"Christina Goering, eccentric and adventurous, and Frieda Copperfield, anxious but enterprising, are two serious ladies who want to live outside of themselves. Old friends, each will take a surprising path in search of salvation: during a visit to Panama, Mrs. Copperfield abandons her husband, finding solace in a relationship with a teenage prostitute; while Miss Goering, a wealthy spinster, pursues sainthood via sordid encounters with the basest...

Lovable everyman Lew Fonesca, the man who makes things work in Sarasota, takes on the cases of seventeen-year-old Ronnie Graeill accused of bludgeoning to death a local curmudgeon who has been campaigning to end state-sponsored school funding and a semi-retired and much beloved singer of children's songs who is being blackmailed.

"Clayton Stumper might be in his twenties, but he dresses like your grandpa and fusses like your aunt. Abandoned at birth on the steps of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, he was raised by a group of eccentric enigmatologists and now finds himself among the last survivors of a fading institution. When the esteemed crossword compiler and main maternal presence in Clayton's life, Pippa Allsbrook, passes away, she bestows her final puzzle on him: a promise...

Ruthie and her younger sister, Lucille, grow toward adulthood under the untraditional care of Sylvie, the transient sister of their dead mother, in Fingerbone, the small Far West town on the glacial lake where their grandfather died in a train wreck and their mother drove off a cliff.

Sixth-grader Tommy and his friends describe their interactions with a paper finger puppet of Yoda, worn by their weird classmate Dwight, as they try to figure out whether or not the puppet can really predict the future. Includes instructions for making Origami Yoda.

Each of five children lucky enough to discover an entry ticket into Mr. Willy Wonka's mysterious chocolate factory takes advantage of the situation in his own way.

"In Daretana's greatest mansion, a high imperial officer lies dead -- killed, to all appearances, when a tree erupted from his body. Even here at the Empires borders, where contagions abound and the blood of the leviathans works strange magical changes, it's a death both terrifying and impossible. Assigned to investigate is Ana Dolabra, a detective whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities. Rumour has it that she wears...

Adrian Monk is actually doing well lately. He is solving murders as fast as they come, and he has been noticeably less compulsive-he doesn't count his morning Wheat Chex until they're in the bowl. Progress is progress, and Monk knows he owes it all to his therapist, Dr. Kroger. So when Dr. Kroger attends a conference in Germany, Monk ends up in trouble. He can't tie his shoes, forgets how to swallow, and loses track of his blinking. Desperate to regain...

"Set in contemporary times, Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming tells the story of a Prince Myshkin-like figure, Baron Bela Wenckheim, who decides to return at the end of his life to the provincial Hungarian town of his birth. Having escaped from his many casino debts in Buenos Aires, where he was living in exile, he wishes to be reunited with his high school sweetheart Marika. What follows is an endless storm of gossip, con men, and local politicians, vividly...