In 1960s Kentucky, Susanna Braden is one of four children in a dynamic Catholic family that thrives on unpredictability, where painful secrets remain unspoken, allowing sins of the past to be repeated and threatening the security and innocence of another generation. Susanna's childhood begins as one of enchantment, but always with an underlying current of instability. When a series of events lead to the development of a bitter judgment towards parents who failed to protect, either through undisclosed secrets or failure to act, Susanna draws on the support of her friends and siblings as she struggles with whether these experiences should define the person she is to become. These same experiences shape her self-esteem and feelings about love and relationships, while her friendships with Shelly, a funny, allegedly-promiscuous classmate, and Calvin, the honorable boy-next-door with whom she secretly falls in love, keep her grounded. Ultimately, Susanna must decide whether to accept her family, despite its faults, particularly when she recognizes the same failings in herself. And she must determine whether her family's good qualities, including an endearing resilience and appealing ability to rally together, even in the face of profound loss, provide the redemption they all so desperately seek.More detailed description:In 1960's Kentucky, Mama births adventures like golden eggs, but she's not exactly maternal. So, when it comes to the younger Braden children, teenage Susanna does her best to fill in where Mama leaves off – until Susanna unearths shameful secrets about Mama's past and, worse, discovers that Mama has completely failed to warn, or protect, her own children. Furious and filled with righteous indignation, Susanna's through doing Mama's work for her, and all she wants is to somehow escape the drama. Susanna finds comfort in the farm next-door and the boy who's always been her best friend. He's there for her like he always is, steady and appealingly normal and, before long, she's falling for him. For a little while, nothing seems as important as winning Calvin's love. But Calvin is involved with someone else, and when he deploys to Vietnam, it may not be Susanna's love he carries in his heart. Things look bleak, until it becomes clear that Calvin needs her friendship, if not her love, now more than ever. He's the most honorable person Susanna's ever known, and even he is being changed by his experiences. Suddenly Susanna's sense of honor, and fault, are being challenged, just as she has to face what's happening at home – that her withdrawal does not come without a cost, and her beloved brother is paying the price. Now she finds herself at a crossroads – repeat her mother's mistakes or face the awful truth. And it all boils down to a choice between fear and hope.

Now in paperback, the heartstopping finale to the New York Times bestseller Flame in the Mist-- from the bestselling author of The Wrath and the Dawn. After Okami is captured in the Jukai forest, Mariko has no choice--to rescue him, she must return to Inako and face the dangers that have been waiting for her in the Heian Castle. She tricks her brother, Kenshin, and betrothed, Raiden, into thinking she was being held by the Black Clan against her will, playing the part of the dutiful bride-to-be to infiltrate the emperor's ranks and uncover the truth behind the betrayal that almost left her dead. With the wedding plans already underway, Mariko pretends to be consumed with her upcoming nuptials, all the while using her royal standing to peel back the layers of lies and deception surrounding the imperial court. But each secret she unfurls gives way to the next, ensnaring Mariko and Okami in a political scheme that threatens their honor, their love and the very safety of the empire.

Readers of the Harry Potter series and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell are sure to be mesmerized by Dan Vyleta’s thrilling blend of historical fiction and fantasy, as three young friends scratch the surface of the grown-up world to discover startling wonders—and dangerous secrets. “Dan Vyleta writes with intricacy and imagination and skillful pacing; never once would I have considered putting his book down. In the manner of both a Dickens novel and the best young adult adventure stories (the Harry Potter series among them). . .his ending, which I wouldn’t dare reveal here, is a real firecracker.”—Jennifer Senior, The New York Times Welcome to a Victorian England unlike any other you have experienced before. Here, wicked thoughts (both harmless and hate-filled) appear in the air as telltale wisps of Smoke. Young Thomas Argyle, a son of aristocracy, has been sent to an elite boarding school. Here he will be purged of Wickedness, for the wealthy do not Smoke. When he resists a sadistic headboy's temptations to Smoke, a much larger struggle beyond the school walls is revealed. Shortly thereafter, on a trip to London, Thomas and his best friend witness events that make them begin to question everything they have been taught about Smoke. And thus the adventure begins... You will travel by coach to a grand estate where secrets lurk in attic rooms and hidden laboratories; where young love blossoms; and where a tumultuous relationship between a mother and her children is the crucible in which powerful passions are kindled, and dangerous deeds must be snuffed out in a desperate race against time.

Originally published in Great Britain in 2013 by Hamish Hamilton.

Due to a foiled burglary in a high-tech lab doing research for cigarette manufacturers, Freddie Noon, the thief, is now invisible. This condition has clear-cut advantages for a man in Freddie's profession, but now everybody wants a glimpse of Freddie. But Freddie doesn't dare show his face, his shadow, anything. Because Freddie Noon has gotten a taste of invisibility--and he can't quit now.

*From the creator of SLOW HORSES and soon to be a major TV series starring Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson* 'If you haven't read Zoë Boehm yet, welcome to your next fiction addiction' Val McDermid, author of Past Lying 'This is one of these novels where you read it, not just to see what happens at the end, but to see what happens on the very next page' Booklist When a body is hauled from the River Tyne, Sarah Tucker heads to Newcastle for a closer look. She identifies the dead woman, but putting a name to the corpse only raises further questions. Did the woman kill herself? Why was she wearing the jacket a murderer had stolen years before? And what's brought Sarah's former sparring partner Gerard Inchon to the same broken-down hotel where she's staying? Coincidence is an excuse that soon appears pretty unconvincing. Sarah can't leave until she's found the answers to her questions, however dangerous they might turn out to be.

A woman trying to solve the mystery of a drowned PI discovers the truth is dangerous.

What lines would you cross to save someone you love? Filled with the kinds of impossible choices that made the TV show Weeds such a hit, this compelling drama asks to what lengths an avid rule-follower will go in order to save her family--and the answer involves "growing" in surprising directions. Sixteen-year-old Honor Augustine never set out to become a felon. As an academic all-star, avid recycler, and dedicated daughter to her PTSD-afflicted father, she's always been the literal embodiment of her name. Coloring inside the lines is what keeps Honor's chaotic existence orderly. But when she discovers her father's VA benefits drying up, coupled with a terrifying bank letter threatening the family's greenhouse business--Honor vows to find a solution. She just doesn't expect to spot it on the dry erase board of English lit--"Nature's first green is gold." The quote by Frost becomes the seed of an idea. An idea that--with patience and care--could germinate into a means of survival. Maybe marijuana could be more than the medicinal plant that helps quiet her father's demons. Maybe, it could save them all.

Meg and Sylvie Townsend manage the family bookshop and care for their father, Stephen, a veteran still suffering in mind and spirit from his time as a POW during the Civil War. But when the Great Fire sweeps through Chicago's business district, they lose much more than just their store. The sisters become separated from their father and make a harrowing escape from the flames with the help of Chicago Tribune reporter Nate Pierce. Once the smoke clears away, they reunite with Stephen, only to learn soon after that their family friend was murdered on the night of the fire. Even more shocking, Stephen is charged with the crime and committed to the Cook County Insane Asylum. Though homeless and suddenly unemployed, Meg must not only gather the pieces of her shattered life, but prove her father's innocence before the asylum truly drives him mad.

Once upon a time there was a war . . . and a young American who thought of himself as the Quiet American and the Ugly American, and who wished to be neither, who wanted instead to be the Wise American, or the Good American, but who eventually came to witness himself as the Real American and finally as simply the Fucking American. That’s me. This is the story of Skip Sands—spy-in-training, engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcong—and the disasters that befall him thanks to his famous uncle, a war hero known in intelligence circles simply as the Colonel. This is also the story of the Houston brothers, Bill and James, young men who drift out of the Arizona desert into a war in which the line between disinformation and delusion has blurred away. In its vision of human folly, and its gritty, sympathetic portraits of men and women desperate for an end to their loneliness, whether in sex or death or by the grace of God, this is a story like nothing in our literature. Tree of Smoke is Denis Johnson’s first full-length novel in nine years, and his most gripping, beautiful, and powerful work to date. Tree of Smoke is the 2007 National Book Award Winner for Fiction.