Dan Porter, who is laid off from his job and whose family has become distant to him, has to discover the real meaning of his work and marriage and even his very existence.

Foreman Dexter Sublette cannot understand why a Russian princess has bought the Piqon Ranch. Sonia Stephens, formerly Stephanovich, is indeed a princess. Ignorant of the cattle business, she's about as unlikely a boss as one could imagine. But the willful aristocrat is tough. The proof is in her survival of the revolution that destroyed her family. She desperately wants a fresh start on this ranch that she visited as a child.

As Judge Deborah Knott presides over a case involving a barroom brawl, it becomes clear that deep resentments over race, class, and illegal immigration are simmering just below the surface in the countryside. An early spring sun has begun to shine like a blessing on the fertile fields of North Carolina, but along with the seeds sprouting in the thawing soil, violence is growing as well. Mutilated body parts have appeared along the back roads of Colleton...

Paretsky weaves a gripping contemporary novel around three farm families -- the Grelliers, Fremantles and Schapens -- that can trace their Kaw Valley, Kansas, roots back to the 1850s, a time of violent clashes between antislavery and proslavery forces in Bleeding Kansas. Their shared history is no buffer against the storm of changes that begin with the arrival of Gina Haring, a lesbian Wiccan. Chip Grellier, after being expelled from high school,...

Just how far parents will go to protect their kids? When their son Adam is implicated in the death of his classmate, Tia and Mike Baye install a sophisticated spy program on Adam's computer, and within days are jolted by a message from an unknown correspondent.

When developers threaten to bulldoze the old courthouse to make way for condominiums, Miss Julia enlists the help of Etta Mae Wiggins in a plot to scare off the money by exposing the town's many eccentric characters; Miss Julia also discovers several of her friends' husbands have vanished.

It's Christmas Eve, 1931. On the way to see a client, Maisie Dobbs witnesses a suicide on a busy London street. The following day, the prime minister's office receives a letter threatening a massive loss of life if certain demands are not met - and the writer mentions Maisie by name. After being questioned and cleared by Detective Chief Superintendent Robert MacFarlane of Scotland Yard's elite Special Branch, she is drawn into MacFarlane's personal...

Lady Francesca Haughston had given up on romance for herself, finding passion instead in making desirable matches for others. So it seemed only fair, when she learned she had been deceived into breaking her own long-ago engagement to Sinclair, Duke of Rochford, that she now help him find the perfect wife. Of course, Francesca was certain any spark of passion between them had long since died. But soon Francesca found the way Sinclair gazed at her or...

When two grown daughters discover their mother's diary in her attic, they are stunned to learn her true love was not their father. But is all as it seems? That's the mystery they must unravel as their mother lies near death in a nursing home. Only the pages of her diary can provide the clues. The Diary is a love story. It's also the story of a family and the question that all adult children ask themselves at some point: How well do you really know...

Mitch Albom's first true-life story since Tuesdays with Morrie explores life through a unique journey: his search for the right words to eulogize a Man of God. Along the way, Albom - who walked away from a deeply religious background as a young man - rekindles his faith by sitting with and caring for the wise, funny, but slowly decaying man of the cloth. Together, they explore the things that pull us apart about faith, as well as the universal beliefs...