Family Thriller

Luke Richardson has returned home after burying Natalie, his beloved wife of sixteen years, ready to face the hard job of raising their three children alone. But there's something he's not prepared for - a blue envelope with his name scrawled across the front in Natalie's handwriting, waiting for him on the floor of their suburban Michigan home.

North Carolina, 2018: Morgan Christopher's life has been derailed. Taking the fall for a crime she did not commit, her dream of a career in art is put on hold - until a mysterious visitor makes her an offer that will get her released from prison immediately. Her assignment: restore an old post office mural in a sleepy Southern town. Morgan knows nothing about art restoration, but desperate to be free, she accepts. What she finds under the layers of grime is a painting that tells the story of madness, violence, and a conspiracy of small town secrets.

When a man came into my shop in the Great Marketplace at the Crossroads of the Worlds and tried to kill me, it completely ruined my day. Not only did I have to clean up the blood, but disposing of his body made me late to meet my friends for drinks. A nagging little detail kept bugging me, though. As he died, he said he was hired by my mother's family—people I hadn't seen for more than a decade. Then I discovered that assassins had made attempts on my brother and sister as well. As much as I didn't want to, I decided I should find out who wanted us dead, and put a stop to it.

First came the shocking story of Rainey Paxton being born addicted to heroin and the sacrifices she made to accommodate her parents’ reckless lifestyle. Now comes the terrifying, extraordinary novel that picks up after Rainey’s release from juvenile detention. With no money and lost in a section of North Philadelphia dominated by gangs and violence, Rainey won’t accept that it may be too late to save Ivy. Instead, she pushes all limits to fight for her sister, surrendering herself to keep her vow.

Molly Wynters has moved back to her small hometown to care for her father, recently felled by a stroke and no longer able to communicate. She is ready to make a fresh start with her son after her divorce, but is haunted by both old events and new realities in her childhood home. What Molly recalls of her young life with her father is full of love and care, even though a violent trauma defined her childhood: when she was a young girl, she witnessed her mother’s murder, and her testimony–“There was a man downstairs”–sent a teenager to prison.

Meet Hickey, an American school teacher in his late 30s, an American school teacher who burns his bridges with the school board and goes to Africa as an aid worker. Working for an agency in Nairobi, one of his jobs is to drive food and medical supplies to Southern Sudan to an aid station run by Ruth, a middle-aged woman, who acts as nurse, doctor, hospice worker, feeder of starving children, and witness. Ruth is gruff but efficient, and Hickey, who is usually drawn to youth and beauty, is struck by her devotion. Returning to Nairobi, he can’t forget what he has seen.

The year is 1796, and a trading ship arrives in the vibrant trading town of Newburyport, Massachusetts. But it's a ghost ship - her entire crew has been decimated by a virulent fever which sweeps through the harbor town, and Newburyport's residents start to fall ill and die with alarming haste. Something has to be done to stop the virus from spreading further.

Best-selling author Jaclyn Moriarty follows her critically acclaimed novels The Ghosts of Ashbury High and The Year of Secret Assignments with this fun tale. Told imaginatively through school assignments and diary entries, The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie is sure to appeal to young listeners who love a good mystery. Some people find Bindy Mackenzie’s perfectionist personality a bit irritating, but would anyone really want her dead?

It is 1929. At home, economic depression and dust storms ravage America, and abroad the goose step of Nazism is intensifying. Widespread fear of the "other" has reached a fever pitch. Against this tumultuous backdrop, two families share the spotlight in this sweeping saga: the Himelbaums of Poland and the Browns of Iowa. All Harry Himelbaum wants is to live somewhere happy and to send for the wife and child he must deny having.

Caroline Bryer is the daughter of a very conservative TSA agent and former military brat, Morgan Bryer. Her mother, Linsey Bryer, is a descendent of the Sutherland real estate family. Their organized, suburban life in Colonie, New York is rigorously regulated and leaves little room for deviation from the norm. When Linsey, Morgan, and Caroline attend the wake of their neighbor Mr. Gleeson, they meet his charming daughter Natalie “Nattie” Gleeson, who works for the American ambassador to France. Linsey and Nattie strike up a fast friendship.

In the aftermath of an EMP blackout, Don Morton battles through a world plunged into mayhem, determined to safeguard his wife and son at their mountain refuge. But as he navigates the lawless land to reach them, a chilling reality unfolds—a merciless cartel has set its sights on their hidden haven. With whispers of an impending siege swirling, the Mortons are catapulted into a high-stakes game of survival.

"The Song Never Dies": When Alex King, leader of legendary 90s rock group Lizard, hosts a party to get the band back together, old grudges surface. At dawn Alex is found floating in the pool of his Cherringham mansion. To the police it's a drug-fueled accident. But when Jack and Sarah get involved, they quickly discover that while a song may never die - the person, who wrote it, might have been murdered.

Harry Clifton’s story began in 1920, as a dock worker in England, and now he is set to write his magnum opus. As he reflects on his days, the lives of his family continue to unfold, unravel, and intertwine in ways no one could have imagined . . . Harry’s wife Emma, who just completed her time at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, receives a surprise call from Margaret Thatcher. Meanwhile, Giles Barrington discovers a shocking truth about his wife, Karin. Sebastian Clifton becomes chairman of Farthings Kaufman bank, but only after Hakim Bishara’s abrupt resignation.

Ivy, Mateo, and Cal used to be close. Now all they have in common is Carlton High and the beginning of a very bad day. So when the three unexpectedly run into each other, they decide to avoid their problems by ditching. Just the three of them, like old times. Except they’ve barely left the parking lot before they run out of things to say...until they spot another Carlton High student skipping school - and follow him to the scene of his own murder. In one chance move, their day turns from dull to deadly. And it’s about to get worse.

1945, London. The vote in the House of Lords as to who should inherit the Barrington family fortune has ended in a tie. The Lord Chancellor's deciding vote will cast a long shadow on the lives of Harry Clifton and Giles Barrington. Harry returns to America to promote his latest novel, while his beloved Emma goes in search of the little girl who was found abandoned in her father's office on the night he was killed. When the general election is called, Giles Barrington has to defend his seat in the House of Commons and is horrified to discover who the Conservatives select to stand against him.

Meet Helen - youngest of the Walsh sisters and a law unto herself. She’s easily bored, has an inability to filter her thoughts and was fired from every job she ever had before she found her true calling as a private investigator. But times are tough for PIs, and Helen’s had no choice but to take on the search for AWOL boyband has-been Wayne Diffney: The Wacky One.

Echo Ridge is small-town America. Ellery's never been there, but she's heard all about it. Her aunt went missing there at age 17. And only five years ago, a homecoming queen put the town on the map when she was killed. Now, Ellery has to move there to live with a grandmother she barely knows. The town is picture-perfect, but it's hiding secrets. And before school even begins for Ellery, someone has declared open season on homecoming, promising to make it as dangerous as it was five years ago. Then, almost as if to prove it, another girl goes missing.

Only days before Britain declares war on Germany, Harry Clifton, hoping to escape the consequences of long-buried family secrets, and forced to accept that his desire to marry Emma Barrington will never be fulfilled, has joined the Merchant Navy. But his ship is sunk in the Atlantic by a German Uboat, drowning almost the entire crew. An American cruise liner, the SS Kansas Star, rescues a handful of sailors, among them Harry and the third officer, an American named Tom Bradshaw.

Megan waits at the school gates for her six-year-old son, Daniel. As the playground empties, panic bubbles inside her. Daniel is nowhere to be found. According to his teacher, Daniel’s father picked up his son. Except he and Megan are no longer together. After years of being controlled by her cruel husband, Megan finally found the courage to divorce him. Hands trembling, she dials his number, but the line is dead. Six years later, Megan gets the call she has dreamt about for years. Daniel has walked into a police station in a remote town just a few miles away....

From the moment Lucy met her husband's mother, Diana, she was kept at arm's length. Diana was exquisitely polite and properly friendly, but Lucy knew she was not what Diana envisioned. That was five years ago. Now, Diana is dead, a suicide note found near her body. Diana claims she no longer wanted to live because of a battle with cancer. But the autopsy finds no cancer. The autopsy does find traces of poison and evidence of suffocation.