Books in Thorndike Basic series

In this poignant and curiously charming debut, a lovable widower embarks on a life-changing adventure Sixty-nine-year-old Arthur Pepper lives a simple life. He gets out of bed at precisely 7:30 a.m., just as he did when his wife, Miriam, was alive. He dresses in the same gray slacks and mustard sweater vest, waters his fern, Frederica, and heads out to his garden. But on the one-year anniversary of Miriam's death, something changes. Sorting through Miriam's possessions, Arthur finds an exquisite gold charm bracelet he's never seen before. What follows is a surprising and unforgettable odyssey that takes Arthur from London to Paris and as far as India in an epic quest to find out the truth about his wife's secret life before they meta journey that leads him to find hope, healing and self-discovery in the most unexpected places. Featuring an unforgettable cast of characters with big hearts and irresistible flaws, "The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper" is a joyous celebration of life's infinite possibilities."

For fans of Kate Morton and Sarah Waters, here sa magnetic debut novel of wrenching family secrets, forbidden love, and heartbreaking loss housed within the grand gothic manor of Black Rabbit Hall. "Ghosts are everywhere, not just the ghost of Momma in the woods, but ghosts of us""too, what we used to be like in those long summers . . ."Amber Alton knows that the hours pass differently at Black Rabbit Hall, her London family s country estate, where no two clocks read the same. Summers there are perfect, timeless. Not much ever happens. Until, of course, it does. More than three decades later, Lorna is determined to be married within the grand, ivy-covered walls of Pencraw Hall, known as Black Rabbit Hall among the locals. But as she s drawn deeper into the overgrown grounds, half-buried memories of her mother begin to surface and Lorna soon finds herself ensnared within the manor s labyrinthine history, overcome with an insatiable need for answers about her own past and that of the once-happy family whose memory still haunts the estate. Stunning and atmospheric, this debut novel is a thrilling spiral into the hearts of two women separated by decades but inescapably linked by the dark and tangled secrets of Black Rabbit Hall."

A captivating debut novel, meticulously researched and beautifully imagined, about the passionate marriage of Harry and Bess Houdini―a love story that defied death itself.Before escape artist Harry Houdini died, he vowed he would find a way to speak to his beloved wife Bess from beyond the grave using a coded message known only to the two of them. When a widowed Bess begins seeing this code in seemingly impossible places, it becomes clear that Harry has an urgent message to convey. Unlocking the puzzle will set Bess on a course back through the pair’s extraordinary romance, which swept the illusionist and his bride from the beaches of Coney Island, to the palaces of Budapest, to the back lots of Hollywood. When the mystery finally leads Bess to the doorstep of a mysterious young photographer, she realizes that her husband’s magic may have been more than just illusion.In surprising turns that weave through the uncertain days of the dawn of the twentieth century and continue into the dazzling 1920s, Mrs. Houdini is a thrilling tale that will take you deep into the heart of one of history’s greatest love stories―asking what drives people to believe in something bigger than themselves―even as it reveals the famous magician’s most remarkable feat of all.

A New York Times Bestseller Part One of The Lord of the RingsIn a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins is faced with an immense task as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the One Ring of Sauron to his care. Frodo must make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the all-powerful Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.

A New York Times Bestselling AuthorArt restorer and sometime spy Gabriel Allon is sent to Vienna to discover the truth behind a bombing which killed an old friend, but while there he encounters something that turns his world upside down. It is a face - a face that feels hauntingly familiar, yet chills him to the bone and sends him on an urgent hunt for a name, a history, a connection. This uncommonly intelligent thriller is filled with sharply etched characters and prose, and a plot of astonishing intricacy and resonance.

A New York Times BestsellerA Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection When we meet Susie Salmon, she's already in heaven. She tells us, in the voice of a fourteen-year-old, a tale that is both haunting and full of hope. Susie watches life after her disappearance: her loved ones hoping she'll be found, her killer covering his tracks. She sees her family face the worst -- then, in time, pass through grief and begin to mend. Included in Basic 5 and 6.

A New York Times Bestselling AuthorArtist, computer whiz, and professional thief Kidd returns with his sometime partner/sometime lover LuEllen in an electrifying novel of murder and Machiavellian intrigue. When Kidd's superhacker friend, Bobby, disappears from cyberspace, Kidd goes to his house and finds him dead and his laptop missing. The secrets on that laptop are potent enough to hang Kidd and everybody else in Bobby's circle, just for starters.