On the shores of Venice Beach, eight strangers, staying in a rundown backpackers hostel, are all running from something-and have secrets they're more than willing to kill for.

Defense attorney Mickey Haller is back, taking the long shot cases, where the chances of winning are one in a million. He agrees to represent a woman in prison for killing her husband, a sheriff's deputy. Despite her conviction four years earlier, she still maintains her innocence. Haller enlists his half brother, retired LAPD Detective Harry Bosch, as investigator. Reviewing the case, Bosch sees something that doesn't add up, and a sheriff's department...

Shunned by the literary establishment, Anna, following Ayn Rand's theory of rational selfishness, is offered a chance to kill the ego causing her pain at a mysterious commune on the island of Lesbos where she explores a very different kind of freedom -- communal love.

Eighteen-year-old Spencer Sandoval goes to dangerous lengths to uncover the truth about a fatal car crash and its relation to her school's honor roll. Eighteen-year-old Spencer Sandoval wishes she knew. As rumors swirl that her ex, Ethan, was the driver that fateful night, she can't bring herself to defend him. And their messy breakup has nothing to do with it - she can't remember anything from that night, not even what put her in that car with Ethan,...

"2019. Moud is an out gay teen living in Los Angeles with his distant father, Saeed. When Moud gets the news that his grandfather in Iran is dying, he accompanies his dad to Tehran, where the revelation of family secrets will force Moud into a new understanding of his history, his culture, and himself. 1978. Saeed is an engineering student with a promising future ahead of him in Tehran. But when his parents discover his involvement in the country's...

"Justine Poole provides security for wealthy and high-profile Hollywood stars, but that all changes when a job puts her in the limelight. When she prevents a brazen robbery at the Beverly Hills home of two of her clients -- killing two of the five armed robbers in the process -- she is initially lauded in the media as a local hero. But the spotlight soon puts her in the crosshairs of the crime kingpin behind the burglaries. Unable to stand the embarrassment...

"The millions of readers of Amor Towles are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories set in New York City and a novella in Los Angeles. The New York stories, most of which are set around the turn of the millennium, take up everything from the death-defying acrobatics of the male ego, to the fateful consequences of brief encounters, and the delicate mechanics of comprise which operate at the heart of modern marriages. In...

Arriving in Hollywood to become an actress, Anna May Wong discovers her beauty and talent aren't enough to overcome the racism that relegates her to supporting roles and, over the years, fights to win lead roles, accept risqué parts, and keep her illicit love affairs hidden-even as she finds global stardom. At the dawn of a new century, America is falling in love with silent movies. Wong Liu Tsong and her sister, daughters of Chinese immigrants...

Detective Kara Quinn is back in Los Angeles to testify against a notorious human trafficker, finally moving past the case that upended her life. But when the accused is shot in broad daylight, the chaotic scene of the crime turns up few reliable bystanders. And one witness, a whistleblower who might be the key to everything, has disappeared. After another person close to the case is killed, it's clear that anyone who knows too much is in danger, and...

"When murder follows Mimi Lee to her romantic island getaway, she puts on her best sleuthing hat with her sassy cat in tow in this adventurous cozy mystery by Jennifer J. Chow. Mimi Lee just found an extra perk to being a pet groomer at Hollywoof (other than cuddling animals all day long, that is). Pixie St. James, one of Mimi's clients and also the investor behind Hollywoof, has offered her and her boyfriend, Josh, a weekend getaway at her vacation...