Adult

“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches”: That was how Nana Alba always began the stories she told her great-granddaughter, Minerva, who is now researching the life of Beatrice Tremblay, an obscure author of macabre tales. In the course of assembling her thesis, Minerva uncovers information that reveals that Tremblay’s most famous novel, The Vanishing, was inspired by a true story. Decades earlier, during the Great Depression, Tremblay attended the same university where Minerva is now studying and became obsessed with her beautiful and otherworldly roommate, who then disappeared under mysterious circumstances. As Minerva descends ever deeper into Tremblay’s manuscript, she begins to sense that the malign force that stalked Tremblay and the missing girl might still walk the halls of the campus.

Grace has developed unusual predilections: for painting, particularly forgery; for deception; for other girls. As Grace cultivates her talent as a copyist, she realizes that her uncanny ability to recreate paintings might offer her a means of escape. Secretly, she puts this skill to use as an art forger, creating fake masterpieces in candlelit corners of her uncle’s decaying Oxfordshire estate. Saving the money she makes from her sales, she plans a new life far from the family that has never seemed to want her. Then a letter arrives from the South Atlantic. The writer claims to be her cousin Charles, long presumed dead at sea, who wishes to reconnect with his family. When Charles returns, Grace’s aunt welcomes him with open arms, yet fractures appear in the household. Some believe he is who he says he is. Others are convinced he’s an impostor.

Best friends Joni and Ren have been inseparable since childhood. So when Joni moves across the country for her job, the two devise a creative way to stay in touch: they’ll be each other’s plus-ones every year for wedding season, no matter what else is happening in their lives. It’s a tradition that works, until a line is crossed and the friendship they once thought was forever is ruined. Now Joni is back at their families’ shared summer home for her sister’s wedding, and she’s determined to make the week perfect, even if it means faking a friendship with Ren. How hard can it be to pretend to be friends with the person who once knew you best? But as sunny beach days together turn into starry nights, Joni begins to question what her life is without Ren in it.

Marissa, Jeannie, Samira and Nicole are beginning to grapple with their own identities. As their children become more independent, they struggle to find purpose. But when they meet at a bowling night fundraiser for their kids’ school, they discover a shared interest in true crime that crystalizes around a mysterious double homicide that took place in their hometown a decade earlier. A couple in their 60s vanished overnight from their home and mysteriously shuttered their family business, leaving millions of dollars unaccounted for. Initially believed to have absconded with the money, they went from suspects to victims when their bodies were discovered in their car at the bottom of a steep ravine. And then the case turned cold. But what if the moms could solve it? What if they could bring a killer to justice and give closure to a grieving family?

In “Machine City” a college student’s chance role in a friend’s movie blurs the line between his character and his true self. (Is he a robot?) In “Slide to Unlock” a man comes to terms with his life via the passwords he struggles to remember in extremis. (What’s his mom’s name backward?) And in “Weird Menace” a director and faded movie star gab about science fiction, bad costume choices and lost loves on a commentary track for a B-film from the ’80s that neither remembers all that well. In Ed Park’s utterly original collection, characters bemoan their fleeting youth, focus on their breathing, meet cute, break up, write book reviews, translate ancient glyphs, bid on stuff online, whale watch, and once in a while find solace in the sublime.

As a newly minted junior professor, Daphne Ouverture spends her days giving lectures on French colonialism, working on her next academic book, and going on atrocious dates. Her small world suits her just fine. Until Sam Taylor dies. The rising star of Harrison University’s anthropology department was never one of Daphne’s favorites, despite his popularity. But that doesn’t prevent Sam’s killer from believing Daphne has something that belonged to Sam --- something the killer will stop at nothing to get. Between grading papers and navigating her disastrous love life, Daphne embarks on her own investigation to find out what connects her to Sam’s murder. With the help of an alluring former-detective-turned-bookseller, she unravels a deadly cover-up on campus.

When the ashes from an Ash Wednesday service in the prairie town of Andwhen, Minnesota, refuse to wash off, members of a small congregation are left wondering if they’ve been blessed or cursed. For Basil --- a “gentle giant” of a teen reeling from a farming accident that shattered his family and haunted by his mother’s decade-long confinement in a state mental hospital --- the ashes become a sign. He embarks on a secret ritual of fasting and prayer, seeking meaning in his unraveling world. Meanwhile, Basil and his friends, Lukas and Morgan (who self-identify as “a gay, a goth and a giant”), stumble upon what may be the centuries-old remains of a Viking explorer in a local meadow, a find that brings its own complications. As Basil’s relentless fasting warps his grip on reality, the danger he poses to himself and his family escalates.

Former Supreme Court clerk Avery Keene is trying to put the past behind her at a prestigious high-end law firm in Washington, D.C. She is now working as an internal investigator when a high-profile client seeks her out. Camasca Enterprises is a tech company that has developed a new integrated AI system poised to revolutionize the medical industry. To prove its potential, Camasca’s charismatic founder, retired Major Rafe Diaz, has picked a complicated target: delivering cutting-edge health care to his fellow veterans. The potential is staggering, but their prototype has been plagued by a series of disturbing anomalies --- culminating in the mysterious death of a beloved Camasca engineer. Avery and her colleagues are brought into the secretive company to determine whether their technical troubles and rising body count reveal something sinister at work.

Alexis Spencer will use any inspirational quote to rationalize her failures and shortcomings. But when she loses her job and her relationship on the same day, there’s no quote strong enough to get her through that. In typical fashion, she blames the world for her problems, including her younger self, who should have tried harder. Feeling sorry for herself, Alexis finds a bottle of vodka from her college days and goes on a bender, blacking out in the process. Only this time, she doesn’t wake up at home, or in the right city. Alexis is back in her college town in the year 2002. Convinced this is her chance to do things over, she heads to her dorm --- and comes face-to-face with her 18-year-old unruly self, who goes by Lexi. Getting acclimated to life in the early 2000s is the easy part. Dealing with Lexi is where things prove difficult.

Fifteen years ago, Maia Gold attended a prestigious --- and very exclusive --- writers retreat hosted by billionaire Argos Alexander on the Greek island of Eris. But something dark happened on that island, a betrayal that has hung over her ever since. Now, Maia has been invited to return to Eris, and she’s not the only one from that first retreat who’s been invited back. Almost all of the writers from 15 years before have returned to Eris, bringing unresolved resentments with them. The guests soon learn that their illustrious host is absent, though he has left instructions for them to participate in a contest. Whoever can write the most suspenseful mystery while on the island will win a fortune and literary acclaim. But when the guests gather in the morning to share their first chapters, they find Argos Alexander dead.