The Second Time Around

Casey Carter was convicted of murdering her fiancé - famed philanthropist Hunter Raleigh III - 15 years ago. And Casey claims - has always claimed - she's innocent. Although she was charged and served out her sentence in prison, she is still living under suspicion. She hears whispers at the grocery store. She can't get a job. Even her own mother treats her like she's guilty. Her story attracts the attention of Laurie Moran and the Under Suspicion news team - it's Casey's last chance to finally clear her name, and Laurie pledges to exonerate her.

Jean Sheridan, a college dean and prominent historian, sets out to her hometown to attend the 20-year reunion of Stonecroft Academy alumni, where she is to be honored along with six other members of her class. There is something uneasy in the air: one woman in the group about to be feted, Alison Kendall, a beautiful, high-powered Hollywood agent, drowned in her pool during an early-morning swim. Alison is the fifth woman in the class whose life has come to a sudden, mysterious end.

When the family-owned furniture firm, including the mansion where priceless antiques are kept, explodes into flames in the middle of the night, Kate must escape to save her life. But the suspicious circumstances point to her involvement. Was the explosion set deliberately? Why was Kate, a gorgeous CPA for one of the biggest accounting firms in the country, on the premises at that hour? And why was Gus, a retired and trusted employee, with her?

At the heart of Mary Higgins Clark's stunning new novel of suspense is a brutal murder: that of Gary Lasch, a respected and successful young Greenwich, Connecticut, doctor and hospital and HMO head. He was found dead at his desk at home, his skull crushed by a blow with a Remington bronze sculpture, a prized piece from his art collection. The news strikes Greenwich society like a thunderbolt - as does the news that Molly Carpenter Lasch, the doctor's young wife, has been arrested for her husband's murder.

In the picturesque village of Branscombe, New Hampshire, the townsfolk are all pitching in to prepare for the first (and many hope, annual) Festival of Joy. The night before the festival begins, a group of employees at the local market learn that they have won $160 million in the lottery. One of their co-workers, Duncan, decided at the last minute, on the advice of a pair of crooks masquerading as financial advisers, not to play. Then he goes missing.

Mary Higgins Clark sends chills down listeners' spines with the story of Lacey Farrell, a rising star on the Manhattan real estate scene. One day, while showing a luxurious skyline co-op, Lacey is witness to a murder - and to the dying words of the victim.... The dying woman is convinced that the attacker was after her dead daughter's journal - which Lacey gives to the police, but not before making a copy for herself. It's an impulse that later proves nearly fatal.

Menley Nichols and her husband rent a house on Cape Cod, in the hope of restoring their faltering marriage. The birth of their daughter, Hannah, has revitalized their relationship, but Menley has never stopped blaming herself for the accidental death of her two-year-old son. The serenity of the Cape promises a new start. In Remember House, an 18th-century landmark with a sinister past, strange incidents force Menley to relive the accident that killed her son, and she begins to fear for Hannah's safety.

Kerry McGrath had only begun to work in the county prosecutor's office at the time of the infamous "Sweetheart Murder Case" - the bizarre slaying years ago of strikingly beautiful Suzanne Reardon. Now, 10 years later, Kerry has gained a reputation as a smart and relentless prosecutor - so much so that her name has been given to the governor as a candidate for a new judgeship - and her new life and career are in full swing.

It has been ten years since 21-year-old Kevin MacKenzie, Jr. ("Mac"), has been missing. A Columbia University senior, about to graduate and already enrolled in Duke University Law School, he walked out of his room in Manhattan's Upper West Side without a word to his college roommate and has never been seen again. However, he does make three ritual phone calls to his mother every year: on her birthday, on his birthday, and on Mother's Day.

The Bodine ranch and resort in western Montana is a family business, an idyllic spot for vacationers. A little over thirty thousand acres and home to four generations, it's kept running by Bodine Longbow with the help of a large staff, including new hire Callen Skinner. There was another member of the family once: Bodine's aunt, Alice, who ran off before Bodine was born. She never returned, and the Longbows don't talk about her much. The younger ones, who never met her, quietly presume she's dead.