Fiction Favorites Four Great Novels Under One Cover: The Traitor, Mrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame: A Novel, Lost Hours, American Girl

The Traitor

British spy Emma Makepeace goes undercover on a Russian oligarch’s superyacht, where she’s one wrong move away from a watery grave, in this electrifying thriller from the author of Alias Emma.

“Delivers everything fans of spy fiction could want: an absorbing plot, shadowy characters, page-gripping tension.”—The Washington Post (Best Books of the Year)

An MI6 operative is found dead, locked in a suitcase inside his own apartment. Despite an exhaustive search, no fingerprints are found at the scene. Emma Makepeace and her handler, Ripley, know an assassination when they see one, and such an obvious murder can mean only one thing: Someone is sending a message.

As she digs into his past, Emma discovers that the unfortunate spy had been investigating two Russian oligarchs based in London. He’d become obsessed with the idea that the two were spies, aided by a third man—whose identity he had yet to uncover. When he shared his findings within MI6 in the weeks before he died, the response came back fast and clear: Drop the investigation and move on. Had he uncovered a secret that cost him his life?

To pick up where he left off without ending up in a suitcase of her own, Emma goes undercover on one of the oligarch’s million-dollar yachts, scheduled to set sail from the Côte d’Azur to Monaco. Under other circumstances, this would be a dream vacation. But if Emma’s real identity gets discovered, it’s a death sentence.

As Emma’s work reveals secrets she’d be safer not knowing, the danger ratchets up. The killer may be closer to home than any of them imagined, and Emma won’t be safe until he—or she—is caught.

Mrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame: A Novel

Nothing could be more out of character, but after fifty-nine years of marriage, as her husband Bernard’s health declines, and her friends' lives become focused on their grandchildren—which Jenny never had—Jenny decides she wants a little something for herself. So she secretly applies to be a contestant on the prime-time TV show Britain Bakes.

Whisked into an unfamiliar world of cameras and timed challenges, Jenny delights in a new-found independence. But that independence, and the stress of the competition, starts to unearth memories buried decades ago. Chocolate teacakes remind her of a furtive errand involving a wedding ring; sugared doughnuts call up a stranger’s kind act; a simple cottage loaf brings back the moment her life changed forever.

With her baking star rising, Jenny struggles to keep a lid on that first secret—a long-concealed deceit that threatens to shatter the very foundations of her marriage. It’s the only time in six decades that she’s kept something from Bernard. By putting herself in the limelight, has Jenny created a recipe for disaster?

Lost Hours

Lost Hours is the fifth instalment in Paige Shelton's gripping, atmospheric Alaska Wild series.

A year after arriving in Benedict, Beth Rivers is feeling very at home in Alaska, even as outsiders are starting to return to enjoy the brief summer perfection. Beth feels like she's finally let go of most of her demons. She's even found her father, Eddy Rivers--or, rather, he found her--and she's trying to find the middle ground between anger and forgiveness.

One sunny July day, Beth boards a tourist ship to see the glaciers, the main reason visitors venture to the area, and something Beth hasn't attempted until now. But when the captain has to navigate to an island, a bloodied woman is found standing on the shore, waving for help. When she's brought aboard, she claims she was kidnapped from her home in Juneau three days earlier, and that a bear on the island killed her captor. She, however, is unharmed.

The woman, Sadie, finds a sympathetic ear in Beth. She tells her that she's been in Juneau under witness protection, and that the Juneau police don't like her. When another kidnapping occurs, Beth and police chief Gril can't help but think the two cases are interwoven, though the clues to solving them will be harder to unravel.

American Girl

A pulse-pounding novel about a small-town business owner found dead and the teenage girl caught in the crosshairs, American Girl is the latest thriller from internationally bestselling author Wendy Walker.

Charlie Hudson, an autistic seventeen-year-old, is determined to leave Sawyer, PA, as soon as she graduates high school. In the meantime, she works as many hours as she can at a sandwich shop called the Triple S to save money for college. But when shop owner Clay Cooper--a man both respected and feared in their small, economically depressed town--is found dead, each member of his staff becomes a suspect in the perplexing case. Before she can go anywhere, Charlie must protect herself and her friends by uncovering the danger that is still lurking in their tight-knit community.