While filming on location in scenic Santa Barbara, California, Peter Barrington and Ben Bacchetti look to expand Centurion Picture’s business by making a deal with a young Croatian billionaire. But when the magnate’s wife is kidnapped, Teddy Fay is brought in to assess the threat and recover the young woman as quickly as possible. As Teddy unravels the threads of her disappearance, he quickly comes to find that darker forces are at play and an old vendetta has been revived that puts them all at risk.
Jenna’s parents had finally given in, and there she was, at a New York club with her best friends, watching the legendary band Avenue A, carrying her demo in hopes of slipping it to the guitarist, Jake Kincade. Then, from the stage, Jake catches her eye, and smiles. It’s the best night of her life. It’s the last night of her life. Minutes later, Jake’s in the alley getting some fresh air, and the girl from the dance floor comes stumbling out, sick and confused and deathly pale. He tries to help, but it’s no use.
This is a tale of murder. Or maybe that’s not quite true. At its heart, it’s a love story, isn’t it? Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex–movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island. I tell you this because you may think you know this story. You probably read about it at the time ― it caused a real stir in the tabloids, if you remember. But who am I? My name is Elliot Chase, and I’m going to tell you a story unlike any you’ve ever heard.
Lesson #1: Trust no one. Eve has a good life. She wakes up each day, kisses her husband Nate, and heads off to teach math at the local high school. All is as it should be. Except…Last year, Caseham High was rocked by a scandal involving a student-teacher affair, with one student, Addie, at its center. But Eve knows there is far more to these ugly rumors than meets the eye. But nobody knows the real Addie. Nobody knows the secrets that could destroy her. And Addie will do anything to keep it quiet…
Benny Catspaw’s perpetually sunny disposition is tested when he loses his job, his reputation, his fiancée, and his favorite chair. He’s not paranoid. Someone is out to get him. He just doesn’t know who or why. Then Benny receives an inheritance from an uncle he’s never heard of: a giant crate and a video message. All will be well in time. How strange—though it’s a blessing, his uncle promises. Stranger yet is what’s inside the crate. He’s a seven-foot-tall self-described “bad weather friend” named Spike whose mission is to help people who are just too good for this world.
Ryder Creed’s priority is to keep his scent dogs safe. In the dark there are threats that are impossible to see or predict. Ever since his Marine K9 unit searched for IEDs in Afghanistan, he’s avoided nighttime searches. But when a boy goes missing in a remote area of the Florida Panhandle, Creed has to put aside his fears and navigate the risks his dogs will face after dark. In the middle of the night, FBI Agent Maggie O’Dell is called to a crime scene in D.C. The M.O. matches another murder in the same area. The paths of Ryder’s missing boy and Maggie’s killer are about to collide.
A housekeeper enters a secluded, upscale home and discovers two bodies floating in the pool: the heir of an Italian shoe empire and an unknown woman. The house is untouched, but a “double” in Bel Air certainly makes this case stand out from the usual. No forced entry means this could have been an inside job. After all, the woman floating in the pool is revealed to be Meagin March, a married neighbor from down the street, who lives in an even more opulent and sprawling mansion. Married woman having an affair? That’s a perfect motive.
Former spy Maggie Bird came to the seaside village of Purity, Maine, eager to put the past behind her after a mission went tragically wrong. These days, she’s living quietly on her chicken farm, still wary of blowback from the events that forced her early retirement. But when a body turns up in Maggie’s driveway, she knows it’s a message from former foes who haven’t forgotten her. Maggie turns to her local circle of old friends—all retirees from the CIA—to help uncover the truth about who is trying to kill her, and why.
Evie Porter has everything a nice, Southern girl could want: a perfect, doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence and a garden, a fancy group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist. Because the one thing she’s worked her entire life to keep clean, the one identity she could always go back to—her real identity—just walked right into this town. Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn’t be higher—but then, Evie has always liked a challenge…