Eva never really wanted to be a mother. And certainly not the mother of a boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much–adored teacher in a school shooting two days before his sixteenth birthday. Neither nature nor nurture exclusively shapes a child's character. But Eva was always uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood. Did her internalized dislike for her own son shape him into...

Amir, haunted by his betrayal of Hassan, the son of his father's servant and a childhood friend, returns to Kabul as an adult after he learns Hassan has been killed, in an attempt to redeem himself by rescuing Hassan's son from a life of slavery to a Taliban official.

Called to a murder scene involving a locked Mercedes, an American marine sergeant, and drugged snakes, Amerasian policeman Sonchai Jitplecheep and his partner arrive a little too late. With his partner dead, Sonchai tracks the killer through the underbelly of Bangkok, a place where human lives are for sale and predators lurk.