Adult

The year 2015 marks several literary milestones: the centennial of Saul Bellow’s birth, the 10th anniversary of his death, and the publication of Zachary Leader’s much anticipated biography. Bellow, a Nobel Laureate, Pulitzer Prize winner and the only novelist to receive three National Book Awards, has long been regarded as one of America’s most cherished authors. Here, Benjamin Taylor, editor of the acclaimed SAUL BELLOW: LETTERS, presents lesser-known aspects of the iconic writer.

A sheriff’s deputy steps out of a diner on a rainy summer evening, and a few minutes later, he’s lying dead in the mud. When BCA agent Kirk Stevens arrives on the scene, he discovers that local authorities have taken into custody a single suspect: a hysterical young woman found sitting by the body, holding the deputy’s own gun. The mystery only deepens from there, as Stevens and Carla Windermere find themselves on the trail of a massive international kidnapping and prostitution operation.

William Avery is a young soldier with few prospects except rotting away in campaigns in India; Jeremiah Blake is a secret political agent gone native, a genius at languages and disguises, disenchanted with the whole ethos of British rule, but who cannot resist the challenge of an unresolved mystery. What starts as a wild goose chase for this unlikely pair --- trying to track down a missing writer who lifts the lid on Calcutta society --- becomes much more sinister as Blake and Avery get sucked into the mysterious Thuggee cult and its even more ominous suppression.

In 2007, Dr. Martin MacNeill --- a doctor, lawyer and Mormon bishop --- discovered his wife of 30 years dead in the bathtub of their Pleasant Grove, Utah home. At first the death of 50-year-old Michele MacNeill appeared natural. But days after the funeral when Dr. MacNeill moved his much younger mistress into the family home, his children grew suspicious. New York Times bestselling author Shanna Hogan delves into the high-profile case, unmasking the monster beneath the doctor’s carefully concocted façade.

The Stranger appears out of nowhere. His identity is unknown, and his motives are unclear. But his information is undeniable. He whispers a few words in your ear and disappears, leaving you picking up the pieces of your shattered world. Adam Price has a lot to lose: a comfortable marriage to a beautiful woman, two wonderful sons, and all the trappings of the American Dream. Then he runs into the Stranger. When he learns a devastating secret about his wife, he confronts her, and the mirage of perfection disappears as if it never existed at all.

While spying on a deadbeat dad in the middle of the night, Bailey Carpenter, a special investigator for a hotshot Miami law firm, is blindsided --- attacked and nearly killed. With the police making no headway in solving her case, she’s determined to overcome her terror and reclaim the power she lost by unmasking her attacker and taking him down herself. But it’s a harrowing battle that threatens to wreck Bailey’s credibility, compromise an investigation, and maybe even claim her sanity.

Ten years after the loss of Bobby --- the Amendola family’s youngest son --- everyone is still struggling to recover from the firefighter’s unexpected death. Bobby’s mother Gail; his widow Tina; his older brothers Peter, the corporate lawyer, and Franky, the misfit; and his father Michael have all dealt with their grief in different ways. But as the family gathers together for Bobby Jr.’s birthday party, they each must find a way to accept a new man in Tina’s life while reconciling their feelings for their lost loved one.

A young woman's body is found on a side street in Indianapolis, horrifyingly arranged. Meanwhile, Frank Behr takes on a no-win case to locate a single mother's wayward daughter who's been missing for months. Suddenly Behr feels the two cases may be connected, but he is years removed from his life as a legitimate police officer and has few friends left on the force. His pursuit of a potential serial killer ultimately will lead him to a devastating decision from which he will not be able to turn back.

Vincent Crapanzano’s memoir recaptures meaningful moments from his life: as his childhood on the grounds of a psychiatric hospital, his psychiatrist father’s early death, his years at school in Switzerland and then at Harvard in the 1960s, his love affairs, his own teaching, and his far-flung travels. Taken together, these stories have the power of a nothing-taken-for-granted vision, fighting those conventions and ideologies that deaden the creative and inquiring mind.

All his life, Giovanni Bernini has possessed an uncanny gift: he can imitate anyone he meets. Honed by his mother at a young age, the talent catapults him from small-town obscurity to stardom. As his fame grows, Giovanni encounters a beautiful and enigmatic stage singer, Lucy Starlight --- the only person whose thread he cannot find --- and becomes increasingly trapped inside his many poses. Ultimately, he must assume the one identity he has never been able to master: his own.