Adult

It is 1670, and Simon Fronwieser is in the town of Oberammergau to bring his seven-year-old son to boarding school. As he bids his boy a tearful farewell, news comes of a shocking murder: the man who was to play the part of Christ in the town’s Passion Play has been found dead, nailed to the set’s cross. As there is no doctor in town, Simon is brought in to examine the body. The chance to spend more time with his son and to investigate the murder quickly convince him to stay. Soon he is joined by his father-in-law, Jakob Kuisl, the Schongau hangman, and the two begin piecing together the puzzle of the actor’s death.

David “Big Papi” Ortiz is a baseball icon and one of the most popular figures ever to play the game. A key part of the Boston Red Sox for 15 years, Ortiz helped to win three World Series, bringing back a storied franchise from “never wins” to “always wins.” He helped upend the doubters, the naysayers and the nonbelievers, and, as he launched balls into the stands again and again and again, he captured the imagination of millions of fans. Ortiz made Boston and the Red Sox his home, his place of work and his legacy. In PAPI, his ultimate memoir, Ortiz opens up as never before.

Mitsuki Katsura, a Japanese woman in her mid-50s, is a French-language instructor at a private university in Tokyo. Her husband, whom she met in Paris, is a professor at another private university. He is having an affair with a much younger woman. In addition to her husband's infidelity, Mitsuki must deal with her ailing 80-something mother, a demanding, self-absorbed woman who is far from the image of the patient, self-sacrificing Japanese matriarch. Mitsuki finds herself guiltily dreaming of the day when her mother will finally pass on. While doing everything she can to ensure her mother's happiness, she grows weary of the responsibilities of being a doting daughter and worries she is sacrificing her chance to find fulfillment in her middle age.

Former Navy SEAL Nick Foley reluctantly agrees to help investigate when American CIA operative Peter Yu goes missing in China. But when Yu’s mutilated body washes up on a beach near Hong Kong, along with dozens of other victims, the case takes a macabre turn. Suddenly, Nick finds himself embroiled in another bio-terrorism investigation being conducted by China's elite Snow Leopard counter-terrorism unit and the Chinese CDC, this time involving illegally harvested organs. But Nick’s investigation does not go unnoticed. After thwarting an attempt on his life, he is forced to go off the grid and enlist the help of beautiful CDC microbiologist Dr. Dazhong “Dash” Chen to help unmask his would-be killer.

A lifetime ago, brutally efficient fixer Phil Kubiak coldly cleaned up the messes of shady clients from Miami to Las Vegas by any means necessary --- short of murder. Now he’s one eye and one working leg short of the man he used to be, scarred beyond recognition, and with the feds and criminal organizations in hot pursuit. Throwing back sour beer in a dingy bar, Phil recounts the long story of his bitter life to the only person left to listen. Across the splintery table, a journalist in pursuit of a career-making interview seeks not only an award-winning profile but also something more…something darker. Will what she sees in Phil’s empty gaze spur her toward forgiveness --- or vengeance?

Margaret Maguire --- a widow and grandmother, home from the hospital in time for Christmas --- is no longer able to ignore the consequences of having married an imperious and arrogant man. Despite her efforts to be a good wife and mother in small-town Iowa, her adult children are now strangers to one another, past hope of reconciliation. Margaret’s granddaughter could be the one to break the cycle, but she can’t do it without Margaret’s help. It’s time to take stock, to examine the past --- even time for Margaret to call herself to account.

In the aftermath of the War With No Name, the Colony has been defeated, its queen lies dead, and the world left behind will never be the same. In her madness, the queen used a strange technology to uplift the surface animals, turning dogs and cats, bats and bears, pigs and wolves into intelligent, highly evolved creatures who rise up and kill their oppressors. And now, after years of bloodshed, these sentient beasts must learn to live alongside their sworn enemies --- humans. Far removed from this newly emerging civilization, a housecat turned war hero named Mort(e) lives a quiet life with the love he thought he had lost, a dog named Sheba. But before long, the chaos that they escaped comes crashing in around them.

Bea barely has been scraping by since her husband died. After falling for a telephone scam, she loses everything and is forced to abandon her trailer. With only two-thirds of a tank in her old van, she heads toward the Pacific Ocean with her cat --- on a mission to reclaim what’s rightfully hers, even if it means making others pay for what she lost. When 15-year-old Allie’s parents are jailed for tax fraud, she is sent to a group home. But when her life is threatened by another resident, she knows she has to get out. She escapes only to find she has nowhere to go --- until fate throws Allie in Bea’s path.

Chris Brennan is applying for a job as a high school government teacher, and he's ready to step in as an assistant baseball coach. But everything about him is a lie. Raz is a high school pitcher who may have a future in the major leagues. However, his father died only a few months ago, leaving him in a vulnerable place where any new father figure might influence him for good, or for evil. Justin is shy, and his mother fears he is being lured down a dark path by one of his teammates. Mindy doesn’t know that her husband and her son, Evan, are keeping secrets from her --- secrets that might destroy them all. At the center of all of them is Chris Brennan. Why is he there? What does he want? And what is he willing to do to get it?