Tao is an immigrant fortune teller, traveling between villages with just her trusty mule for company. She only tells "small" fortunes, knowing from bitter experience that big fortunes come with big consequences. Even if it’s a lonely life, it’s better than the one she left behind. But a small fortune unexpectedly becomes something more when a (semi) reformed thief and an ex-mercenary recruit her into their desperate search for a lost child. Soon, they’re joined by a baker with a "knead" for adventure, and --- of course --- a slightly magical cat. Tao starts down a new path with companions as big-hearted as her fortunes are small. But as she lowers her walls, the shadows of her past close in --- and she’ll have to decide whether or not to risk everything to preserve the family she never thought she could have.
Pony has been passed from owner to owner for longer than he can remember. Fed up, he busts out and goes on a cross-country mission to reunite with Penny, the little girl who he was separated from and hasn’t seen in years. Penny, now an adult, is living an ordinary life when she gets a knock on her door and finds herself in handcuffs, accused of murder and whisked back to the place she grew up. Her only comfort when the past comes back to haunt her is the memory of her precious, rebellious pony. Hearing of Penny’s fate, Pony knows that Penny is no murderer. So, as smart and devious as he is cute, the pony must use his hard-won knowledge of human weakness and cruelty to try to clear Penny’s name and find the real killer.
Spenser is waiting out the latest Boston snowstorm when he gets word that Rita Fiore has been shot. Rita always has been a tricky one. Flirting with Spenser for years, she’s an ever-present figure that transcends friendship in Spenser’s circle. But at the end of the day, Rita is family. And family will always be protected. Both a pit bull in the courtroom and provocateur outside it, Rita is no stranger to controversy. But as one of the city’s toughest lawyers, Spenser knows that there’s no short list of suspects who might want to enact revenge. With Rita’s life hanging in the balance, it’s up to him to get to the bottom of things, even if it means unearthing some unsavory secrets that just might lead him into an age-old game of lies and deceit.
When Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala investigate a mass stranding of aquatic life in the Indian Ocean, they accidentally uncover a much deeper mystery. A strange figure soon steals NUMA’s findings, forcing a high-speed chase. Someone really didn’t want them examining those dead whales. A cryptic text through the NUMA satellite network makes things still stranger. These odd phrases and numbers look like NUMA codes. But who could be tantalizing the crew with such specific knowledge of their tech? Are they being helped by an old friend, or lured into a trap by a traitor who knows a little too much about NUMA’s inner workings? Kurt, Joe and even Max, the agency’s supercomputer, will have to investigate like never before as they decrypt data, infiltrate a cult of cloned men, and prepare for a battle on two very different planes: one physical, one digital.
TOOTH AND CLAW follows Walt Longmire and Henry Standing Bear up to Alaska as they look for work after they both returned from serving in Vietnam. While working for an oil company in the bitter cold of winter, they soon encounter a ferocious polar bear that seems hell-bent on their destruction. But it’s not too long until they realize that the danger does not lurk outside in the frozen Alaska tundra, but with their co-workers, who are after priceless treasure and will stop at nothing to get it.
When 16-year-old Angie Stewart starts hearing a mysterious voice in her house, she’s thrilled at the possibility of a ghost. Finally, something interesting is happening in her boring hometown of East Henderson, Pennsylvania. But why is she the only one who can hear it? And what does it want from her? Meanwhile, first-year teacher Madelyn Zhao just got the keys to her new home, which is in the same town where her cousin went missing several years ago. No one in East Henderson wants to talk about what happened, but Madelyn is determined to find answers. As the two strangers search for clues, their investigations begin to point toward the same dark place. But by the time they realize that the truth could be deadly, it’s too late to turn back. And someone out there will stop at nothing to make sure their secrets stay buried.
In the grisly aftermath of a botched bank heist, career criminal Anne Heller has no choice but to return to her family’s cabin --- a secluded shack in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, and the site of her mother’s untimely death. Along for the ride are Jessup, Anne’s badly wounded partner, and Dutch, the police officer she’s taken hostage. As they wait for help, Anne discovers strange relics from her mother’s past and begins to unfold the mystery of her childhood at the cabin. Then Jessup goes missing, only to turn up dead. Anne and Dutch bury her friend, but that night, he comes back and knocks at the cabin door. Not a dream, not a hallucination, but not exactly Jessup, either. Something else. Something wearing her friend’s face. Something hungry.
In November 2021, an obscure email from the California Department of Education landed in New York Times reporter Thomas Fuller’s inbox. The football team at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside was having an undefeated season. After years of covering war, wildfires, the pandemic and mass shootings, Fuller was captivated by the story of this group of high school boys. It was a sports story but not an ordinary one, built on the chemistry between a group of underestimated young men and their superhero advocate coach, Keith Adams, a deaf former athlete himself. Fuller packed his bags and drove seven hours to the Riverside campus. THE BOYS OF RIVERSIDE looks back at the historic 2021 and 2022 seasons in which the California School for the Deaf chased history.
Ember Lee Cardinal’s job search is not going well. So when her resumé is rejected for the 37th time, she takes matters into her own hands. She gets “creative” listing her qualifications and answers the ethnicity question on applications with a lie --- a half-lie, technically. No one wanted Native American Ember, but white Ember has just landed her dream accounting job. Accountant Ember thrives in corporate life --- and her love life seems to be looking up: Danuwoa Colson, the IT guy and fellow Native who caught her eye on her first day, actually seems to be interested in her too. They start to see each other secretly. But when they're caught in a compromising position on a work trip, a scheming colleague blackmails Ember, threatening to expose their relationship. As the manipulation continues to grow, so do Ember’s lies.
Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, wants nothing more than to live a quiet life for a change, running her shop and working with customers eager to spice up their cooking. But when she finds an envelope stuffed with cash in a ratty old wingback left on the curb, she sets out to track down the owner. Pepper soon concludes that the chair and its stash may belong to young Talia Cook, who is new in town and is nowhere to be seen. Boz Bosworth, an unemployed chef Pepper has tangled with in the past, shows up looking for the young woman, but Pepper refuses to help him search. When Boz is found floating in the Ship Canal, only a few blocks from Talia’s apartment, free furniture no longer seems like such a bargain. On the hunt for Talia, Pepper discovers a web of connections threatening to ensnare her best customer.
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Coming Soon
Curious about what books will be released in the months ahead so you can pre-order or reserve them? Then click on the months below.
January's Books on Screen roundup includes the films People We Meet on Vacation on Netflix and H Is for Hawk in theaters; the series premieres of "Harlan Coben's Run Away," "His & Hers" and "Agatha Christie’s Sevel Dials" on Netflix, along with "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" on HBO Max; the season premieres of ABC's "Will Trent," Hallmark Channel's "When Calls the Heart," Netflix's "Bridgerton," Prime Video's "The Night Manager" and Hulu's "Tell Me Lies"; the season finales of "Sanctuary: A Witch’s Tale" on AMC+ and "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" on Disney+ and Hulu; and the DVD/Blu-ray releases of Wicked: For Good, One Battle After Another and Afterburn.