This collection of short stories features characters navigating between the Indian traditions they've inherited and the baffling new world. The characters in Jhumpa Lahiri's stories seek love beyond the barriers of cultures and generations. In A Temporary Matter, published in The New Yorker, a young Indian-American couple faces the heartbreak of a stillborn birth, while their Boston neighborhood copes with a nightly blackout. In the title story,...

Parker once again proves he is a force of nature in this mystery where a hurricane hinders a kidnapping and Spenser goes on a search for the man responsible--the infamous Gray Man, who has both helped and hunted Spenser in the past.

The arrival of newcomers into the circle of quilters heralds unexpected journeys down pathways near and far as well as capturing the spirit of friendship at the moment of its transformation.

In this account of the wars of the Plantagenets, a woman of extraordinary beauty and ambition, Elizabeth Woodville, catches the eye of the newly crowned boy king, marries him in secret and ascends to royalty. While Elizabeth rises to the demands of her exalted position and fights for the success of her family, her two sons become central figures in a mystery that has confounded historians for centuries: the missing princes in the Tower of London whose...

With her hateful brother, Binky, in town, Lady Georgiana Rannoch is desperately seeking an escape, which comes in the form of an invitation from the queen to represent the royals at a wedding in Transylvania. The bride happens to be her old school chum, Marty. But staying in her macabre-looking castle proves to be unnerving--especially when she finds dear Marty with blood running down her chin, and a prominent wedding guest is poisoned.

Christmas has never brought out the best in the MacDougal family. Still, year after year, they gather together in the Blue Ridge Mountains to try to make the season merry and bright. But this year is an especially strained one, between Shayne's impending divorce, Morwenna's slavish devotion to work, and Bobbie's reluctance to face what life has to offer. Then, in the midst of a snowy sibling shouting match, a mysterious stranger appears.

Charleston, 1799: A daughter of Southern gentility and a gifted painter, Catherine Edilean Harcourt has no lack of suitors at home in Virginia, waiting to fulfill her dream of marriage and family. But Cay's adventurous spirit, fostered by growing up with her three brothers, is piqued while visiting her godfather in South Carolina. Bedridden with a broken leg, he asks Cay to fill in for him on an urgent task: on her way to a fancy dress ball, she must...

When infamous actor Jumbo Nelson is accused of rape and murder, the Boston PD calls on Spenser to make heads or tails of the case. Although the evidence is mounting against Jumbo, Spenser makes a break when he teams up with Jumbo's bodyguard, Zebulon Sixkill, and uncovers some secrets involving the murder victim.