The teenage son of an Appalachian single mother who dies when he is eleven uses his good looks, wit, and instincts to survive foster care, child labor, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival....

Amos Decker and his FBI colleague Alex Jamison are in Baronville, Pennsylvania, visiting Alex's sister and her family. It's a bleak place: a former mill and mining town with a crumbling economy and rampant opioid addiction. Decker has only been there a few hours when he stumbles on a horrific double murder scene. Then the next killing hits sickeningly close to home. With the lives of people he cares about suddenly hanging in the balance, Decker realizes...

In a small Kentucky town devastated by the opioid epidemic, a young medic, a DEA agent and a former police chief are brought together after the murder of an entire local crime family and each have their loyalties tested.

"Tom Lowe's identity and his pride are invested in the work he does with his back and his hands. He designed and built his family's dream home, working extra hours to pay off the adjustable rate mortgage he took on the property, convinced he is making every sacrifice for the happiness of his wife and son. Until, in a moment of fatigued inattention, shingling a roof in too-bright sunlight, he falls. In constant pain, addicted to painkillers at the...

Sylvie Snow knows the pressures of expectations: a woman is supposed to work hard, but never be tired; age gracefully, but always be beautiful; fix the family problems, but always be carefree. Sylvie does the grocery shopping, the laundry, the scheduling, the schlepping and the PTA-ing, while planning her son's Bar Mitzvah and cheerfully tending her husband, Paul, who's been lying on the sofa with a broken ankle. She's also secretly addicted to the...

A lonely nineteen-year-old working at a local pool hall accepts an invitation from her charismatic coworker to take revenge on a creepy customer, leading to an amazing friendship but also an introduction to pills and hustling to maintain the high. Rural North Carolina. Irene works long nights at the local pool hall, serving pitchers and dodging drunks. One evening magnetic coworker Luce invites her on a joy ride through the mountains to take revenge...

Nick Heller, private spy, exposes secrets that powerful people would rather keep hidden. At the funeral of his good friend Sean, an army buddy who once saved Nick's life and had struggled with opioid addiction since returning wounded from war, a stranger approaches Nick with a job. The woman is a member of the Kimball family, whose immense fortune was built on opiates. Now she wants to become a whistleblower, exposing evidence that Kimball Pharmaceutical...

In the aftermath of major surgery, sixteen-year-old Eve struggles with pain, grief, and guilt while becoming increasingly dependent on pain medication, revisiting memories of her best friend, and exploring a potential romance.

"The drug crisis hits home for fifth generation Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong when the son of her outlaw lover Cort Wesley Masters nearly dies from an opioid overdose. On top of that, she's dealing with the inexplicable tragedy of a small Texas town where all the residents died in a single night. When Caitlin realizes that these two pursuits are intrinsically connected, she finds herself following a trail that will take her to the truth behind the...

"Trace's relationship with his older brother Will become increasingly complicated after Will suffers a traumatic brain injury and becomes addicted to pain pills"--