For Jason Blackwell, the past had always been with him. When he was only seven years old he had lost his mother to a senseless accident for which both Jason and his father felt responsible. Grief, guilt, and regret had ruined and shortened his father's life and had plagued Jason as well. Every trial and every failure seemed to stem from that singular tragedy long ago. After decades of trying to run from the past or to drown it with alcohol, Jason decides to confront it and to surrender to it in the hope of finding resolution and peace. He discovers a hidden place so intimately tied to that...

Doctor Matthew Duncan, a noted internist in Dallas, Texas, has a thriving practice, including a few patients of some renown, and also teaches residents at the local hospital. He has a sterling professional reputation but carries personal scars from a disappointing divorce for which he entirely blames himself. His ex-wife and young son live in southern California, but Matt seldom reaches out to them, choosing, instead, a self-imposed isolation. The doctor's busy but rather staid existence is invaded by an interesting stranger who introduces himself at Matt's favorite bar. Matt is drawn to...

A millennium has passed since civilization imploded, bringing mankind to the brink of extinction and rendering the earth itself barely habitable. The bulk of survivors---the chosen few---huddle within six magnificent domed refuge cities hastily constructed before the apocalypse by a mysterious and obscure handful of saviors known as the Founders. Within each city a privileged but burdened group of Directors safeguard the human heritage and manage the genetic survival of the race. Under close supervision of the Directors, narrowly trained specialists, motivated and pacified by issuance of a...

It is May, 1964, and the little town of Hampton in Beauchamp County is trying to cope with a turbulent decade while handicapped by a unique identity crisis of its own. On top of the typical Southern heritage of paranoia born of defeat and occupation, an untenable social structure based on inequality and exploitation, and a vulnerable economy tied to textiles, Hampton residents are particularly mistrustful of outsiders due to a perceived betrayal and psychologically haunted by a terrible town secret, written in blood and buried in a shallow grave of silence and denial. When the Chief of Police...

The Space Agency has put together one final mission to the Mars Colony, where the leader is gravely ill. This is most likely the last mission because things are falling apart here at home---politically, economically, and socially---and the Agency is being dismantled. Internationally, the situation is no better. Doug Fremont and Sheila Anderson have volunteered for the mission, well aware that equipment is aging and that maintenance and quality control have suffered, exacerbating the risks. Danger finds them, however, not so much in technical problems as in the frailty of the human body and...