Adult

In a shadowy antiques shop in Rome, violinist Julia Ansdell happens upon a curious piece of music --- the Incendio waltz --- and is immediately entranced by its unusual composition. Back home in Boston, from the moment Julia’s bow moves across the strings, drawing the waltz’s fiery notes into the air, something strange is stirred. The music has a terrifying and inexplicable effect on her young daughter, who seems violently transformed. Convinced that the hypnotic strains of Incendio are weaving a malevolent spell, Julia sets out to discover the man and the meaning behind the score.

The Satellite Sisters have turned their focus to one of the most important relationships in our lives --- our friends, our Satellite Sisters, the women (and men) we call when the best thing in your life happens, or the worst. With their trademark empathy, intelligence and humor, YOU'RE THE BEST is a collection of essays and writings about life, love, family, play and change. Its contributors include both the Satellite Sisters and the Next Generation (nieces, daughters, daughters-in-law), covering how friendships influence choices, relationships, careers, adventures and inevitable changes.

Bench McCarthy is a thug's thug, a hitman, an underworld jack-of-all-trades running his own mob out of Winter Hill in Somerville while simultaneously handling "wet work" for Sally Curto, a half-demented, totally obscene mob boss. After years of gangland peace, Bench and Sally suddenly find themselves clay pigeons for unknown hit crews coming at them from every direction. The motives are as murky as the hitmen themselves, but all roads seem to lead back to the State House, where corrupt pols are battling over a bill to legalize billions of dollars' worth of new casinos.

Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan, two of the FBI's most valuable agents, are preparing for their next big assignment --- their wedding --- when Colin's brother Mike alerts them that onetime friends from his military past are on Sharpe and Donovan's home turf on the Maine coast. Now private security contractors, they want to meet with Mike. One of them, an FBI agent named Kavanagh, is supposed to be on leave. What is he investigating --- or does he have his own agenda?

Restaurant owner Whitney Monroe is desperate to save her business from a hostile takeover. The inheritance of a decaying Gilded Age hotel on North Carolina’s Outer Banks may provide just the ray of hope she needs. But things at the Excelsior are more complicated than they seem. Whitney’s estranged stepfather is entrenched on the third floor, and the downstairs tenants are determined to save the historic building. Searching through years of stored family heirlooms may be Whitney’s only hope of quick cash, but will the discovery of an old necklace and a Depression-era love story change everything?