Family Thriller

Ali Cross just solved his first real case. Alex Cross knows it's only a matter of time before his son finds his way into more trouble. Neither of them expected Ali to get caught up in another case so quickly. Ali and his friends were just hanging out in Anacostia Park...then they became witnesses to a crime. Alex wants Ali to stay far away from the investigation. But Ali isn't going anywhere, not when his new friend Zoe is in trouble. It's up to Ali to figure out why she's lying to the police - and who she's protecting.

In his three novellas, In Short Measures, Strong Conspirators, and Sally Forth, Michael Ruhlman delves deeply into the nuanced complexity of romantic and sexual love - and the inevitable evolution of the heart over the span of years and decades. Each novella asks questions about the nature of love in terms of loyalty and fidelity - what are one's obligations toward one's spouse, one's family, and one's heart?

When the life of someone they both love is put on the line, Sydney risks everything to hunt down a deadly former nemesis. Meanwhile, Adrian becomes enmeshed in a puzzle that could hold the key to a shocking secret about spirit magic, a secret that could shake the entire Moroi world.

Max Skinner is a man at the heart of London's financial universe until his employers embark on a little asset-stripping of their own. Himself. Amid the grey London drizzle, there is one potential ray of sunshine: Max's Uncle Harry has left him his estate in his will, an eighteenth-century chateau and vineyard an hour's drive from Avignon.

Jazz is a likable teenager. But he's also the son of a (now incarcerated) infamous serial killer, and "Dear Old Dad" has taught Jazz everything he knows. But what Jazz doesn't know is whether or not he is destined to follow in his father's footsteps. He knows he has urges, but he also knows that he has a conscience, that he can follow his own path. And so, in an effort to right his father's wrongs, Jazz decides to help the police (although they don't know it yet) hunt down "The Impressionist" - a new serial killer in town.

Sutton Mercer had the perfect life, great friends, and a gorgeous boyfriend...until someone murdered her. Then the killer forced Sutton's long-lost twin sister, Emma, to pretend to be her. Now Sutton can only watch from beyond the grave as Emma frantically tries to figure out who killed her sister, and why. But when Sutton's body is discovered, Emma's time is up - and she becomes the number-one suspect herself. In this final volume of The Lying Game, Emma learns the chilling truth about her sister's murder...but the killer will do whatever it takes to make sure Emma never breathes a word.

Molly Arnette is very good at keeping secrets. She and her husband live in San Diego, where they hope to soon adopt a baby. But the process terrifies her. As the questions and background checks come one after another, Molly worries that the truth she's kept hidden about her North Carolina childhood will rise to the surface and destroy not only her chance at adoption but her marriage as well.

After a late night of partying, NYU student Matt Pine returns to his dorm room to devastating news: nearly his entire family - his mom, his dad, his little brother and sister - have been found dead from an apparent gas leak while vacationing in Mexico. The local police claim it was an accident, but the FBI and State Department seem far less certain - and they won’t tell Matt why.

The unsolved murder of a farm family haunts the small, white, off-reservation town of Pluto, North Dakota. The vengeance exacted for this crime and the subsequent distortions of truth transform the lives of Ojibwe living on the nearby reservation and shape the passions of both communities for the next generation.

Whitney MacAllister has all the wealth, power, and beauty anyone could ever wish for, and is therefore profoundly bored. Enter Douglas Lord, a good-looking, street-smart thief, who brings Whitney into his world of high adventure and murderous rivals. They come to a business agreement: Whitney will bankroll Douglas on an expedition to retrieve the legendary lost treasure of a long-dead Madagascar queen; in exchange, Whitney will get to come along and keep half the money once they have gained their prize.

Dr. Willa Watters is a prominent child psychologist at the height of her career. But when a viral video of a disastrous television interview puts her reputation on the line, Willa retreats to Broken Bayou, the town where she spent most of her childhood summers. There she visits her aunts’ old house and discovers some of her unstable mother’s belongings still languishing in the attic—dusty mementos harboring secrets of her harrowing past. Willa’s hopes for a respite are quickly crushed, not only by what she finds in that attic but also by what’s been found in the bayou.

The troublemaker. The overachiever. The cheer captain. The dead girl. Like every high school in America, Jefferson-Lorne High contains all of the above. After the shocking murder of senior Emma Baines, three of her classmates are at the top of the suspect list: Claude, the notorious partier; Avery, the head cheerleader; and Gwen, the would-be valedictorian. But appearances are never what they seem. And the truth behind what really happened to Emma may just be lying in plain sight. As long buried secrets come to light, the clock is ticking to find Emma's killer.

Just moved in to a new apartment, alone for the first time in years, Victor Forde goes every evening to Donnelly’s for a pint, a slow one. One evening his drink is interrupted. A man in shorts and a pink shirt brings over his pint and sits down. He seems to know Victor’s name and to remember him from secondary school. His name is Fitzpatrick. Victor dislikes him on sight, dislikes, too, the memories that Fitzpatrick stirs up of five years being taught by the Christian Brothers.

Welcome to picturesque Provence, where the Lady of the Chateau, Séraphine Demargelasse, has opened its elegant doors to her granddaughter Darcy and her three friends. Twenty years earlier, the four girlfriends studied abroad together in France and visited the old woman on the weekends, creating the group’s deep bond. But why this sudden invitation? Amid winery tours, market visits, and fancy dinners overlooking olive groves and lavender fields, it becomes clear that each woman has a hidden reason for returning to the estate after all these years.

With Nero Wolfe on the job, you'd think murderers would take caution. But even the master detective can't stop a killing, especially if it's an inside job - right under the roof of his client, millionaire Otis Jarrell. What's more, it's Jarrell's own missing revolver that the killer uses. Wolfe must find the truth behind the scandals in Jarrell's ill-behaved family. One of its members sleeps the fitful sleep of the guilty, and Wolfe's getting dead tired of murder.

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.

Allen Carmichael, a Vietnam veteran turned rescuer of abused children, lives on the fringes of society. When Allen comes to the aid of 12-year-old Jamie O'Connell, he begins an unforgettable sequence of events that may destroy him.

Driven by a compulsion that challenges his self-control, the man calling himself Charles Milton prowls the rodeo circuit, hunting young women. He chooses those he believes are the most vulnerable, wandering alone and distracted, before he strikes. For years, he has been meticulous in his methods, abducting, murdering, and disposing his victims while leaving no evidence of his crimes—or their identities—behind. Indigenous women have become his target of choice, knowing law enforcement’s history of ignoring their disappearances.

When 16-year-old Amy returns home, she can't tell her family what's happened to her. She can't tell them where she's been since she and her best friend, her cousin Dee, were kidnapped six years ago - who stole them from their families or what's become of Dee. She has to stay silent because she's afraid of what might happen next, and she's desperate to protect her secrets at any cost. Amy tries to readjust to life at "home," but nothing she does feels right. She's a stranger in her own family, and the guilt that she's the one who returned is insurmountable.

November is usually quiet in Holcomb, Kansas, but in 1959, the town is shattered by the quadruple murder of the Clutter family. Suspicion falls on Nancy Clutter's boyfriend, Bobby Rupp, the last one to see them alive. New Yorker Carly Fleming, new to the small Midwestern town, is an outsider. She tutored Nancy, and (in private, at least) they were close. Carly and Bobby were the only ones who saw that Nancy was always performing, and that she was cracking under the pressure of being Holcomb's golden girl.