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Abandoning college plans to work a dead-end job, Stevie can’t wait to move away from L.A., and her mother’s orbit, to start over. Reeling in the aftermath of her lover and TV husband’s death, out-of-work actress Moon struggles to process her grief. And the last thing she expects is for Stevie to leave her too. Now, neither Stevie nor Moon can afford to quit each other. And their cost of living forces them into a glass-walled pool house in the backyard, while their home is rented out to pay the bills. But when Adam, Moon’s former TV son and Stevie’s forever crush, arrives for the funeral, the three are pulled into a messy orbit, moving back into the “Big House” and play-acting a picture-perfect family even as tensions rise and relationships unravel.

Reporter Clarence Thomas Jr. is looking for a great story, former country music teen star Faith Spack has parlayed her fame into a job at the White House, and the two-term incumbent president is campaigning for a constitutionally dubious third term. After an outbreak at a campaign rally, a mysterious new pandemic of “weeping sickness” sweeps the nation. Desperate to retain power, the president enlists the mystical pro wrestler Rasputin to help ensure his reelection and guarantee additional seasons of his presidential reality TV show, “The Real West Wing.” But as Rasputin’s appeal threatens to exceed the president’s, and the wrestler’s supposedly supernatural powers start to seem like the real thing, the campaign finds itself trapped in a spandex-clad destiny no number of executive orders can control.

It’s late October 1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis has just concluded. The Russkies blinked and pulled their ICBMs out of Cuba. Attorney General Robert Kennedy fears reprisals from seething commies. He orders a red probe and puts the LAPD on the job. Freddy Otash is injudiciously named the lead investigating officer. He’s a stone-cold criminal with police sanction and a harrowing dope habit. He homes in on a red-front trade union. There’s a murder on Halloween night. It may link to ex-VP and current gubernatorial candidate Richard Nixon and two commie snuffs from eight years back. Freddy is overworked and overamped. He’s running the probe, and Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman --- Tricky Dick Nixon’s head goons --- have hired him to keep Nixon away from the smear-minded press.

Val Caruso, Alex Reed and June Kennerson come from completely different worlds. Val is a tough-talking private investigator; Alex is reticent, nervous and on the run from her past; and June is an athlete turned housewife whose true love is her pup. When Val is hired by June’s husband to find out if June is cheating on him, it sets these three women on a collision course. Amid a colorful cast of characters who spend time at the shabby but beloved Hamilton Dog Park, they find they have more in common than they thought. But when their secrets catch up with them, will their newfound friendships be able to withstand the pressure? Or will they find themselves in the doghouse?

In 1942, as head of the newly formed OSS, Wild Bill Donovan deployed spies across Europe and around the world to try to thwart the Nazis. In Greece, Nazis weren’t just taking over territory; they were seizing and threatening to destroy some of the world’s most important and valuable historical monuments and artifacts. Donovan tapped a young Ivy League-trained archaeologist named Rodney Young to assemble and lead a team of spies to collect intel. Young set about recruiting the most unlikely of spies --- academics, classicists, epigraphers, and other specialists and scholars --- who would come to be known as “the Greek Desk.” These men and women, along with their Greek allies, went undercover and tried desperately to protect some of the world’s most significant treasures.

Tensions simmer in small-town Connecticut. A city transplant is haunted by the deer carcass hanging in her neighbor’s garage. A psychiatric patient believes she’s becoming a bird. A disgraced oil executive invites his granddaughter’s kindergarten class to tour his home menagerie. What could go wrong? Rumors spread and fires burn in this second short story collection from award-winning author Lauren Acampora. As in her debut, THE WONDER GARDEN, THE ANIMAL ROOM delves deep into the town of Old Cranbury and its eclectic mix of residents. These stories chart the interconnected lives of neighbors, relatives, coworkers, enemies, lovers, and the animals around them, turning an unflinching eye to the natural world to shed light on human nature.

“He just had the presidency stolen from him.” Gail Godwin first heard these words in November 1960, one of a crush of reporters eagerly awaiting the first postelection meeting between Kennedy and Nixon. Hearing an uncanny echo in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Godwin embarks on a project to reflect on that long-ago moment and offset a mounting pressure of dread about the looming election ahead. In looking back at her life as a young woman --- her travels abroad, early marriage, friendships with Kurt Vonnegut and John Irving --- juxtaposed with the lead-up to the recent election, she discovers an understory that surprises her. She asks herself, “What, at this late date, did I still want to become?”

Isobel Anderssen has heard rumors. Nestled deep in the Swedish woods, there is a retreat. Primarily aimed at helping women who have gone through devastating break-ups, the Himlafall Clinic is meant to heal your mind and help you move on. Sometimes people are never heard from again. Armed with a fake story and a contraband phone to record interviews, Isobel is ready to expose Himlafall’s founder and get closure for the families of missing loved ones. But when she gets there, nothing goes to plan. Her contact is missing. The founder, Dr. Martina Hastings, knows how to get under Isobel’s skin in ways she didn’t anticipate. And all the while, the ghosts of the missing haunt her at every turn.

The year is 1982, and the people of the Hudson Valley community of Fervent have begun to move on from a homicide that upended the once quiet town. When the former neighbors who were convicted of the crime, James and Ella White, are proven innocent and return to Fervent, some people have cause for concern. Sylvia Upshaw and her best friend, Lafayette “Fate” Jolly, are uneasy about the Whites’ return. While the Whites were incarcerated, Sylvia revealed an explosive secret to their adopted son, Morgan, with devastating consequences. During the murder trial, Fate’s testimony helped seal their fate. James and Ella won’t let the betrayals go unpunished. Sylvia and Fate quickly become victims of harassment from the Whites, and when another murder is committed in Fervent, the town is left to fend for itself.

Frank Lloyd Wright was more than the mind behind America's most iconic buildings. He was a man whose turbulent private life captivated a nation. The famous architect's stormy marriage to Kitty Wright and his infamous affair with another woman, Mamah Borthwick, ignited one of the country's first celebrity scandals. Then, in August 1914, scandal turned to horror. A tragedy at Taliesin, the Wisconsin home Wright built as a monument to love, shook the very foundation of Wright's life --- and catapulted him back to the front pages of newspapers across the country as readers clamored for glimpses of his very darkest moments. In THE KILLER AND FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, Casey Sherman delves beyond the myth of Wright's genius to reveal a man of relentless ambition, consuming passion and devastating loss.

As a booked-and-busy casting agent, Sasha Cruz is always casting. She’s all about finding the perfect person to slot into the perfect role. What she doesn't do, however, is relationships. On a flight to Paris for work, a chance encounter with her type changes everything. Sasha is seated next to a broodingly attractive mystery man, and sparks fly --- but they never exchange contact information. Convinced she’s lost out on her soulmate, Sasha emails her work friend for help but accidentally writes to the entire company worldwide. The international manhunt to find Seat F begins. Meanwhile, Sasha takes matters into her own hands. She hires a smoldering detective she knew in another lifetime --- who complicates matters in unforeseen (and irresistible) ways.

From the moment Aphrodite emerges fully formed from the sea, she is devastatingly beautiful and imbued with ancient power. When fate brings her face to face with Ares, she bristles at this surly, hot-tempered warrior who’s seemingly her opposite: disliked by everyone and devoted to stirring up conflict. Yet these gods are no more immune to the dizzying highs and lows of love and loss than anyone else. They are soon irresistibly drawn to one another. As their love affair spans mortal lifetimes, Aphrodite begins to question the gods’ games and her role in them. But there’s only so much room for fire and passion in Zeus’ kingdom. Before long, she must test her devotion to her own divine purpose --- and to a love that can only lead to ruin.

An aspiring archivist determined to begin a “serious” life after an undistinguished undergraduate career takes up residence in the Italian countryside. Here, he becomes the all-purpose assistant to the Baronessa, known to her friends as Coco, a defiantly youthful and naturally flamboyant woman of 92. He does his best to catalog the villa’s extensive collection of art and antiques --- although he notices that things seem to go missing from right under his nose. Despite himself, he tumbles into an affair with a married man, complicating his future plans considerably. And when the Baronessa loses someone close to her, he becomes an unwitting accomplice in the acceleration of Coco’s great and final plan: to locate the love of her life and be reunited before it’s too late.

When the pandemic sends Krys Malcolm Belc and his young children home to live their lives on laptops, he turns to internet chefs for comfort and inspiration. It begins with Stella Parks and her 46 YouTube videos in which she teaches viewers how to make classic, nostalgic American treats. But the recipes aren’t enough. Belc needs to watch her showcase each ingredient, explain its importance, and weigh each item on a scale. He captures the joy and pleasure of cooking for a large family, as well as the mundane reality and occasional frustrations that come with simply getting food on the table. In the midst of it all, he feels a spark of inspiration to carry a second baby, a decision that forces him to confront how he has used both the internet and cooking to cope and distract.

When mysterious Rafe de la Cruz rolls into Desdemona’s life to recruit her to the elite film school Acheron, Dez has no reason to trust him --- and no other option. A violent attack has just put her brother in the hospital…and Dez is the only suspect. Guilt-ridden and grieving, she finds herself running from the law to chase her longtime dream of making movies, at a school she’s never heard of. Soon, she’s dropped into Acheron’s cutthroat world of seductive intrigue, power on an otherworldly scale, and deadly competition. Acheron may seem like the ticket to a future Dez has always wanted, but as she delves deeper into the secret work being done there, she finds herself trapped in an existential conflict on a cosmic scale --- with more than her heart on the line.

Joe Goldberg is ready for his life to start. He’s 17 years old, working in Mr. Mooney’s bookshop, falling in love with every girl on the subway, all while wondering who will be the one. Then he spots it: MISSED CONNECTION, NYC Bookstore Babe. Someone is looking for Joe. And that someone is Vail Gunderson, a production assistant with a passion for rom-coms. The only catch: she’s 24, which means that Joe has no choice but to lie about his age…and, naturally, nearly everything else in his life. Joe thinks he’s found true love, but when Vail needs more convincing that Joe is her happily ever after, he’s determined to convince her…no matter what it takes.

Marvelous Ways has lived alone alongside a winding creek near the rugged Cornwall coast for nearly all her life, and recently she has taken to spending her days sitting on the steps of her caravan with a telescope. She is waiting for something, but she's not sure what. Francis Drake, a young soldier adrift after the death of a fellow comrade, is grateful for the mission that guides his days. He has agreed to fulfil his friend’s last wish: to hand-deliver a letter to his father in Cornwall. But Francis’ journey doesn't go as planned. After a brief, sweet and serendipitous reunion with a woman from his past, Francis washes up in Marvelous' creek, broken in both body and spirit. Marvelous will come to his aid, and an unlikely friendship will grow between these two solitary souls.

The Perkins family has problems. They’re scattered across the globe. Lee, a glamorous reality TV star, is struggling with her mental health in the spotlight. Reagan, her younger sister, has fallen for a romance scammer. Cord, their charming brother, is one drink away from losing it all. And their mother, Charlotte, still longs for the love she let slip away a decade ago, a lover who sailed off with her heart to a remote island in Greece. When Reagan disappears, Lee flies first-class to Athens to save her family --- again. There, against the glittering Mediterranean and the shadow of the Acropolis, Lee contends with emotional nieces, relentless paparazzi, and her own fragile heart. Lee is desperately searching --- for her sister, and for the hope and joy she thought was gone forever.

Deputy Sheriff Alicia Moore is thrust into the center of a chilling murder investigation when she discovers a victim identifiable only by his hauntingly familiar tattoo --- her name inked onto the knuckles of her ex-fiancé, Jake. Years earlier, Alicia’s father had arrested a teenage occultist for a nearly identical murder, believed to be driven by the suspect’s worship of demonic entities. Now, with Jake’s murder mirroring that past crime, doubts arise about whether the true culprit was ever caught. The mystery deepens with the arrival of Lucas Masterson, a Criminology PhD student studying the confluence between religious trauma and occult crime. As Lucas delves into the case, his profound knowledge of the town’s grim history and his outsider perspective strain the local social fabric, while Alicia grapples with her suspicion towards his unsettling familiarity with the crimes.

As global assistance pours into Thailand --- including the FBI’s famed Evidence Response Team --- the president of the United States quietly prepares a plan B: Scot Harvath, America’s top spy, trained to operate outside the law and probe the dark corners others can’t…or won’t. But the bomber Harvath is pursuing isn’t a terrorist. He’s something far more dangerous --- one of ours. Meanwhile, in Washington, a former United States Marine is being hunted, and he has no idea why. Desperate for answers, he turns to the one person he still trusts --- his ex-fiancée, a rising star in the White House. But she isn’t sure she can trust him. As Harvath closes in on the bomber, a devastating truth begins to emerge.

Varsha Gupta wants fish for lunch. The Guptas are strict vegetarians and don’t allow it inside their Calcutta mansion. But Varsha claims she can remember another life, in a mud house by a river, where she caught and cooked fish with a different mother. Perplexed, the Guptas turn to Dr. Shoma Bose, a psychologist who has been investigating what are known as "cases of the reincarnation type" for years. But her understanding of the world is changed forever by Varsha's revelations. Half a century later, Varsha's case file catches the attention of a group of environmental activists, and Shoma's nephew, Dinu, is drawn inexorably into their plans. As Dinu finds himself caught up in the search for Varsha, buried memories of his own past begin to surface.

Ever since her father broke her heart when she was nine, Julia Heimdahl has tried to be good company for bad men: a jovial drinking companion, an easygoing, witty non-complainer, one of the boys. Now a literary novelist in late middle age and late mid-career, she is at a moment of crisis, although she doesn’t know it yet. GOOD COMPANY takes place over the course of a weekend-long book festival at Baldwin College, which happens to be Julia’s alma mater, where she has come to promote her recently published memoir. She’s been placed on a panel with a fellow memoirist named Ellis Blackwell, a man so outrageously flirtatious and fawningly flattering that Julia is almost too disarmed to recognize how dangerous he is. 

Song is a nobody --- just a food delivery worker from a village in Northeastern China --- but her son, River, is a little wonder. At the age of four, he toddled to a piano and tapped out his favorite song. At eight, he mastered Liszt's three Liebestraume. At 10, he blazed through the complete set of Chopin's études. And at every step, Song is there to light his way --- until finally, at the age of 11, River is invited to study with a preeminent teacher in Beijing. But in the chaos of Beijing Railway Station, Song faces every mother's nightmare. She loses her grip on River’s little hand and is unable to find him after a desperate, harrowing search. Over the next days, weeks and, eventually, years, Song and River fight to forge a path back to each other as they carve out new lives that carry them farther apart.

There will never be another pop manager like Brian Epstein, the young record retailer from Liverpool behind the 20th century’s greatest romance. Having achieved his much-derided aim of making the Beatles "bigger than Elvis," Brian went on to make them bigger than any earthly instrument could measure. A devout classical music fan, he nonetheless was solely responsible for a new genre of pop that was to change its course, and Britain’s international image, forever --- yet, disgracefully, earn him no public honor or even thanks. MR. MOONLIGHT draws on a cache of exclusive interviews with those closest to Brian --- including his mother, Queenie, and brother, Clive --- to tell the story of this hugely complex, self-contradictory and ultimately tragic character.

When Dolores Chimes, a famous medium, arrives in Gore-on-Sea, even surly Detective Inspector Rideout is lured in by her promises of messages for the afterlife. But after a reading goes disastrously wrong, Dolores loses her life --- and the six sitters at the séance with her fall victim to supernatural deaths themselves in the days following the nightmare of a reading. Determined to unveil the truth, Nora Breen finds herself chasing a ghostly serial killer she believes to be responsible, before the sixth victim --- Detective Rideout himself --- perishes along with the others.