only in those under extreme stress. As Julie investigates similar cases, she finds a frightening pattern…and finds herself the target of disturbing threats. The more cases Julie discovers, the more the threats escalate, until she is accused of a mercy killing of her own. To clear her name and save her career, she must track down whoever is behind these mysterious deaths.

Dr. Julie Devereux is an outspoken advocate for the right to die --- until a motorcycle accident leaves her fiancé, Sam Talbot, a quadriplegic. Sam begs to end his life, but Julie sees hope in a life together. When he passes away from an unexpected heart attack, an autopsy reveals that Sam died of an unusual heart defect, one seen only in those under extreme stress. As Julie investigates similar cases, she finds a frightening pattern…and finds herself the target of disturbing threats. The more cases Julie discovers, the more the threats escalate, until she is accused of a mercy killing of her own. To clear her name and save her career, she must track down whoever is behind these mysterious deaths.

Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States. He served one term, from 1929 to 1933. Often considered placid, passive, unsympathetic and even paralyzed by national events, Hoover faced an uphill battle in the face of the Great Depression. Many historians dismiss him as merely ineffective. But in HERBERT HOOVER IN THE WHITE HOUSE, Charles Rappleye draws on rare and intimate sources --- memoirs and diaries and thousands of documents kept by members of his cabinet and close advisors --- to reveal a very different figure than the one often portrayed.

Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States. He served one term, from 1929 to 1933. Often considered placid, passive, unsympathetic and even paralyzed by national events, Hoover faced an uphill battle in the face of the Great Depression. Many historians dismiss him as merely ineffective. But in HERBERT HOOVER IN THE WHITE HOUSE, Charles Rappleye draws on rare and intimate sources --- memoirs and diaries and thousands of documents kept by members of his cabinet and close advisors --- to reveal a very different figure than the one often portrayed.

Charles Rappleye’s surprising portrait of a Depression-era president Herbert Hoover reveals a very different figure than the usual Hoover, engaged and active but loathe to experiment and conscious of his inability to convey hope to the country.

Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States. He served one term, from 1929 to 1933. Often considered placid, passive, unsympathetic and even paralyzed by national events, Hoover faced an uphill battle in the face of the Great Depression. Many historians dismiss him as merely ineffective. But in HERBERT HOOVER IN THE WHITE HOUSE, Charles Rappleye draws on rare and intimate sources --- memoirs and diaries and thousands of documents kept by members of his cabinet and close advisors --- to reveal a very different figure than the one often portrayed. The real Hoover, argues Rappleye, just lacked the tools of leadership.

The Hoover presented here will come as a surprise to both his longtime defenders and his many critics. In public Hoover was shy and retiring, but in private he is revealed as a man of passion and sometimes of fury, a man who intrigued against his enemies while fulminating over plots against him. Rappleye describes him as more sophisticated and more active in economic policy than is often acknowledged. We see Hoover watching a sunny (and he thought ignorant) FDR on the horizon. FDR did not “cure” the depression, but he experimented with steps that relieved it. Most importantly he broke the mood of doom almost immediately. The Hoover we see here --- bright, well meaning, energetic --- lacked the single critical element to succeed as president. He had a first-class mind and a second-class temperament.

HERBERT HOOVER IN THE WHITE HOUSE is an object lesson in the most, perhaps only, talent needed to be a successful president --- the temperament of leadership.

Maia and her family raise dragons for the political war machine. But her peaceful life is shattered when the Summer Dragon --- one of the rare and mythical High Dragons --- makes an appearance in her quiet valley. The Summer Dragon is an omen of change, but no one knows for certain what kind of change he augurs. Political factions vie to control the implied message, each to further their own agendas. And so Maia is swept into an adventure that pits her against the deathless Horrors and a faceless creature drawn from her fears. In her fight to preserve everything she knows and loves, she uncovers secrets that challenge her understanding of her world and of herself.

Maia and her family raise dragons for the political war machine. But her peaceful life is shattered when the Summer Dragon --- one of the rare and mythical High Dragons --- makes an appearance in her quiet valley. The Summer Dragon is an omen of change, but no one knows for certain what kind of change he augurs. Political factions vie to control the implied message, each to further their own agendas. And so Maia is swept into an adventure that pits her against the deathless Horrors and a faceless creature drawn from her fears. In her fight to preserve everything she knows and loves, she uncovers secrets that challenge her understanding of her world and of herself.

The debut novel from the acclaimed illustrator --- a high fantasy adventure featuring dragons and deadly politics.

Maia and her family raise dragons for the political war machine. As she comes of age, she hopes for a dragon of her own to add to the stable of breeding parents. But the war goes badly, and the needs of the Dragonry dash her hopes. Her peaceful life is shattered when the Summer Dragon --- one of the rare and mythical High Dragons --- makes an appearance in her quiet valley. The Summer Dragon is an omen of change, but no one knows for certain what kind of change he augurs. Political factions vie to control the implied message, each to further their own agendas.

And so Maia is swept into an adventure that pits her against the deathless Horrors --- thralls of the enemy --- and a faceless creature drawn from her fears. In her fight to preserve everything she knows and loves, she uncovers secrets that challenge her understanding of her world and of herself.

J.D. Scrbacek has just won the biggest trial of his career, but even as he crows to the press, his entire life blows sky-high. Was the bomb meant for him, or for his mobster client? In this seaside casino town where the tables run hot and the tensions run high, the odds say the attorney is a marked man. Alone and on the run, Scrbacek flees into the city’s forgotten underbelly, a ruined corridor called Crapstown, where he is forced to confront the ghosts of his past, his present and his future. Somewhere in the sordid stream of his own existence lie the answers he needs. But in order to emerge from the depths of Crapstown, Scrbacek must argue for his life before a jury of the forgotten and the damned.

J.D. Scrbacek has just won the biggest trial of his career, but even as he crows to the press, his entire life blows sky-high. Was the bomb meant for him, or for his mobster client? In this seaside casino town where the tables run hot and the tensions run high, the odds say the attorney is a marked man. Alone and on the run, Scrbacek flees into the city’s forgotten underbelly, a ruined corridor called Crapstown, where he is forced to confront the ghosts of his past, his present and his future. Somewhere in the sordid stream of his own existence lie the answers he needs. But in order to emerge from the depths of Crapstown, Scrbacek must argue for his life before a jury of the forgotten and the damned.

You thought you knew who you were. A stranger knows better. You’ve left the city --- and the career that nearly destroyed you --- for a fresh start on the coast. But trouble begins when your daughter withdraws, after her new best friend, George, is unfairly expelled from school. You beg the principal to reconsider, only to be told that George hasn’t been expelled. Because there is, and was, no George. Who is lying? Who is real? Who is in danger? Who is in control? As you search for answers, the anonymous calls begin --- a stranger, who insists that you and she share a traumatic past and a guilty secret. And then the caller threatens your life.

You thought you knew who you were. A stranger knows better. You’ve left the city --- and the career that nearly destroyed you --- for a fresh start on the coast. But trouble begins when your daughter withdraws, after her new best friend, George, is unfairly expelled from school. You beg the principal to reconsider, only to be told that George hasn’t been expelled. Because there is, and was, no George. Who is lying? Who is real? Who is in danger? Who is in control? As you search for answers, the anonymous calls begin --- a stranger, who insists that you and she share a traumatic past and a guilty secret. And then the caller threatens your life.

No one in Mattingly ever believed that Bobby Barnes would live to see old age. Alcohol would either rot him from the inside out or dull his senses just enough to send his truck off the mountain on one of his nightly rides. Although Bobby believes such an end possible, it doesn’t stop him from taking his twin sons into the mountains one Saturday night. A sharp curve, blinding headlights, metal on metal, his sons’ screams. Bobby’s final thought as he sinks into blackness is a curious one: There will be stars. Yet it is not death that greets him beyond the veil. Instead, he returns to the day he has just lived and finds he is not alone in this strange new world. Six others are trapped with him.

No one in Mattingly ever believed that Bobby Barnes would live to see old age. Alcohol would either rot him from the inside out or dull his senses just enough to send his truck off the mountain on one of his nightly rides. Although Bobby believes such an end possible, it doesn’t stop him from taking his twin sons into the mountains one Saturday night. A sharp curve, blinding headlights, metal on metal, his sons’ screams. Bobby’s final thought as he sinks into blackness is a curious one: There will be stars. Yet it is not death that greets him beyond the veil. Instead, he returns to the day he has just lived and finds he is not alone in this strange new world. Six others are trapped with him.