Adult

DIANA’S BOYS revealed the powerful bond between Princes William and Harry, and how it strengthened even more in the wake of their mother’s tragic death. Now, 20 years later, Queen Elizabeth II is in her mid-90s, Prince Charles is in his 70s, and all eyes are turned increasingly toward William and Harry again. Christopher Andersen picks up where he left off, covering everything that has happened to the brothers as they have grown up, gotten married to two remarkable women, and had children --- all while facing continual waves of controversy and questions about the ways their relationship has shifted.

Edward Dickens, the 10th child of England’s most famous author Charles Dickens, has consistently let his parents down. Unable to apply himself at school and adrift in life, the teenaged boy is sent to Australia in the hopes that he can make something of himself --- or at least fail out of the public eye. He soon finds himself in the remote Outback, surrounded by Aboriginals, colonials, ex-convicts, ex-soldiers and very few women. Determined to prove to his parents and, more importantly, himself that he can succeed in this vast and unfamiliar wilderness, Edward works hard at his new life amidst various livestock, bushrangers, shifty stock agents and frontier battles.

In LOOK FOR ME AND I'LL BE GONE, his sixth collection of stories, John Edgar Wideman imbues with energy and life the concerns that have consistently infused his fiction and nonfiction. How does it feel to grow up in America, a nation that encourages (sometimes unwittingly, but often on purpose) its citizens to see themselves as colored or white, as inferior or superior? The story “Separation” begins with a boy afraid to stand alone beside his grandfather’s coffin, then wends its way back and forth from Pittsburgh to ancient Sumer. “Atlanta Murders” starts with two chickens crossing a road and becomes a dark riff, contemplating “Evidence of Things Not Seen,” James Baldwin’s report on the 1979-1981 child murders in Atlanta, Georgia.

Juniper Baker had just graduated from high school and was deep in the throes of a summer romance when Cal and Beth Murphy, a childless couple who lived on a neighboring farm, were brutally murdered. When her younger brother became the prime suspect, June’s world collapsed, and everything she loved that summer fell away. She left, promising never to return to tiny Jericho, Iowa. Until now. Officially, she’s back in town to help an ill friend manage the local library. But really, she’s returned to repair her relationship with her teenage daughter --- and to solve the infamous Murphy murders once and for all. She knows the key to both lies in the darkest secret of that long-ago summer night, one that’s haunted her for nearly 15 years.

When Stephanie Plum is woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of footsteps in her apartment, she wishes she didn’t keep her gun in the cookie jar in her kitchen. And when she finds out the intruder is fellow apprehension agent Diesel, six feet of hard muscle and bad attitude who she hasn’t seen in more than two years, she still thinks the gun might come in handy. It turns out Diesel and Stephanie are on the trail of the same fugitive: Oswald Wednesday, an international computer hacker as brilliant as he is ruthless. Unsure if Diesel is her partner or her competition in this case, she’ll need to watch her back every step of the way as she sets the stage to draw Wednesday out from behind his computer and into the real world.

Emma Walsh has finally worked up the courage to confront her husband, James, about his drinking. But he never shows up to meet her as planned. His body lies crumpled amidst the wreckage of his flashy car, which has been smashed to its final resting place halfway through the back wall of their suburban house’s garage. In the aftermath of the fatal crash, Emma and her teenage children begin to embrace life without James’ looming, volcanic presence. It turns out that her husband’s legacy as an upstanding business owner and family man shines only because so many people, for so long, were so willing to keep his secrets --- secrets that twist into new and unexpected shapes as the mysterious details of his last day of life begin to come to light.

Freddie and Greg Tyler seem to have it all: a comfortable home, a beautiful young daughter, a bond that feels unbreakable. But when Greg is diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer, the sense of certainty they once knew evaporates. Throughout their town, friends and neighbors face the most difficult of life’s challenges and are figuring out how to survive thanks to love, grace and hope.

When Kate Burke is awakened one night by a sound outside her window, her PTSD is triggered. She still lives with the dreadful memories of her husband’s murder during a seemingly random home invasion two years before. When she discovers the unsettling ways her property has been vandalized the next day, Kate is forced to conclude the worst: someone is watching her. She decides to rent out her estranged sister’s one-time cottage, which sits on her property, for the summer. But the vandalism is escalating. So are the anonymous late-night calls and texts, each one more disturbing and violating than the last. Whoever is targeting Kate, whatever their motive or terrifying endgame, the footsteps in the dark are getting closer.

When a star dies, a new one must be born. The Sun God chooses the village of Endwever to provide a mortal womb. The birthing of a star is always fatal for the mother, and Ceris Wenden sacrifices herself to secure her family’s honor. But after her star child is born, Ceris does what no other star mother has: she survives. When Ceris returns to Endwever, it’s not nine months later --- it’s 700 years later. Inexplicably displaced in time, Ceris is determined to seek out her descendants. Being a woman traveling alone brings its own challenges, until Ceris encounters a mysterious --- and desperate --- godling. Ristriel is the only being who can guide Ceris safely to her destination. Now, as Ceris traverses realms both mortal and beyond, her journey truly begins.

It’s their daughter’s graduation, and Rachel and Ed Hartley are expecting it to be one of their family’s happiest days. But when she stumbles and falls on stage during the ceremony, a beautiful moment turns to chaos: Gemma has been shot and is fighting for her life. A cryptic message Gemma received earlier in the day suggests someone close to her was about to be exposed. But who? As PI Matthew Hill starts to investigate, he finds more and more layers obscuring the truth. He even begins to suspect the Hartleys are hiding something big. While Gemma lies in the hospital in a coma, her would-be killer is still out there. Can Matthew unravel the family’s secrets before the attacker strikes again?