Aaron, a disgraced rabbi turned Wall Street banker, and Amelia, his journalist girlfriend, live with their newborn in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The infusion of upwardly mobile professionals into Bed-Stuy’s historic brownstones belies the tension simmering on the streets below. But after a cop shoots a boy in a nearby park, conflict escalates to rioting. Pulled into the riot’s vortex are Antoinette, devout nanny to Aaron and Amelia’s son; Jupiter, the single father who lives on their block with his son, Derek; Daniel, Aaron’s unhinged tenant in their basement unit; and Sara, a smart local girl, broiling with confusion and rage. As the day unfolds, these diverse characters are forced to reckon with who they are and what truly matters to them.

Why were no bankers put in prison after the financial crisis of 2008? Why do CEOs seem to commit wrongdoing with impunity? The problem goes beyond banks deemed “Too Big to Fail” to almost every large corporation in America --- to pharmaceutical companies and auto manufacturers and beyond. THE CHICKENSHIT CLUB --- an inside reference to prosecutors too scared of failure and too daunted by legal impediments to do their jobs --- explains why. A character-driven narrative, the book tells the story from inside the Department of Justice. It spans the last decade and a half of prosecutorial fiascos, corporate lobbying, trial losses and culture shifts that have stripped the government of the will and ability to prosecute top corporate executives.

The lead homicide investigator in a rural town, Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock is deeply unnerved when high school classmate Rosalind Ryan is found strangled. As much as Rosalind's life was a mystery to Gemma when they were students together, her death presents even more of a puzzle. What made Rosalind quit her teaching job in Sydney and return to her hometown? Why did she live in a small, run-down apartment when her father was one of the town's richest men? Rosalind's enigmas frustrate and obsess Gemma, who has her own dangerous secrets --- an affair with her colleague and past tragedies that may not stay in the past.

On Ruby’s 13th birthday, a wish she didn’t even know she had suddenly comes true: the couple who raised her aren’t her parents at all. Her real mother and father are out there somewhere, and Ruby becomes determined to find them. Venturing into the forest with nothing but a suitcase and the company of her only true friend --- the imaginary Shadow Boy --- Ruby discovers a group of siblings who live alone in the woods. The children take her in, and while they offer the closest Ruby’s ever had to a family, Ruby begins to suspect that they might need her even more than she needs them. And it’s not always clear what’s real and what’s not --- or who’s trying to help her and who might be a threat.

Mary DiNunzio wants to represent her old friend Simon Pensiera, a sales rep who was wrongly fired by his company, but her partner Bennie Rosato represents the parent company. When she confronts Mary, explaining this is a conflict of interest, an epic battle of wills and legal strategy between the two ensues --- ripping the law firm apart, forcing everyone to take sides and turning friend against friend.

The first drug overdose comes just after midnight, when a young woman dies on the dirty floor of a gas station bathroom. To the people of the small town of Acker’s Gap, West Virginia, it is just another tragedy. But then there is another overdose. And another. And another. Prosecutor Bell Elkins soon realizes that her Appalachian hometown is facing its starkest challenge yet: a day of constant heroin overdoses from a batch tainted with a lethal tranquilizer. While the clock ticks and the bodies fall, Bell and her colleagues desperately track the source of the deadly drug --- and engage in fierce debates over the wisdom of expending precious resources to save the lives of self-destructive addicts.

Farouk has tried to protect his wife and daughter from the war and hatred that has torn Syria apart. If they stay, they will lose their freedom. If they flee, they will lose all they have known of home. Lampy has too much going on in his small town life in Ireland. He has the city girl for a bit of fun, but she's not Chloe, and Chloe took his heart away when she left him. There's also the secret his mother will never tell him. The game --- manipulating people --- was always the lifeblood coursing through John's veins. But the ghost of his beloved brother and the bitter disappointment of his father have shadowed him all his life. These three men are searching for some version of home, and their lives are moving inexorably towards a reckoning that will draw them all together.

George and Lizzie have radically different understandings of what love and marriage should be. George grew up in a warm and loving family --- his father an orthodontist, his mother a stay-at-home mom --- while Lizzie grew up as the only child of two famous psychologists, who viewed her more as an in-house experiment than a child to love. After a decade of marriage, nothing has changed --- George is happy; Lizzie remains…unfulfilled. But when George discovers that Lizzie has been searching for the whereabouts of an old boyfriend, Lizzie is forced to decide what love means to her, what George means to her, and whether her life with George is the one she wants.

Left to fend for a younger sister with learning difficulties when their mother goes to prison, Sam Morpeth is forced to watch her dreams of university evaporate. But Sam learns what it is to be truly powerless when a stranger begins to blackmail her online. Meanwhile, reporter Jack Parlabane seems to have finally gotten his career back on track with a job at a flashy online news start-up, but his success has left him indebted to a volatile source on the wrong side of the law. Now that debt is being called in, and it could cost him everything. Thrown together by a common enemy, Sam and Jack are about to discover they have more in common than they realize --- and might be each other's only hope.

When LOOSE GIRL author Kerry Cohen reached her early 40s, she realized she had a drinking problem. Yes, she could get up on time, bring her kids to school, make dinner, chat with friends, and all around have a normal day. But, throughout it all, Kerry was waiting for her 5:00 glass of wine. Maybe two glasses. Maybe a bottle. Just enough to blur the edges of her life that had become a monotony of vacuuming, carpooling and disagreements with her husband. What she also realized was: she wasn't the only one. LUSH examines Kerry's struggle with alcohol, a struggle that a rising number of middle-aged women are facing today as alcohol dependency amongst females drastically increases.

This is a story of the 1970s. Of a road trip in a wood-paneled station wagon, with the kids in the way-back, singing along to the Steve Miller Band. Of brothers waking up early on Saturday mornings for five consecutive hours of cartoons. Of growing up in a magical era populated by Bic pens, Mr. Clean and Scrubbing Bubbles, lightsabers and those oh-so-coveted Schwinn Sting-Ray bikes. And of a father --- one of 3M's greatest and last eight-track salesmen --- traveling across the country on the brand-new Boeing 747, providing for his family but wanting nothing more than to get home.

The Anthony-nominated collection of crime stories without guns is back for Volume 2. Two dozen more crime writers have come together to raise their voices and take pen in hand to call for a sensible and reasoned debate about guns in America. In stories of crime, mystery and suspense, these authors have left the guns out to show for a short while that we can do without them and the plot doesn’t fall apart. The top priority in these stories is to entertain with thrilling action and suspense that readers know and love about a crime story. To do so without guns leads to some creative leaps from writers who spin tales of simians on the loose, androids with buried secrets, punk rock shows and tattoo shops.