Adult

New York Times bestselling author and two-time Pulitzer winner Colson Whitehead has penned an exuberantly entertaining novel that brings to life 1980s New York in this magnificent final volume of his Harlem Trilogy. With his usual pitch-perfect prose, Whitehead paints a portrait of a city in transition, where shimmering skyscrapers rise to the heavens as displaced people huddle in abandoned tunnels below. In a dazzling display of protean imagination, COOL MACHINE roves all over the city, from Windows on the World to the Meadowlands, to show that in New York and in the lives of Whitehead’s vivid characters, it’s what’s below the surface that reveals the truth.

When the Pickford siblings arrive at The Grand Hotel, they have every intention of spending the long weekend making nice. Pete is keen to wade around the lake in search of a rare and exciting Carthusian snail. Viv is determined to put on a brave face for her daughter. And Corey has lucked into five pounds of cocaine he plans to sell to the first dumb rich guy he can find. But when Pete falls for the alluring mother of a local kid, when Viv’s daughter gets up to teenage trouble, and when Corey finds the wealthy guests less interested in party drugs than golf clubs, the long weekend of family bonding veers into disaster. Why did their father bring them to this cushy island resort in the first place? And why does Corey seem to be the only one who knows the truth?

When an offshore rig explodes and unleashes a catastrophic spill, the people of Pelerin Parish face a reckoning. As the toxic plume of oil advances across the Gulf, Boy finds himself raising a daughter he barely knows. His dying aunt, Rosa, tries to right the misdeeds of the past yet finds herself thwarted by her husband, Jacot, a retired landman for big oil who refuses to give up claim to the plot of ground where Boy makes his living. Meanwhile, the parish priest, Father Fabian lends his assistance to Boy’s all-but-motherless daughter, only to be met with suspicion. When a powerful hurricane threatens to turn an already dire situation into a total cataclysm, this sharp-edged cast of characters collides in a thunderclap of resentment and violence.

It’s hard enough to be a teenager, and Dilo is tasked with hustling to help her family get by. After Dilo’s born-again Christian mother, Mary, and Aunt Anji relocated, one thing’s become blindingly clear --- the “rags-to-riches” fairytale they were promised is bullshit. Their family operates on the margins and when both matriarchs unexpectedly lose their jobs, desperation begins to set in. With eviction imminent, they are thrown a lifeline when they meet Mark, a day-trader. At last, a miracle and the family quickly become his apostles. But they soon discover what really fuels Mark’s seemingly endless generosity and when the markets turn they are left to navigate treacherous but familiar terrain. They must do what they always have, find a path where there isn’t one --- survive.

As a principal dancer with a prestigious New York ballet company, Devyn Lee is far from her hometown of Hope Harbor on the Oregon coast. But when a family emergency compels her to return, her visit turns into an extended stay after complications arise. Widowed mill worker Aaron Steele pays no attention to the buzz in Hope Harbor about the famous dancer in town. Until his grieving nine-year-old daughter takes a fancy to Devyn after she agrees to help with a fundraising show for a local charity in which the young girl is performing. As the show --- and Devyn --- begin to lift his daughter's spirits, his own life is brightened by the beautiful ballerina as she slowly but surely captures his heart. But what are the odds that such an accomplished, polished woman from the city could ever fall for a small-town lumberman with two left feet? 

Sonia is a Hungarian immigrant who is raising her daughter, Mila, on her own in sunny Los Angeles. Her days are a blur of not-quite-illegal business activities, dodging PTA moms, and baking birthday cakes laced with rum. Mila, meanwhile, is juggling violin and swimming lessons and navigating the treacherous social politics of school with the help of a less-than-helpful guidebook on how to be cool in the sixth grade. Sonia is sure that their bond will be enough to satisfy her daughter. But her guarded lifestyle has left Mila lonely, isolated and ready to write herself into a bigger story. When she stumbles across emails between her mother and a man she’s never met, Mila decides to take matters into her own hands and forms a plan that will implode their carefully constructed lives.

In February 2020, the US began to withdraw troops from Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of occupation. A whole generation of Afghan women had been born during that time. They knew everything was about to change. In the bustling, cosmopolitan city of Kabul, women are TV newscasters, shop owners, doctors, teachers, lawyers, even soldiers. They include Marjan, who fought with the Afghan army and will risk everything to keep her daughter Hawa safe. She’s created a whole new life for herself, one she will not give up easily. So has Soraya, who defiantly wore red lipstick as she led the army’s all-female combat force over the objections of her upper-class family.

Violet “West” Shelley has unwillingly spent her life in the spotlight as the only daughter of a legendary poet and feminist icon who died tragically young. Now, as the self-described “lowbrow” crime journalist approaches 50, she retreats to her hometown in the Colorado mountains hometown to finish a long-overdue book about the “Crying Killer,” a notorious serial killer who sobs for his mother after committing his crimes. But what begins as a bid for solitude quickly spirals into something far more sinister. A stalker emerges: this invisible stranger insists that West is their long-lost mother, though West has never had children. As the threats escalate and her carefully defended privacy starts to shatter, West is drawn into a chilling psychological web where the boundaries between fiction and reality begin to collapse.

Fred and Thea Morgan-Lane are the envy of the mystery community, the perfect partners in life and in writing. Together they coauthor the wildly successful Death Takes a Holiday series and they’ve been invited to the Italian castle where it all began for a mystery conference celebrating their first novel, Death Takes the Castle. But their story isn’t quite the fairytale it seems to outsiders. Their marriage and partnership haven’t been working for some time, and what better place to announce the end of the series than where it started? Except shortly after their arrival deaths take place, and they’re following the murders in Death Takes a Castle exactly. In order to save the day, the unhappy couple will have to work together to figure out who is using their book as a blueprint for a killing spree. 

Alexis Turner walks into the police station to report an assault. By the end of the day, she is nowhere to be found. Soon after she disappears, three identical packages arrive at three very different doors: a respected psychologist's home, a socialite's mansion, and a struggling single father's run-down apartment. Inside, each gift is perfectly tailored to its recipient --- and each will tear apart the life of its intended victim. Detective Sergeant Judith Lee is smart and experienced, but this is no ordinary case. Someone with intimate knowledge of their targets is orchestrating these attacks. Someone who knows exactly how to hurt each victim where they're most vulnerable. As she races to uncover the connection between three unrelated people, Judith discovers she's no longer just investigating the game --- she's being forced to play.