Adult

Taking place nearly a century before the events of "Game of Thrones," A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS compiles the first three official prequel novellas to George R. R. Martin’s ongoing masterwork, A Song of Ice and Fire. These never-before-collected adventures recount an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne, and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living consciousness.

Deborah Birch is a seasoned hospice nurse whose daily work requires courage and compassion. But her skills and experience are tested in new and dramatic ways when her easygoing husband, Michael, returns from his third deployment to Iraq haunted by nightmares, anxiety and rage. At the same time, Deborah’s primary patient is Barclay Reed, a retired history professor and expert in the Pacific Theater of World War II. He tells her stories from that long-ago war, which help her find a way to assist her husband in battling his demons.

Ashley Davison, a graduate student in California, desperately wants to spend the holidays with her family in Seattle. Dashiell Sutherland, a former army intelligence officer, has a job interview in Seattle and must arrive by December 23. Ashley and Dash reluctantly decide to share the car, but neither anticipates the wild ride ahead. Though Ashley and Dash may never reach Seattle in time for Christmas, the season is still full of surprises --- and their greatest wishes may yet come true.

Kezia, Nathaniel and Victor are reunited at the extravagant wedding of a college friend. During the reception, an inebriated Victor passes out in the mother of the groom's bedroom. He's woken with a jovial slap to the face, as she dangles a story about a missing necklace before him, one that she has never even told her son. Her tale sets in motion a madcap adventure that leads Victor, Kezia and Nathaniel from Miami to New York and L.A., and ultimately across France, to the estate of Guy de Maupassant, author of the classic short story "The Necklace."

Carl Mørck has no choice but to lead Department Q into the tragic cold case of a vivacious 17-year-old girl who vanished from school, only to be found dead hanging high up in a tree. The investigation will take them from the remote island of Bornholm to a strange sun-worshipping cult, where Carl, Assad, Rose and newcomer Gordon attempt to stop a string of new murders and a skilled manipulator who refuses to let anything --- or anyone --- get in the way.

Les, a long-time sheriff just three weeks from retirement, contends with the ravages of crystal meth and his own duplicity in his small Appalachian town. Becky, a park ranger with a harrowing past, finds solace amid the lyrical beauty of this patch of North Carolina. When an irascible elderly local is accused of poisoning a trout stream, Les and Becky are plunged into deep and dangerous waters, forced to navigate currents of disillusionment and betrayal that will force them to question themselves, test their tentative bond --- and threaten to carry them over the edge.

Margaret Holloway is driving home, but her mind is elsewhere when she's rear-ended and trapped in the wreckage. Just as she begins to panic, a disfigured stranger pulls her from the car seconds before it's engulfed in flames. Then he simply disappears. Though she escapes with minor injuries, Margaret feels that something is wrong. Whatever happened, she didn't merely forget --- she chose to forget. And somehow, she knows deep down that it has something to do with the man who saved her life.

At 2:00 a.m. on August 2, 1943, U.S. Patrol Torpedo boat PT-109, captained by Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, was struck by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri near the Solomon Islands. Despite injuring his back, Lt. Kennedy led his battered and exhausted men on a harrowing three-and-a-half-mile swim to a tiny uninhabited island. Desperate for food and water, Kennedy set off on a solo reconnaissance mission, scouting two larger islands two-and-a-half miles away. For six days they lived off coconuts and kept out of sight of passing Japanese patrols until they were rescued.

There are many rumors about the bay off Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Some say it was the site of the lost empire of the Solomon king and that great treasure lies beneath the waters. Others say terrible things happened here, atrocities and disappearances at the hands of cannibal giants, and those who venture there do not return. It is cursed. Which is exactly what attracts the attention of husband-and-wife treasure-hunting team Sam and Remi Fargo. What they find at the end of the trail is both wonderful and monstrous --- and like nothing they have ever seen before.

M TRAIN begins in the tiny Greenwich Village café where Patti Smith goes every morning for black coffee, ruminates on the world as it is and the world as it was, and writes in her notebook. Woven throughout are reflections on the writer’s craft and on artistic creation. Here, too, are singular memories of Smith’s life in Michigan and the irremediable loss of her husband, Fred Sonic Smith. Braiding despair with hope and consolation, illustrated with her signature Polaroids, M TRAIN is a meditation on travel, detective shows, literature and coffee.