V. Larson! This 60,000 word book is an Anthology of short stories. Most are Science Fiction mixed with Horror. Others might be called Dark Fantasy... Many have been published previously in various magazines.The Barrier – What does it take to go faster than light?Symptoms of Godhood – How far can you modify a body and still call the results human?Discharged – A long war and an even longer stay in an automated hospital.Teeth at Bedtime – Technology follows us everywhere.The Insect Requirement – Great sacrifices are required for Earth’s early colonists.Blind Eyes – If we can design our own children, how far will we go?TA96 – Do our genes belong to us?Zundra’s Movies – A future where video is created with the mind, and insanity is fun to watch.Pinball – A young man builds his own watchdog.Love Aboard the Kamadeva – A love triangle between two desperate souls and a digital mirage.Starplay – A window into the universe becomes a door.The One-Way Gang – Leaving Earth is easy, but you can never come back.Rusted Metal – What has spent the last century in the basement?Lunar Lotto – Death comes instantly to outlaws in vacuum.The Rollers – Crime has been mostly eliminated by removing all forms of cash... Mostly.

    Everybody goes to Olivier's Bistro―including a stranger whose murdered body is found on the floor. When Chief Inspector Gamache is called to investigate, he is dismayed to discover that Olivier's story is full of holes. Why are his fingerprints all over the cabin that's uncovered deep in the wilderness, with priceless antiques and the dead man's blood? And what other secrets and layers of lies are buried in the seemingly idyllic village?Gamache follows a trail of clues and treasures―from first editions of Charlotte's Web and Jane Eyre to a spiderweb with a word mysteriously woven in it―into the woods and across the continent, before returning to Three Pines to confront the truth and the final, brutal telling.It is Winter Carnival in Quebec City, bitterly cold and surpassingly beautiful. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has come not to join the revels but to recover from an investigation gone hauntingly wrong. But violent death is inescapable, even in the apparent sanctuary of the Literary and Historical Society--where an obsessive historian's quest for the remains of the founder of Quebec, Samuel de Champlain, ends in murder. Could a secret buried with Champlain for nearly four hundred years be so dreadful that someone would kill to protect it?Meanwhile, Gamache is receiving disquieting letters from the village of Three Pines, where beloved Bistro owner Olivier was recently convicted of murder. "It doesn't make sense," Olivier's partner writes every day. "He didn't do it, you know."As past and present collide in this astonishing novel, Gamache must relive a terrible event from his own past before he can begin to bury his dead.

    Ian Hennessey, a poor boy from South of Market, who is trying to shoulder a man’s responsibilities, gets in trouble, and his best friend, Jamie Hewitt, does what he can to help. But it is Jamie’s young Boston Terrier, Dandy, who saves the day. This short novella comes right after the events in Pilfered Promises and Kathleen Catches a Killer but can act as an introduction to the late 19th century gas-lit world of Locke’s historical mystery series.

    It has lain in the cold and dark of the bog, waiting patiently for a host to set it free. Now, for John Cluer and his family, nothing will ever be the same again.A novelette of approximately 10,000 words.

    

    Whether in business or his personal life. Not many people tell him, “No.” Until Kourtney Deen, a striking beauty, refused to sell her business to him so that he could put up a luxury spa and golf course. Business is business that’s what Zac has always believed. He refuses to get caught in the marriage trap like his cousins. However, the day he meets the feisty shop owner face to face, he can’t resist the attraction he has for her. Kourtney refuses to allow herself to get distracted. No matter how tall, grey-eyed and handsome he maybe. That road has already been traveled. Years ago, she made some mistakes and had to make some tough choices. Now, the only two things she cares about are her daughter and the success of her shop. In Zac’s structured life, things have always gone how he planned it, but one unexpected event leads to another. When he discovers that nothing is what it seems and there are secrets, yet revealed, he learns quickly that it is not his wallet he has to lean on, but his heart.

    A serial killer is targeting single women.A challenging first case for Detective Darc and his new partner Trey.Can they catch the killer before more bodies pile up?

    as long as the accident is truly accidental. Hugo Award Nominee

    While Tolliver finds himself in jail on suspicion of murder, veteran cop Joe Pritchard and partner Lincoln Perry have been asked by the DEA to track down a drug dealer, last spotted in a small town in Georgia . . .For more exciting short story pairings, don't miss all eleven short stories in Match Up!

    One night, a carload of strangers appears on the Hollands' property, carrying the air of incipient danger underneath a veneer of pleasantries. Weldon finds himself inexplicably drawn to the group of trespassing vagabonds—who, despite being camped out on a hidden riverbank in the middle of nowhere, drive the most expensive automobile that Weldon has ever seen. In the unbearable, rainless heat of a Dust Bowl summer, Weldon will find himself mixed up in an encounter with the infamous bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde—an encounter that changes the course of Weldon's life…and history itself. Rich with criminal and social history of the American West and a young boy’s struggle to become a man, “A Dust Bowl Tale of Bonnie and Clyde” is just the beginning of Weldon Holland’s story.

    

    He was a journalist for more than ten years on newspapers such as The Times, the Daily Mail and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. Before that, he was employed as a biochemist for ICI, shovelled limestone in a quarry, worked as a baker, a petrol pump attendant, a barman, and worked for the Inland Revenue. He began writing full time in 1992. His bestsellers have been translated into more than ten languages. He has also written for television shows such as London's Burning, The Knock and the BBC's Murder in Mind series. Two of his books, The Stretch and The Bombmaker, were made into movies. You can find out more from his website, www.stephenleather.com.

    After being abandoned by her father and losing her mother to drugs, Emma raises her younger sister, Kate, and maintains her emotional and mental equilibrium by keeping the friendly residents of Clare at a safe distance. In fact, in all her relationships, Emma plays it cool, choosing to break up with boyfriends before things get “too serious” and keeping only one close, true friend. She’s been hurt before and isn’t willing to get hurt again, so she keeps her heart under lock and key and refuses to let anyone in too deep. This strategy works well enough until a mysterious man comes to town, and Emma’s life—and the lives of the people she cares about—begin to unravel, forcing her to confront painful questions about love and loss. A suspenseful, fast-paced psychological thriller, Pieces of Stone is about the desire to belong, family ties, and the fears and needs that plague us all.

    Six Edge of Your Seat Thrillers. Six Books at a Discounted Price. Death Unholy (Book 1) - All that remained were the man’s two legs and a chair full of greasy and fetid ash. Little did DI Keith Tremayne know that it was the beginning of a trip into the murky world of paganism and its ancient rituals. ‘Do you believe in spontaneous human combustion?’ Inspector Tremayne asked his sergeant, Clare Yarwood. Death and the Assassin’s Blade (Book 2) - It was meant to be high drama, not murder, but someone’s switched the daggers. The man’s death, in plain view of two serving police officers. A summer’s night, a production of Julius Caesar among the ruins of an Anglo-Saxon fort. The assassination scene, the man collapses to the ground, Brutus defending his actions, Mark Antony’s rebuke. Death and the Lucky Man (Book 3) - Sixty-eight million pounds and DEAD! Someone had once told Detective Inspector Keith Tremayne that some people were lucky and some weren’t. Tremayne knew only one thing: the man lying dead in a pool of blood had qualified on the lucky after winning the lottery, but now his luck had run out. Death at Coombe Farm (Book 4) – A warring family. A disputed inheritance. A recipe for death! If it hadn’t been for the circumstances, Detective Inspector Keith Tremayne would have said the view was outstanding. Up high, overlooking the farmhouse in the valley below, the panoramic vista of Salisbury Plain stretching out beyond. The only problem was that near where he stood with his sergeant, Clare Yarwood, there was a body, and it wasn’t a pleasant sight. Tremayne had never been keen on farms, and especially horses, although Clare loved them. Tremayne assumed she wouldn’t be so fond of the one that trampled Claude Selwood to death. Death by a Dead Man’s Hand (Book 5) - A murdered brother. A missing treasure trove of stolen gold bars. A family dying in the hunt for it.! Ethan Mitchell knew the exact amount of time since his arrest for murder: eighteen years, five months and three days. After so long in prison, many things confused him on his release, but one thing he was sure of was that people do not come back from the dead. However, one month before his release from prison for the murder of a man, he had received a letter. It had only two sentences. Time will not save you. St Mark’s Church, three in the afternoon, the first Wednesday after your release. He had recognised the writing. After all, hadn’t they grown up together. The signature was unmistakable: it was his brother Martin’s. But that’s not possible, Mitchell thought. I killed him, spent seventeen years in prison for his murder. A voice echoed through the church; Ethan felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. ‘Martin, it can’t be,’ Ethan said. ‘You’re dead. I killed you.’ At ten feet from Ethan the man reached into his right-hand jacket pocket. He levelled the gun that he taken removed and emptied three bullets into Ethan, the noise echoing around the church. Death in the Village (Book 6) - A woman with a venomous tongue, dead and hanging from a beam in her garage! Nobody was sad that the woman was dead, and she’s not the last to die. DI Tremayne sees a pattern developing, which can only mean one thing – more deaths.

    In one, a model addicted to the internet gets invited to an elite party by a stranger. In another, a high school student obsessed with death tries to quench an ever-growing thirst. In others, embarrassing sex is explored, survival of the fittest is exercised, and death is redeemed. Throughout these twelve short stories one thing is common: Olson isn’t afraid to leave any rock unturned while exploring the dark side of the human condition.