When the Soviets develop laser power that far surpasses anything the Americans have created, U.S. intelligence asks its top operative--alias "Cardinal"--to look into the matter. Cardinal has been an agent for 20 years without drawing the Soviet's attention, but now they suspect that he exists, and the race is on to steal the technology and protect "The Cardinal of the Kremlin."

Jack Ryan reluctantly agreed to accept the vice presidency of the United States for a year, but when the president is assassinated, he is catapulted to the nation's highest office. With Congress depleted in the same tragedy that killed the president, Ryan is alone as the shattered country faces threats from international and domestic forces.

Commercial photographer Maggie Holloway attends a party and is, by chance, reunited with Nuala, the stepmother she has not seen since childhood. Maggie accepts Nuala's invitation to visit her in Rhode Island, but when Maggie arrives, Nuala is dead--apparently the victim of a random break-in. To her surprise, Maggie learns that Nuala's house is bequeathed to her, the only stipulation being that she visit Nuala's friend Gerda. When Maggie fulfills this request, she discovers that Gerda is a resident of a nearby nursing home--a home with an alarmingly high death rate of seemingly healthy patients.

The true story of the Spanish slave ship Amistad, which was taken over by mutineers before being captured off the coast of the New England coast in 1839. The legal and diplomatic struggle between Spain, the United States, and Great Britain over the fate of the captured slaves climaxed in one of the most important Supreme Court decisions of the early 19th century, and has been depicted in the motion picture "Amistad".

A gossip columnist in New York meets a man she knows she can love--unless it turns out that he's too good to be true. This first adult novel by the author of the young-adult Princess Diaries series is told entirely in email.