Adult

A young staffer with the National Archives in Washington, D.C., Beecher White is also a member of the Culper Ring, a 200-year-old secret society founded by George Washington and charged with protecting the Presidency. The alarming discovery of a buried arm has the President's team in a rightful panic. Who buried the arm? How did they get past White House security? And most important: What's the message hidden in the arm's closed fist? Indeed, the puzzle inside has a clear intended recipient, and it isn't the President. It's Beecher himself.

The House of Farrell is a prolific skincare company and home of The Cream, an iconic face product. But the world of cosmetics is changing, and the once glorious House of Farrell is now in decline, its customers tempted away by more fashionable brands. With no idea how to right the ship, company figurehead Athina Farrell hires Bianca Bailey, a formidable businesswoman. Athina and Bianca lock horns over the future of the House of Farrell, but it’s the past that tells its devastating tale of ambition and ego, passion and wonder.

Young Willie is on the run, having fled his small Texas farm when an infamous local landowner murdered his father. A man named Loving takes him in and trains him in the fine arts of shooting, riding, reading and gardening. When Loving dies, Willie re-christens himself Nat Love in tribute to his mentor and heads west. But the hellhounds are still on his trail, and they brutally attack Nat's love. Pursuing the men who have driven his wife mad, Nat heads south for a final showdown against those who would strip him of his life.

Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is 77 years old and crazy. She is also Elsa’s best (and only) friend. When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother’s letters lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs and totally ordinary old crones, but also to the truth about fairy tales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.

Portia Kane is having a meltdown. After escaping her ritzy Florida life and her cheating pornographer husband, she finds herself back in South Jersey, a place that remains largely unchanged from the years of her unhappy youth. Lost and alone, looking to find the goodness in the world she believes still exists, Portia sets off to save herself by saving someone else --- a beloved high school English teacher who has retired after a traumatic incident.

FBI agent Joe Grant and a confidential informant are killed in a deadly shootout. The official report places blame for the deaths on Joe's shoulders, but the story just doesn't add up, and Joe’s wife, Mary, has too many troubling questions that need answers. Stonewalled by the FBI, Mary will be drawn into a deadly conspiracy that puts her in the crosshairs of the richest and most powerful men in America…and the newest and most terrifying surveillance system known to man.

Hundreds of pleasure-seekers board The Beautiful Dreamer cruise ship for relaxation and fun in the Caribbean. For three sun-filled days, the journey seems to deliver all that the brochure promised. Until Day Four. Without warning, the ship stops dead. Electricity and communications are cut off. Smoke pours out of the engine room. The passengers and crew have no way to call for help and are stranded in the Gulf of Mexico. At first, all aboard are certain that rescue teams will come looking for them soon. All they have to do is wait. Supplies soon run low, the toilets stop working and a virus plagues the ship, but when the body of a woman is discovered in her cabin, irritation escalates to panic. There's a murderer on board The Beautiful Dreamer...and maybe something worse.

Stephanie Adams is a devoted stay-at-home mother who has stayed in a dead marriage for years for the sake of her children. Then, on a ski trip, her husband dies suddenly and all bets are off. Despite her children’s grief, and her own conflicting emotions and loneliness, Stephanie tries to move on, but struggles to find herself as an independent individual after years of giving up her life for everyone else. A spur-of-the-moment road trip leads her to the Grand Canyon and a chance meeting --- and her whole life changes forever.

It’s the eve of Rachel Chu’s wedding, and she should be over the moon. She has a flawless Asscher-cut diamond, a wedding dress she loves, and a fiancé willing to thwart his meddling relatives and give up one of the biggest fortunes in Asia in order to marry her. Still, Rachel mourns the fact that her birthfather, a man she never knew, won’t be there to walk her down the aisle. Then a chance accident reveals his identity. Suddenly, Rachel is drawn into a dizzying world of Shanghai splendor, a world where people attend church in a penthouse, where exotic cars race down the boulevard, and where people aren’t just crazy rich...they’re China rich.

The stories in CHARLIE MARTZ AND OTHER STORIES, produced early in Elmore Leonard’s career, reveal a writer in transition. Here, he explores new voices and locations --- from the bars of small-town New Mexico and Michigan to a film set in Hollywood, a hotel in Southern Spain, even a military base in Kuala Lumpur. They also introduce us to classic Leonard characters, some of whom recur throughout the collection, such as aging lawman Charlie Martz and weary former matador Eladio Montoya.