The members of the Off the Books Task Force are at it again, this time spending some quality time together and solving a mystery that has them temporarily baffled. Brantley Walker and Reese Tavoularis continue to find a balance between their personal and professional relationship. In doing so, they realize they have much to learn about one another. When JJ gets caught up in a plot to abduct the governor’s son, she turns to Baz for help. And though he comes to her rescue immediately, she soon realizes the rift she caused between them may be too great to repair. Brantley is keeping a secret that affects the future of the entire task force. While he helps the team resolve the mystery surrounding Dante’s disappearance, he must determine the best way to relay the news that Governor Greenwood has decided to disband the task force, effective immediately.

When the customers of the River Heights pharmacy take seriously ill after being delivered their medicine, Nancy is convinced that sabotage is involved and searches for the deadly drug.

In Coincidence and Counterfactuality, a groundbreaking analysis of plot, Hilary P. Dannenberg sets out to answer the perennial question of how to tell a good story. While plot is among the most integral aspects of storytelling, it is perhaps the least studied aspect of narrative. Using plot theory to chart the development of narrative fiction from the Renaissance to the present, Dannenberg demonstrates how the novel has evolved over time and how writers have developed increasingly complex narrative strategies that tap into key cognitive parameters familiar to the reader from real-life experience. ø Dannenberg proposes a new, multidimensional theory for analyzing time and space in narrative fiction, then uses this theory to trace the historical evolution of narrative fiction by focusing on coincidence and counterfactuality. These two key plot strategiesøare constructed around pivotal moments when characters? life trajectories, or sometimes the paths of history, converge or diverge. The study?s rich historical and textual scope reveals how narrative traditions and genres such as romance and realism or science fiction and historiographic metafiction, rather than being separated by clear boundaries are in fact in a continual process of interaction and cross-fertilization. In highlighting critical stages in the historical development of narrative fiction, the study produces new readings of works by pinpointing the innovative role played by particular authors in this evolutionary process. Dannenberg?s original investigation of plot patterns is interdisciplinary, incorporating research from narrative theory, cognitive approaches to literature, social psychology, possible worlds theory, and feminist approaches to narrative.

After spending the night at a retreat dedicated to sensual pleasures, a woman finds herself at the center of a murder investigation in this edge-of-your-seat romantic thriller from New York Times–bestselling author Meryl Sawyer The wolf at the door of Claire Holt’s Taos art gallery is Lobo, a dangerous hybrid of German shepherd and timber wolf belonging to Zach Coulter, the town’s one-time bad boy. Now, instead of running from the law, he is the law. But the homicide-cop-turned-local-sheriff isn’t there to rekindle an old flame. The body of Claire’s business rival has been found at the Hideaway, an illicit club where drugs and sex are bartered in the midnight shadows. And Claire’s wallet and an incriminating piece of intimate clothing have been discovered in the bungalow next to the crime scene. Claire has no alibi—or memory of that night. Did someone drug her to frame her for murder? Claire enlists Zach’s help to find the mysterious stranger who can provide her alibi. In spite of the violent past that binds them, Zach can’t refuse her. Now, he and the girl who used to drive him wild might get a second chance—if he can stop a human predator from killing again.

A big, panoramic story of the new America, as told by our master chronicler of the way we live now. As a police launch speeds across Miami's Biscayne Bay -- with officer Nestor Camacho on board -- Tom Wolfe is off and running. Into the feverous landscape of the city, he introduces the Cuban mayor, the black police chief, a wanna-go-muckraking young journalist and his Yale-marinated editor; an Anglo sex-addiction psychiatrist and his Latina nurse by day, loin lock by night-until lately, the love of Nestor's life; a refined, and oh-so-light-skinned young woman from Haiti and her Creole-spouting, black-gang-banger-stylin' little brother; a billionaire porn addict, crack dealers in the 'hoods, "de-skilled" conceptual artists at the Miami Art Basel Fair, "spectators" at the annual Biscayne Bay regatta looking only for that night's orgy, yenta-heavy ex-New Yorkers at an "Active Adult" condo, and a nest of shady Russians. Based on the same sort of detailed, on-scene, high-energy reporting that powered Tom Wolfe's previous bestselling novels, Back to Blood is another brilliant, spot-on, scrupulous, and often hilarious reckoning with our times.

How does chance enter our world? And why is so much not predictable? In an understandable, exciting and amusing narrative, the author takes us into the world of chemistry, quantum physics and biology. Touching on astronomy and philosophy, we witness a rewarding journey of discovery. In the process, he develops a completely new view of chance based on the laws of nature. Here, the omnipresent non-equilibrium plays an extremely decisive role, because it generates the complex structures in our world. Finally, on this basis, he presents an equally simple and captivating hypothesis on the nature of time. This non-fiction book provides a deep insight into the fascination of research, the agonizing search for fundamental understanding, and the struggle for scientific knowledge.

I’m known to the Hollywood elite as The Fixer. Others refer to me as a Sin Eater. Whatever they call me, people know my name. Some even talk about me as this mythical creature who can make miracles happen, provided those miracles are unethical and usually illegal. But I don’t have a unique skill set. I’m merely a man in possession of a broken moral compass. I won’t apologize for who I am. The world I live in made me this way. The people who abandoned me set me in motion. And the system that failed me molded me. That doesn’t mean I don’t know the difference between right and wrong. When the daughter of one of Hollywood’s shining stars is kidnapped, I make it my mission to find her. And I do. But don’t mistake me for the hero. I knew she would be taken, and I did nothing to stop it. Years later, that girl is now a woman, and her mother once again needs me to make a problem go away. When she calls, I answer. Right time? Right place? No. It’s been my plan all along. This is a standalone menage romance with a morally challenged anti-hero, a man who thinks he owes Rule his life, and a beautiful artist who decides two sinfully sexy men are definitely better than one.

Brantley Walker and Reese Tavoularis are diving into their very first case as a task force, and it’s close to home. The Off the Books task force is eager to tackle the case of a fifteen-year-old girl who mysteriously went missing nine years ago in their hometown of Coyote Ridge, Texas. Though it seems she disappeared without a trace, they soon stumble upon unsettling clues that lead back to someone once trusted by the town. As Brantley and Reese work to bring closure to the girl’s family, they’re also navigating a challenging journey of their own. While they embrace their new careers, they are also exploring uncharted waters in their relationship.