Collected

Instead of heading to Arizona for her next big story in what has been her illustrious career in her relatively young life, New York based investigative journalist Selena St. George heads to her hometown on a small island just off the coast of Jonesport, Maine upon receiving a fax from an anonymous sender that her mother, Dolores Claiborne, is the only suspect in what looks to be the murder of her wealthy employer of twenty-three years, Vera Donovan. Dolores, who reassumed her maiden name following the death of Selena's father, Joe St. George, started working as one of Vera's domestics upon her moving permanently into what used to be the Donovans' summer house after Jack Donovan's passing, Dolores ultimately moving into the Donovan house full time as her caregiver when Vera required 'round the clock care. Dolores' employment, which was solely to save money for Selena's education, was despite miserly and overly particular Vera only paying a pittance. Selena has been estranged from Dolores for fifteen years, when Selena went away to college at Vassar on a full scholarship, on Selena's belief not only that her mother killed her father when she was thirteen - the death ultimately ruled accidental - but the trauma she endured at the hands of townsfolk who believed the same in their often anonymous taunts. Selena still suffers emotionally from the trauma, she resorting to various means of self-medication. Detective John Mackey, who led the investigation, believed the same, this case the only blemish in his otherwise perfect career. He, leading the investigation into Vera's death, has seemingly had it in for Dolores for eighteen years, and already has it in his mind that if she could kill Joe, she could just as easily have killed Vera, with a strong underlying motive beyond the seemingly open dislike the two had for each other in their mutual name calling. As Dolores and Selena are forced to move back into what has largely been the closed-up St. George house for however long Selena will be staying on the island, old memories come back to haunt both of them, with the truth behind what happened eighteen years ago and thus what happened with Vera buried deep within those memories in the house.

When a young man, Aaron, is charged with the horrific murder of Archbishop Rushman, hot-shot Chicago lawyer Martin Vail takes on his defense at no charge. Aaron was a homeless street kid before he was taken in by the Archbishop. He's shy and speaks with a stammer. Vail is convinced that Aaron is innocent but after discovering a video that shows Aaron may have had good reason to want the Archbishop dead, he begins to question that conclusion. When Aaron lashes out at the psychologist examining him another personality, Roy, is revealed. With the trial already underway, Vail cannot change Aaron plea and so has to find a way to introduce his client's condition. Aaron has something of a surprise for him as well.

Quadriplegic ex-cop Lincoln Rhyme was looking forward to his assisted suicide when he got the news: some sicko was abducting people in a taxi and leaving them to die in particularly sadistic ways. With time counting down between each abduction and possible death, Rhyme recruits rather-unwilling Amelia Donaghy, haunted by her cop father's suicide and thinking she's next, into working the crime scenes to track down the killer.

In suburban Reston, Virginia, George Washington University American History professor Michael Faraday is still mourning the death of his wife, FBI agent Leah Faraday, after three years. His inside knowledge of the agency colors what he teaches in his classes. Although on good terms with Leah's ex-partner, Whit Carver, and the agency in general, Michael wants the agency at least to acknowledge their responsibility in her death in the line of duty. Michael is moving on with his personal life, he being in a serious relationship with his former teaching assistant Brooke Wolfe. Although he likes Brooke, Michael and Leah's nine year old son, Grant Faraday, may not yet be quite ready for Brooke to be a permanent part of their lives. It is only in helping adolescent Brady Lang who he sees in medical distress that Michael meets his new neighbors, Oliver and Cheryl Lang, Brady's parents. In the process, Michael and Brooke becomes friends with the Langs, as Grant and Brady become friends. However, the more time that he spends with them and catches discrepancies in their stories, Michael becomes suspicious that the Langs may not be everything they appear on the surface. As such, Michael, against Brooke's concerns of invasion of the Lang's privacy, begins his own investigation of Oliver in particular. What Michael discovers has serious national security implications, as well as possible life threatening dangers to him, Brooke and Grant.

Chicago advertising executive Charles 'Chaz' Schine is mentally worn down by his useless teacher wife Deanna and their equally ingrate daughter Amy, whose bad diabetes requires experimental, uncovered treatment that would exhaust their life savings. When foxy investment adviser Lucinda Harris volunteers to pay his ticket when he arrive son the commuter train without cash, they soon start an affair. Taking her to a tacky hotel, they are held at gunpoint by thug 'Frenchie' LaRoche, who rapes her having knocked Chaz down, robs their wallets and calls him afterward, blackmailing a small fortune not to tell his wife. Paying through equally abusive Dexter only incurs more demands and abuse, until Chaz brings along ex con office mail boy Winston Boyko, who promises to scare away, but is shot by LaRoche, leaving Chaz to deal with the corpse, police detective Church being a friend of Winston's. Only when bled dry, Chaz finds out Lucinda is a stolen identity, part of an elaborate setup. His ill-planned vengeance, as lawyer friend Jerry sees no legal way without timely complaints from him and Lucinda, starts a cycle of bloodshed and other unpleasant surprises for most involved.

Alex Cross, a Washington D.C. cop and forensic psychologist learns that his niece who is going to college in North Carolina is missing. So he goes there and learns that the police think she's among the victims of someone who kidnaps young girls and holds them captive and kills them who dubs himself Cassanova after the great lover. Later Kate, one of his victims, escapes and tries to help Cross find his niece.

An intertwined drama about the United States' war on drugs, seen through the eyes of a once conservative judge, now newly-appointed drug czar, his heroin-addicted daughter, two DEA agents, a jailed drug kingpin's wife, and a Mexican cop who begins to question his boss's motives.

Frank Keller is a New York detective investigating a case of a serial killer who finds the victims through the lonely hearts column in newspapers. Keller falls in love with Helen, the main suspect in the case.

John Berlin, a big-city cop from Los Angeles, moves to a small-town police force and immediately finds himself investigating a murder. Using theories rejected by his colleagues John meets a young blind woman named Helena, who he is attracted to. Meanwhile, a serial killer is on the loose and only John knows it.

Two Supreme Court Justices have been killed. Now a college professor, who clerked for one of the two men and who is also having an affair with one of his students, is given a brief by her that states who probably wanted to see these two men dead. He then gives it to one of his friends, who works for the FBI. When the FBI director reads it, he is fascinated by it. One of the president's men who read it is afraid that if it ever got out, the president could be smeared. So he advises the president to tell the director to drop it, which he does. But later the professor and the girl were out and he was drunk and when he refused to give her the keys, she stepped out of the car. When he started it, it blew up. She then discovers that her place has been burglarized and what was taken were her computer and her disks. Obviously, her brief has someone agitated. She then turns to her boyfriend's friend at the FBI. He agrees to come meet her but before he does, someone shoots him and takes his place. At the meeting, he was about to kill her when someone shoots him. She then decides to turn to Gray Grantham, an investigative reporter, who was contacted by someone who says he has info on the killings but backed out at the last minute. He then meets her and tells her what her brief is, and basically, the man she suspects is a good friend of the president, and is trying to manipulate the outcome of a trial that is now before the Supreme Court. Grantham tells her that her brief can harm the president and although all they have are theories, he asks her to help him, but she wants to leave the country. Then Grantham's editor tells him that they have nothing, that he should drop cause the man she implicated is extremely powerful. Grantham is about to drop it when she says that she will help him. But can they stay alive?

After escaping death by the skin of his teeth while on the hunt for the elusive madman, Dr Hannibal Lecter, the now-retired and emotionally scarred FBI agent, Will Graham, finds himself back in action. Reluctantly, as yet another monstrous serial killer known as "The Tooth Fairy" terrorises Baltimore, Graham turns to Lecter, the evil mastermind who's been under lock and key for three long years, to lend a hand in this challenging and time-sensitive case. But, to delve deep into the demented mind of a killer, one must first face his inner demons, and Will already knows that his insane imprisoned assistant is a gifted manipulator. Can Graham find the horrifying Red Dragon in time before another family suffers?

As children, Lorenzo Carcaterra - Shakes to his friends - Michael Sullivan, Tommy Marcano, and John Reilly were inseparable. They grew up in Hell's Kitchen, a far from perfect neighborhood, one filled as Shakes says with scams and shake downs, but one where the rules were known and easily understood by its residents. The one adult who they admired was Father Bobby Carelli, who understood them as kids more than most adults and more than he himself would like to admit. In 1967, their lives would change forever when a typical teenage prank went wrong which led to the four of them being sentenced to various terms at Wilkinson Home for Boys, a reformatory. There, they were physically, emotionally and sexually abused primarily by Sean Nokes, the predatory lead guard of their cell block, and fellow guards Ralph Ferguson, Henry Addison, and Adam Styler, although there were other decent figures of authority at the home, including a few other guards. Their time at the home affected the four, not all who were able to emerge from the experience to regroup their lives. In their want to forget about the experience, they made a vow not to talk about it either between themselves or with others. Fast forward thirteen years, with Tommy and Johnny being career criminals, Michael an assistant district attorney and Shakes a newspaper writer, their friendship on the surface more loose than it was when they were children. When Tommy and John unexpectedly spot Nokes at a local restaurant, it leads to Shakes and Michael banding together to exact revenge not only on Nokes but all four of the guards who abused them. Michael had long mapped out a plan even before Tommy and John saw Nokes, but that sighting and its aftermath alters the plan. Beyond the precarious position Tommy and John place themselves into, Michael has the most to lose even if the plan succeeds. Most of the plan implementation is left to Shakes who has to enlist the machine of Hell's Kitchen, including mob boss King Benny, and their childhood friend, social worker Carol Martinez, who currently is John's girlfriend. Beyond co-opting aging lawyer Danny Snyder, who admits he may not be the best choice as an alcoholic who is no longer near the top of his game, the plan is threatened by a key piece, the need for an unreproachable figure to perjure him or herself, that person who Michael and Shakes hopes will be Father Bobby. Father Bobby, even if he knew of the abuse, may not be able to do his friends this enormous favor of an illegal nature, he who has to balance the morality of the situation in his own mind in deciding what to do.

When Nick Parsons appears to be murdered his wife Libby is tried and convicted. Six years later Libby is paroled and is pursued by Travis Lehman (her parole officer) as she sets out to find her son and settle the score with Nick.

When anti-death-penalty activist David Gale is convicted and condemned to death for the murder of a colleague, reporter Bitsey Bloom sets out to learn the story behind Gale's crime. What she finds challenges her belief in Gale's guilt and, finally, in the justice system.

New York City homicide detective Vincent LaMarca has forged a long and distinguished career in law enforcement, making a name for himself as a man intensely committed to his work. But on his latest case, the stakes are higher for Vincent--the suspect he's investigating is his own son. He and Joey have been painfully estranged ever since Vincent divorced his wife and left the decaying boardwalks of Long Beach, Long Island for the anonymity of Manhattan and a successful career with the NYPD. He lives his life in solitude, keeping his girlfriend at arm's length; the closest relationship he maintains is with his partner, Reg--and Vincent makes sure that stops at the precinct door. As long as Vincent lives in the protection of the present, he doesn't have to deal with the pain of his past--or his sorrow over his broken relationship with Joey. But this murder investigation is drawing Vincent home to Long Beach, the self-proclaimed City by the Sea, where the past has been waiting for him to return. The agonizing memory that has tortured him all his life--the death of his father, a convicted murderer who was executed when Vincent was just a boy--still plagues him. In the course of the investigation, he discovers that his own unresolved pain and failures as a father have deeply influenced Joey's life, and now his 18-month-old grandson may be fated to follow their self-destructive paths.

High powered lawyer Claire Kubik finds her world turned upside down when her husband, who she thought was Tom Kubik, is arrested and is revealed to be Ron Chapman. Chapman is on trial for a murder of Latin American villagers while he was in the Marines. Claire soon learns that to navigate the military justice system, she'll need help from the somewhat unconventional Charlie Grimes; meanwhile, Claire's sister, Jackie, is falling in love with wet-behind-the-ears Lieutenant Embry assigned as the official defense lawyer. And most of the eyewitnesses have rather too conveniently died.

In the midst of an elaborate conspiracy, an expert negotiator is driven to the edge when he's framed for the murder of his partner, as well as embezzling money from his department's pension fund. His only chance to prove his innocence is to take hostages himself, acquire the services of another expert negotiator, and find out who's running the conspiracy before it's too late.

Millionaire industrialist Steven Taylor is a man who has everything but what he craves most: the love and fidelity of his wife. A hugely successful player in the New York financial world, he considers her to be his most treasured acquisition. But she needs more than simply the role of dazzling accessory. Brilliant in her own right, she works at the U.N. and is involved with a struggling artist who fulfills her emotional needs. When her husband discovers her indiscretion, he sets out to commit the perfect murder and inherit her considerable trust fund in the bargain.