Small States

In March 1986, while living in Brooklyn, Chris Bohjalian and his wife were cab-napped on a Saturday night and taken on a forty-five-minute joy ride in which the driver ignored all traffic lights and stop signs. Around midnight he deposited the young couple on a near-deserted street, where police officers were about to storm a crack house. Bohjalian and his wife were told to hit the ground for their own protection. While lying on the pavement, Bohjalian's wife suggested that perhaps it was time to move to New England.

A family secret. A new romance. And a summer she will never forget. When Caroline left Lake Summers thirty years ago, she thought she’d never return to the place where she lost her parents. But when she finds out that the town’s lily garden lovingly built by her mother is going to be destroyed, she knows fate is calling. Dropping everything at her office in Chicago, she knows she is the only person who can save the garden. Caroline and her daughter Lee are welcomed home by the warm smile of her mother’s best friend Maxine, and piles of pancakes at her cozy little restaurant in town.

Secretos, mentiras y actos terribles han estado rondando en Burdensville durante mucho tiempo. Durante un viaje por todo el país, el tren hace una escala en la pequeña ciudad de Burdensville, Scott decide visitar un pequeño café para almorzar. Pero termina visitándolo por más tiempo del que esperaba, Scott observa a un hombre borracho tratando de golpear a una camarera poco dispuesta en el restaurante. Él trata de intervenir y protegerla, pero el sheriff Darby termina enviándolo a la cárcel por su buena acción. Pronto, se vuelve evidente que la gente de Burdensville tiene serios ...

On the evening of the eighteenth of May, a young woman walks alone into the small village of Chimney Rock, North Carolina, with the intention of staying for exactly one year. As she sets about to find lodging and work, she quickly meets two precocious children, a caring and generous business owner, and the neighboring town's Chief of Police. Family and loss make up many of their stories, and while these people and others attempt to get to know and help the stranger, the history and troubled memories of what led her to this place begin to gradually unfold. As the date of her planned ...

Never ever date a client. That’s what I keep telling myself. Until Terence Daniels walks into my office. Biggest mistake of my life. Next thing I know, I’m fleeing Louisiana, hunkering down with my best friend in Dallas. Things just cannot get any worse. Until Kate’s car breaks down outside this bar that looks like their patrons kill women with sticks. We have no choice but to go inside. What I find in there is nothing that I would expect. What unfolds in the coming weeks are more mistakes. Better ones. And then one that I’ll forever call my favorite mistake.

In the years since a mysterious cataclysm caused a permanent blackout that toppled infrastructure and thrust the world into anarchy, Evan Whitesky has led his community in remote northern Canada off the rez and into the bush, where they’ve been rekindling their Anishinaabe traditions, isolated from the outside world. As new generations are born, and others come of age in a world after everything, Evan’s people are stronger than ever. But resources around their new settlement are drying up, and elders warn that they cannot stay indefinitely.

Trouble hasn’t left the quiet town of Revival Cove, and the Mayer family faces their greatest challenges yet as life, loss, and love collide in unexpected ways. Huck Mayer is battling more than his past—he’s fighting for his future. Haunted by regrets and still wrestling with his dependence on alcohol, Huck dreams of rebuilding his life, seeing his daughter more, and maybe even finding love again. However, embracing a new path could drive a wedge between him and his father, further straining the already-tenuous family ties. Johnny Mayer has found purpose as a preacher in the ...

It is a busy weekend in the town of Perfect, WA. A fan convention is being held. A serial killing is uncovered. Then a second distinctly different set of killings. And a third. Police Officer Brad Graham, along with FBI Special Agent Kyle Smart, tries to figure out why three different serial killers have descended on the small Pacific Northwest town. Welcome to Perfect, WA.

How far would you go to protect a loved one? Would you tamper with evidence? Commit arson? Allow a prime suspect to remain at large? Pegasus Quincy and her former partner, Shepherd Malone, have some difficult choices ahead when Shep’s daughter is caught with a murder weapon in her hand. It doesn’t help when the detective on the case has problems of his own. When he applies to the sheriff’s department, he conveniently forgets to mention that he was terminated from his previous position under a cloud of fraud.

After five years of virtual banishment because he sold out his small outfit to the Middle Arizona Cattle Company, giving it a foothold on the Mesa Grande range, violent-tempered Joe Bonnyman is summoned back to Lodgepole by his father when it appears that a cattle war between the syndicate and the various rangers is imminent. During his short stay in town, Joe has an unpleasant meeting with Ed Merrill, the brother of a girl Joe had once courted.

A thirty-something single woman, the untried colt she inherits, a horse-crazy little girl, and their band of misfits and has-beens stick it to the establishment in the cutthroat world of horse racing.

Reniqua Allen tells the stories of Black millennials searching for a better future in spite of racist policies that have closed off traditional versions of success. Many watched their parents and grandparents play by the rules, only to sink deeper and deeper into debt. They witnessed their elders fight to escape cycles of oppression for more promising prospects, largely to no avail. Today, in this post-Obama era, they face a critical turning point. Interweaving her own experience, Allen shares surprising stories of hope and ingenuity.

The gravy train hasn’t stopped in the hollers of western Virginia for more than 30 years when Stony Shelor starts his junior year at Jubal Early High. Class divides and racism are still the hardened norms as the Eisenhower years draw to a close. Violence lies coiled under the calm surface, ready to strike at any time.

The holidays are coming to the town of Perfect, WA. But so is something else, a so-called tourist attraction of five haunted houses brought in from various places around the world, creating essentially a man-made ghost town.

Welcome to Hope Falls where there’s love in the air… "Melanie Jackson is a talent to watch." —WritersWrite.com It's Chloe's first Valentine's Day with Alex and someone is out to sabotage the Sweethearts Ball. Her romance may also become a casualty when Alex's parents and their cats come to town for a visit. They are not pleased with their son's engagement. Now, their simple wedding plans have gone awry. "I was delighted to find Chloe Boston and all of Melanie Jackson's series." —Connie Shelton, author of the Charlie Parker and Samantha Sweet Mystery Series The path of true love ...

From the National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist comes a fresh new audiobook that empowers parents and children to uproot racism in our society and in ourselves. Antiracist Baby introduces the youngest listeners and the grown-ups in their lives to the concept and power of antiracism. Providing the language necessary to begin critical conversations at the earliest age, Antiracist Baby is the perfect gift for listeners of all ages dedicated to forming a just society.

This collection takes us to a forgotten corner of the rural South, full of cemeteries, soybean fields, fishing holes, and Duck Thru gas stations. We meet a runaway teen, a mattress salesman, feral kittens, an elderly bachelorette wearing a horsehair locket, and a little girl named after Shania Twain. Here, time and memory circle above Phillips’ characters like vultures and angels, as they navigate the only landscape they’ve ever known. Corn reaches for rain, deer run blindly, and no matter how hungry or hurt, some forgotten hymn is always remembered.

After Graham’s inn burns down, his life turns upside down… Graham Timber has put everything into his quaint bed and breakfast in Charming Falls, Illinois. When disaster strikes and his business burns to the ground, his entire life is upended. Miranda Wilson lives to fight fires. She’s drawn to the quiet and handsome innkeeper, until the arson rumors surface. Although Miranda doesn’t want to believe it, the evidence seems to point to Graham as the culprit behind the fire. Will Graham and Miranda’s explosive chemistry burn out before their flame of passion can fully ignite? Find out...

A dying man, Hank Peyton, tells his son Jerry Peyton that, after a lifetime of evil deeds, his only gift to his son will be his extremely valuable gun called The Voice of La Paloma. When Jerry is wrongfully accused of horse thievery, a cunning sheriff blackmails Jerry into stealing the gun from his father in exchange for a clean slate, even though the sheriff has already found the real horse thief.

Black Jack Hollis was a daring outlaw before he was shot down. In the wake of his death, it's discovered that Hollis left behind an infant son. Elizabeth Cornish, coowner of the Cornish Ranch alongside her brother, Vance, takes it upon herself to raise the child as her own. Elizabeth names the boy Terry Colby and gives Terry a fictitious aristocratic background, believing the way the boy is raised will determine the man he will become. But Vance is convinced that Terry is destined to become an outlaw himself.