Julian Fowles

Butter

Corrupt record company executives kill a singing sensation with a drug overdose rather than letting her leave their label and join another company. They then frame her cousin/manager for the murder forcing him to go on the run and to try to get the goods on the real killers.

The Sweetest Gift

Two neighboring families in Florida, one black and one white, struggle with the problems of race, poverty, prejudice, and absent fathers, as their children become friends over the course of one summer and fall.

Mark Twain and Me

During the final years of his life, the famous writer Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens is befriended by a young girl named Dorothy Quick.

Captive

Paul and Kathy Plunk buy a small motel in a lonesome mountain region in Oregon. Their newfound tranquility is broken by a pair of guests who turn out to be wanted criminals on run from the police. They need money, so they assault the Plunks, force them to withdraw all their money from the bank. But the nightmare just begins as they take the Plunks and their baby with them as hostages.

Leave 'Em Laughing

Real-life clown Jack Thum, along with his devoted wife, Shirlee, cared for dozens of homeless children — 37 of them over the years — in the Chicago area, all of whom come back to visit when they discover he's terminally ill.