Told by a tart-tongued young woman with a love of Bruce Springsteen, Lies in Bone is at once a mystery and coming-of-age tale fueled by dark secrets involving love, murder, and the truths worth lying for.
On Halloween 1963, eleven-year-old Chuck Coolidge and his brother Danny are lost in a toxic smog covering the steel town of Slippery Elm, Pennsylvania. When the smog lifts, half the town is sick and twenty people are dead. And Danny is missing.
Now, over twenty years later, Chuck's teenage daughter Frank plots escape from this "busted and disgusted" town. When a murdered child is found in the river, investigators link the crime to the disappearance of Danny in '63, and Frank's life is turned upside down. In the face of her worst fears, she must uncover her family's dark past if she wants to keep her sister Boots from the hands of The State. Led to discover the unimaginable truth about Danny's disappearance, Lies in Bone culminates in a shocking eleventh-hour reveal and an emotionally charged finale.
Family. The same people who destroyed Gavin's self-esteem are the ones he must save.
When Gavin looks in the mirror he sees his twin Devon — literally. Yet like the mirror, inside they are the reverse of each other. Devon is the chosen one, anointed by their tough Mob-connected father, who demeans Gavin as a nerd but expects him to save his brother from his worst instincts. Gavin struggles to believe in himself and make his own decisions in the face of Dad's bullying and Devon's narcissistic gaslighting. When Devon gets into drugs and crime, people start dying. Gavin's loyal allies tell him he can't save his twin; he must save himself. He flees to find freedom and success far away, but he can't hide from his sociopathic brother, or from the Mob.
Secrets In The Mirror is a sweeping saga of one family's journey to rise above cultural precedent. But Gavin is the one who must finally break the shackles of multigenerational and narcissistic abuse, despite inextricable bonds with a twin who's headed for self-destruction. It is a tale that grapples with the imperative to save others versus the struggle to save oneself.
Combining the corporate intrigue of Joseph Finder, the satirical cultural critique of Dave Eggers, and the domestic drama of Laura Dave, Bit Flip is a fast-paced contemporary thriller that delivers an authentic insider’s view of the corrupting influences of greed, entitlement, and vanity in technology start-ups.
Tech executive Sam Hughes came to Silicon Valley to “make the world a better place.” He’s just not sure he’s doing that anymore. And when an onstage meltdown sends him into a professional tailspin, he suddenly sees the culture of the Bay Area’s tech bubble in a new light.
Jack and Jim, two footloose, lifetime friends and beer drinking buddies, are out back-roading when they spot the cabin. Aha, it’s treasure, treasure indeed, and much more. As Jack runs out with some little gold figures, deputies start shooting. They have discovered a way to travel the time road disguised as a dilapidated shack. The only problem is those deputies. A “start no violence” command is broken; now, travelers must dodge lawmen. Jack throws the gold back in; time returns to normal. Some old letters reveal the secret: twenty-four figurines, twenty-four destinations; just dodge the law.
A man on the brink of insanity traverses present-day and Renaissance Venice to save his soul mate from eternal purgatory.
The world’s largest oil painting. A 400-year-old murder. A disembodied whisper: “Amore mio.” My love.
Nick and Julia O’Connor’s dream trip to Venice collapses when a haunting voice reaches out to Nick from Tintoretto’s Paradise, a monumental depiction of Heaven. Convinced his delusions are the result of a concussion, Julia insists her husband see a doctor, though Nick is adamant the voicewas real.
Blacking out in the museum, Nick flashes back to a life as a 16th century Venetian peasant swordsman. He recalls precisely who the voice belongs to: Isabella Scalfini, a married aristocrat he was tasked to seduce but with whom he instead found true love. A love stolen from them hundreds of years prior.
In the summer of 1857, the Devil visited Titusville, Pennsylvania and was greeted by an exorcist with a drinking problem and a bad attitude. This is his story:
For the low price of five dollars, Dexter “Dex” James will exorcise your demons: the demon of lust, drink, and gluttony. Unfortunately, he’s new in town, and few people take him seriously. The ones that do, don’t have a dime to spare. Desperate for money, he elicits help from a boy named Boo and a beautiful woman, named Miss Leslie—she’s half his age and a prostitute, but Dex is smitten.
After performing a supposed miracle, Dex becomes the talk of Titusville. His billfold and ego grow with each exorcism. Only Miss Leslie’s love could make him happier. However, when an evil entity threatens a young girl, Dex must make a choice: take the coward’s way out or stay and fight?
In 1980, the first black supervisor at a Texas Gulf Coast refinery turns up dead behind an abandoned drive-in theater. When a Texas Ranger comes to investigate, the refinery’s attorney, Dan Esperson, is drawn into the investigation—and into a tangled web of racial conflict, sex, and deception. Two refinery employees are arrested for the murder. One confesses that the other did it but will never testify. When the killer is released from jail for lack of evidence, Dan may be next on his list.
What Seems True was inspired by a true crime on the Texas Gulf Coast in 1979.
Ryan Bell is your typical millennial: surviving on a diet of wine and Netflix, woefully single enough to qualify for cat-lady membership, and renting from a seventy-something Tinder-swiping landlord-turned-bestie. But underneath her chipped-off manicure lies a green thumb that has created miraculous flowers capable of saving mankind from cataclysmic climate change. There's one problem: Only Ryan can grow them.
An unusual audience comes to an unorthodox conclusion: Ryan is the heir of the Greek god Artemis.
Although Ryan thinks these strange, toga-wearing folks are one kalamata olive short of a Greek salad, she reluctantly enters a hidden world where the Olympians are real and magic flows freely (plus a generous serving of Greek hunks). Talk about one epic identity crisis. Magical demigod or not, the fate of civilization—both mortal and godly—now rests on Ryan's shoulders.
A gripping, openhearted novel about family, reconciliation, and bringing closure to the secrets of the past.
Early into the tempestuous decade of her thirties, Rae Langdon struggles to work through a grief she never anticipated. With her father, Connor, she tends to their Ohio farm, a forty-acre spread that itself has enjoyed better days. As memories sweep through her, some too precious to bear, Rae gives shelter from a brutal winter to a teenager named Quinn Galecki.
Set authentically in the High Sierra, The Trail is a moving story showing how nature helps us find what's missing in our lives.
More than a hiking novel, The Trail is fused with humor, philosophy, and trail lore. Woven in is a back story detailing the origins of the John Muir Trail: a 211-mile trail spanning the rooftop of the Sierra Nevada from Yosemite Valley to Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the continental United States.
The times were dark. In a green land before time, all world animals laboured under the repressive rule of King Roar the Lion and the fierce Felines. Miaow, the timid and inconsequential chief of the cats, befriends a sixteen-year-old mysterious explorer, Jack. These two unlikely heroes engage in the impossible struggle for the liberty of the repressed animals. The conflict reaches its apogee with an epic but disastrous battle. Although the two protagonists were aware their survival was at stake, little did they know that their enduring friendship would radically alter the destiny of the Animal World forever.
Finalist Fiction: Cross-Genre 2021 Best Book Awards
Even the most painful paths can be guided to divine destinations...
A single father and former Army Ranger, Ken Holbrook struggles to reconcile his resolute faith with immense grief. When Stacey James, a skittish but alluring newcomer, crosses Ken’s path and immediately bonds with Ginny, his young daughter, his world tilts further off balance. Slowly, Ken softens to Stacey as he realizes her poise in the face of hidden atrocity and the ease he feels in her presence. Stacey’s trust doesn’t come easily though, even if she is drawn to Ken’s peaceful, observant nature.
As their lives overlap and they come to need one another in unsettling ways, Ken and Stacey must face the demons of their past. With unwavering support from the Holbrook family, the two discover their roads, though jarring, have been directed to the same destination: each other. While many tout the phrase “everything happens for a reason,” Ken and Stacey make deeper meaning within their choices and circumstances.
Finalist Fiction: Cross-Genre 2021 Best Book Awards
Inspired by True Current Events.
Dolores, Ernesto, and Emilio Sanchez are on a quest to America to find work and to save their family, who has been devastated by their father's accident and the drought in their home country of Honduras. But making their way to America would be too expensive for a family stricken by poverty. With only their faith in God to see them through, the teenaged siblings set off for their new home, despite the threat from the cartel, corrupt police officers, starvation, and death.
Meanwhile, Eva Jordan is determined to start a new life on the American side of the Mexican border, hoping to shake off the scars from a horrible marriage. Despite her mother's concern for her daughter living so close to the border, Eva decides to take a vacation to the other side to sharpen up her Spanish and relax before her new job begins. She is struck by the beautiful towns of Mexico, but slowly, her eyes are opened to the dangers that are knocking at her front door.
Finalist Fiction: Cross-Genre 2021 Best Book Awards
Inspired by a shocking incident in eighteenth century America, Chateau Laux is the story of Lawrence Kraymer, a young entrepreneur from a youthful Philadelphia, who chances upon a French aristocrat and his family living on the edge of the frontier.
Born to an unwed mother and raised by a disapproving and judgmental grandfather, Lawrence is drawn to the close-knit family. As part of his courtship of one of the patriarch's daughters, he builds a château, igniting memories of a past that should have been left alone and setting in motion a course of devastating events he could not have anticipated.
Finalist Fiction: Cross-Genre 2021 Best Book Awards
A man dreams through the eyes of a woman he's never met, setting out to find love that might be a figment of his imagination.
Joe Riley has a successful, by-design life in the world of finance. He loves order, discipline, the tangible, the measurable. In pursuit of success he's spurned attachment, keeping romantic entanglements "on an island" while leaving his life and heart invulnerable. When he begins to dream of a woman half a world away he's never encountered, his notions of practicality and planning are called into question.
In a search that variously brings him to the psychologist's office, a medium's table, and from the Rocky Mountains to the streets of London, England, Joe begins to fall for the woman of his dreams. In the process, he's beset by innumerable questions: Is he going mad? Might she actually exist? If so, why does he see through her eyes? Why is he party to visions that are either the greatest privacy invasion of all time, or a possible cosmic match in the making?
Finalist Fiction: Cross-Genre 2021 Best Book Awards
Parsons, Kansas Winter - 1968
A brutal murder has taken place. The God-fearing citizens of the sleepy midwestern town are convinced evil has taken root.
A young married couple, Charlie and Delia Mull are left to pick up the pieces of shattered lives after the unspeakable tragedy.
Townsfolk whisper from church pews that pretty Delia Mull has brought the misfortune upon herself - a cursed family legacy. Others believe the horrific crime is merely another sign of a violent and godless age.
A mysterious woman has rented the house six doors down. Betty Malcomb is the new teacher hired at the high school. Locals are suspicious of the reclusive outsider. Why has she traveled to their peeling little town? What reasons would make her stay?
Located in the remote Kansas prairie sits the state penitentiary. Imprisoned in a concrete cell, a lone madman silently awaits his opportunity to complete his unholy calling.
Finalist Fiction: Cross-Genre 2021 Best Book Awards
Northwest Washington State, 1985
For years, Harris Hayes has taught his daughter, Aggie, the ways of the northern woods. So when her mother's depression worsens, Harris shows the girl how to find and sketch the nests of wild birds as an antidote to sadness. Aggie is in a tree far overhead when her unpredictable mother spots her and forbids her to climb. Angry, the ten-year-old accidentally lights a tragic fire, then flees downriver. She lands her boat near untamed forest, where she hides among the trees and creatures she considers her only friends—determined to remain undiscovered.
A search party gathers by Aggie’s empty boat hours after Celia, fresh off the plane from Houston, arrives at her grandmother’s nearby farm. Hurting from her parents’ breakup, she also plans to run. But when she joins the hunt for Aggie, she meets two irresistible young men who compel her to stay. One is autistic; the other, dangerous.
