In the Mexican desert, journalist Nate Bowman's photographer is killed after witnessing a transaction in the night. Nate escapes, crosses the border to Arizona, and heads home--where the hit men are waiting.

This portrait of Hong Kong in the 20th century begins in 1935 when Tom Stewart leaves England to work in the hotel business there. He survives the horrors of World War II, crosses paths with a Chinese nun who plays a vital role in his life, and becomes a major figure in the fortunes of postwar Hong Kong. Lanchester's novel, thoroughly immersed in the history and atmosphere of the place, uses a panoramic view plus three interwoven stories to demonstrate how Hong Kong has changed over the course of 75 years. A New York Times Notable Book for 2002.

When a big-city DA is murdered in his jurisdiction, small-town police chief Ben Truman heads to Boston to hunt for evidence, only to find corruption and more closeted skeletons that he could possibly have imagined.

California Avenue is what the title refers to: the street that divides two social and economic classes in the Chicago neighborhood of West Rogers Park. A group of teenagers and their families from both sides are the focus of the novel, and as they meet and combine and part, their intersecting lives form a portrait of an era and a place, as well as a fond look at what it meant to grow up in the troubled America of the late '70s and early '80s.

When illustrator Annie Swann begins a large mural in her new home, she can't understand why the mysterious face of a child keeps appearing beneath the children's stories she depicts on her wall. The face turns out to be that of a retarded 8-year-old boy whose dead body is found behind the wall. Annie turns to her Uncle Homer for help in this humorous tale of murder and mystique.