Adult

Littlefield, Massachusetts, named one of the Twenty Best Places to Live in America, is full of psychologists and college professors, proud of its fine schools, girls’ soccer teams, leafy streets and quaint village center. Yet when sociologist Dr. Clarice Watkins arrived in Littlefield to study the elements of “good quality of life,” someone begins poisoning the town’s dogs. Are the poisonings in protest to an off-leash proposal for Baldwin Park --- the subject of much town debate --- or the sign of a far deeper disorder?

On a snowy February morning, the body of 25-year-old journalist Alice Salmon washes up on a riverbank south of London. Professor Jeremy Cooke, who taught Alice, embarks on a final project --- a book documenting Alice’s life through the digital and paper trails that survive her. Bit by bit, the real Alice --- a complicated and vulnerable young woman --- springs fully formed from the pages of his book…along with a labyrinth of misunderstandings, lies and secrets that cast suspicion on everyone in her circle --- including Jeremy himself.

During his first term as president, George Washington decided that the only way to fulfill the Revolution was to take the new federal government directly to the people. He organized an extraordinary journey carrying him to all 13 states. If the nation fragmented, as it had almost done after the war, it could never become the strong, independent nation for which Washington had fought. In scores of communities, he communicated a powerful and enduring message --- that America was now a nation, not a loose collection of states. And the people responded to his invitation in ways that he never could have predicted.

When a girl is beaten to death, Chief Dove Carnahan is faced with solving the worst crime of her law enforcement career. She identifies the young lady as a daughter of the Truly family, a notoriously irascible dynasty of rednecks and petty criminals. During her investigation, the man convicted of killing Dove’s mother years earlier is released from prison. Still proclaiming his innocence, he approaches Dove with a startling accusation and a chilling threat that forces her to face the parallels between her own family’s trauma and that of the Trulys.

Harris County, Georgia, 1912. A white man, the beloved nephew of the county sheriff, is shot dead on the porch of a black woman. Days later, the sheriff sanctions the lynching of a black woman and three black men, all of them innocent. In trying to figure out what led to this unthinkable crime, Karen Branan --- the great-granddaughter of that sheriff --- was forced to confront her own deep-rooted beliefs surrounding race and family, a process that came to a head when she learned a shocking truth: she is related not only to the sheriff, but also to one of the four who were murdered.

On the north coast of Cornwall, an apparent act of mercy is repaid by an arrest for murder. Four young women have been accused of the crime. A shocked father calls in a favor at the Home Office. Scotland Yard is asked to review the case. However, Inspector Ian Rutledge is not the first Inspector to reach the village. Following in the shoes of a dead man, he is told the case is all but closed. Even as it takes an unexpected personal turn, Rutledge will require all his skill to deal with the incensed families of the accused, the grieving parents of the victim, and local police eager to see these four women sent to the infamous Bodmin Gaol.

A fiercely independent divorce lawyer learns the power of family and connection when she receives a cryptic message from her estranged mother in this latest novel from Joshilyn Jackson, the nationally bestselling author of SOMEONE ELSE’S LOVE STORY and GODS IN ALABAMA. THE OPPOSITE OF EVERYONE is an emotionally resonant tale about the endurance of love and the power of stories to shape and transform our lives.

In 1946, Walter Westhaus, a German Jew, meets Sol Kerem, a promising rabbinical student. A brilliant nonbeliever, Walter is the perfect foil for Sol’s spiritual questions --- and their extraordinary connection is too wonderful not to share with Sol’s free-spirited fiancée, Rosalie. Soon Walter and Rosalie are exchanging notes, sketches and secrets, and begin a transcendent love affair. Months later they shatter their impossible bond, retreating to opposite sides of the country. A chance meeting years later reconnects Walter, Sol and Rosalie --- catching three hearts and minds in a complex web of desire, heartbreak and redemption.

When his father goes missing, Army veteran Atticus Turner embarks on a road trip to find him. On his journey to the manor of Mr. Braithwhite --- heir to the estate that owned one of Atticus’ ancestors --- he encounters both mundane terrors of white America and malevolent spirits. At the manor, Atticus discovers his father in chains, held prisoner by a secret cabal led by Samuel Braithwhite and his son, Caleb --- which has gathered to orchestrate a ritual that shockingly centers on Atticus. And his one hope of salvation may be the seed of his --- and the whole Turner clan’s --- destruction.

In 1788, three men converge in the southern woods of what is now Alabama. Cat, an emotionally scarred white man, is on the run after abandoning his home. Bob is a talkative black man fleeing slavery on a Pensacola sugar plantation, and Istillicha, edged out of his Creek town’s leadership, is bound by honor to seek retribution. The makeshift trio commits a shocking murder that soon has the forces of the law bearing down upon them. A probing French tracker named Le Clerc must decide which has a greater claim: swift justice, or his own curiosity about how three such disparate, desperate men could act in unison.