"For Chicago sociology professor Amelia Emmet, violence was a research topic--until a student she'd never met shot her. He also shot himself. Now he's dead and she's back on campus, trying to keep up with her class schedule, a growing problem with painkillers, and a question she can't let go: Why? All she wants is for life to get back to normal, but normal is looking hard to come by. She's thirty-eight and hobbles with a cane. Her first student interaction...

A teenager casually suggests playing a cruel trick on the English teacher, but did he intend it to end with murder?

"Something isn't right at Caseham High School. Last year, the school was rocked by scandal: a teacher was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a student. Now, Addie is a pariah and will do anything to get through the year. More than that, she's desperate to keep the truth from coming to light. Evie, a colleague of the disgraced teacher, is horrified to find Addie in her class. She knows the girl can't be trusted and soon realizes she's...

Nick and his friend Marta decide to investigate when a mysterious fire starts near a Florida wildlife preserve and an unpopular teacher goes missing.

"Clare Cassidy is no stranger to murder. A high school English teacher specializing in the Gothic writer R.M. Holland, she teaches a course on it every year. But when one of Clare's colleagues and closest friends is found dead, with a line from R.M. Holland's most famous story, "The Stranger," left by her body, Clare is horrified to see her life collide with the storylines of her favorite literature. To make matters worse, the police suspect the killer...

Six years have passed since Jake Sanders watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man. Six years of hiding a broken heart by throwing himself into his career as a college professor. Six years of keeping his promise to leave Natalie alone, and six years of tortured dreams of her life with her new husband, Todd. But six years haven't come close to extinguishing his feelings, and when Jake comes across Todd's obituary, he can't keep himself...

"Colorful Christmas lights dapple the family homes in the idyllic lakeside town of Sweet Haven when Jennifer Dean, a young librarian at the local elementary school, is brutally murdered. There are witnesses and her boyfriend Travis Blake confesses to the crime... but something doesn't quite add up. Blake is a third generation Army Ranger, awarded the Silver Star for his heroism in Afghanistan--how could a beloved son of this tight-knit burgh commit...

"Teacher, mother, wife, and all-around good citizen Ellen is juggling nonstop commitments, from raising a teen and two toddlers to job hunting to renovating her dream home, the Meadowhouse. Amid the chaos, an ominous note arrives in the mail, declaring: People have to learn there are consequences. Why would someone send her this? Ellen has no clue. She's no angel -- a white lie here, an occasional sharp tongue there -- but she's done nothing to incur...

California, 1985. Detective Tony Mendez, fresh from a law enforcement course at FBI headquarters, is charged with discovering the identity of a brutal, calculating psychopath. His search pushes him ever deeper into the lives of three children, and closer to the young teacher whose interest in recent events becomes as intense as his own.

"As a creative writing professor in a bucolic Vermont town, Gil's quiet life is indelibly changed when he receives shocking news: His sister, Sharon, and her husband have been killed in a car accident, and their only son, seventeen-year-old Matthew, is coming to live with Gil and his family. It's with apprehension that Gil and his wife, Molly, greet Matthew. Yes, he has just lost both his parents. But they haven't seen him in seven years, and the...