A dazzling portrait of two very different couples whose fast friendship is no match for shattering betrayal... A solid marriage, a thriving business, and the esteem of their close-knit Alabama community - Joyce and Odell Watson have every reason to count their blessings. Their marriage has given well-off Joyce a chance at the family she's always wanted - and granted Odell a shot to escape grinding poverty. But all that respectability and status comes at a cost. Just once, Joyce and Odell want to taste life's wild side, without consequences...

New York Times bestselling author Mary Monroe returns to the 1930s era of her acclaimed novel The Upper Room with a dazzling portrait of two very different couples whose fast friendship is no match for shattering betrayal . . . A solid marriage, a thriving business, and the esteem of their close-knit Alabama community—Joyce and Odell Watson have every reason to count their blessings. Their marriage has given well-off Joyce a chance at the family she’s always wanted—and granted Odell a shot to escape grinding poverty. But all that respectability and status comes at a cost. Just once, Joyce and Odell want to taste life’s wild side, without consequences . . . When their new neighbors, Milton and Yvonne Hamilton, turn out to be bootleggers, the Watsons plunge headlong into good times and fast living. . . . Until revelations of Milton and Yvonne’s seedy past make the Watsons think twice about how much time they spend together. But the Hamiltons won’t be dismissed so easily. The Watsons soon find them invading every area of their lives, even discovering their long-held secrets. Now, the Watsons must tread carefully to keep the neighbors from destroying their perfect world . . . “Monroe convincingly portrays a time and place where desperation is the norm.” —Library Journal “Impossible to put down.” —Susan Holloway Scott, author of I, Eliza Hamilton “Monroe reveals sympathetic aspects and complex motivations for each character in this engrossing setting.” —Booklist

Children visit many different houses throughout the world.

“A novelistic mosaic that simultaneously reads like a thriller and like a strange, dreamlike excursion into the subconscious.” —The New York Times Years ago, when House of Leaves was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, parts of which would occasionally surface on the Internet. No one could have anticipated the small but devoted following this terrifying story would soon command. Starting with an odd assortment of marginalized youth -- musicians, tattoo artists, programmers, strippers, environmentalists, and adrenaline junkies -- the book eventually made its way into the hands of older generations, who not only found themselves in those strangely arranged pages but also discovered a way back into the lives of their estranged children. Now this astonishing novel is made available in book form, complete with the original colored words, vertical footnotes, and second and third appendices. The story remains unchanged, focusing on a young family that moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane where they discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story -- of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.

The latest New York Times bestseller from the author of the beloved book club favorite The Kitchen House is a heart racing story about a man’s treacherous journey through the twists and turns of the Underground Railroad on a mission to save the boy he swore to protect. Glory Over Everything is “gripping…breathless until the end” (Kirkus Reviews). The year is 1830 and Jamie Pyke, a celebrated silversmith and notorious ladies’ man, is keeping a deadly secret. Passing as a wealthy white aristocrat in Philadelphian society, Jamie is now living a life he could never have imagined years before when he was a runaway slave, son of a southern black slave and her master. But Jamie’s carefully constructed world is threatened when he discovers that his married socialite lover, Caroline, is pregnant and his beloved servant Pan, to whose father Jamie owes his own freedom, has been captured and sold into slavery in the South. Fleeing the consequences of his deceptions, Jamie embarks on a trip to a North Carolina plantation to save Pan from the life he himself barely escaped as a boy. With the help of a fearless slave, Sukey, who has taken the terrified young boy under her wing, Jamie navigates their way, racing against time and their ruthless pursuers through the Virginia backwoods, the Underground Railroad, and the treacherous Great Dismal Swamp. “Kathleen Grissom is a first-rate storyteller…she observes with an unwavering but kind eye, and she bestows upon the reader, amid terrible secrets and sin, a gift of mercy: the belief that hope can triumph over hell” (Richmond Times Dispatch). Glory Over Everything is an emotionally rewarding and epic novel “filled with romance, villains, violence, courage, compassion…and suspense.” (Florida Courier).

In this page-turning novel set in the Depression-era South, New York Times bestselling author Mary Monroe transports readers to a small Alabama town where home is not always a sanctuary, and two neighboring families let pleasantries mask increasing resentment. . . Bootlegging was Milton and Yvonne Hamilton’s ticket out of poverty, prison time, and plain bad luck. Now they’ve moved on—to a bigger, richer pool of clientele—right in their own respectable new middle-class backyard. And their growing friendship with seemingly-perfect couple Joyce and Odell Watson is proving golden in more ways than one . . . As Milton soon learns, Odell is hiding an outside family and dubious business dealings. It’s the perfect recipe for a blackmail scheme that will help Milton hide his own dirty secrets—even from Yvonne. Better yet, he can take ever more dangerous risks to ace out his liquor-smuggling rivals—and add a lucrative temptation to his illicit services. And Yvonne, emboldened by her husband’s new gravy train, delights in tormenting Joyce about everything the snobbish matron doesn’t have—especially children. But even a winning hand can be played too far. Pushed past their limits, Odell and Joyce will play on Milton’s careless boasting—to get him and Yvonne out of their lives for good. And soon, a devastating frame-up will plunge one couple into a living nightmare—and set the stage for explosive retribution . . .

The “magnificent, funny, and terrifying” debut novel from the New York Times bestselling author of God Don’t Like Ugly (The San Francisco Chronicle). Mama Ruby’s known for taking things that aren’t rightfully hers, like her best friend’s stillborn infant, who she brought back to life and christened Maureen. She’s also rumored to have done away with her husband. Some fear her, others try their best to avoid her. But Mama Ruby doesn’t pay them any mind. Not when she’s got the one gift God gave her—her precious baby girl. But growing up with a mama like Ruby is enough to make any half-sane girl wish for something—anything—else. And when Maureen gets the chance to explore the “real” world, you can bet she’s going to take it . . . and run like hell. “[An] engaging debut novel . . . The dialogue and setting are reminiscent of Zora Neale Hurston, but the story has a bizarre, violent edge la Stephen King . . . a candid portrayal of the cold-blooded yet fascinating Mama Ruby.” —Publishers Weekly “A chilling story that is bound to astound Monroe’s fans.” —Booklist Praise for Mary Monroe “An exceptional writer and phenomenal storyteller!” —Kimberla Lawson Roby, New York Times bestselling author “A remarkable talent.” —Chicago Sun-Times “Monroe is a masterful storyteller.” —Philadelphia Inquirer