Adult

Fannie Flagg once said that what the world needs now is a good laugh. And that is what she gives us in these warmhearted, always surprising stories about people who are finding clever ways to deal with the curveballs life sometimes throws at us. Velma in Kansas, a loving great-grandmother, struggles to bridge generational gaps with her family. We cheer for Helen, in Ithaca, New York, who takes an audacious course of action when her husband leaves her for a younger woman. In Bent Fork, Wyoming; in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; in Tucson, Arizona; and in towns and cities all across America, people figure out inventive ways to overcome obstacles to happiness. And in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Special Agent Frawley is studying the mysteries of being human from an original perspective.

Janavi is a wonderfully independent, young modern Indian woman. Sagar is a trained hydraulic engineer, and his parents were never able to forgive him for an unspeakable act from his past. Yet the two are forced together into an arranged marriage that neither of them wants. Even worse, Sagar has already accepted a job in America, in a strange place called Montana, where he will be in charge of dismantling a dam. His white colleagues do not welcome him with open arms, and Janavi finds herself unable to forgive her sister back in India, whose betrayal led her to this marriage and this strange place. When a colleague of Sagar's is found drowned, Sagar is the obvious scapegoat. But is this death one in a long history of people of color paying the price for the white man's arrogance and expansionism?

Recent Afghan refugee Sabera Ahmadi was last seen exiting her place of work three weeks ago. The local police have yet to open a case, while her older, domineering husband, Isaad, seems unconcerned. Sabera's closest friend, however, is convinced Sabera would never willingly leave her three-year-old daughter, Zahra. At her insistence, missing persons expert Frankie Elkin agrees to take up the search. Just in time for a video of the young mother to surface --- showing her walking away from the scene of a brutal double murder. Frankie quickly realizes there's much more to the Ahmadi family than meets the eye. When Isaad also disappears under mysterious circumstances and an attempt is made on Zahra's life, Frankie realizes that she quickly must crack the code of this family's horrific past.

When Hap and Leonard are called in on a strange request (subduing a meth-hopped hog) by a desperate young lady, they quickly learn this woman is part of a fringe group: The Hatchet Girls, who have pledged their allegiance to a crazed and grudge-bearing leader bent on bloody societal revenge. The timing couldn't be worse to be caught in such a vile, sticky wicket of a case. Both boys are wrapped up in their domestic lives. Leonard is in the midst of wedding planning with his fiancée, Pookie. And meanwhile, Hap and Brett are hard at work on their new home. Homemaking bliss will have to wait as Hap and Leonard are driven to stop the danger in its tracks and better understand the group's mission and the plans they already have set in place for helter-skelter-esque mayhem.

Twenty-two years ago, Claire Campbell’s older sister, Natalie, disappeared shortly after her 18th birthday. Days later, her blood was found in a car, and the case was swiftly closed. In the decades since, Claire has attempted to forget her traumatic past, until an unexpected call from her father forces her to come back home and face it all anew. Claire decides on a whim to accept a seasonal job at Galloway Farm. At first glance, Galloway is an idyllic escape for Claire. However, she stumbles across an old diary written by one of the vineyard's owners, and what at first seems like a story of love turns into something sinister as it describes details of various unsolved crimes. Claire obsesses over the diary as well as the lingering feeling that her own sister's disappearance may be somehow tied to it all.

Allison Blanchet has always lived at full throttle. From racing down small-town Georgia streets on her bicycle in the 1960s and ’70s to feeling the rush of adrenaline in a Corvette, in the paddock of the Daytona International Speedway, and in the heights of the Himalayas, Allison has led a life fueled by adventure. But after a life-altering accident, Allison faces the toughest challenge of all: learning how to find peace, joy and meaning amid grief and loss. Her journey is a poignant reflection on how life’s deepest struggles can also offer its most profound adventures --- and how love, loss and triumph are inextricably connected.

Jamie is basically your average New England academic in-training. She has a strong queer relationship, an esoteric dissertation proposal, and inherited generational trauma. But she has one extraordinary secret: she's also a powerful witch. Serena, Jamie's mother, has been hiding from the world in an old one-room schoolhouse for several years, grieving the death of her wife and the simultaneous explosion in her professional life. Jamie is busy digging into a 300-year-old magical book, but she still finds time to teach Serena to cast spells and help her come out of her shell. But Jamie doesn't know the whole story of what happened to her mom years ago. Now it's up to her to understand the secrets behind this mysterious novel from 1749, unearth a long-buried scandal hinted therein, and learn the true nature of magic before her mother ruins both of their lives.

Healer Anja regularly drinks poison. Not to die, but to save --- seeking cures for those everyone else has given up on. But a summons from the King interrupts her quiet, herb-obsessed life. His daughter, Snow, is dying, and he hopes Anja’s unorthodox methods can save her. Aided by a taciturn guard, a narcissistic cat and a passion for the scientific method, Anja rushes to treat Snow, but nothing seems to work. That is, until she finds a secret world, hidden inside a magic mirror. This dark realm may hold the key to what is making Snow sick. Or it might be the thing that kills them all.

Detective Annalisa Vega hasn’t forgiven her brother for his role in a murder, and he hasn’t forgiven her for turning him in. So she’s surprised when he asks her to visit him in prison. One of his fellow inmates, Joe Green, may be innocent of the murder that landed him behind bars. Joe is doing hard time for killing his ex-wife’s lawyer, but an anonymous letter sent to the prison warns that the eyewitness in Joe’s trial made up her story. With her private investigation business foundering, Annalisa is desperate enough to start poking around into Joe’s meager case. She immediately finds two problems: the eyewitness definitely lied about what she saw the night of the murder, and Annalisa’s husband, Nick, was the cop who arrested Joe. Annalisa’s search for the truth will test the bounds of her marriage, her family and her own sense of justice.

Once the most notorious rivals in the music scene, pop princess Mackenzie Waters and punk rock star Sam Blaze electrified audiences as their bands clashed on stage. But behind the scenes, their simmering tension grew into something more --- until suddenly both bands fell apart, and the idea of Mackenzie and Sam did, too. Two years later, Sam has traded the rock star lifestyle for a quiet life raising the son he didn’t know about. Meanwhile, Mackenzie is dealing with a postoperative change in her voice by only singing under a pseudonym. The only way to revive their public careers? A joint comeback album. Sam and Mackenzie face their biggest challenge yet: giving up their old rivalry and learning to work together. But as old sparks fly and new secrets emerge, they set off a chain reaction neither of them could have anticipated.