Invited by a reclusive mystery novelist to help draft his life story, a longtime correspondent and detective fiction expert finds herself in a real whodunnit when she learns the writer's first wife and son mysteriously vanished.

Remember those nightmares you had as a child, where your toys came to life? That's the reality that Jun Sakurada suddenly finds himself living in when Shinku arrives in a box. She's the first of several magical Rozen Maidens to invade the secluded life he has made for himself since refusing to attend school anymore and living the life of a hermit. Worse, he finds himself magically bound to Shinku, his life force powering hers, and she's not too crazy...

"It isn't paranoia if it's really happening ... Anna Fox lives alone -- a recluse in her New York City home, drinking too much wine, watching old movies ... and spying on her neighbors. Then the Russells move next door: a father, a mother, their teenaged son. The perfect family. But when Anna sees something she shouldn't, her world begins to crumble -- and its shocking secrets are laid bare. What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is...

"Henning Mankell's last novel about an aging man whose quiet, solitary life on an isolated island off the coast of Sweden is turned upside down when his house catches fire. Fredrik Welin is a former surgeon who retired in disgrace decades earlier to a tiny island on which he is the only resident. He has a daughter he rarely sees and his mailman Jansson is the closest thing he has to a friend, and to an adversary. He is perfectly content to live out...

"This is a tale of murder. Or maybe that's not quite true. At its heart, it's a love story, isn't it? Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex-movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island. I tell you this because you may think you know this story. You probably read about it at the time -- it caused a real stir in the tabloids,...

"There is a Wild Man who lives in the deep quiet of Greenhollow, and he listens to the wood. Tobias, tethered to the forest, does not dwell on his past life, but he lives a perfectly unremarkable existence with his cottage, his cat, and his dryads. When Greenhollow Hall acquires a handsome, intensely curious new owner in Henry Silver, everything changes. Old secrets better left buried are dug up, and Tobias is forced to reckon with his troubled past--both...

When her health begins failing, the mysterious author Vida Winter decides to let Margaret Lea, a biographer, write the truth about her life, but Margaret needs to verify the facts since Vida has a history of telling outlandish tales.

"Deep in the forests of Nordland, in a lake-side cabin on a small island, Juno has lived in almost complete isolation since early childhood. She has only her Mama and Papa and her little brother Boy for company. They live in constant fear. For danger could already be lurking on the other side of the lake, seeking them out - Strangers, as they call them, who want to take revenge on their father and destroy the family. But Mama and Papa are wise and...

After Rachel Childs, a former journalist, suffers an on-air mental breakdown, she lives as a virtual shut-in. In all other respects, however, she enjoys an ideal life with an ideal husband. Until a chance encounter on a rainy afternoon causes that ideal life to fray. As does Rachel's marriage. As does Rachel herself. Sucked into a conspiracy thick with deception, violence, and possibly madness, Rachel must find the strength within herself to conquer...

"Carrie Slayton is a successful gossip columnist, but her dream is to become a serious journalist. Finnegan Dalton is a notorious recluse whose book about living in the Alaskan wilds skyrocketed to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. Recognizing a golden opportunity, Carrie uses a little guile in tracking down Finn's whereabouts in the snowy Alaskan wilderness outside of Fairbanks, only to discover that he truly is as mysterious and withdrawn...