Adult

As a child, Joseph Beck heard about his father’s legacy: Foster Beck had once been a respected trial lawyer who defied the unspoken code of 1930s Alabama by defending a black man charged with raping a white woman. Now a lawyer himself, Beck has become intrigued by the similarities between his father’s story and the one at the heart of Harper Lee’s iconic novel. This riveting memoir seeks to understand how race, class and the memory of the South’s defeat in the Civil War produced the trial’s outcome, and how these issues figure into our literary imagination.

GRUNT tackles the science behind some of a soldier's most challenging adversaries --- panic, exhaustion, heat, noise --- and introduces us to the scientists who seek to conquer them. Mary Roach answers questions not found in any other book on the military: Why is DARPA interested in ducks? How is a wedding gown like a bomb suit? Why are shrimp more dangerous to sailors than sharks? Take a tour of duty with Roach, and you’ll never see our nation’s defenders in the same way again.

NEW ENGLAND BOUND reclaims the lives of so many long-forgotten enslaved Africans and Native Americans in the 17th century. Based on new evidence, Wendy Warren links the growth of the northern colonies to the Atlantic slave trade, demonstrating how New England’s economy derived its vitality from the profusion of slave-trading ships coursing through its ports. She documents how Indians were systematically sold into slavery in the West Indies and reveals how colonial families like the Winthrops were motivated not only by religious freedom but also by their slave-trading investments.

In the summer of 1925, Ernest Hemingway traveled to Pamplona for the infamous running of the bulls. He then channeled that trip’s drunken brawls, sexual rivalry, midnight betrayals and midday hangovers into a novel that redefined modern literature. Lesley Blume tells the full story behind Hemingway’s legendary rise for the first time, revealing how he created his own image as the bull-fighting aficionado, hard-drinking literary genius and expatriate bon vivant. In all its youth, lust and rivalry, the Lost Generation is illuminated here as never before.

When a late-summer hurricane slams into Boston, Detective Eddy Harkness and his Narco-Intel crew are thrown into the eye of a very different kind of storm. Dark Horse --- an especially pure and deadly brand of heroin --- has infiltrated the gritty Lower South End. Harkness soon finds that the drug is also at the center of an audacious land grab by the city’s corrupt new mayor and his shadowy power brokers. Meanwhile, Lower South End residents displaced by the storm use an obscure bylaw to move into Eddy’s hometown, and soon enough tensions are running high along Nagog’s tree-lined streets.

Ruined and on the lam, former drug kingpin Max Fisher stumbles upon the biggest discovery of his crooked life: a designer drug called PIMP that could put him back on top. Meanwhile, a certain femme fatale from his past is pursuing a comeback dream of her own, setting herself up in Hollywood as producer of a series based on her and Max’s life story. But even in La-La Land, happy endings are hard to come by, especially with both the cops and your enemies in the drug trade coming after you.

Blackmailed into abducting an American heiress, legionnaire Rafe Angelito soon finds himself trapped in paradise with a daring beauty who's nothing he expects…and everything he desires. But when he uncovers her own dark secret, Rafe realizes he's made a critical mistake that could cost him everything. Playing body double for a spoiled socialite was supposed to be Holly Ryan's ticket to freedom. But when she's snatched off her yacht, the not-quite-reformed con artist will make a desperate play to turn her captor from enemy to ally. Yet as scorching days melt into sultry nights, Holly is drawn to the mysterious capitaine. And when they're double-crossed, they'll have to risk trusting each other.

As children in foster care, Cecilia and Robin vowed they would be the sisters each had never had. Now superstar Cecilia lives on the edge, but when Robin is nearly killed in an accident, Cecilia drops everything to be with her. When Cecilia asks Robin to be the photographer for a documentary on foster care, Robin agrees, even though her rarely-home attorney husband Kris will be forced to take charge for the months she's away. She gambles that he'll prove to them both that their children --- and their marriage --- are a priority. Cecilia herself needs more than time with her sister. She wants a chance to tell the real story of their childhood and free herself from the nightmares that still haunt her.

India Sommers once had the perfect family --- until an ex-boyfriend broke in and shot her husband. Just after moving to Whiskey Creek with her little girl, Cassia, to start over, she’s learned that her ex-boyfriend’s trial ended in a hung jury. He’s getting out of jail; he could try to find her again. And that’s not all that scares her. She’s extremely attracted to her next-door neighbor, but Rod Amos is the handsome “bad boy” type that’s given her so much trouble in the past. If she got involved with him, her in-laws would sue for custody of Cassia. India has to keep her distance from Rod --- but the more she gets to know him, the more difficult that becomes.

Chas is a detective who can get the goods on anyone with the tap of a keyboard, and it’s all to make sure that superstar Las Vegas mind reader Wallace the Amazing stays amazing. Thanks to Chas’ steady stream of stealthy intel, Wallace’s mental “magic” packs houses every night. But when someone threatens to call the psychic showman’s bluff, the sweet gig takes a sour --- and sinister --- turn. Who’s the clean-cut couple gunning for Wallace with an arsenal of dirty tricks? Why does Wallace keep upping the ante instead of backing down? And just how much does Chas really know about his mysterious boss’s life…or his own?