Alice Raikes takes a train from London to Scotland to visit her family, but when she gets there she witnesses something so shocking that she insists on returning to London immediately. A few hours later, Alice is lying in a coma after an accident that may or may not have been a suicide attempt. Alice's family gathers at her bedside and as they wait, argue, and remember, long-buried tensions emerge. The more they talk, the more they seem to conceal. Alice, meanwhile, slides between varying levels of consciousness, recalling her past and a love affair that recently ended. A riveting story that skips through time and interweaves multiple points of view, After You'd Gone is a novel of stunning psychological depth and marks the debut of a major literary talent.

A spellbinding novel of two women connected across fifty years by art, love, betrayals, secrets, and motherhood. Lexie Sinclair is plotting an extraordinary life for herself. Hedged in by her parents' genteel country life, she plans her escape to London. There, she takes up with Innes Kent, a magazine editor who wears duck-egg blue ties and introduces her to the thrilling, underground world of bohemian, post-war Soho. She learns to be a reporter, to know art and artists, to embrace her life fully and with a deep love at the center of it. She creates many lives--all of them unconventional. And when she finds herself pregnant, she doesn't hesitate to have the baby on her own. Later, in present-day London, a young painter named Elina dizzily navigates the first weeks of motherhood. She doesn't recognize herself: she finds herself walking outside with no shoes; she goes to the restaurant for lunch at nine in the morning; she can't recall the small matter of giving birth. But for her boyfriend, Ted, fatherhood is calling up lost memories, with images he cannot place. As Ted's memories become more disconcerting and more frequent, it seems that something might connect these two stories-- these two women-- something that becomes all the more heartbreaking and beautiful as they all hurtle toward its revelation. Here Maggie O'Farrell brings us a spellbinding novel of two women connected across fifty years by art, love, betrayals, secrets, and motherhood. Like her acclaimed The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, it is a "breathtaking, heart-breaking creation." (The Washington Post Book World) and it is a gorgeous inquiry into the ways we make and unmake our lives, who we know ourselves to be, and how even our most accidental legacies connect us.

Maggie O’Farrell’s This Must Be the Place is a smart, sophisticated, spellbinding summer read that captures the collapse—and reawakening—of an extraordinary marriage. Daniel Sullivan, a young American professor reeling from a failed marriage and a brutal custody battle, is on holiday in Ireland when he falls in love with Claudette, a world-famous sexual icon and actress who fled fame for a reclusive life in a rural village. Together, they make an idyllic life in the country, raising two more children in blissful seclusion—until a secret from Daniel’s past threatens to destroy their meticulously constructed and fiercely protected home. What follows is a journey through Daniel’s many lives told in his voice and the voices of those who have made him the man he is: the American son and daughter he has not seen for many years; the family he has made with Claudette; and irrepressible, irreverent Claudette herself. Shot through with humor and wisdom, This Must Be the Place is a powerful rumination on the nature of identity, and the complexities of loyalty and devotion—a gripping story of an extraordinary family and an extraordinary love.

Maggie O'Farrell is one of England's best young writers. Her first novel, "AFTER YOU'D GONE," won a Betty Trask Award and earned her a spot on the "21 great talents for the 21st century" list compiled by the Orange Prize for Fiction panel. "MY LOVER'S LOVER" was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller. In "MY LOVER'S LOVER," Lily meets Marcus, a magnetic, elusive architect, outside a gallery in London. They have an instant, electric attraction to each other, and within a week she has moved into his echoing loft apartment in East London. But nothing could have prepared her for what she finds there. A distinct presence lingers in the loft, that of a woman who seems to have disappeared in a hurry, leaving behind a single dress hanging in the closet, a puzzling mark on the wall, and the suffocating scent of jasmine. Marcus, who is deep in the throes of an unnamed grief, refuses to talk about the woman or her fate. The apartment's other inhabitant, Aidan, seems to understand Lily's unease, but is unwilling to give her any information about the unsettling situation. Who was this woman? And what exactly were the circumstances of her sudden disappearance? Lily begins to be haunted by the spirit of this mysterious woman, and it doesn't take long for her curiosity to grow into an all-pervading obsession. "MY LOVER'S LOVER" is a haunting tale of obsession and betrayal, a modern day R"EBECCA" set in London that keeps readers hooked until the very en

"Remarkable . . . will leave you shaking with loss but also the love from which family is spun." Emma Donoghue, author of Room"Without a doubt one of the best novels I've ever read." Mary Beth Keane, author of Ask Again, YesTWO EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE. A LOVE THAT DRAWS THEM TOGETHER. A LOSS THAT THREATENS TO TEAR THEM APART.England, 1580. A young Latin tutor—penniless, bullied by a violent father—falls in love with an eccentric young woman: a wild creature who walks her family's estate with a falcon on her shoulder and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer. Agnes understands plants and potions better than she does people, but once she settles on the Henley Street in Stratford she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband. His gifts as a writer are just beginning to awaken when their beloved twins, Hamnet and Judith, are afflicted with the...

Sophisticated, intelligent, impossible to put down, Maggie O'Farrell's beguiling novels - After You'd Gone, winner of a Betty Trask Award; The Distance Between Us, winner of a Somerset Maugham Award; The Hand That First Held Mine, winner of the Costa Novel Award; and her unforgettable bestseller The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - blend richly textured psychological drama with page-turning suspense. Instructions for a Heatwave finds her at the top of her game, with a novel about a family crisis set during the legendary British heatwave of 1976. Gretta Riordan wakes on a stultifying July morning to find that her husband of forty years has gone to get the paper and vanished, cleaning out his bank account along the way. Gretta's three grown children converge on their parents' home for the first time in years: Michael Francis, a history teacher whose marriage is failing; Monica, with two stepdaughters who despise her and a blighted past that has driven away the younger sister she once adored; and Aoife, the youngest, now living in Manhattan, a smart, immensely resourceful young woman who has arranged her entire life to conceal a devastating secret. Maggie O'Farrell writes with exceptional grace and sensitivity about marriage, about the mysteries that inhere within families, and the fault lines over which we build our lives—the secrets we hide from the people who know and love us best. In a novel that stretches from the heart of London to New York City's Upper West Side to a remote village on the coast of Ireland, O'Farrell paints a bracing portrait of a family falling apart and coming together with hard-won, life-changing truths about who they really are.

Maggie O’Farrell takes readers on a journey to the darker places of the human heart, where desires struggle with the imposition of social mores. This haunting story explores the seedy past of Victorian asylums, the oppression of family secrets, and the way truth can change everything. In the middle of tending to the everyday business at her vintage clothing shop and sidestepping her married boyfriend’s attempts at commitment, Iris Lockhart receives a stunning phone call: Her great-aunt Esme, whom she never knew existed, is being released from Cauldstone Hospital - where she has been locked away for over sixty years. Iris’s grandmother Kitty always claimed to be an only child. But Esme’s papers prove she is Kitty’s sister, and Iris can see the shadow of her dead father in Esme’s face. Esme has been labeled harmless - sane enough to coexist with the rest of the world. But Esme’s still basically a stranger, a family member never mentioned by the family, and one who is sure to bring life-altering secrets with her when she leaves the ward. If Iris takes her in, what dangerous truths might she inherit? Maggie O’Farrell’s intricate tale of family secrets, lost lives, and the freedom brought by truth will haunt readers long past its final page.

The author of Hamnet—New York Times best seller and National Book Critics Circle Award winner—brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life in this unforgettable fictional portrait of the captivating young duchess Lucrezia de' Medici as she makes her way in a troubled court.Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to wonder at its treasures, observe its clandestine workings, and devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding to the ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf. Having barely left girlhood behind, Lucrezia must now enter an unfamiliar court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps...

We are never closer to life than when we brush up against the possibility of death. I Am, I Am, I Am is Maggie O'Farrell's astonishing memoir of the near-death experiences that have punctuated and defined her life. The childhood illness that left her bedridden for a year, which she was not expected to survive. A teenage yearning to escape that nearly ended in disaster. An encounter with a disturbed man on a remote path. And, most terrifying of all, an ongoing, daily struggle to protect her daughter--for whom this book was written--from a condition that leaves her unimaginably vulnerable to life's myriad dangers. Seventeen discrete encounters with Maggie at different ages, in different locations, reveal a whole life in a series of tense, visceral snapshots. In taut prose that vibrates with electricity and restrained emotion, O'Farrell captures the perils running just beneath the surface, and illuminates the preciousness, beauty, and mysteries of life itself.

Available together for the first time in a value box set, the first three stories in the thrilling, critically acclaimed Maggie O'Dell series from New York Times bestselling author Alex Kava.A PERFECT EVILAs a deranged killer stalks the terrified community of Platte City, Nebraska, all evidence points to the recently executed Ronald Jeffreys as the culprit, but FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell soon uncovers evidence that Jeffreys had been convicted and executed for crimes he did not commit, and that the real maniacal murderer is still on the loose.SPLIT SECONDAfter Albert Stucky, a brutal and clever serial killer known as "The Collector," escapes from prison, he forces FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell, the agent who originally captured him, to play a deadly game when he targets her and everyone associated with her, pushing her to the very edge of sanity. THE SOUL...

Gripping, insightful, and deft, The Distance Between Us by Maggie O'Farrell is a haunting story of the way our families shape our lives, from the award-winning author of Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait.On a cold February afternoon, Stella catches sight of a man she hasn't seen for many years, but instantly recognises. Or thinks she does. At the same moment on the other side of the globe, in the middle of a crowd of Chinese New Year revellers, Jake realises that things are becoming dangerous.They know nothing of one another's existence, but both Stella and Jake flee their lives: Jake in search of a place so remote it doesn't appear on any map, and Stella for a destination in Scotland, the significance of which only her sister, Nina, will understand.

Death would have been easier, but the Siren wasn't through with her. Seventeen-year-old Maggie Trent fell out of a battle and into the Siren's Realm, a land where secrets hide in the shadows and pleasure comes at a price Maggie is unwilling to pay. The time for the Siren's reckoning has come, sweeping away all she deems unworthy to live in her realm. Those without magic are hunted by the Siren. Those with magic are hunted by the Stricken. Fighting or hiding seem necessary to survive. But there is a different way. Bertrand Wayland, unaging and unrelenting in his determination for Maggie to accept her fate, slips in and out through the stitches that bind the Siren’s Realm to other worlds, gaining magic and having glorious adventures. When Maggie follows Bertrand out of the Siren’s Realm, seeking an adventure of her own, she finds instead a world of magic on the eve of war. To save innocent lives Maggie risks her heart, her life, and her only chance of returning to the Siren’s Realm.

'Frank O'Bannen wanted five thousand dollars to let you go. I offered him ten thousand to kill you.'Kidnapped at sixteen, Maggie O'Bannen returns home after seven years to be reunited with her father. No longer the idealistic girl she once was, her return is meant to help put her demons to rest. Instead, it sets in motion a series of events that will put her on a collision course with trouble, and this time, Maggie has no qualms about speeding towards it.Discovering who was behind her abduction is just the beginning. Murder with no apparent motive and no suspect soon brings her under the scrutiny of the local sheriff. As the body count rises, Maggie fights for her life against a foe who will stop at nothing to win.As events escalate, Maggie will need to rely on her friends more than ever before if she is to survive. But at what cost?

In the middle of tending to the everyday business at her vintage-clothing shop and sidestepping her married boyfriend’s attempts at commitment, Iris Lockhart receives a stunning phone call: Her great-aunt Esme, whom she never knew existed, is being released from Cauldstone Hospital—where she has been locked away for more than sixty-one years. Iris’s grandmother Kitty always claimed to be an only child. But Esme’s papers prove she is Kitty’s sister, and Iris can see the shadow of her dead father in Esme’s face. Esme has been labeled harmless—sane enough to coexist with the rest of the world. But she's still basically a stranger, a family member never mentioned by the family, and one who is sure to bring life-altering secrets with her when she leaves the ward. If Iris takes her in, what dangerous truths might she inherit? A gothic, intricate tale of family secrets, lost lives, and the freedom brought by truth, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox will haunt you long past its final page.From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. O'Farrell (After You'd Gone) delivers an intricate, eloquent novel of family malice, longings and betrayal. Slim, stylish Iris Lockhart runs a dress shop in contemporary Edinburgh when she's not flirting with her stepbrother Alex or rendezvousing with her married attorney lover, Luke. Esme Lennox, meanwhile, is ready to be discharged from the soon-to-be-closed psychiatric hospital where she's been a patient (read: virtual prisoner) for 61 years. Iris becomes aware of Esme's existence when she's informed, to her disbelief, that she has been granted power of attorney over Esme by Kitty Lockhart, Iris's Alzheimer's-afflicted grandmother. It turns out Kitty and Esme are sisters, but Kitty kept quiet about Esme after she was hospitalized at age 16. Layer upon layer of Lockhart family secrets are laid bare—the truth behind Esme's institutionalization, why her existence was kept a secret, and a twist involving Iris's parents—as Iris mulls over what to do with her new charge, and Esme and Kitty reconnect. O'Farrell maintains a high level of tension throughout, and the conclusion is devastating. (Oct.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistFlosnik’s light British tones enhance O’Farrell’s fourth novel, which spans generations and continents. The tale takes listeners back in time to India as well as to contemporary Scotland. Thirtysomething Iris Lockhart learns that she has power of attorney for Esme Lennox, an elderly relative who is soon to be released from a mental institution where she has been a resident for more than 60 years. Prior to the notice, Lockhart never knew of the existence of Lennox, who is the sister of Lockhart’s grandmother, now afflicted with Alzheimer’s. Flosnik reads flashbacks, flash-forwards, and shifting narrative viewpoints with ease. Her intonations darken delicately around the edges when Lockhart learns of the shameful treatment Lennox received, and her voice nimbly brightens when recounting Lennox’s happier teenage years. She is also particularly effective in her portrayal of the grandmother, whose Alzheimer’s-impaired memories shimmer like heat lightning and then disappear. --Whitney Scott

"I Am I Am I Am is a gripping and glorious investigation of death that leaves the reader feeling breathless, grateful, and fully alive. Maggie O'Farrell is a miracle in every sense. I will never forget this book."—Ann PatchettAn extraordinary memoir—told entirely in near-death experiences—from one of Britain's best-selling novelists, for fans of Wild, When Breath Becomes Air, and The Year of Magical Thinking.We are never closer to life than when we brush up against the possibility of death.I Am, I Am, I Am is Maggie O'Farrell's astonishing memoir of the near-death experiences that have punctuated and defined her life. The childhood illness that left her bedridden for a year, which she was not expected to survive. A teenage yearning to escape that nearly ended in disaster. An encounter with a disturbed man on a remote path. And, most terrifying of all, an ongoing, daily struggle to protect her...

Maggie is forty-three years old and looking for romance. She loves her husband, Dan, but his idea of romance is a couple of drinks at the local bar and an early night at home. Her children think she's too old to care. And she's beginning to wonder if life has passed her by. But a chance meeting changes all that, and now Maggie faces tough decisions. Can she put the spark back into her marriage, or would she be better off calling it quits? Who is most important to her? Her husband? Her children? Herself? Of her earlier novel, He's Got to Go, Publisher's Weekly wrote, "O'Flanagan manages to keep wisdom and humor at the forefront." The Open Door Series: Originally designed to promote adult literacy in Ireland, these original stories from best-loved authors and new voices showcase some of our best writing in short fiction.

When Lily moves into new boyfriend Marcus's apartment and plunges headlong into their relationship, she must contend with an intangible, hostile presence—Marcus's ex-girlfriend, Sinead. As Lily and Marcus become more deeply involved, Lily becomes obsessed with Sinead's fate and thinks she sees her everywhere. She must question not only her sanity, but whether the man she loves is someone she can, or should, be with at all.

Kidnapped at the age of sixteen, Maggie has survived the fickle temper of notorious outlaw Mad Dog Frank O'Bannen for seven years. Now he is dead and she is about to find out that there are worse ways to live and die than as the wife of a wanted man.Frank had prepared her as best he could for what would follow and when she leaves her prison in the hills she has the blood of three men on her hands and knows the feel of hot lead. Soon her hard-won freedom is in doubt and she finds herself pursued by Frank's old partner, a man with a vicious reputation and more than one score to settle.Maggie has Frank's gun, her keen wits and new friends to help her, but will they be enough to save her from the brutality of a maniac bent on revenge?

A killer is watching . . . The brutal murders of three young boys paralyze the citizens of Platte City, Nebraska. What's worse is the grim realization that the man recently executed for the crimes was a copycat. When Sheriff Nick Morrelli is called to the scene of another grisly murder, it becomes clear that the real predator is still at large, waiting to kill again. Morreli understands the urgency of the case terrorizing his community, but it's the experienced eye of FBI criminal profiler Maggie O'Dell that pinpoints the true nature of the evil behind the killings -- a revelation made all the more horrific when Morrelli's own nephew goes missing. Maggie understands something else: the killer is enjoying himself, relishing his ability to stay one step ahead of her, making this case more personal by the hour. Because out there, watching, is a killer with a heart of pure and perfect evil.

A Sunday Times bestseller, the dazzling new novel from Costa Novel Award-winner Maggie O'Farrell THIS MUST BE THE PLACE crosses time zones and continents to reveal an extraordinary portrait of a marriage. 'A tour de force... her best novel to date, a book that surely confirms her as one of the UK's most assured, accomplished and inventive storytellers' *Observer* 'Her most ambitious novel to date... one of this summer's most anticipated reads' *Sunday Times* **'Inventive, moving and hilarious. I loved it' Rachel Joyce Meet Daniel Sullivan, a man with a complicated life. A New Yorker living in the wilds of Ireland, he has children he never sees in California, a father he loathes in Brooklyn and a wife, Claudette, who is a reclusive ex-film star given to shooting at anyone who ventures up their driveway. He is also about to find out something about a woman he lost touch with twenty years ago, and this discovery will send him off-course, far away from wife and home. Will his love for Claudette be enough to bring him back? **Review “Maggie O’Farrell is a hugely gifted, sympathetic, and ambitious writer, and THIS MUST BE THE PLACE will send this reader—and, I suspect, many others—racing to her backlist.” —Richard Russo, best-selling author of Everybody’s Fool “Inventing, moving, and hilarious.  I loved it.”  —Rachel Joyce, best-selling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry “The scenario is glamourous, the writing is stylish, the globe-trotting almost dizzying, but there’s a satisfying core of untampered feeling as well…juicy and cool, this could be O’Farrell’s U.S. breakthrough book.”   —Kirkus Reviews, starred Praise from the UK: “Stylistically, narratively, emotionally, This Must Be the Place is a tour de force, a complex and nuanced story leaping effortlessly across multiple characters, continents and time frames….This Must Be The Place is a rare literary beast: both technically dazzling and deeply moving.  It has all the structural and temporal playfulness of a Kate Atkinson novel while retaining the hallmark of emotional intensity for which O’Farrell has become renowned.  It is her best novel to date, a book that surely confirms her as one of the UK’s most assured, accomplished and inventive storytellers.”  —The Guardian “Complex in scale, but carried off with dazzling grace. A rich, engrossing feast of a novel to lose yourself in.” —Sunday Mirror “There is tragedy, but also sharp comedy, and O’Farrell, skillful as ever, plays with the novel form…rewarding and humane.” —Sunday Express “Dazzling, her most accomplished book yet.” —The National Beautifully executed…a graceful, insightful exploration of a relationship in all its wonders and woes.” —Mail on Sunday “Her most ambitious novel to date, crisscrossing the Atlantic and three decades, and told from multiple perspectives, This Must Be the Place is one of the summer’s most anticipated reads.” —Sunday Times “A new Maggie O’Farrell book is always a cause for celebration, but her seventh is so brilliant you’ll want to unfurl flags and put up bunting in her honor….wonderfully written and absolutely addicting.” —Psychologies Magazine About the Author MAGGIE O'FARRELL is the author of six previous novels, After You’d Gone; My Lover’s Lover; The Distance Between Us, which won a Somerset Maugham Award; The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox; The Hand That First Held Mine, which won the Costa Book Award; and Instructions for a Heatwave, which was short-listed for the Costa Book Award. She lives in Edinburgh. 

The stunning new novel from Costa-Novel-Award-winning novelist Maggie O'Farrell: a portrait of an Irish family in crisis in the legendary heatwave of 1976. It's July 1976. In London, it hasn't rained for months, gardens are filled with aphids, water comes from a standpipe, and Robert Riordan tells his wife Gretta that he's going round the corner to buy a newspaper. He doesn't come back. The search for Robert brings Gretta's children - two estranged sisters and a brother on the brink of divorce - back home, each wih different ideas as to where their father might have gone. None of them suspects that their mother might have an explanation that even now she cannot share. Maggie O'Farrell's sixth book is the work of an outstanding novelist at the height of her powers.ReviewPraise for Instructions for a Heat Wave: “Acutely observed…revelatory, redemptive, and moving…There is a deliciousness to this novel, a warmth and readability that render it unputdownable and will surely make it a hit. O’Farrell has done it again.”             –Joanna Briscoe, The Guardian“A literary event…evocative, articulate, and joyously readable…O’Farrell’s talent for drawing intriguing but relatable characters is eclipsed only by a rare gift for description that is almost photographic in its imagery…An author at the top of her game.”            –Charlotte Heathcote, The Sunday Express“Humorous, humane, and perceptive…O’Farrell depicts relationships with piercing acuity in haunting, intense prose…a deliciously insightful writer…Her sharp but humane eye dissects every form of human interaction.”             –Leyla Sanai, The Independent on Sunday “Elegant, lyrical, and subtle…O’Farell’s a compassionate writer, showing us every member of the family from a variety of viewpoints, ensuring that we understand and feel for every one of them even as they drive each other mad…The Riordans will stay in your mind long after you finish reading this book. They’re funny, infuriating, and impossible not to love. They feel like family.”             –Anna Carey, The Irish Times“Thoroughly absorbing and beautifully written…A novel about what we say and what other people hear; about families; what we don’t tell each other and what we do; the compromises and accommodations we make and what happens when we build our lives around half-truths.”             –Victoria Moore, Daily Mail “A ripping yarn…A brilliant domestic drama that teeters on the edge of being a thriller; it’ll hook you in at the start and keep you dangling.”            –Katie Law, Evening Standard “O’Farrell is adept at creating pace out of the intricacies of family relations. She keeps the gas up on the Bunsen burner throughout...I felt that I gobbled this book.”             –Vicky Allan, The Herald“Farrell’s language is lissom, airborne, mostly seamless, her characters flawed, contradictory, aggravating and instantly knowable. This is a deceptively easy, effortlessly true-feeling novel; a total delight.”            –Claire Allfree, Metro“O’Farrell is hard to beat. Anyone looking for a British equivalent of Anne Tyler need look no further.”            –David Robinson, The Scotsman“A surprising, beautiful novel, full of the intricacies of family life…You’ll find yourself wanting to devour it in one sitting.”            –Claire Frost, Fabulous Magazine “O’Farrell should be a household name.”             –Library JournalAbout the AuthorMaggie O’Farrell is the author of After You’d Gone, winner of a Betty Trask Award; My Lover’s Lover; The Distance Between Us, winner of a Somerset Maugham Award; The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox; and The Hand That First Held Mine, winner of a Costa Novel Award.

Alice Raikes takes a train from London to Scotland to visit her family, but when she gets there she witnesses something so shocking that she insists on returning to London immediately. A few hours later, Alice is lying in a coma after an accident that may or may not have been a suicide attempt. Alice's family gathers at her bedside and as they wait, argue, and remember, long-buried tensions emerge. The more they talk, the more they seem to conceal. Alice, meanwhile, slides between varying levels of consciousness, recalling her past and a love affair that recently ended. A riveting story that skips through time and interweaves multiple points of view, After You'd Gone is a novel of stunning psychological depth and marks the debut of a major literary talent.From Publishers WeeklyLike a pointillist painting, this fine debut is, from one perspective, formless--short vignettes, told from multiple points of view and in multiple voices, that are somewhat puzzling on their own and apparently have no connection to each other. Ultimately, however, these elements merge into a coherent and moving portrait of a young woman's journey toward a life-threatening crisis. In London, one cold day in late fall, Alice Raikes impulsively boards a train home to Scotland. Shortly after joining her two sisters in the Edinburgh train station, she sees something "odd and unexpected and sickening" in the station's restroom that causes her immediately to flee back to London. Later that evening, while walking to the grocery store, Alice broods over what she has seen, then abruptly steps into oncoming traffic. As she lies comatose in her hospital bed, a swirl of voices and images gradually reveals her past--her parents, especially her mother, Ann; her beloved grandmother, Elspeth; her two sisters, so unlike her, both physically and temperamentally; and John Friedman, whom she loved and lost--and hints at her precarious future. The unnamed spectacle of the opening washroom scene resurfaces in Alice's semiconscious haze, and its eventual elucidation comes as less of a shock than a confirmation of all we have learned about her tumultuous existence. Sharply observed details of everyday life and language, original and telling figures of speech and deftly handled plot twists reach a moving climax, while subtly raising the question of whether the objects of Alice's affection--and the sources of her agony--were worth enduring. Foreign rights sold in seven countries. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.From Library JournalIt is hard to believe that such an assured work comes from a first novelist. Starting in London with a young woman stepping off a curb in front of an oncoming car, O'Farrell gradually lays bare the harrowing realization that prompted the suicide attempt. On one level, this is a love story; on another it is an intergenerational tale of three women (grandmother Elspeth, mother Ann, and Alice, the victim). But to describe it as such sounds platitudinous, which it is definitely not. With smooth prose, O'Farrell moves seamlessly among the victim's family and friends and back and forth in time in seemingly random fashion, slowly revealing her characters' pasts and stunningly bringing the story back to the present. Despite its premise, this is not a depressing book. Published originally in the UK to good reviews, it should appeal to fans of Mary Gordon and Margaret Atwood, though it will draw a more popular audience than the latter.DFrancine Fialkoff, "Library Journal" Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book 2 in the O'Malley Wild series. Pub owner Sean O'Malley has always planned to marry and have a family. He's just never found the right woman-that is, until he hires Honor Rollings as his new waitress. Free-spirited Honor Rollings is a wanderer at heart. Honor is hell-bent on showing Sean that she belongs to no man and has no intention of settling down. A short visit ends up lasting much longer when Honor returns to Texas to bury her aunt and accepts a temporary job at O'Malley's Pub. Working for Sean O'Malley proves to be difficult. Can we say Neanderthal? Although Honor would love to deny that the thought of being dominated by the larger-than-life pub owner intrigues her, she can't. The thought of Sean's large hands upon her body leaves Honor hot and bothered. Sean soon realizes that Honor isn't convinced of his seriousness. So he takes great pleasure in teaching his "Little Darlin'" just how serious he actually is. After pushing Sean beyond his limits, Honor receives the spanking of her life. An erotic spanking that sets in motion a future of loving and caring, a future where her only desire is Honoring Sean.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to share your home with an unearthly spirit who can't find closure? Living on the edge of a cemetery with souls dating back to the 1700s would be enough to spook anyone, but Naomi finds it oddly romantic, and becomes inspired to write her next novel. Why not, when her muse, Maggie, calls to her from beyond her own window?After all, the story couldn't possibly be as complicated as Naomi's own love life. Torn between Ryan, the mysterious and seemingly perfect man she just started dating, and Bryce, the sexy single dad who recently moved in next door, Naomi must navigate the tangled web of dating—all while trying to solve the mystery of Maggie's death.When things turn dangerous, Naomi quickly learns whom she can trust and, more importantly, whom she can't. Will she be able to write Maggie's story and finally give Maggie the peace she deserves?

“Alex Kava is a master. Her heroine, Special Agent Maggie O’Dell is one of the classic characters of the thriller genre.” --Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author International bestseller Alex Kava delivers a stunning prequel to her critically acclaimed Maggie O’Dell series. From her small Quantico office, Special Agent Maggie O'Dell has profiled serial killers using Poloraids, faxed copies and scraps of evidence provided by homicide detectives from across the country. She's gained a reputation for successfully profiling killers and solving crimes without ever stepping foot at a real crime scene. Then comes Albert Stucky, and nothing will ever be the same. Stucky is a sadistic madman who enjoys his twisted games as much as he enjoys the kill. Pieces of victims start showing up in takeout containers, strategically left for unsuspecting bystanders to find. Sometimes the body is dumped near by. Others are never found. Maggie is tasked with profiling the murders. Despite all her skills and talents nothing has prepared for this. For the first time in her career she’s seeing the gruesome crime scenes firsthand, because this madman has chosen the backwoods of Virginia as his killing grounds. When Stucky discovers an attractive female FBI agent is part of the task force to stop him, he begins to taunt Maggie. He leaves notes and bits and pieces as if they were clues for a morbid scavenger hunt. Each step of the way he’s daring Maggie to catch him if she can, all the while planning to make her his next prey. Let the chase begin. Praise for Alex Kava’s Maggie O’Dell novels “Kava adds a human touch to the HEART-THUMPING CHASE.”–Publishers Weekly “The Maggie O’Dell thrillers KEEP GETTING BETTER with each installment.” —The Omaha World Herald “Kava creates thoroughly AUTHENTIC, three-dimensional personalities.” –The Boston Globe “Tension, suspense, MASTERFUL TWISTS . . . Alex Kava’s writing has it all.” –Crimespace “A pro, Kava writes as coolly and adroitly as O'Dell profiles. SUPREMELY PACED.” –The Lincoln Journal Star “The writing is taut and polished, and the plot is well-woven. The forensic background is METICULOULY RESEARCHED.” –Crime Fiction Lover (UK) “Maggie is GUTSY AND APPEALING as an FBI agent facing constant danger.” –Library Journal “Kava does her FORENSIC HOMEWORK.” –Bookreporter.com “When somebody with the reputation of Lee Child refers to your protagonist as ‘Reacher’s long-lost twin,’ you MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT.” —BookPage Advertising Show More