"HOW FAR DOES THE APPLE REALLY FALL FROM THE TREE? Milly's mother is a serial killer. Though Milly loves her mother, the only way to make her stop was to turn her in to the police. Milly is given a fresh start: a new identity, a home with an affluent foster family, and a spot at an exclusive private school. But Milly has secrets, and life at her new home becomes complicated. Her foster sister, Phoebe, starts to bully her. A teacher betrays her trust....

One summer in the sixties, in a staid suburb south of London, Paul comes home from university, aged nineteen, and is urged by his mother to join the tennis club. In the mixed-doubles tournament he's partnered with Susan Mcleod, a fine player who's forty-eight, confident, ironic, and married, with two nearly adult daughters. They soon, inevitably, are lovers. They set up house in London to escape his parents and the abusive Mr. Mcleod. Decades later,...

A fourteen-year-old boy attempts to be the youngest person to reach the top of Mount Everest.