Adult

Everything needs to be just right for bestselling mystery writer Faye Wader's first-ever fan weekend. Her sales might be slipping --- only a little! --- but her readers still love her enough to pony up for three days and two nights on Great Misery Island. The retreat is precisely planned by Faye and her beleaguered assistant, Jade. Faye's longtime agent and editor will be there, as well as Faye's number one fan, Peggy Mercer. When news comes that the weekend will be crashed by rival novelist Abby Schuss, Faye thinks things can't get worse…until one of the attendees is found dead in her room, setting off an unexpectedly murderous chain of events that make pre-pub anxiety seem like a day at the beach. How far is Faye willing to go to get exactly what she wants from her author weekend?

In the golden age of baseball, three Major League Baseball teams in New York City vied for supremacy on the diamond, with the New York Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees each winning at least one World Series. Too often overlooked, the Negro Leagues had five teams in the city fighting for primacy in the sport: the Brooklyn Royal Giants, the New York Lincoln Giants, the New York Black Yankees, the New York Cubans, and, albeit very briefly, the Brooklyn Eagles. In THE HEYDAY OF WILLIE, DUKE, AND MICKEY, Robert C. Cottrell highlights a unique period in history when New York City baseball was at its height of dominance, spanning over a decade in postwar America.

Kelly Williams, a Dolly Parton-loving, sports-car-driving private investigator in Nashville, helps women. Clients trust her because she listens, she believes them, and over the years she’s honed a specialized skill set. Her latest client is Sarah Owens, better known as Seraph, the magnetic and polarizing lead singer of the indie sensation The Garden Snakes. After a series of threats turns violent, she hires Kelly to identify her assailant. Seraph has built a fiercely loyal following --- and attracted a number of critics. At that level of fame, her attacker could be anyone. Then, in the middle of a Nashville performance, Seraph is shot on stage. As the city reels and conspiracy theories swirl, Kelly is pulled into a dangerous web of secrets involving Seraph’s bandmates, her troubled past and the high cost of stardom.

Despite his many responsibilities, there is nothing Leopold Sloane, the 11th Duke of Debden, takes more seriously than the safety of those he loves. When one of his sisters is injured at a protest rally, he drags his family to Bath for the summer. The only flaw in his plan is his overwhelming but inexplicable attraction to the new chaperone he has hired to watch out for them. From the moment Portia Kendall read her first revolutionary pamphlet beneath her bedcovers, she realized that her true calling was to make the world a fairer place. But as Portia discovers, writing doesn’t pay the bills. A temporary position as a chaperone in the home of a pompous duke seems like the perfect way to earn enough to follow her heart. Unfortunately, the duke who hires her seems to be more dashing and noble than pompous. But dare she risk her principles for love or will her pride always come before a fall?

Betrayed by love, Marin lives and works as a supply runner, sailing from island to island, delivering an array of goods with Perri the sea serpent and Ree the sailor shrub as her crew. On one of her routine trips to the capital, Alyssium, Marin finds a revolution underway --- and her friend Dax in the line of fire. What starts as a rescue evolves into a deal: Marin will keep Dax on as a member of her crew if he pretends to be her boyfriend at the End-of-Harvest Festival back home. But against her better judgment, Marin finds herself intrigued by his stubbornness, his passion for stories, his charming smile --- and realizes that perhaps she isn’t saving him. Maybe it’s the other way around. 

On a remote island off the coast of Virginia, family and friends gather to celebrate the wedding of Shay O’Connor and Andrew Pruitt. From the moment the guests arrive, all they can whisper about is the bride, who recently left the headline-making cult Synanon. Why would someone like Shay, an Ivy League graduate with a wealthy, doting fiancée, join Synanon? And has she really escaped their grasp? Told from the interwoven perspectives of Shay’s brother William, her longtime friend Joel, and Shay herself, TENDERNESS is a slow-burn mystery that excavates dark family histories and romantic regrets. As the wedding day approaches, Joel and William pull at the loose threads of Shay’s story, and it becomes clear there is an even greater threat on the island than the secrets each character is keeping from one another.

Savvy has her work cut out when an old friend hires her to cater a company luncheon at a nearby office building on Chicago's South Side. But when someone is found dead in the company’s conference room, Savvy’s culinary creations are suddenly in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. While the focus should be on their delicious flavors and inventive techniques, Savvy’s beloved café instead becomes the center of a murder investigation once again. Caught within a messy web of gossip and fraught coworker relationships, Savvy will have to settle the confusion to clear her name. Somebody’s hiding something, and with the help of her trusty assistant manager, Penny Lopés, Savvy sets out uncover exactly who is to blame. With familiar faces turning up the heat on her investigation and her café still in hot water, will Savvy be able to save her reputation before it’s too late?

Maggie Wise will take your eyes. When Malcolm was growing up, the local kids made up that chant about his mother, claiming she was a witch. He and his siblings did their best to ignore it. Now, Maggie is dying, and those same siblings have left Malcolm and his sister-in-law Violet to hold a vigil at her bedside. But they’re not as alone as they think they are. Across the country, buried things begin to dream in anticipation of Maggie’s demise. On her deathbed, the old woman elicits a promise from Malcolm --- when she dies, he and Violet must return her body to her birthplace in Shediak, Maine. From the moment she takes her last breath, there are forces trying to stop Malcolm from fulfilling that promise. Violence erupts on the train, evil preys on its passengers, and once the sun goes down, those long-buried things are coming to make Maggie Wise pay for her past.

Meet Peter Key: self-proclaimed “laziest private investigator in Texas” (it’s harder than it looks), unapologetic bisexual, dedicated stoner and the surprised recipient of a windfall inheritance from an uncle he barely knew. Peter’s life was a mess before, but now --- as the owner of a dilapidated house in one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Austin --- he has a mountain of debt to deal with and pressure to sell from every side. But Peter doesn’t like to be pushed around. And when he discovers a bag full of cash, he starts to suspect his uncle’s death wasn’t an accident. He soon finds himself pulled into a lethal game where not everybody plays by the rules. Fortunately, Peter’s never been good at following rules.

Colin Eames recalls his late mother’s tales of a faraway place called the Sapphire Sea, where happiness forever is a way of life. When Colin is accepted into the Outer Banks Academy for the Gifted, it's his chance to slip out from under his father’s control, chart his own course, and embark on a quest for the one thing that eludes him: love. As the years pass and Colin’s freedom offers dream opportunities, his yearning to make a connection grows stronger. Then he meets Mira, an empathetic girl weathering tragic losses of her own. She’s there for him, supporting each new step he takes. For Colin, maybe the promise of the Sapphire Sea wasn’t a bedtime story after all, but rather a true and genuine place in the heart --- one worth searching and waiting for.