In this novel that unites characters from "The Giver" and "Gathering Blue, " Matty, a young member of a utopian community that values honesty, conceals an emerging healing power that he cannot explain or understand.

Eight years ago, Sharlah May Nash's older brother beat their drunken father to death with a baseball bat in order to save both of their lives. Now thirteen years old, Sharlah has finally moved on. About to be adopted by retired FBI profiler Pierce Quincy and his partner, Rainie Conner, Sharlah loves one thing best about her new family: They are all experts on monsters. Then the call comes in. A double murder at a local gas station, followed by reports...

After learning that humans are headed toward his hidden home, Firedrake, a silver dragon, is joined by a brownie and an orphan boy in a quest to find the legendary valley known as the Rim of Heaven, encountering friendly and unfriendly creatures along the way, and struggling to evade the relentless pursuit of an old enemy.

In the aftermath of an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, CIA director Irene Kennedy and operative Mitch Kelly are dispatched to the Middle East to diffuse Iran's sworn retaliation against the United States.