Glory Boughton, aged thirty-eight, has returned to Gilead to care for her dying father. Soon her brother, Jack--the prodigal son of the family, gone for twenty years--comes home too, looking for refuge and trying to make peace with a past littered with tormenting trouble and pain.

"Everyone has a secret they'll do anything to hide... Twenty-five years ago, the body of sixteen-year-old Eve Knox was found in the caves near her home in small-town Grotto, Iowa -- discovered by her best friend, Maggie, and her sister, Nola. There were a handful of suspects, including her boyfriend, Nick, but without sufficient evidence the case ultimately went cold. For decades Maggie was haunted by Eve's death and that horrible night. Now a detective...

As anti-German sentiment during WWI threatens to tear apart the peaceful life of the Amana Colonies, the families must rally to protect their own.

Veteran social worker Ellen Moore is a fiercely dedicated children's advocate and a devoted mother and wife. But one blistering summer day, a simple moment of distraction will have repercussions that Ellen could never have imagined, threatening to shatter everything she holds dear, and trapping her between the gears of the system she works for. Meanwhile, ten-year-old Jenny Briard suddenly finds herself on her own, forced to survive with nothing but...

Silver-tongued con artist Harold Hill hoodwinks the stubborn townsfolk of River City, Iowa, into buying instruments and uniforms for a boy's band, but his game ultimately and romantically backfires.

Family patriarch Walter Langdon has died, and his children have fanned out across the country. The narrative moves year by year from 1953 to 1986, encompassing Cold War blinkeredness, Sixties rebellion, and escalating wealth into the Eighties.

The happily married owner of two successful boutiques, Jade longs to begin a family. But when she discovers that her husband has an illegitimate son and wants her to help raise him, Jade's life turns upside down. She flees to her childhood home, a rambling Iowa farmhouse with room enough to breathe. There - while her mother's health grows fragile - Jade begins to question everything she thought she knew about family, love, and motherhood.

Some things don't stay buried. It starts with a body--a young woman found dead in an Iowa cornfield, on one of the few family farms still managing to compete with the giants of Big Agriculture. When Sergeant Riley Fisher, newly promoted to head of investigations for the Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office, arrives on the scene, an already horrific crime becomes personal when she discovers the victim was a childhood friend, connected to a dark past...

Located in the heart of the Midwest, Iowa is filled with sprawling farms and welcoming communities. Readers will see what makes the state so great, from its local cuisine to its unique celebrations. They will also find out how Iowas government works.