Stewart O'Nan

"In the first line of Ocean State, we learn that a high school student was murdered, and we find out who did it. The story that unfolds from there with incredible momentum is thus one of the build-up to and fall-out from the murder, told through the alternating perspectives of the four women at its heart. Angel, the murderer, Carol, her mother, and Birdy, the victim, all come alive on the page as they converge in a climax both tragic and inevitable....

Newly independent widow Emily Maxwell dreams of visits by grandchildren and mourns changes in her quiet Pittsburgh neighborhood before realizing an inner strength to pursue developing opportunities.

A woman on death row dictates her life story into a tape recorder. She is Marjorie Standiford whose robberies left several people dead. As her accomplice already published two bestsellers Marjorie wants to tell her version, which a famous novelist has agreed to write. The novel follows the women's adventures, robbing, killing and enjoying lesbian and heterosexual romances. By the author of Names of the Dead.