Adult

For 50 years, Venetia Hargreaves’ world revolved around her husband. Now she’s a wealthy widow left with a beautiful but empty home. Once upon a time, she was a dance instructor who dreamed of opening her own ballroom school with a fellow teacher who won her heart. Instead, she chose the safer path. So, at 74, Venetia declares her independence. But something is still missing...until on one of her dog walks by the river, she passes by a building she remembers all too well. In her youth it was the spectacular Phoenix Ballroom, where she used to teach waltzes and tangos. These days it’s a community center and spiritualist church. Eager to revive at least one meaningful thing from her past, Venetia buys the Phoenix Ballroom and finds a supportive and loving community of lost souls who become a delightful multigenerational family-by-choice.

In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror flick. Only three of the film’s scenes were ever released to the public, but Horror Movie has nevertheless grown a rabid fan base. Three decades later, Hollywood is pushing for a big-budget reboot. The man who played “The Thin Kid” is the only surviving cast member. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the dangerous crossed lines on set that resulted in tragedy. Still, he’s going to help remake the film, even if it means navigating a world of cynical producers, egomaniacal directors and surreal fan conventions --- demons of the past be damned. But at what cost?

For decades, Joni Mitchell’s life and music have enraptured listeners. One of the most celebrated artists of her generation, Mitchell has inspired countless musicians --- from peers like James Taylor, to inheritors like Prince and Brandi Carlile --- and authors, who have dissected her music and her life in their writing. At the same time, Mitchell has always been a force beckoning us still closer, as --- with the other arm --- she pushes us away. Given this, music critic Ann Powers wondered if there was another way to draw insights from the life of this singular musician who never stops moving, never stops experimenting. In TRAVELING, Powers seeks to understand Mitchell through her myriad journeys.

Erica is terrified that she’s losing her teen daughter, Summer, to her “other” family, especially to her stepmom, Allison. All it takes to blow up Allison’s happy life is one collect call. From prison. Her beloved husband, Peter, has been arrested, leaving Allison pregnant, broke, scared and alone with a toddler. But when her stepdaughter ferrets out the truth, the teen rushes to the last person Allison wants to ask for help --- her husband’s battle-ax ex. Erica would do anything for Summer, even take in the woman her daughter loves like a second mom. Allison feels intimidated by Erica --- a woman who would never let herself become so dependent on a man. But the more time they spend together, the more Allison realizes what Erica truly needs is a friend.

Timed for a trial that will capture national attention, WHEN THE NIGHT COMES FALLING examines the mysterious murders of four University of Idaho students. Having covered this case from its start, Edgar Award-winning investigative reporter Howard Blum takes readers behind the scenes of the police manhunt that eventually led to suspected killer Bryan Christopher Kohberger and uncovered larger, lurid questions within this unthinkable tragedy.

Following the death of her former husband, Cam, 54-year-old Eleanor has moved back to the New Hampshire farm where they raised three children to care for their brain-injured son, Toby, now an adult. Toby’s older brother, Al, is married and living in Seattle with his wife; their sister, Ursula, lives in Vermont with her husband and two children. Although all appears stable, old resentments, anger and bitterness simmer just beneath the surface. HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN follows Eleanor and her family through 15 years (2010 to 2024) as their story plays out against a uniquely American backdrop and the events that transform their world (climate change, the January 6th insurrection, school violence) and shape their lives (later-life love, parental alienation, steadfast friendship).

Addison McKellar knows she and her husband, Dean, don’t have the perfect marriage, but she’s still shocked when he completely vanishes from her life. As days stretch into a week and she’s repeatedly stonewalled by Dean’s friends and associates, her frustration turns into genuine alarm. When even the police seem dismissive of her concerns, Addison turns to her father’s old friend, legendary Memphis PI Porter Hayes. Porter and Addison quickly discover that Dean was never the hardworking business owner and family man he pretended to be. As they piece together the connections between a hook-handed mercenary, one of Elvis’ former leading ladies, and a man posing as an FBI agent, it becomes clear that Dean was deeply enmeshed in a high-stakes web of international intrigue, and Porter and Addison aren’t the only ones looking for him.

On the verge of her second marriage, Carla Carter knows she’s finally found the one. She and her fiancé, Tom, met through Logical Love, a dating agency she founded for the pragmatically minded, and she’s confident that, together, they will dispel an old family curse claiming Carter women are unlucky in love. For peace of mind, Carla’s family insists she visit a fortune teller before she ties the knot. Except the tarot unexpectedly reveals that the love of Carla’s life is not Tom, but one of the several men she briefly dated during her European gap year --- 21 years ago. Only weeks away from her big day, Carla sets off across Europe to track down her exes from that unforgettable year, desperate to prove the fortune teller wrong. From Spain to Portugal, Italy to France, will one be her perfect match?

September 1943: Berlin is the heart of darkness --- and the last place Dr. Elin Lund wishes to be. An expert in psychological profiling, she’s been summoned from Copenhagen to investigate the gruesome murders of eight young women. Even in the midst of unspeakable evil, these killings stand apart. And with her homeland now under Nazi occupation and a young son to protect, Elin can’t refuse such a request. Homicide Detective Kurt Schneider, head of the criminal police unit, is grudging in his welcome. The orders to find the killer come from the top, and to fail means death. The stakes are too high to risk any mistakes --- or to trust a stranger. Yet the pair, trapped in an uneasy partnership, each has expertise the other needs. And Schneider, like Elin, is clearly guarding secrets of his own.

In 2020, Tracy O’Neill began to rethink her ideas of comfort and safety. Just out of a 10-year relationship and thirty-something, she was driven by an acute awareness that the mysterious mother she’d never met might be dying somewhere in South Korea. After contacting a grizzled private investigator, O’Neill took his suggested homework to heart when he disappeared before the job was done, picking up the trail of clues and becoming her own hell-bent detective. Despite COVID-19, the promise of what she might discover --- the possibility that her biological mother was her kind of outlaw, whose life could inspire her own --- was too tempting.