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The murder scene in Chestnut Hill’s most exclusive neighborhood is brutal beyond imagination. The young woman found in that gleaming bedroom has been killed with unprecedented savagery, and what follows launches Philadelphia into a nightmare it can’t escape. The atrocity triggers a citywide investigation into a string of increasingly disturbing murders, each more vicious than the last, all bearing the signature of a calculating predator who seems to anticipate every move the authorities make. 🔪
Civil attorney Teddy Mack just graduated law school and expected to spend his days reviewing contracts and filing briefs. Instead, he’s thrown headlong into this grisly case when the overzealous district attorney decides Teddy himself makes a perfect scapegoat for a panicked city demanding answers. Suddenly fighting for his own freedom in a system built on corrupt justice, Teddy discovers he’s become the DA’s next target in a high-stakes political game where truth matters far less than headlines. ⚖️
Then another young woman vanishes. Unlike the previous victims, she might still be alive, giving Teddy a narrow window to prove his innocence while potentially saving a life. As he digs deeper into the investigation the police and DA never bothered to complete properly, Teddy uncovers something that changes everything about the case. The serial killer isn’t just murdering randomly—he’s collecting something from each victim, assembling a grotesque collection that reveals a twisted psychology even more disturbing than the murders themselves. 🕵️
The revelation sends Teddy racing against time to find the missing woman before she becomes another piece in the killer’s horrific collection. Every step closer to the truth puts Teddy in greater danger from both the actual murderer and the corrupt officials who need him to take the fall. The dead room where the first victim was found holds secrets that connect to all the others, and understanding what drives this unprecedented savagery might be the only way to stop it—if Teddy can survive long enough to expose the real killer. 💀
What makes this essential: This psychological thriller delivers relentless suspense through a hero fighting battles on two fronts—clearing his name while hunting a serial killer whose twisted collection reveals depths of depravity that will haunt readers long after the final page.
Meg and Charlie Schock built their reputation on taking the impossible cases—the cold cases and missing persons investigations that made the FBI give up and move on. Running Schock Private Investigations as an all-female detective agency, these sisters specialize in bringing justice to victims everyone else has written off as unsolvable. Their claim to fame comes from succeeding where federal agents failed, though success often means risking their own lives to get answers for families who’ve been waiting years for closure. 🔍
Elite forensic sculptor Meg Schock possesses an obsession that drives every case she touches—an unyielding need to solve cold cases and deliver justice to victims whose killers thought they’d gotten away clean. When the local US attorney brings her a skull from a brutally murdered young woman, Meg’s trained eye spots the signature immediately, recognizing details that make her blood run cold. She’s seen this killer’s work before, studied the particular methods that mark these crimes, and knows exactly what they’re dealing with—a predator who’s been operating undetected longer than anyone realizes. 💀
Like most successful serial killers, this one is clever enough to have evaded capture for years, smart enough to leave minimal evidence, and twisted enough to keep perfecting his brutal craft. As Meg and Charlie dig deeper into the case, following leads the FBI missed or ignored, the murders don’t just continue—they accelerate dramatically. Another body turns up bearing the same signature, then another, each killing executed with increasing confidence and brutality, but something doesn’t add up in the pattern they’re uncovering. 🚨
The killer’s modus operandi points directly to a convicted murderer who’s already serving life behind bars, making the current murders theoretically impossible. Yet the evidence is undeniable—a new serial killer is operating with the exact same methods, more brutal and more prolific than his predecessor. The Schock sisters must unravel whether they’re dealing with a copycat, an accomplice who learned from the master, or something even more sinister that connects these murders across time in ways no one anticipated. ⚠️
What makes this essential: This riveting series launch combines forensic detail with relentless pacing as two determined sisters race to stop a killer whose impossible crimes suggest either the wrong person is in prison or something far more disturbing connects past and present murders.
Ruby Hudson used to command rooms with a single entrance, smiled for cameras that followed her every gesture, and represented an entire nation as America’s First Lady. Now she just wants to disappear into a stack of books with her regrets, far from the spotlight that’s defined her existence for decades. After her husband—the President of the United States—dies under circumstances that official reports called natural but Ruby knows contained mysteries that will haunt her forever, she’s left with a lifetime of unanswered questions, two grown daughters convinced she’s lost her grip on reality, and a relentless public still obsessed with dissecting her every move. 📚
So Ruby does what no former First Lady has ever done—she runs. Not to some European villa where paparazzi lurk behind every corner, not to a luxury spa where socialites would recognize her immediately, but to a quirky pirate-themed island called Shipwreck Key, where tourists come for selfies with plastic treasure chests and locals mind their own business. She opens a tiny bookshop in a converted cottage, stocks the shelves with worn paperbacks and literary fiction, and commits herself to the simple goal of being left alone. No press conferences, no political maneuvering, no performance of the gracious widow. Just blessed, anonymous quiet. 🏝️
Until Dexter North shows up and shatters her carefully constructed peace. He’s too young to have covered her husband’s presidency firsthand, too intense in his determination to dig up every buried secret from those White House years, and way too persistent to be discouraged by Ruby’s polite refusals and firm boundaries. This journalist is charming in that annoyingly earnest way that suggests he actually believes his investigation serves some higher truth, and unfortunately for Ruby’s peace of mind, he’s not going anywhere. He’s rented a place on the island for the summer and planted himself directly in her path. 🔍
Dexter wants to uncover secrets that could destroy her late husband’s legacy completely—the kind of revelations that would rewrite history books and ruin Ruby’s already complicated life beyond repair. As their confrontations evolve from hostile to cautiously intriguing, Ruby must decide whether protecting the past matters more than embracing a future she never expected. The castaway former First Lady finds herself torn between the comfortable isolation she craved and the unsettling possibility that this persistent journalist might offer something she thought she’d lost forever—a chance to finally tell her own truth. 💕
What makes this essential: This emotionally rich saga blends political intrigue with second-chance romance as a former First Lady discovers that running from the past only works until someone persistent enough shows up with questions that demand honest answers and might lead to unexpected redemption.
Writer Abigail Carson spent an entire year cocooned in her Manhattan apartment after losing her husband, letting grief create walls that kept the world safely distant and life’s demands mercifully muted. She’d perfected the art of isolation in a city of millions—ordering groceries online, ignoring phone calls, letting manuscript deadlines slide past as her publisher’s patience wore increasingly thin. But when her dwindling savings force a reckoning she can no longer avoid, Abigail must find a new home where her money will stretch and her solitude can continue undisturbed. Intent on maintaining her isolation, she moves to a tiny village in Nova Scotia, expecting privacy and quiet to match her emotional state. 🏡
Little does Abigail realize that small-town life operates by entirely different rules than Manhattan’s anonymous millions. In South Haven, privacy is a foreign concept and newcomers are community property—especially widowed writers living alone in cottages that clearly need work. Neighbors appear on her doorstep bearing homemade treats and persistent invitations to book clubs, potlucks, and charity events, completely undeterred by Abigail’s polite attempts to decline. Despite her best efforts to remain isolated, she finds herself reluctantly immersed in the lives of people whose kindness proves impossible to refuse indefinitely. 🥧
She forms an unlikely friendship with Liam Wright, the ruggedly capable handyman renovating her dilapidated cottage, and his seven-year-old daughter Olive, whose enthusiasm and innocent questions begin melting defenses Abigail thought were permanently constructed. Liam’s patient presence and Olive’s unfiltered joy in simple things—butterflies, ice cream, bedtime stories—start pulling Abigail back toward life in ways she didn’t think possible after such devastating loss. As the dark cloud that’s engulfed her for a year slowly lifts, she begins entertaining thoughts she’d sworn off forever—that maybe she’s found not just a home in South Haven, but love again. 💕
Just as Abigail readies herself to take that terrifying leap into vulnerability and trust, she discovers Liam carries with him a shocking secret—one that ultimately causes everything she’s been rebuilding to unravel spectacularly. The revelation forces Abigail to make the hardest decision of her life: will she retreat into the safe isolation that protected her from pain, or will she open her shattered heart one more time in the most hopeless of circumstances, risking destruction to offer compassion when someone desperately needs it? ⚠️
What makes this essential: This deeply moving story explores grief’s aftermath and healing’s complicated path as a widow discovers that rebuilding life requires not just accepting help from unexpected places, but finding courage to love again even when past loss makes vulnerability feel impossible.
Nora Newberry has spent ten years working relentlessly to make her dreams reality—saving money, perfecting recipes, planning every detail of the business she and her lifelong best friend would build together. Finally, after a decade of sacrifice and preparation, the moment has arrived: she’s moved back to her hometown of Milburn, Wyoming, and together with Raquel Madden, is opening the diner they’ve been planning since they were teenagers sketching designs on napkins between classes. Life couldn’t be better as they hang the sign, stock the kitchen, and prepare for the grand opening celebration that will mark the beginning of their shared future. 🍽️
The celebration is scheduled for three days before opening. Friends and family gather to toast Nora and Raquel’s achievement, to admire the diner’s vintage décor and sample the menu items that represent years of culinary experimentation. But the joyful evening ends in unimaginable horror when Raquel is found murdered, her body discovered in circumstances that transform Nora’s dream into a nightmare from which there’s no waking. The investigation begins immediately, but small-town politics and long-buried secrets quickly complicate what should be a straightforward case. 🚨
With no clear motive emerging and little cooperation from townspeople who suddenly become evasive when questioned about Raquel’s final days, the investigation stalls frustratingly. Nora finds herself thrust into the role of amateur detective, unable to sit passively while her best friend’s killer walks free and the diner they built together sits empty and haunted by tragedy. She starts asking questions the police haven’t thought to pursue, following leads that make certain residents of Milburn distinctly uncomfortable, uncovering secrets that some people would kill to keep buried. 🔍
As Nora digs deeper into Raquel’s murder, she discovers her hometown harbors darkness beneath its friendly surface—old grudges, hidden relationships, and dangerous secrets that connect to her best friend’s death in ways she never imagined. Every answer leads to more troubling questions, and every person she confronts seems to be hiding something. The murder investigation that should bring justice for Raquel instead becomes a threat to Nora’s own life, as someone decides that silencing this persistent questioner permanently would solve a lot of problems. Just three days before the diner was supposed to open, Nora lost her best friend; now she might lose her own life trying to find out why. ⚠️
What makes this essential: This engaging cozy mystery balances heartbreak with determination as a woman seeks justice for her murdered best friend while navigating a small town where everyone has secrets and someone is willing to kill again to protect theirs.
Prentice’s journey from honored knight to condemned heretic to exiled convict proves that survival means fighting battles on every front—against enemies, against supposed allies, and against a justice system that cares more about convenience than truth. Trained in the art of war and educated in honor’s complexities, he’s spent years mastering combat only to watch those skills become the reason for his downfall. Now every moment represents a struggle just to survive another day, whether facing enemy blades or navigating the treacherous politics that put him in chains in the first place. ⚔️
The Duke is dead, leaving young Duchess Amelia to rule the Western Reach alone despite her inexperience and the court’s skepticism about her ability to hold power without a husband to “guide” her decisions. When an unknown enemy invades her lands with overwhelming force, slaughtering everyone in their path with brutal efficiency, her knights prove too eager for glory and advancement to see the genuine danger approaching. They dismiss her concerns, underestimate the threat, and position themselves for political gain rather than military necessity. Desperate for someone who understands warfare’s harsh realities, Amelia must turn to Prentice—a convicted criminal whose expertise she desperately needs despite the dishonor associating with a convict brings to her already-questioned rule. 👑
Thrust into the front lines of a war nobody took seriously until it was almost too late, Prentice must fight to survive not only the violence of well-trained enemies who’ve clearly planned this invasion carefully, but also the inexperience and foolishness of his own commanders. Knights more concerned with their reputations than tactics, nobles making decisions based on pride rather than strategy, and a command structure that values social standing over actual military competence all conspire to make survival nearly impossible. Every battle becomes a test of whether Prentice can overcome both the enemy and his own side’s dangerous incompetence. 🔥
In the midst of this chaotic conflict, with fires raging and bodies falling, Prentice will earn the battle name Ash—because no matter how intense the fires of war burn, no matter how much destruction the enemy brings, no matter how completely everything else turns to cinder and smoke, Ash will still remain. It’s a name that represents both his resilience and the scorched-earth reality of warfare he’s learned through hard experience. The convict nobody wanted becomes the warrior nobody can afford to lose. 🛡️
What makes this essential: This gripping fantasy debut delivers visceral combat and political intrigue as a disgraced warrior fights for survival and redemption in a war where the enemy’s blades might be less dangerous than his own commanders’ incompetence and ambition.
Nicole watches other mothers glide through parenthood in their pricey athleisure, making it look effortless while she drowns under the weight of toddler demands, her husband’s emotional distance, and her father’s deteriorating health. She never wanted to be a stay-at-home parent—losing her job eliminated choice from the equation. Now she’s pulled in every direction except her own, stretched so thin that something fundamental inside her threatens to snap. 👶
Katrina inhabits the same boat of dissatisfaction, her restlessness building until she flirts with a handsome stranger at a bar and tastes the intoxicating possibility of choosing pleasure over responsibility. But when her impulse goes surprisingly awry in ways she never anticipated, she must reconcile her reawakened desires with the realities waiting at home—the mortgage, the routines, the life she built that suddenly feels like a cage she constructed herself. 💔
In the 1980s, Rose battles different constraints with the same suffocating result. She vents her growing restlessness into a diary filled with secret ambitions, documenting dreams she’s supposed to suppress for the sake of family harmony. Her words become a record of the impossible question that haunts mothers across generations: Is an unhappy mother really better than a selfish one? Can you sacrifice yourself completely and still remain whole enough to give anything meaningful to your children? 📔
In a shocking twist that redefines everything, these three women’s lives intertwine across decades in ways none of them could predict. As they confront their longings head-on rather than burying them beneath daily obligations, the question becomes whether they’re heading toward breakthrough or breakdown. Kim Hooper delivers a propulsive meditation on modern motherhood that tracks the dangerous territory where responsibility, desire, and identity collide—exploring whether it’s possible to choose yourself without destroying everything you’ve built. ⚡
What makes this compelling: Kim Hooper’s propulsive novel intertwines three mothers across decades—Nicole drowning in toddler demands after job loss, Katrina’s impulse going awry after flirting with a stranger, and 1980s housewife Rose documenting secret ambitions—as they confront whether unhappy mothers are better than selfish ones and face either breakthrough or breakdown.
Two years after Impact shattered civilization, I exist rather than live—a twenty-four-year-old woman scrounging for food in a world that’s forgotten what abundance means. Survival has become a daily negotiation with hunger, danger, and the crushing loneliness of being entirely alone. My only remaining choice is joining a group of roaming scavengers who aren’t good people by any definition, but the brutal mathematics of the apocalypse dictate that being with bad people beats being alone when predators hunt in the ruins. 🌍
Deck makes himself my silent protector from the moment I join the group. He never speaks—whether he can’t or won’t remains unclear—but words prove unnecessary when actions communicate everything that matters. He keeps me alive through dangers I don’t always see coming, positioning himself between me and threats with unwavering consistency. I try desperately to communicate with him through gestures, expressions, and the tentative vocabulary we develop together in silence. 💪
Trust builds slowly in a world where betrayal often means death, but somehow Deck and I learn to rely on each other despite the absence of words. The bond between us grows into something neither of us can name but both of us recognize—a connection forged in survival’s crucible that transcends language and circumstance. What we have isn’t pretty or romanticized; it’s raw and necessary and surprisingly tender given the bleakness surrounding us. 💔
The world after Impact is rawer and bleaker than anything it used to be, stripped of the comforts and securities that once made life worth living. Most of what gave meaning to existence has been destroyed or lost. But maybe we haven’t lost everything that matters. Maybe love still lurks in the ruins, waiting for people desperate and brave enough to reach for it. Claire Kent delivers post-apocalyptic romance where silence speaks louder than words and survival becomes the foundation for something unexpectedly beautiful in civilization’s ashes. ⚡
What makes this moving: Claire Kent’s post-apocalyptic romance follows a twenty-four-year-old woman surviving two years after Impact who joins roaming scavengers and finds silent protector Deck, who never speaks but keeps her alive, as they learn to trust each other and discover that maybe love still lurks in the ruins of civilization.
In the icy darkness of the Arctic Ocean, a violent confrontation between ruthless whale hunters and fervent environmentalists ends the only way such escalations can: with explosive catastrophe that sends both ships plunging into the frigid abyss. The survivors wash ashore on a desolate island where yesterday’s bitter enemies become today’s reluctant allies, forced into an uneasy truce to withstand merciless cold that kills without discrimination or ideology. 🌊
Enter Jane Harper: undercover agent who wields razor-sharp wit as deftly as her fists, unflinching in the face of danger that would paralyze ordinary people. As she rallies the fractured group of whalers and activists who’d rather kill each other than cooperate, they stumble upon ancient Viking ruins that should be archaeological curiosities—except something beneath the frozen ground begins stirring in response to their presence, something that’s been waiting centuries for warm-blooded visitors. ⚡
Deep below the permafrost, the Draugar awaken. These aren’t the Viking warriors of legend but something far worse: undying beings controlled by hive-mind parasites connected through three sinister queens who see the world through ambitious, inhuman eyes. Capable of subjugating and preserving all mammalian life, they spread to any creature they encounter—bears, whales, humans—transforming hosts into extensions of an alien intelligence that may have origins beyond the stars themselves. 💀
With time slipping away and the body count climbing as the parasites spread, Jane must unravel the mystery of these entities while preventing them from reaching the mainland and consuming humanity. She’s fighting not just for the survival of her fractured group but to stop an unspeakable menace that transcends death itself from spreading across the globe. Jeremy Robinson delivers a complete trilogy where first contact happens through horror, ancient Viking ruins hide extraterrestrial nightmares, and one undercover agent stands between humanity and an invasion that’s already begun. 🔬
What makes this terrifying: Jeremy Robinson’s complete trilogy follows undercover agent Jane Harper rallying whale hunters and environmentalists marooned on an Arctic island after their ships sink, only to awaken the Draugar—undying Vikings controlled by hive-mind parasites from beyond the stars capable of subjugating all mammals—forcing Jane to prevent an alien invasion spreading through the frozen North.
Alton Brown’s career trajectory reads like someone who couldn’t decide what to be when they grew up and chose everything: cameraman, chef, musician, food scientist, television personality, and cultural commentator. His work on the Food Network—creating the groundbreaking Good Eats, hosting Iron Chef America and Cutthroat Kitchen—has resonated with millions of viewers and home cooks who appreciate his unique blend of science, humor, and culinary expertise. Now, in his instant New York Times bestselling debut essay collection, he shares exactly what’s on his mind without network executives filtering the content. 🎬
This isn’t just a cookbook author reflecting on recipes or a celebrity chef name-dropping famous friends. Brown mixes compelling anecdotes from his remarkably diverse personal and professional life with in-depth observations on the culinary world that only someone with his background can provide. He moves seamlessly from discussing the physics of perfect scrambled eggs to analyzing film techniques, from exploring his personal style evolution to documenting the defining meals of his lifetime that shaped his culinary philosophy. 🍳
Brown’s signature wit and flair infuse every page as he examines topics that fascinate him, frustrate him, or simply occupy mental real estate he’s decided to share. The essays range from deeply personal reflections on career transitions and creative evolution to sharp-eyed commentary on food culture’s absurdities and innovations. His perspective as both insider and observer—someone who’s worked cameras and created shows, studied culinary science and cooked professionally—provides unique insights that pure chefs or pure entertainers couldn’t deliver. 📚
Whether dissecting the cultural significance of specific cooking techniques, sharing behind-the-scenes stories from television production, or exploring how his musical background influenced his approach to food science education, Brown writes with the engaging clarity that made Good Eats revolutionary. This collection delivers exactly what fans want: unfiltered access to the mind that transformed food television by treating audiences as intelligent people capable of understanding why cooking works, not just how to follow recipes. Alton Brown proves that food writing can be simultaneously educational, entertaining, and deeply personal when the writer refuses to stay in conventional lanes. ⚡
What makes this essential: Alton Brown’s instant New York Times bestselling debut essay collection shares unfiltered reflections from his diverse career as cameraman-turned-chef, Good Eats creator, and Iron Chef America host, mixing compelling personal anecdotes with in-depth culinary observations, film analysis, defining meals, and behind-the-scenes insights delivered with signature wit and flair that transformed food television.
Natalie Castellano has made a career out of screwing up spectacularly all over her hometown, each failure more public and memorable than the last. But redemption time has arrived, and she’s putting on her big girl panties to ensure this year’s bridal festival goes off without a hitch. It’s her chance to prove she’s more than the town’s cautionary tale, more than the woman who can’t get anything right. Even if achieving redemption means playing nice with CJ Blue—the man who broke her fairy tale when they were young and foolish enough to believe love conquered geography. 💍
World adventurer and reluctant local hero CJ Blue doesn’t want to be in Bliss any more than Natalie wants him here. Family obligations dragged him back to a town he’d successfully escaped, and now he’s somehow been roped into saving the bridal festival tradition he’d rather forget with the woman whose kiss he can’t forget no matter how many years pass or continents he crosses. She frustrates him in ways that feel simultaneously infuriating and exhilarating, drives him nuts with her stubborn insistence on doing everything the hard way, but he’s had more fun giving her a hard time about wedding flowers and festival logistics than he’s experienced in years. 🌍
Their banter crackles with unresolved tension from a shared past neither has fully processed. What starts as reluctant cooperation—two people trapped together by circumstance and family pressure—evolves into something unexpected as they discover that playing nice for the cameras isn’t as difficult as they anticipated. The chemistry they thought they’d outgrown proves stronger than ever, complicated by the wounds they inflicted on each other when youth and ambition pulled them in opposite directions. 💔
Despite their rocky history and the very real reasons they fell apart the first time, these two wounded souls have more in common than they expect. They’re both running from different versions of the same pain, both trying to prove something to a hometown that never forgets your failures. As the bridal festival approaches and their fake cooperation becomes increasingly real, they must decide whether second chances exist for people who broke each other’s hearts—or whether some fairy tales stay broken. Jamie Farrell and Pippa Grant deliver romantic comedy where redemption, reluctant heroes, and rekindled attraction collide during wedding season in small-town Bliss. ⚡
What makes this delightful: Jamie Farrell and Pippa Grant’s romantic comedy follows single mom Natalie Castellano seeking redemption by ensuring Bliss’s bridal festival succeeds despite being forced to work with CJ Blue—the world adventurer who broke her fairy tale—as their rocky past, sharp banter, and undeniable chemistry complicate efforts to save the town tradition they’d both rather forget.
Dakota Sloane and Logan Garcia are two strangers sharing a bar, united only by their determination to drink away problems neither wants to discuss. She’s a tough-as-nails former foster kid who’s spent her life running from a past that won’t stay buried. He’s a man haunted by secrets that drive him toward oblivion one bottle at a time, his only goal to achieve a state where memories can’t reach him. They’re not looking for connection or conversation—just the temporary peace alcohol provides. 🍺
Then news reports flash across the bar’s television: nuclear detonations in New York City and Washington D.C. Before the information fully registers, before they can escape Miami, everything explodes around them. Buildings collapse in cascades of concrete and steel. Fires rage uncontrolled through streets suddenly transformed into hellscapes. As radioactive fallout begins its deadly descent, utter chaos erupts—people running without direction, emergency services overwhelmed, the fragile veneer of civilization disintegrating in minutes. 💥
Dakota knows of one place that might offer survival: a safe house deep in the Everglades that her paranoid-but-prescient contact maintained for exactly this nightmare scenario. But first they must escape the treacherous city where every step threatens death. Uncontrollable fires consume oxygen and block paths. Unstable buildings collapse without warning. Deadly fallout contamination increases with each passing minute, turning rain into poison and air into a slowly tightening noose. And Dakota’s younger sister is still trapped somewhere in the hot zone, unable to evacuate before the bombs fell. 🔥
To save her sister, Dakota needs Logan’s help despite barely knowing whether she can trust this enigmatic stranger whose demons she doesn’t understand. Logan must decide whether Dakota’s mission is worth sobering up for, whether this woman he just met deserves the risk of his remaining shreds of humanity. As they navigate Miami’s burning ruins, the question becomes not just whether they’ll survive but how far Dakota is willing to go—and what she’s willing to become—to save the only family she has left. Kyla Stone delivers survival thriller where nuclear apocalypse forces two broken strangers into an alliance that might destroy them before the fallout does. ⚡
What makes this intense: Kyla Stone’s survival thriller follows tough former foster kid Dakota Sloane and haunted Logan Garcia, strangers in a Miami bar when nuclear detonations devastate New York and D.C., forcing them to escape the burning city through fires, collapsing buildings, and deadly fallout to reach an Everglades safe house and rescue Dakota’s sister trapped in the hot zone.
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