Adult

The vibrant economy of the new Vietnam is a shiny lure for Western capital. Companies are racing to uncover ideal opportunities. Not wanting to be left behind, Hendley Associates has sent their best analyst, Jack Ryan, Jr., to mine for investment gold. And he may have found some in a rare earth mining company: GeoTech. But a trip with a Hendley colleague to the Highlands to observe the company’s operations takes a treacherous turn when their helicopter is shot down. Some things haven’t changed, and Vietnam is still the plaything of powerful neighbors. The Chinese are determined to keep Jack from finding the truth about what exactly is being processed at the isolated factory. Now Jack is in a race for his life. He has to stay one step ahead of a pack of killers while supporting his wounded friend.

Vita Woods produces a popular podcast and lives with her successful doctor boyfriend, Max. But as much as things are going right, the days are dark. Vita is not leaving the house. In fact, she can barely make it out of bed. Instead, she spends long, blurred hours falling in and out of The Pit, dead to the world and to herself. For months, Vita has been sick with an illness that no doctor can diagnose. And recently, Luigi, a Renaissance poet nursing a 500-year-old heartbreak, has started showing up at her bedside. He says he’s come to release her. But he may be a ghost, an apparition of her sickly mind. Then, when an unexpected mix-up pushes her into the path of her upstairs neighbors, Vita finds friendship --- and perhaps more --- in the apartment above. But something about her "condition" keeps nagging at her. What if the problem is Vita herself?

It's Natwest's last day before he leaves for university, and there's only one thing on his mind: the deeply embarrassing package he ordered to his house --- which still hasn't arrived. He won't leave town without it. This is the story of 24 hours in the life of Natwest and his small-town odyssey in pursuit of the missing package. Yet it's also the story of a middle-aged dentist who dreams of being a respected artist --- but the only thing he can seem to paint is the human mouth. And it's the story of a tortured imam involved in a quasi-romantic entanglement with the local vicar; an octogenerian mourning the death of her secretive husband; and a troubled teenager whose nudes have leaked on the internet. It's the story of Natwest's obnoxious ex-boyfriend; his class-traitor mother and her childhood boyfriend; and the life-changing secrets he knows about Natwest's past.

Bookstores have always been unlike any other kind of store, shaping readers and writers, and influencing our tastes, thoughts and politics. They nurture local communities while creating new ones of their own. Bookshops are powerful spaces, but they are also endangered ones. In THE BOOKSHOP, we see the stakes: what has been, and what might be lost. Evan Friss’ history of the bookshop draws on oral histories, archival collections, municipal records, diaries, letters and interviews with leading booksellers to offer a fascinating look at this institution beloved by so many.

Perla Wultz lives with her husband, Grant, and their precious daughter, Sophie, in a gated Pasadena community. Perla plays the part of loving wife and mother to perfection. It seems an ideal life, if not for a decades-old crime that has become her dark and consuming secret obsession. Twenty-three years ago, Leewood Folcrum confessed to murdering two young girls during a birthday party. Though he’s been condemned to a life sentence, his crime is not forgotten. Not by Perla, nor by an inquisitive doctoral student interviewing Folcrum for his dissertation. He’s getting the killer to open up --- about his motives, his confession and the truth of what really happened on that horrible night. As the past and the present entwine, the deceptions behind the infamous murder begin to surface. But who’s deceiving who now? And why?

As a young child, Hanna tried to murder her own mother. But that was more than 16 years ago. Extensive therapy --- and writing letters to her younger brother --- has since curbed those nasty tendencies. Now 24, Hanna is living an outwardly normal life of domestic content. Married to real estate agent Jacob, she’s also stepmother to his teenage daughter, Joelle. They live in a beautiful home, and Hanna loves her career as a phlebotomist --- a job perfectly suited to her occasional need to hurt people. But when Joelle begins to change in ways that don’t suit Hanna’s purposes, her carefully planned existence threatens to come apart. With life slipping out of her control, Hanna reverts to old habits, determined to manipulate the events and people around her. And the only thing worse than a baby sociopath is a fully grown one.

London: 1968. Liz Houghton is languishing as an obituary writer at a London newspaper when a young girl’s disappearance captivates the city. If Liz can break the story, it’s her way into the newsroom. She already has a scoop: her best friend, Marisa, is a police officer assigned to the case. Liz follows Marisa to Dorset, where they make another disturbing discovery. Over two decades earlier, three girls disappeared while evacuating from London. One was found murdered in the woods near a train line. The other two were never seen again. As Liz digs deeper, she finds herself drawn to the village of Tydeham, which was requisitioned by the military during the war and left in ruins. After all these years, what could possibly link the missing girls to this abandoned village? And why does a place Liz has never seen before seem so strangely familiar?

To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’s Mommy, Daddo and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day, “Can I go inside your heart?” When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the question over and over, Bela understands that unless she says yes, her family will soon pay. Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger and bolder. Only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe, but other incidents show cracks in her parents’ marriage. The safety Bela relies on is about to unravel. But Other Mommy needs an answer.

Galva --- Galvicha to her three brothers, two of whom the goblins will kill --- has defied her family’s wishes and joined the army’s untested new unit, the Raven Knights. They march toward a once-beautiful city overrun by the goblin horde, accompanied by scores of giant war corvids. Made with the darkest magics, these fearsome black birds may hold the key to stopping the goblins in their war to make cattle of mankind. The road to victory is bloody, and goblins are clever and merciless. The Raven Knights can take nothing for granted --- not the bonds of family, nor the wisdom of their leaders, nor their own safety against the dangerous war birds at their side. But some hopes are worth any risk.

Once upon a time, a young couple met and fell in love. You probably know that story, and how it ended (hint: badly). Only here’s the thing: That’s not how it ended at all. Romeo and Juliet are alive and well and the parents of seven kids. I’m the oldest, a certified spinster at 20. Each time they’ve presented me with a betrothal, I’ve set out to find the groom-to-be a more suitable bride. But their latest match, Duke Stephano, isn’t so easy to palm off on anyone else. At our betrothal ball, I stumble upon the Duke with a dagger in his chest. But who killed him? Half of Verona had motive. And when everyone around the Duke begins dying, disappearing or descending into madness, I know I must uncover the killer…before death lies on me like an untimely frost.