Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy (1925) is nothing less than what the title holds it to be; it is the story of a weak-willed young man who is both villain and victim (the victim of a valueless, materialistic society) and someone who ultimately destroys himself. Dreiser modeled the story of Clyde Griffiths on a real-life murder that took place in 1906; a young social climber of considerable charm murdered his pregnant girlfriend to get her out...

Lionel Essrog has always respected Frank Minna, who helped him out when he was young, and when Frank is found dead, Lionel and his friends, the Minna Men, scour the streets of Brooklyn in search of the killer.

"It isn't paranoia if it's really happening ... Anna Fox lives alone -- a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her days drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times ... and spying on her neighbors. Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, mother, their teenaged son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn't,...

"Protect the rich. Serve the famous. Hunt the guilty. Hunter Alden, Jr., a billionaire businessman, has it all: a sexy wife, a brilliant teenage son, and an ever-growing fortune. But his perfect life shatters one horrific night when he discovers the severed head of his chauffeur, stuffed in a bag marked, in blood, with his son's initials. Now his son is missing, and the price to get him back might be too high--even for one of the world's richest men....

It's the first night of summer vacation, and fifteen-year-old Laura Swanson is out with her friends, looking for trouble. But in her sleepy town in upstate New York, the most exciting thing happening is the return of Paul Frazier, once the leader of a legendary high school band and now a mysterious recluse, living with his mother. What the kids don't know is that Paul spends most of his time in bed these days, coping with anxiety. Broke and jobless,...

Washington Square is a short novel by Henry James. Originally published in 1880 as a serial in Cornhill Magazine and Harper's New Monthly Magazine, it is a structurally simple tragicomedy that recounts the conflict between a dull but sweet daughter and her brilliant, unemotional father. The plot of the novel is based upon a true story told to James by his close friend, British actress Fanny Kemble. The book is often compared with Jane Austen's work...

In the aftermath of her mother's death, thirty-one-year-old, sexually liberated and economically independent Nikki Eaton comes into a startling realization of her identity as a daughter and experiences a tumultuous year of mourning that gives way to greater wisdom and love.

For reporter Hope Sinclair, writing about the recovery of a sunken Spanish treasure off Pleasure Island should be her big chance. But Hope can t help feeling that she s been hand-picked for this job for all the wrong reasons. Someone wants Hope out of New York and off the story that could blow a corruption case wide open. If they think sending her to paradise will shut her up, they ve got another thing coming. Hope s subject, treasure hunter Conner...

On a bright and crisp September morning, while walking a bucolic woodland trail, Rina Decker stumbles upon human remains once buried deep beneath the forest grounds. Immediately, she calls her husband, Peter, a former detective lieutenant with LAPD, now working for the local Greenbury Police. Within hours, a vista of beauty and tranquility is transformed into a frenetic crime scene. The body has been interred for years and there is scant physical...

"Thirty-three-year-old Abby Stern has made it to a happy place. True, she still has gig jobs instead of a career, and the apartment where she's lived since college still looks like she's just moved in. But she's got good friends, her bike, and her bicycling club. She's at peace with her plus-size body--at least, most of the time--and she's on track to marry Mark Medoff, her childhood summer sweetheart, a man she met at the weight-loss camp that her...