At sixty-five, Hornclaw, an assassin who kills with ruthless efficiency, is ready to cash out on her share of the company, but when a slip-up results in an unexpected connection, Hornclaw's final chapter in her career may also mark a bloody end to her life.

"It is 1959 in Wicklow, Ireland, and Annie and her cousin Sarah are living and working together to keep Sarah's small farm running. Suddenly, Annie's young niece and nephew are left in their care. Unprepared for the chaos that the two children inevitably bring, but nervously excited nonetheless, Annie finds the interruption of her normal life and her last chance of happiness complicated further by the attention being paid to Sarah by a local man with...

The wife of a landscape designer in Pennsylvania obtains a job doing housework for an old woman who quilts, and in the process learns to quilt herself. As the two quilt, the old one recounts her family's tragic story.

"Iris Maynard lost her husband in World War II, her daughter to illness and, finally, her reason to live. Walled off from the world for decades behind the towering fence surrounding her home, Iris has built anew family ... of flowers. Iris propagates her own daylilies and roses while tending to a garden filled with the heirloom starts that keep the memories of her loved ones alive. When Abby Peterson moves next door with her family - a husband traumatized...

Having run away with her younger brother to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, twelve-year-old Claudia strives to keep things in order in their new home and to become a changed person and a heroine to herself.