Family Mystery

The world's population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families let alone raise them. But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality tv show.

In retreat from a devastating loss and crushing injustice, Katie lives alone in a fortresslike stone house on Jacob’s Ladder island. Once a rising star in the art world, she finds refuge in her painting. The neighboring island of Ringrock houses a secret: a government research facility. And now two agents have arrived on Jacob’s Ladder in search of someone—or something—they refuse to identify. Although an air of menace hangs over these men, an infinitely greater threat has arrived, one so strange even the island animals are in a state of high alarm.

In 1944, British bomber pilot Hugo Langley parachuted from his stricken plane into the verdant fields of German-occupied Tuscany. Badly wounded, he found refuge in a ruined monastery and in the arms of Sofia Bartoli. But the love that kindled between them was shaken by an irreversible betrayal. Nearly 30 years later, Hugo's estranged daughter, Joanna, has returned home to the English countryside to arrange her father's funeral. Among his personal effects is an unopened letter addressed to Sofia. In it is a startling revelation.

In the spring of 1995, Nate Cartwright has lost everything: his parents are dead, his only brother wants nothing to do with him, and he's been fired from his job as a journalist in Washington, DC. With nothing left to lose, he returns to his family's summer cabin outside the small mountain town of Roseland, Oregon, to try and find some sense of direction. The cabin should be empty. It's not. Inside is a man named Alex. And with him is an extraordinary ten-year-old girl who calls herself Artemis Darth Vader. Artemis, who isn't exactly as she appears.

A much needed vacation. An unexpected romance between two strangers. A small town filled with whispering secrets. Inspired by old childhood memories and searching for a new direction in life, Yvonne embarks on a long-awaited vacation to the breathtaking town of Diamond Cove. The local murder mystery theatre was the life of the town—but she soon arrives to discover it in disarray and the whole cove swamped in rumors. As she falls in love with the cozy atmosphere, Yvonne decides to reunite an old passion by opening a jewelry shop next door to the theater. Lance, the owner of the theater, is...

Young Jude Brighton has been missing for three days, and while the search for him is in full swing in the small town of Deer Valley, Oregon, the locals are starting to lose hope. They're well aware that the first 48 hours are critical and after that, the odds usually point to a worst-case scenario. And despite Stevie Clark's youth, he knows that, too; he's seen the cop shows. He knows what each ticking moment may mean for Jude, his cousin and best friend.

Walking past Suzannah and Glenn Archers house on Merton Street, you'd think they have it all with their gleaming white-bricked house and emerald green front lawn. They appear so in love: their home is full of ripples of laughter and the clinking of wine glasses. They're always celebrating something with their siblings and two grown-up daughters, Zara and Emily. They look like the perfect family. But are they?

Sometimes murder is just a game... When budding journalist Laura Rockford stumbles across a bizarre murder scene in downtown Vegas she finally gets her chance to advance her journalism career from fluff pieces to serious news. Laura has a lead that even the police don’t know about and she flings herself head-first into digging up everything she can to break the case, including confronting her number one suspect the reclusive computer nerd who invented the video game that the murders are staged to mimic. But Laura gets more than she expected in computer genius Mike McQuade. As a bond forms...

Perla Wultz lives with her husband, Grant, and their precious daughter, Sophie, in a gated Pasadena community. Affluent, sociable, and accomplished, Perla plays the part of loving wife and mother to perfection. It seems an ideal life, if not for a decades-old crime that has become Perla’s dark and consuming secret obsession. Twenty-three years ago, Leewood Folcrum confessed to murdering two young girls during a birthday party. Though he’s been condemned to a life sentence, his crime is not forgotten.

Cam Jansen and her photographic memory help her friend's grandfather retrieve his missing bag with an important graduation gift in it.

I fled the Colombo Family as a widow. But I'm coming back as their Queen. I'm done running. And I'm done having Nik Kusek sacrifice everything for my sake. She's protected me, killed for me, even turned against her own people… Now, it's my turn to step up. I'm ready to claim what belongs to me: the casino, the Family, and the truth about who really killed the old Don. The problem? Everyone wants me dead. The Colombos think I'm a traitor. My husband's killer is still out there, gunning for me. And the Novak Consortium wants me out of the way to pull their deadly operative back into line.

Sabiduría familiar sigue a las Marte a través de este período liminal, mientras se preparan para el velorio de Flor y lo que vendrá después. Con excepcional maestría, y su inconfundible y deslumbrante voz poética, Elizabeth Acevedo teje la epopeya de las Marte: una familia sinigual que, como cualquier otra, deberá romper el conjuro del silencio para empezar a escribir su futuro.

A week at a beautiful chateau in the south of France—it should be a straightforward final job for Dora. She’s a smart, stunning and discreet escort, and Daniel has paid for her services before. This time, all she has to do is to convince the assembled guests that she is his girlfriend. Dora is used to playing roles and being whatever men want her to be. It’s all about putting on a front.

One Promise Too Late is Peggy's forty-first novel; her forty-sixth book. Each book resonates with Peggy's authentic Appalachian mountain voice and her gift to engross the reader in the story. From Chapter 18: “You know I don’t want to leave you here by yourself, but I must. I don’t dare stay with you any longer. It wouldn’t seem right. It wouldn’t be right.” It might not seem right, but that didn’t stop me from wanting him to stay if it was only another minute or two. I couldn’t remember anyone ever holding me close, comforting me. Mom certainly hadn’t. Neither had Dad. ...

Stephen Aston is getting married again. The only problem is, he's still married to his first wife, even though she is in a care facility for dementia. But he'll take care of that easily, by divorcing her—even if his adult daughters protest. Tully and Rachel Aston look upon Heather as nothing but an interloper. Heather is the same age as Rachel and even younger than Tully. Clearly she's a gold digger and after their father's money. Heather has secrets that she's keeping close, and reasons of her own for wanting to marry Stephen.

Leaving the SAS for civvies street, Danny Pearson reconnects with his family and takes a job from his uncle Harry Knight. He soon finds out he's no angel. South of the river, Viktor Volkov has his eyes on Harry's patch. A tit-for-tat battle escalates, leaving fatalities on both sides. For a while, the battle seems to be over, until Viktor's older brother arrives in London. Danny must take on the Russian mafia and win, or more of his loved ones will die....

Small-town romance with faith, humor, and more than a dash of danger! An elusive woman with secrets, a quiet cowboy, a precocious child and a rebellious teenager, and a marriage of convenience that hides real feelings... Arianna Montemayor is so far from her comfort zone that it’s not even on the same planet when this eternal nomad and former runaway considers becoming an instant mom. To win custody of her niece and nephew, she needs a stable job, a house, and a husband, not necessarily in that order. For help, she turns to a local cowboy and the most responsible man she's ever met, ...

Southern historical fiction novel of drama and intrigue set on the Blue Ridge of the Appalachian Mountains in Western North Carolina. Excerpt from Chapter Nine: She hid in the woods all night long. Didn’t even come out to milk the goat or feed her mother’s chickens. The goat was starting to bleat to be milked by the next morning, but she was too afraid to take a chance on being out in the open long enough to milk her. By the time the sun started going down, she gathered enough determination to slip close enough to the cabin to see through the open door. There was enough light left in ...

Cora Valentine has her whole life—and a shot at the Olympics—ahead of her. But when she’s kidnapped on Halloween, her name is splashed across headlines not as an athlete but as a victim. Not even her safe return changes that, especially since no one is caught for the crime. Hounded by the public, Cora’s time as a missing girl and member of the Magnificent Eight has its consequences.

When Diana Ladd's daughter is kidnapped, all evidence points to a diabolical killer imprisoned years ago for terrorizing the Ladd family. A sequel to Hour of the Hunter.