"Tradwife scams, pickleball craze, pimping kids for social media content . . . the Freischins never met a cultural moment they didn't exploit.
Orphaned and separated as young children, the Freischin sisters are nothing if not survivors. Now, in middle age, Pearl is blindsided by a sexual harassment allegation at the school where she's taught for decades, while her sister Scarlett is left penniless after her husband is imprisoned for embezzling. Meanwhile, Pearl's son Declan, a college student and track star struggling with anxiety, quits school when he becomes entangled with a young con-artist. Scarlett's daughter, former tennis phenom Helena, needs help as well. Helena's six-year-old daughter Burkleigh, who achieved meteoric social media fame for her ability to sing like Billie Holiday, has been canceled for appropriation, while Helena, who can't seem to find a job that pays a living wage, turns to pickleball coaching in order to put food on the table.
Close to destitute, the Freischin clan is in danger of homelessness unless they can make some quick cash. Leveraging Burkleigh's talent, they arrive at a series of progressively dubious internet scams. Griftopia explores the gritty heart of grifting for survival."
"A forensic artist confronts a crime against her own family, while MAGA politics, racism, and violence rage in a small town in the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho.
Set in the fictional town of Steeplejack, nestled in the Bitterroot Mountains, Hazel Mackenzie provides law enforcement with sketch art and victim reconstruction following suspected crimes. Hazel is catapulted from observer to participant when her husband dies in an accident and then soon after, her gay twin brother Kento is shot by a member of Steeplejack's growing anti-LGBTQ community during a gender reveal party for his child.
Hazel soon discovers her husband wasn't who she thought he was. She uncovers hidden family secrets about her grandparents' forced internment during World War II, mirroring the same racism and prejudice that threaten to strip Kento and his husband of their basic rights to their baby. As physical violence charges up her driveway and engulfs her life, Hazel battles for herself, her brother, and a town torn apart by hate. And somehow during all this, she stumbles on a different kind of love and a more courageous way to live her life."
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