Peggy Whitman

Brooklyn-based Hannah is a bestselling author struggling to write her second book after personal losses. Her older sister, Sara, still lives in Chatham, Cape Cod, where they grew up, and is married with four children. Once a dedicated librarian, Sara dreams of reviving her love affair with literature, but instead, she is stuck with too many family responsibilities and a fizzling marriage.

Stunned by what she read in the newspaper article, Sarah Shelley sat quietly in disbelief. The past, so conveniently tucked away from her memory, came crashing back into her mind. Now she knew the truth. Whoever was responsible had no idea she was coming for them. All Silas Morgan could think about was getting even. That's all he ever thought about. From the time he entered primary school, he was picked on, bullied, ridiculed, and laughed at. The torturous treatment continued, even after he entered Eton. In fact, it got worse; if that were possible.

When a disabled Vietnam veteran, reared in that town, collides in the heart of Manhattan with a teenage girl suffering from multiple personality disorder and memories of being trapped in a locked wooden box as a child, their budding connection slowly unravels memories that neither of them can leave in the past. After two buried crates are unearthed at a remote construction site outside Cartersville with the bones of small boys inside them, and simultaneously, another local child goes missing, Nick Mannino and Paul Tarantino are drawn into the fray.

She’s 43 years old...and starting over from scratch. How did this happen? She had it all together. A stable marriage of two decades. Two grown daughters. And now, she and her husband, empty nesters, were moving to a beach house. Until he showed up late one night and tore their marriage apart. A secret life. A different woman. Another family. Left alone, she has to begin again. And then, her estranged sister and mother get thrown into the mix.

Andrea Wint’s life in the small town of Port Inez, Washington, is a simple one. She works, enjoys the gorgeous view from her bay window, and visits her dad at the memory-care facility. Her father is in the late stages of Alzheimer’s, but Andrea brings in one coin from his valuable collection every day—little bits of precious metals that seem to bring him back to himself, even if just for a few moments. So when Andrea’s house is burgled and the coins disappear, she’s bereft.

Nora Hamilton knows the formula for love better than anyone. As a romance channel screenwriter, it’s her job. But when her too-good-to work husband leaves her and their two kids, Nora turns her marriage’s collapse into cash and writes the best script of her life. No one is more surprised than her when it’s picked up for the big screen and set to film on location at her 100-year-old-home. When former Sexiest Man Alive, Leo Vance, is cast as her ne’er do well husband Nora’s life will never be the same.

Meet Bryan Baker, a builder/architect with a big heart and a fondness for sweets - something he's been indulging more since a recent breakup. When he throws his back out lifting holiday turkeys, his doctor brother reads him the riot act and prescribes a fitness program. So he joins a local gym and meets Melanie, a friendly and very pretty personal trainer. He's immediately smitten, but is sure she's way out of his league.

Laid off from her department store job, Carmen has perilously little cash and few options. The prospect of spending Christmas with her perfect sister Sofia, in Sofia’s perfect house with her perfect children and her perfectly ordered yuppie life, does not appeal. Frankly, Sofia doesn’t exactly want her prickly sister Carmen there, either. But Sofia has yet another baby on the way, a mother desperate to see her daughters get along, and a client who needs help revitalizing his shabby old bookshop. So Carmen moves in and takes the job.

There's a damsel in distress and accusations of attempted murder flying around, but it's not in the comfortable confines of the English countryside; it's in the very distant city of Damascus. Lennox must go and investigate, although he's not too keen on exotic locations, and his old retainer Greggs is distinctly averse to the very idea. Nevertheless, ex-Chief Inspector Swift persuades them, and they reach the ancient city to discover a movie crew, a spy, and a couple of mysterious ladies.

A centuries-old skeleton is discovered in a lonely Scottish Castle. It wears a crown and hides a curse. Swift, the detective friend of Major Heathcliff Lennox, now lives at Braeburn Castle and it was he who uncovered the skeleton. As ghosts are heard and treasure-seekers appear, the murders begin. Lennox must go to Braeburn and investigate as Halloween draws near.