The dizzyingly entertaining, wickedly humorous story of a mysterious stranger whose sudden appearance during a family's summer holiday transforms four variously unhappy people. Each of the Smarts -- parents Eve and Michael, son Magnus, and the youngest, daughter Astrid -- encounter Amber in his or her own solipsistic way, but somehow her presence allows them to see their lives (and their life together) in a new light.

On a cool June morning, Isa Wilde, a resident of the seemingly idyllic coastal village of Salten, is walking her dog along a tidal estuary. Before she can stop him, Isa's dog charges into the water to retrieve what first appears to be a wayward stick, but to her horror, she discovers it's not a stick at all but a human bone. As her three best friends from childhood converge in Salten to comfort a seriously shaken-up Isa, terrifying discoveries are...

"Welcome to Stanhope. A safe neighborhood. A place for families. On the surface, William Wooler is a family man. But he's been having an affair, an affair that ended horribly this afternoon at a motel up the road. So when he returns to his house, devastated and angry, to find his difficult nine-year-old daughter, Avery, unexpectedly home from school, William loses his temper. Hours later, Avery's family declares her missing. Suddenly Stanhope doesn't...

Lisa lives for her daughter Ava, her job and her best friend Marilyn. When a handsome client shows an interest in her, Lisa starts daydreaming about sharing her life with him, too. Maybe she can trust again... and let her terrifying secret past go. When Ava rescues a boy from drowning and their pictures are all over the news for everyone to see, Lisa's world explodes. Now everything she has built is threatened, and Lisa doesn't know who she can trust....

"In December 2003, Luke Ryder, the stepfather of acclaimed filmmaker Guy Howard, was found dead in the garden of their suburban family home. Guy was only a child, asleep upstairs at the time of the murder. His mother and two half sisters were also in the house that night -- but all swear they saw nothing. Despite a high-profile police investigation and endless media attention, no suspect was ever charged, and Guy's family has been haunted ever since....

"Daphne Bell believes the universe has a plan in store for her. Ever since she was young, whenever she met a new guy, Daphne would find a slip of paper with exactly how long they'd spend together--4 months, two weeks, one night. That's how she met her ex-boyfriend and current best friend, Hugo, the only person in Daphne's life who knows of her secret. Followed by a string of men and countless dates, Daphne resigned herself to the fact that she was...

"A story about a solitary green notebook that brings together six strangers and leads to unexpected friendship, and even love. "Everybody lies about their lives. What would happen if you shared the truth?" This is the question that Julian Jessop, an eccentric, seventy-nine-year-old artist, poses within a pale green exercise book that he labels The Authenticity Project, before leaving it behind in Monica's Café. When Monica discovers Julian's abandoned...

A veteran of the Speculative Service in an alternate-world California where the law and truth are valued above all else uses his rare authority to question the facts when truth enforcement is manipulated for corrupt purposes. "In a strange alternate society that values law and truth above all else, Laszlo Ratesic is a nineteen-year veteran of the Speculative Service. He lives in the Golden State, a nation standing where California once did, a place...

Told in alternating voices, childhood friends Syd, Rain, and Brie's final weeks of high school ends tragically when one dies in a fire, another goes missing, and the third is left to pick up the pieces.

"Six days ago, Joe Lynch was a happily married man, a devoted father, and a respected teacher living in a well-to-do London suburb. But that was before he spotted his wife's car entering a hotel parking garage. Before he saw her in a heated argument with her best friend's husband. Before Joe confronted the other man in an altercation where he left him for dead, bleeding and unconscious. Now, Joe's life is unraveling. His wife has lied to him. Her...