Adult

Professor David Ullman doesn’t believe in demons, though his extensive knowledge of the literature of the demonic --- especially Milton’s PARADISE LOST --- has won him wide acclaim. When he is lured to Venice on a mysterious journey, he loses his 12-year-old daughter to an ancient evil that will force him to come face to face with all he knows about the underworld and the faith required to defeat it.

Haunted by the freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from their hometown. But their long-standing dynamic is upended when their sister urgently calls them home. And so Jim and Bob return to the landscape of their childhood, where the long-buried tensions that have shaped and shadowed their relationship begin to surface in unexpected ways that will change them forever.

In the road-trip tradition of Sarah Vowell and Tony Horwitz, Bob Thompson follows Davy Crockett's footsteps from the Tennessee river valley where he was born, to Washington, where he served three terms in Congress, and on to Texas and the gates of the Alamo, seeking out those who know, love and are still willing to fight over Davy's life and legacy.

Long ago, many dangerous creatures were locked behind a magical barrier, bringing peace and prosperity to the land. But now those barriers are eroding, and generations of embittered prisoners are about to escape. War seems inevitable...unless a few brave souls can stem the tide. While some venture into the forbidden lands, others must undertake a perilous quest, the success of which will mean the death of a young girl, but whose failure will have unimaginable consequences.

When Sophie Brinkmann --- nurse, widow, single mother --- meets Hector Guzman, her life is uneventful. She likes his quiet charm and easy smile, not to mention the way he welcomes her into his family. She quickly learns, though, that his smooth façade masks something much more sinister. Now she must summon everything within her to navigate an intricate web of moral ambiguity, deadly obsession, and craven gamesmanship. 

Two women live on opposite coasts, but their lives are connected in ways they never could have imagined. Both women are wives and mothers to children who are about to leave the nest for school. They are both in their 40s and have husbands who travel more than either of them would like. They are both feeling an emptiness neither had expected. But when a shocking secret is exposed, their lives are blown apart.

Ashaunt Point has provided sanctuary and anchored life for generations of the Porter family. But in 1942, the U.S. Army arrives on the Point, bringing havoc and change. As the decades pass, Helen and then her son Charlie return to the Point, seeking refuge from the chaos of rapidly changing times. But Ashaunt is not entirely removed from events unfolding beyond its borders, and neither Charlie nor his mother can escape the long shadow of history.

Born into abject poverty, Jim goes from door-to-door salesman to international mogul, the father of the pyramid scheme. To escape his past, as well as government investigators, he leaves the country to become the leader of a lawless and predatory gold-mining operation in the Brazilian Amazon. Worn down by age and a lifetime of shady enterprise, his world suddenly changes when he meets a beautiful, young Israeli woman with dark ambitions of her own.

Now that she has solved her sister's murder, Hallie Michaels has left the army and isn't sure what to do next. Her relationship with deputy Boyd Davies is tentative, there's still distance between her and her father, and she needs a job. The good news is, she hasn't seen a ghost in weeks. All that changes when she gets a call asking her to help an elderly neighbor who is being stalked by black dogs, creatures from the underworld that are harbingers of death.

When a local woman tells Sergeant Hamish Macbeth that she doesn't remember what happened the previous evening, he doesn't begin to worry. She had been out drinking, after all, and he'd prefer not to be bothered with such an arrogant and annoying woman. But when her body is discovered, Hamish is forced to investigate a crime that the only known witness --- now dead --- had forgotten.