William Stoner is born at the end of the nineteenth century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces a scholar’s life, so different from the hardscrabble existence he has known. And yet as the years pass, Stoner encounters a succession of disappointments: marriage into a “proper” family estranges him from his parents; his career is stymied; his wife and daughter turn coldly away from him; a transforming experience of new love ends under threat of scandal. Driven ever deeper within himself, Stoner rediscovers the stoic silence of his forebears and confronts an essential solitude. John Williams’s luminous and deeply moving novel is a work of quiet perfection. William Stoner emerges from it not only as an archetypal American, but as an unlikely existential hero, standing, like a figure in a painting by Edward Hopper, in stark relief against an unforgiving world.

Fresh mozzarella, tangy tomato sauce, and the perfect recipe for a delicious first entry in Mindy Quigley's Six Feet Deep Dish , a delectable new series... Delilah O’Leary can’t wait to open her new gourmet deep-dish pizzeria in Geneva Bay, Wisconsin―a charming resort town with a long history as a mobsters’ hideaway, millionaires’ playground, and vacation mecca. Engaged to a hunk with a hefty trust fund, Delilah is poised to begin a life that’s just about as delicious as one of her cheesy creations. Just before opening night, though, Delilah’s plans for pizza perfection hit the skids when her fiancé dumps her and leaves her with a very large memento from their relationship―Butterball, their spoiled, plus-sized tabby cat. Delilah’s trouble deepens when she discovers a dead body and finds her elderly aunt holding the murder weapon. Handsome local police detective Calvin Capone, great grandson of the legendary gangster, opens an investigation, threatening to sink Delilah’s pie-in-the-sky ambitions before they can even get off the ground. To save her aunt and get her pizza place generating some dough, Delilah must deliver the real killer.

A witty, witchy fantasy murder mystery packed with ancient magic and fiendish puzzles. Mallory, Diana, Cornelia and Theodore are hired to solve a murder on a TV shoot by the victim herself. Perfect for fans of supernatural mysteries and cosy crime by authors such as Ben Aaronovitch, Josiah Bancroft and Tammie Painter. Five months after they stopped The Whistler, business is booming for the Undetectables. Just not work that requires magical forensic investigators. So when Diana’s ex asks them to solve a murder – her own – Diana, Mallory and Cornelia can’t say no. Going undercover to investigate the set of the TV show, Undead Complex, Diana returns to her life as a propmaker. But even the appearance of a genuine-article Francine Leon dollhouse leaves her feeling pulled down a path of crime-solving she doesn't want to walk forever. Meanwhile, Theodore's coming apart at the seams – literally – and Mallory is running out of ways to help him. Especially as he seems to be keeping secrets from her. As the clues – and the bodies – keep piling up, each one making less and less sense, the Undetectables find themselves in a race against time to find out what, exactly, the killer is up to – before the final cut.

Be gay, solve crime, take naps—A witty and quirky fantasy murder mystery if a folkloric world of witches, faeires, vampires, trolls and ghosts, for fans of Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey and T. J. Klune's Under the Whispering Door. A magical serial killer is stalking the Occult town of Wrackton. Hypnotic whistling causes victims to chew their own tongues off, leading to the killer being dubbed the Whistler (original, right?). But outside the lack of taste buds and the strange magical carvings on the victims’ torsos, the murderer leaves no evidence. No obvious clues. No reason – or so it seems. Enter the Undetectables, a detective agency run by three witches and a ghost in a cat costume (don’t ask). They are hired to investigate the murders, but with their only case so far left unsolved, will they be up to the task? Mallory, the forensic science expert, is struggling with pain and fatigue from her recently diagnosed fibromyalgia. Cornelia, the team member most likely to go rogue and punch a police officer, is suddenly stirring all sorts of feelings in Mallory. Diana, the social butterfly of the group, is hitting up all of her ex-girlfriends for information. And not forgetting ghostly Theodore – deceased, dramatic, and also the agency’s first dead body and unsolved murder case. With bodies stacking up and the case leading them to mysteries at the very heart of magical society, can the Undetectables find the Whistler before they become the killer’s next victims?

A new horror novella from the creator of Welcome to Night Vale and Alice Isn't Dead. On the open road, evil doesn't chase you. It waits . . . Late one night, a wounded man checks into a remote roadside hotel. He's running from something he can't explain or escape. And over the course of a night, he'll tell the hotel's proprietor how his life fell apart. It started with his wife. Subtle changes. Smiles that didn't belong to her. Then violence—sudden, intimate, almost casual. Therapy offered hope. Recovery seemed possible. Until it wasn't. He believes a hidden influence has attached itself to him, one that never forces, never commands. It whispers. It suggests. Nudges people toward their worst impulses. Now the man wanders the country as a fugitive, hoping to break free from the evil that's wormed its way into him. But as our narrator's story unfolds, he begins to question whether he's fled far enough . . . Tense, atmospheric, and chilling, The Nudge is a slow-burn tale of suspense that will linger like a whisper in the dark, long after the story is over.

A witty, witchy fantasy murder mystery packed with ancient magic and fiendish puzzles. When Cornelia's twin sisters are taken by the Wickermere Reaper, Mallory, Diana and Theodore must race against time to uncover the buried secrets of the Broadwicks before it's too late. Perfect for fans of supernatural mysteries and cosy crime by authors such as Ben Aaranovitch, Josiah Bancroft and Tammie Painter. The summer after the events of The Undead Complex, the unthinkable finally happens – Cornelia's money is running out. Estranged from her family, furious at her parents following recent revelations, the Broadwick heir finds herself living on her own resources for the first time. Meanwhile two crimes are rocking the Apparent community. The Wrackton Digger is stealing bodies from the cemetery, and a new serial killer – the Wickermere Reaper – has emerged. But when the Reaper snatches their next victims – Cornelia's twin sisters – she must return to her family's home, and seat of the Ghoul Council, to conduct the search. With their resources split, and a ticking clock on the race to save the twins, The Undetectables must do what they do best – solve the strangest, most well-hidden magical mysteries to save the people they love.

Jack Tamerlaine hasn’t set foot on Cadence in ten long years, content to study music at the mainland university. But when young girls start disappearing from the isle, Jack is summoned home to help find them. Enchantments run deep on Cadence: gossip is carried by the wind; plaid shawls can be as strong as armor, and the smallest cut of a knife can instil fathomless fear. The capricious spirits that rule the isle by fire, water, earth, and wind find mirth in the lives of the humans who call the land home. Adaira, heiress of the east and Jack’s childhood enemy, knows the spirits only answer to a bard’s music, and she hopes Jack can draw them forth by song, enticing them to return the missing girls. As Jack and Adaira reluctantly work together, they find they make better allies than rivals as their partnership turns into something more. But with each passing song, it becomes apparent the trouble with the spirits is far more sinister than they first expected, and an older, darker secret about Cadence lurks beneath the surface, threatening to undo them all.