National Network for Equitable Library Service

Irene and Nate embark on a new life in Oregon with their two children, Bliss and Shep. But shortly after their move the family is devastated when Shep is gunned down by an intruder in their home. Irene struggles through the aftermath, awaiting the murderer's execution--but as time passes, she draws closer to a desperate and surprising act.

Maggie and Spence have the perfect life until a tragic car accident leaves Maggie in a coma. After nine long weeks, Spence is advised to pull the plug. Devastated, he turns to Maggie's sister Jackie for comfort.

At the annual Harvest Festival in Colleton County, while everyone else is playing games and having fun, a body is found stomped to death and choked with a mouthful of quarters. Deborah begins an investigation and discovers another side to the carnival -- a seedy and desperate side -- hidden just below its flashy, good-time facade. Now she must struggle to win a carny's confidence while a dark web of dangerous family secrets begins to unravel around them.

Young Lionel, minstrel in the outlaw band of Rowan Hood, daughter of Robin, tries to find his courage when she is abducted from Sherwood Forest.

Two brothers, Muir and Moody are as different as night and day and are always at odds. Muir searches for fulfillment with the church while Moody battles inner demons. Ginny, the boys' mother, struggles to keep the family together amidst their constant bickering.

When two professors are killed in quick succession at the University of Texas at San Antonio, Tres is asked to finish teaching the semester's literature classes. All he has to do is keep his investigation of the murders quiet--and stay alive long enough to mark the final student essays. But this case is far from academic.

In 1922 Petey, who has cerebral palsy, is misdiagnosed as an idiot and institutionalized; sixty years later, still in the institution, he befriends a boy and shares with him the joy of life.

In the time before Homer, the legendary Theseus, king of Athens, journeys to the nation of proud female warriors whom the Greeks call Amazons. Theseus enters a forbidden love affair with the Amazon queen, Antiope, and they secretly flee Amazonia for Athens. But fiery rage builds in their wake, and soon Greece is forced into vicious combat with a seemingly unstoppable army.

Investigating Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, journalist Carl Streator finds the same anthology of poems and rhymes at each child's bedside. The book is always opened to a specific African chant--a culling song that kills when recited, whether silently or aloud. Suddenly, Carl's knowledge of the chant makes him an involuntary serial murderer.

Instead of accepting a teaching position at the university, Tres is finishing up his apprenticeship for a private investigator's license. He's doing a poor job of surveillance on the fiddle player in a promising honky-tonk band: she is shot in broad daylight while he watches. Shaken, Tres begins an investigation on his own.