Blood In, Blood Out


Brenda Novak - 2018
    Rex McReady joined the Crew to survive in prison, but he also killed two of his onetime brothers to save Laurel, the woman he loves. Now in the witness protection program, he is trying to sort things out in his tempestuous on-again, off-again relationship with Laurel. He loves her, she loves him, but the breakups and makeups go on and on. After one of their all-too-frequent fights, Laurel is tracked down by Mose, a Crew enforcer. Rex comes by to try to patch things up with Laurel and, with eyes only for her, Rex allows Mose to get the drop on him, too. Is death the only way out of the Crew for Rex and Laurel?

Promises of London


Hugh Howey - 2014
    It can be read in ten minutes. Please don't purchase this expecting a novel for your dollar.This story was written in a small cafe on the corner of Bleeker and Grove in New York City on Tuesday, May 27th. The idea came to me yesterday while walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. I saw the locks on several of the small cables on the bridge. I remembered my time in both London and Paris, taking pictures of all the love locks on bridges there. And I thought about all the couples those locks represent. I wondered how many are still together.Maybe this story isn't worth your dollar. If I could price a work on Amazon for less, I would. It is what it is. I hope this will be the first of many short pieces that I write and publish in a single day while recording what I'm thinking and where I am when I write them. For those who take the plunge, I hope you get your money's worth. Thank you for all of your support.-Hugh

Black Rain: 15 Dark Tales


J.R. Rain - 2010
    Rain:"Vampire Nights" - Samantha Moon meets someone unexpected on a late night trip to Denny's, someone who seems to know all her secrets and has all the answers."Book Burning" - Two brothers find themselves on a late-night mission to burn a legendary book of supposed dark powers."The Silo" - The land is dying and crops are failing. The city of Wheatopia is in the middle of the worst drought in recent memory; that is, until a city-slicker and his too-thin wife arrive in town one day with designs to rebuild the town's grain silo into something majestic."My Father's Eyes" - Death comes to a small bar in Los Angeles...and orders a beer."The Fridge" - A man buying a state-of-the-art refrigerator gets much more than he bargained for."Die Spy" - A spy very much comes out of the cold."Step on a Crack" - An old curse gets a very real update."Two Ghosts" - Two lost souls find a way to be together."Deal With the Devil" - When a private investigator gets the wrong end of a deal gone bad...there will be hell to pay."The Back of Beyond" - Just another night in a lonely bar at the far edge of the world...or is it?"Vampire Blues" - Samantha Moon is about to discover that not all men are created equal..."Nightmare" - One parasitic vampire is about to meet his own worst nightmare..."Soul Train" - A young boy who hears a mysterious nightly train, is about to come-face-to-face with something not of this world..."Vampire Rain" - One ancient vampire takes it upon himself to rid the world of a deadly plague...himself."They Came From the Sea" - Clyde Goodbook makes a fantastic discovery in his backyard...a discovery that changes his life forever.

Stolen Secrets


J.S. Donovan - 2018
    After creating her latest masterpiece, Ellie's entire world is flipped upside down. What caused her to paint the bloodied stranger? Ellie didn’t know, but days later a woman of the painting’s exact likeness is found dead. Obsessed with finding answers, Ellie quickly becomes the next target of a mysterious killer hunting artists throughout the city of Northampton, Massachusetts. The Secret Letter A mysterious chain letter is only the beginning to an inescapable nightmare. Homicide Detective Michael Dobson has seen many things in his long years on the force, but nothing can prepare him for a series of murders linked through the same mysterious chain letter mailed to the victims before their untimely demise. The answers lie in the victims’ pasts, leading Dobson and his rookie partner on a serpentine quest through the dark recesses of vengeance and betrayal. Can he stop the killer in time, or will a brutal fate await all who have made the killer’s list?

Chasing the Dead


Joe Schreiber - 2006
    And just like that, Susan Young is drawn into a living nightmare.A stranger has kidnapped Sue’s daughter, Veda. But he doesn’t want her money, only her suffering–and he will kill Veda if Sue doesn’t follow his every command. With detailed instructions, the faceless abductor leads Sue into a blinding snowstorm on the longest night of the year, to a place she has not traveled to since childhood. The voice on the other end of the line somehow knows Sue’s deepest, most chilling secret–an ominous incident from her past, buried long ago...Across the loneliest back roads of Massachusetts, in the black expanse of a New England winter, Sue is forced to confront her most awful fears as she is met at each step by ever increasing horrors created by a monster who is surely something less than human. In the hope of saving her daughter from a kidnapper whose origin seems darker than anything she could ever have imagined, Sue will discover just how much trauma and fright the human body is capable of absorbing.Set over the course of a single night, Chasing the Dead is a fast-paced, ferociously tense supernatural thriller. With the skill of masters like Dean Koontz and David Morrell, Joe Schreiber has created a tableau of shock and horror, death and destruction, that will draw you in and never let you go.From the Hardcover edition.

Sidney Sheldon’s Reckless


Sidney Sheldon - 2015
    Sidney Sheldon s Reckless New York Times Bestselling AuthorTracy Whitney - Sidney Sheldon s most popular and enduring heroine - is back again in the sensational and gripping follow-up to Chasing Tomorrow.

Star Wars: The New Jedi Order - Dark Journey


Elaine Cunningham - 2012
    In the process, she learns something new about how to fight the alien invaders, but she must also remember that revenge is not the way of the Jedi - even which it seems the only way to fight the enemy.

Mercy


John W. Mefford - 2019
    He can't deny it. But in what form will the pressure erupt? Cooper Chain isn't just down on his luck -- he's almost down for the count. The mob wants a piece of him, and he sees no way out. It's a special week for Willow Ball, a woman who's survived her own tribulations to reach this milestone in her life. Through fate -- or a temporary misalignment of the stars -- Willow and Cooper cross paths for the first time since college. Will an unexpected spark re-ignite the flame? A shattering discovery changes everything for Willow and Cooper. The murder is unlike any other. But what will the cops do about it? Attacks ensure, chaos ruptures a family . . . Through it all, how can Willow and Cooper find the killer? But it's not over. As the bodies pile up, a pattern develops and it rocks Willow and Cooper to the core. And then someone emerges after a three-decade disappearance. Could he be connected to this string of murders? The past might provide the breadcrumbs to end this nightmare. But Willow and Cooper may not live long enough to see it through. Will mercy save a life or end many?

The First Mystery Megapack: 25 Modern and Classic Mystery Stories


Marcia TalleyArt Taylor - 2011
    Chesterton (famous for Father Brown) — and a handpicked selection of modern stories by contemporary masters, including Nora Charles, Marcia Talley, Elaine Viets, and many more! Included in this volume: A SENIOR DISCOUNT ON DEATH, by Nora Charles MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, by Art Taylor THE STOLEN VENUS, by Darrell Schweitzer REAR VIEW MURDER, by Carla Coupe THUBWAY THAM’S INTHULT, by Johnston McCulley THE IDES OF MARCH, by E.W. Hornung PINPRICK, by Skadi meic Beorh THE RED HERRING, by William Hope Hodgson DRAGON BONES, by Jacqueline Seewald THE GOLDEN SLIPPER, by Anna Katherine Green KALI, by Eric Taylor DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION, by Marcia Talley THE BLUE CROSS, by G.K. Chesterton THE WORST NOEL, by Barb Goffman MR. CLACKWORTHY’S POT OF GOLD, by Christopher B. Booth THE MONKEY GOD, by Seabury Quinn WEDDING KNIFE, by Elaine Viets THE MAD DETECTIVE, by John D. Swain THE ADVENTURE OF THE DIAMOND NECKLACE, by G. F. Forrest SECURITY BLANKET, by Toni L.P. Kelner A CROOK WITHOUT HONOR, by Johnston McCulley THE DAUGHTER OF HUANG CHOW, by Sax Rohmer ANCHORS AWAY, by C. Ellett Logan WAYS OF DARKNESS, by E.S. Pladwell THUBWAY THAM’S INTHANE MOMENT, by Johnston McCulley

Halo: Silentium: Book Three of the Forerunner Saga


Greg Bear - 2019
    Chaos rules the final days of the Forerunner empire. The Flood—a horrifying, shape-changing, and unstoppable parasite—has arrived in force, aided by unexpected allies, and internal strife has desperately weakened Forerunner defenses. Facing the imminent collapse of their civilization, the Forerunners known as the Ur-Didact and the Librarian reveal what they know about the relationship between the long-vanished race of the Precursors and the Flood. While the Precursors created many technological species, including those of the Forerunners and humanity itself, the roots of the Flood may be found in an act of enormous barbarity, carried out beyond our galaxy ten million years before. Because of that savagery, a greater evil looms. Only the Ur-Didact and the Librarian—husband and wife pushed into desperate conflict—hold the keys to a solution. As they face the consequences of a mythic tragedy, one of them must now commit the greatest atrocity of all time—a shocking act designed to prevent an insane abomination from dominating the entire galaxy…

Those Who Wish Me Dead -- Free Preview -- The First 10 Chapters


Michael Koryta - 2014
    The plan is to get Jace off the grid while police find the two killers. The result is the start of a nightmare. The killers, known as the Blackwell Brothers, are slaughtering anyone who gets in their way in a methodical quest to reach him. Now all that remains between them and the boy are Ethan and Allison Serbin, who run the wilderness survival program; Hannah Faber, who occupies a lonely fire lookout tower; and endless miles of desolate Montana mountains. The clock is ticking, the mountains are burning, and those who wish Jace Wilson dead are no longer far behind.

The Client / The Firm


John Grisham - 1994
    Children's rights expert, Reggie Love knows the deadly threats hanging over Mark and his family. Together they must take on the might of the FBI and the wiles of a cold blooded killer.The Firm He was a young, hungry law student from Harvard, They were a small but well- respected firm who were prepared to offer him his dreams. But the dream soon becomes a nightmare of secret files, bugs and mysterious disappearances, from which Mitch has only one chance of escape.--front flap

Devil's Night: A Halloween Short Story


Richard Chizmar - 2012
    It was the night before Halloween, the night we always called Wreck Night or Devil's Night back when we were kids and Halloween was second in our hearts only to Christmas. At least the newspapers got that much right. The day, I mean. They pretty much screwed up the rest of the story. I was there that night. Let me tell you what really happened…

The Man Who Traveled In Elephants


Robert A. Heinlein - 1948
    Written may 1948.First published in Saturn, October 1957 as The Elephant Circuit.First collected into The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag, 1959.

Deathmatch Vol. 2


Paul Jenkins - 2013
    31 will die.The second round of the ultimate deathmatch begins here! Thirty-two Supes, Fears, and Neuts are being held captive by a mysterious higher power and forced to fight one-on-one until only one champion remains. Which fan-favorite characters from BOOM! Studios' latest original smash hit are on a collision course against their will? The mysteries grow deeper and the casualty list grows longer as DEATHMATCH continues! Written by industry legend Paul Jenkins (FAIRY QUEST, INHUMANS) and drawn by comics superstar Carlos Magno (PLANET OF THE APES, TRANSFORMERS), DEATHMATCH is a dark, psychological deconstruction of the superhero genre that can’t be missed. This stakes increase in this second volume collecting the second four issue arc of BOOM! Studios’ highest debuting original series ever!