Adult

In 1982, young tax attorney John Green receives word that a client's plane has just crashed. The client's wife asks John to fly to Mississippi, find her husband's plane and see if he is still alive. Arriving at the crash site, he discovers that his client has died while smuggling drugs from Columbia. Soon John finds himself caught between a vengeful IRS agent with a personal grudge and a drug cartel that wants him dead. With his life in danger, he flees from Oklahoma to Texas where he is indicted and arrested. Without bail, he is shuffled from jail to jail and denied medical treatment while agents try to coerce a confession. John declines a misdemeanor plea, believing that justice will prevail if he goes to trial.

In CLOCKWORK ANGELS and CLOCKWORK LIVES, readers met the optimistic young hero Owen Hardy, as well as the more reluctant adventurer Marinda Peake, in an amazing world of airships and alchemy, fantastic carnivals and lost cities. Now Owen Hardy, retired and content in his quiet, perfect life with the beautiful Francesca, is pulled into one last adventure with his eager grandson, Alain. This final mission for the Watchmaker will take them up to the frozen lands of Ultima Thule and the ends of the Earth. Marinda Peake must undertake a mission of her own, not only to compile the true life story of the mysterious Watchmaker, but also to stop a deadly new group of anarchists.

When Adam Ramsdell pulls Elle’s half-frozen body from the surf on a lonely California beach, she has no memory of what her full name is and how she got those bruises ringing her throat. Elle finds refuge in Adam’s home on the edge of Gothic, a remote village located between the steep lonely mountains and the raging Pacific Ocean. As flashes of her memory return, Elle faces a terrible truth --- buried in her mind lurks a secret so dark it could get her killed. Everyone in Gothic seems to hide a dark past. Even Adam knows more than he will admit. Until Elle can unravel the truth, she doesn’t know who to trust, when to run, and who else might be hurt when the killer who stalks her nightmares appears to finish what he started.

One year ago, Leah’s feisty 21-year-old niece, Amy, mysteriously drowned in the beautiful lake near her family-owned resort in Northern Italy. Now, Leah’s grief has caught up with her, and she decides to return to Lake Garda for the first time since Amy’s death. What she finds upon her arrival shocks her --- her sister, brother-in-law and surviving niece, Olivia, seem to have erased all memories of Amy and fought to have her death declared an accidental drowning, despite murky circumstances. Leah knows she must look beyond the resort’s beautiful façade and uncover what truly happened to Amy, even if her digging places both her family ties and her very life in danger.

When introverted Ethan Fawcett marries fun-loving Barb, he has every reason to believe he will be delivered from a lifetime of solitude. She fills his world with a sense of adventure, expanding his horizons beyond his comfortable routine. To ease Ethan’s fears of becoming a father, Barb suggests they foster two young brothers, Tommy and Sam, and Ethan immediately falls in love with the boys. When the pandemic hits, he becomes obsessed with providing a perfect life for them. But instead of bringing Barb and Ethan closer together, the boys become a wedge in their relationship, as Ethan is unable to share with Barb a secret that has been haunting him since childhood. Then Ethan takes Tommy and Sam on a biking trip in Italy, and it becomes clear just how unusual Ethan and his boys are.

Lizzy "Overachiever" Chung, Esq. has her life mapped out neatly: Become a lawyer. Check. Join a prestigious law firm. Check. Make partner. In progress. If all goes according to plan, she will check off that last box in a couple of years. What was not in her plans was passing out from a panic attack during a pivotal moment in her career. Lizzy is now in Weldon for three weeks to shed the burnout and figure out what went wrong. And what better place to recharge than the small California town where she spent her childhood summers with her best friend, Jack Park. Jack didn't expect to see Lizzy back in Weldon, but now he has three weeks to spend with the girl of his dreams. Except she doesn't know of his decades-long crush on her --- and he intends to keep it that way.

Three years ago, passionate surfer Kenna Ward lost her two great loves. After her boyfriend drowned, she hung up her surfboard and swore off the water for good. But she is drawn back to the beach when her best friend, Mikki, announces her sudden engagement to a man Kenna has never met --- a member of a tight-knit group of surfers. Kenna travels to a remote Australian beach, entering a dangerous world far from civilization. She is tempted back into the surf, and drawn into the dazzling group and the beach they call their own. But this coastal paradise has a dark side, and members of the group begin to go missing. Kenna realizes that in order to protect Mikki and learn more about the surfers, she must become one of them…without becoming one of their victims.

Isabel Dalhousie is invited to serve on the advisory committee of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. There she meets a woman named Laura, whose husband --- a prominent wine merchant from an illustrious family --- and son are at odds. Laura asks Isabel to arbitrate between them. Isabel is reluctant to intervene in a familial drama but feels obligated to help. Meanwhile, her husband Jamie is helping to select a new cellist for his ensemble but suspects that the conductor’s attention may be focused on something other than his favored candidate’s cello skills. Jamie feels it’s important that the most qualified applicant gets the job. But how to determine if the conductor has the right qualifications in mind?

It is supposed to be a quick visit to Boston for the Buchanan anniversary party, then on to Scotland to collect an inheritance. But after getting lost, Grace Isabel MacKenna ends up with a wounded man stumbling into her arms --- and his shooter coming after them both. When she fires back in self-defense, she doesn’t expect him to drop dead. After Isabel endures an interrogation by police, she is free to go, thanks to the Buchanans dispatching former Navy SEAL and now lawyer Michael Buchanan to assist her. Isabel has harbored an extreme dislike for Michael for years, so gratitude is difficult to muster. Michael has appointed himself her de facto guardian, and she’s stuck with him despite their constant bickering and sizzling attraction.

NYPD master homicide investigator Michael Bennett and top FBI abduction specialist Emily Parker have a history. Working case after case, each can predict the other’s next move. So when she fails to show at FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, Bennett risks venturing far outside his jurisdiction. The investigation he undertakes is the most brilliant detective work of his career…and the most intensely personal. A portrait begins to emerge of a woman as adept at keeping secrets as forging powerful connections. A woman whose enemies had both the means and the motives to silence the real Emily Parker --- and her protectors.