He barely knew her, and he can't forget her...It's the dead of winter on Gansett Island, and Riley McCarthy's mood matches the lousy weather as he and his family work to bring their new business, McCarthy's Wayfarer, back to life. He can't deny that he's been in a funk since Nikki Stokes and her twin sister, Jordan, left the island last fall without saying goodbye. Riley, who'd been hired to fix the leaking roof at their grandmother's home, had liked talking to Nikki and had been looking forward to getting to know her better when she disappeared. Months later, he still thinks of her every day, even if he wishes he didn't. She's hard to forget.As the manager for Jordan's reality TV career, Nikki finds herself square in the middle of the kind of drama she's had more than enough of, especially since her sister plans to go back to the husband who released a sex tape that devastated Jordan last fall. Enough is enough for Nikki, who quits her job and heads for her happy place—

The critically acclaimed author of The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque and the New York Times Notable Book The Physiognomy returns with a spellbinding new masterwork -- a dark and haunting literary thriller that dazzles with originality and sheer storytelling energy as it brilliantly confounds all expectations. The Girl in the Glass The Great Depression has bound a nation in despair -- and only a privileged few have risen above it: the exorbitantly wealthy ... and the hucksters who feed upon them. Diego, a seventeen-year-old illegal Mexican immigrant rescued from the depths of poverty, owes his salvation to Thomas Schell, spiritual medium and master grifter. At the knee of his loving -- and beloved -- surrogate father, Diego has learned the most honored tricks of the trade. Along with Schell's gruff and powerful partner, Antony Cleopatra, the three have sailed comfortably, so far, through hard times, scamming New York's grieving rich with elaborate, ingeniously staged séances. And with no lack of well-heeled true believers at their disposal, it appears the gravy train will chug along indefinitely -- until an impossible occurrence in a grand mansion on Long Island's elegant Gold Coast changes everything. While "communing with spirits" in the opulent home of George Parks, Schell sees an image of a young girl in a pane of glass -- the missing daughter of one of Parks's millionaire neighbors -- silently entreating the con man to help. Though well aware that his otherworldly "powers" are a sham, Schell inexplicably offers his services, and those of his partners, to help find the lost child. He draws Diego and Antony into a tangled maze of deadly secrets, terrible experimentation, and dark hungers among the very wealthy and obscenely powerful. As each cardinal rule dividing the grift from the real is unceremoniously broken, Diego's education is advanced into areas he never considered before. And the mentor's sudden vulnerable humanity forces the student into the role of master to confront an abomination that will ultimately spawn the nightmare of the century. At once a hypnotically compelling mystery, a rich and vivid circus of complex, eccentric, and unforgettable characters and events, and a stunningly evocative portrait of Depression-era New York, Jeffrey Ford's The Girl in the Glass is yet another masterly literary adventure from a writer of exemplary vision and skill.

For Annie Barnes, going home to Middle River means dealing with truths long hidden, some of which she buried there herself. But it is a journey she knows she must take if she is to put to rest, once and for all, her misgivings about her mother's recent death.To an outsider, Middle River is a picture-perfect New Hampshire town. But Annie grew up there, and she knows all its secrets -- as did her idol Grace Metalious, author of the infamous novel Peyton Place, which laid a small town's sexual secrets bare for all the world to see. Though Grace actually lived in a nearby town, the residents of Middle River have always believed she used them as the model for her revolutionary novel, and some even insist Annie's grandmother was the model for one of Grace's most scandalous characters. With these rumors and whispers about Peyton Place haunting her childhood, Annie came to identify so closely with the author that it was Grace and her bold rebellion against 1950s conformity that inspired Annie to get out of Middle River and make a life for herself in Washington, D.C.It's been a good life, too. Annie Barnes is now a bestselling author, reaching that level with only her third novel. Success has given her a confidence she never had as a young girl in Middle River -- and it has given the residents of that town something new to worry about. When they hear Annie is returning for a lengthy visit, everyone, including Annie's two sisters, believes she's coming home to write about them.Though amused by the discomfort she causes in Middle River, Annie has no intention of writing a novel about the town or its people. It is her mother's death -- under circumstances that don't quite add up -- that has brought her back, and soon her probing questions start to make people nervous. When she discovers evidence of dangerous pollutants emanating from the local paper mill -- poisons that she comes to believe contributed to her mother's fatal illness -- Annie finds herself at odds with most of the town's inhabitants, including her sisters, both of whom are seemingly unfazed by the incriminating evidence she uncovers. Because the mill is the town's main employer, everyone is afraid of what might happen if Annie digs deeper, and their fears soon start to turn ugly.For Annie, though, there is no turning back, as passion and rage propel her forward in a determined quest. Coming face-to-face with decades of secrets and lies, she knows she must find the strength to move beyond the legacy of Grace Metalious, defying her past to heal the wounds of the town and her own family.

I'm Matt Laud. I've seen some strange murder cases in my time, but this one topped them all. It had everything, "living" dead men, a "virgin" mistress and $50,000 worth of death!

Sorrel is about to go off on her Gap Year. She sooo wants a home to come home to.Ilex, her brother, is trying to upgrade his flat and marry his smart girlfriend Manda. He'd like some immediate equity.Clover, the elder sister, has plans that involve a bijou second home in France. And she wants it now.If only their parents would be sensible. If only they would sell their large, rather grand but somewhat dilapidated home and hand over their inheritance. But parents aren't always as sensible as their children. They are planning on blowing the lot...

"Dashing Georgian romance," said Booklist of Time's Fool, the first stunning adventure in Patricia Veryan's Tales of the Jewelled Men. This second gem in the sparkling new series finds the sinister League of the Jewelled Men hatching another deadly conspiracy: their chosen victim one Lord Horatio Glendenning, and the prize his father's estate...