As Vail races through the streets of Washington, D.C. to chase down a promising lead that may help her catch the killer, a military-trained sniper takes aim at his target, a wealthy businessman’s son. But what brings these two unrelated offenders together is something the nation’s capital has never before experienced. About Karen Vail in Fatal Twist:"My kind of hero." –Michael Connelly, best selling author "A hell of a lady: tough, smart, funny, and very believable"—Nelson DeMille “Compelling” by James PattersonAlan Jacobson received several years of personalized training from two senior FBI Profilers at the Behavioral Analysis Unit in Quantico. Fatal Twist, like Jacobson’s Karen Vail novels The 7th Victim, Crush, Velocity, and Inmate 1577, brings real characters to the page—and in the process takes readers on a thrilling ride that culminates in an ending that leaves them satisfied…and wanting more.

    But once the two rival reporters headed down to steamy New Orleans to investigate a murder, Matt Bates was determined to make his lovely adversary his willing partner in passion.

    On the Rocks - Suicide or murder? Lt. Jack Daniels solves a locked room mystery.Whelp Wanted - P.I. Harry McGlade becomes a dognapper in order to stop a dognapper, or something like that.Street Music - Phineas Troutt hunts a prostitute through the dangerous streets of Chicago. Are his intentions pure?The One That Got Away - The Gingerbread Man (the villain from WHISKEY SOUR) hunts one final victim.With a Twist - It looked like the man fell from a great height, but the body is in his living room. Jack Daniels solves another impossible crime.Epitaph - Phin Troutt takes on a Chicago street gang with vengeance on his mind.Taken to the Cleaners - Harry McGlade tries to solve a difficult mystery, but mostly just goofs off.Body Shots - Jack Daniels faces her most challenging case yet; a school shooting. But does she know more about the perp than she realizes?Suffer - Phineas Troutt has taken some questionable jobs, but will he murder a man's wife?School Daze - P.I. Harry McGlade investigates a private school, but he's not entirely sure why.Overproof - While shopping on the Gold Coast, Jack Daniels notices traffic has come to a stand-still. When she realizes what the problem is, she's confronted with her own mortality, and the possible deaths of hundreds.Bereavement - How badly does Phineas Troutt need a fix? What is he willing to do?Pot Shot - Detective Herb Benedict just wants a home cooked meal. But his plans get interrupted by a very determined sniper.Last Request - Phineas Troutt picks up a hitchhiker, with deadly results.The Necro File - Harry McGlade investigates some bizarre murders in this hilarious, gore-filled mini-epic. (Author's note: This is easily the funniest thing I've ever written, but it's also very offensive. Let the reader beware...)That's about 65,000 words of Jack Daniels and friends. Also included in this collection are excerpts from some of Jack's other adventures, including:An excerpt from Truck Stop by J.A. Konrath and Jack Kilborn, where Jack finds herself dueling with two serial killers at once.An excerpt from Floaters by J.A. Konrath and Henry Perez, where Jack joins forces with Chicago reporter Alex Chapa to solve a bizarre disappearance.An excerpt from Planter's Punch by J.A. Konrath and Tom Schreck, where Jack travels to NY and befriends professional boxer Duffy Dombrowski to break an extortion ring.And excerpt from Suckers by J.A. Konrath and Jeff Strand, where Harry McGlade reluctantly teams up with Andrew Mayhem. Hilarity ensues.

    OFF THE GRID offers four short stories and one novella. All but one, feature Kava’s critically acclaimed FBI profiler, Special Agent Maggie O’Dell. In Goodnight Sweet Mother, Maggie O’Dell and her mother’s road trip takes a chilling and an unexpected detour. A Breath of Hot Air puts Maggie’s forensic skills to work. While in Pensacola, Florida, for another investigation she’s awakened in the middle of the night when a man is found dead in the same hotel. Cold Metal Night brings Maggie back together with Nick Morrelli (A Perfect Evil) to chase a cold-blooded killer who’s targeting homeless people. Electric Blue drops Maggie and her partner, R.J. Tully, into a dangerous storm on the Gulf of Mexico to help track a United States senator’s family that has gone missing. And finally, in After Dark, corporate executive, Madeline Kramer hopes to escape for a much needed vacation. All she wants is the quiet and solitude the cabin in the woods promises. Be careful what you ask for. Also included: A list of where these Maggie O’Dell short works fit chronologically in the series. Although they can be read and enjoyed individually, some were meant to be companion pieces to various novels in the series. NOTE: All of these short works have been previously published in separate anthologies or as a larger ebook. This is the first time they are being offered all together in one collection.

    and the ex-husband of Krista Hart, partner in Moreno & Hart Investigations. He cheated on her weeks after their wedding and Krista swore she’d never see him again ... but when he wants to hire her to find out who’s stalking him, she takes the case ... against her better judgment. Krista and her partner Scarlet Moreno drive up to an exclusive Bear Mountain resort only to learn that there’s no room reserved for them—and they’re forced to stay in Adam’s suite. The entourage that follows Adam thinks he’s overreacting, and all Adam wants to do is play; he’s not acting like the scared over-grown kid Krista had spoken to on the phone. She wants to leave ... until someone breaks into Adam’s suite. Scarlet has her own troubles, including her obsession with the ambush that nearly killed her and Krista three years ago—and a boyfriend who has suddenly become distant and moody. But the one thing she never has a problem with is getting the truth out of dirtbags, and while Krista digs around into Adam’s life and background to find out if there is a genuine threat, Scarlet interrogates everyone who might have information—when she’s not protecting Adam from his own stupidity. Is Adam’s alleged stalker just a publicity stunt to gain him press before his big movie premiere? Or is someone really out to get him? Who’s lying ... and who’s telling the truth? It’s up to Scarlet and Krista to not only find answers, but stop a violent plot with far-reaching consequences.

    Its owner, Melissa Gibbons, has gone missing. Her husband says she flew the coop. But Los Angeles Deputy DA Rachel Knight is convinced otherwise: Melissa Gibbons has been murdered. So begins the confounding case that Rachel must present before a disbelieving jury. A dissatisfied heiress and her philandering husband-- what really happened? The husband has a fiendishly convincing case that Melissa faked her own death and fled. But with the support of her trusty sidekick, Detective Bailey Keller, Rachel pieces together a much more sinister truth. In this short, standalone Rachel Knight thriller, readers follow our savvy and riotously entertaining heroine through the surprising world of LA crime.

    Twenty-five years ago, The Major emerged a hero from the bombing of the Pegasus Hotel in downtown Dallas when he was photographed leading a handful of survivors out of the collapsing building. The iconic picture transformed him into a beloved national icon, in constant demand for speeches and interviews--until he suddenly dropped out of the public eye, shunning all members of the media. However, Kerra is willing to use any means necessary to get to The Major--even if she has to wrangle an introduction from his estranged son, former ATF agent John Trapper. Still seething over his break with both the ATF and his father, John Trapper wants no association with the hotel bombing or his hero father, and spurns the meddling reporters determined to drag them back into the limelight. Yet Kerra's sheer audacity and tantalizing hints that there's more to the story rouse Trapper's interest despite himself. And when her interview of a lifetime goes catastrophically awry--with unknown assailants targeting not only The Major, but also Kerra--Trapper realizes he needs her under wraps if he's going to track down the gunmen before they strike again . . . as well as discover, finally, who was responsible for the Pegasus bombing. Kerra is wary of a man so charming one moment and dangerous the next, and she knows Trapper is withholding evidence collected during his ATF investigation into the bombing. But having no one else to trust and enemies lurking closer than they know, Kerra and Trapper join forces and risk their very lives to expose a sinuous network of lies and conspiracy running deep through Texas--and uncover who would want a national hero dead.

    Reeling from the recent death of her mother, and nervous about meeting her dad for the first time, she could hardly be less excited at the prospect of starting this new chapter of her life. With its balmy weather and relaxed Southern atmosphere, South Carolina feels like a foreign country compared to Tory’s native New England. But her worries begin to fade once she lays eyes on rugged, mysterious Morris Island, and three quirky boys who are as lively and curious as Tory herself. Maybe—just maybe—this new home has something wonderful in store for her after all.In this glimpse into the world of the Virals before they became Virals, sometimes what seems like an ending is only the start.

    He has committed a crime to get back to work, concealed a debilitating illness and is about to be made homeless. Just as he thinks things can’t get any worse, the body of a young woman is found buried on a wet, Cumbrian building site. Shot once in the back of the head, execution style, it is a cold, calculated murder. When the post-mortem reveals she has gone to significant expense in disguising her appearance, and the only clue to her identity is a strange series of numbers, Fluke knows this is no ordinary murder. With the help of a psychotic ex-Para, a gangland leader and a woman more interested in maggots than people, Fluke must find out who she was and why she was murdered before he can even think about finding her killer. As the body count rises and his investigation takes him from poverty stricken estates to picture perfect Lake District villages, he realises his troubles are only just beginning. Because someone, somewhere has a plan and if Fluke can’t figure out what’s happening, he may just be next.

    Effortlessly, the assassin slips through the police's fingers, and his absence sparks a blaze of accusations about who ordered the hit.Seated at a nearby table, reporter Nick Daniels is conducting a once-in-a-lifetime interview with a legendary baseball bad-boy. In the chaos, he accidentally captures a key piece of evidence that lands him in the middle of an all-out war between Italian and Russian mafia forces. NYPD captains, district attorneys, mayoral candidates, media kingpins, and one shockingly beautiful magazine editor are all pushing their own agendas - on both sides of the law.Back off - or die - is the clear message Nick receives as he investigates for a story of his own. Heedless, and perhaps in love with his beautiful editor, Nick endures humiliation, threats, violence, and worse in a thriller that overturns every expectation and finishes with the kind of flourish only James Patterson knows.

    The details prove curious -- not only are the bodies savaged way beyond anything found at a normal murder scene, every mirror in the house has been shattered. The spectacle shocks a peaceful island community, and when local police turn to the FBI for assistance, Agent Violet Darger finds herself working another harrowing crime scene. She stares, once more, into the abyss, and mankind's warped reflection stares back.

    Many of his cases are those that the police are unable or unwilling to solve, but the job that brings him to a small-town in Ohio has already been solved. A teenage boy has been arrested and convicted for murder, but his parents are convinced that he didn’t commit the crime—and offer a reward to anyone who can prove it. Colter’s investigation into the murder, the shooting of a local drug dealer, brings him deep into a small-town conspiracy, with plenty of members who will go to any lengths to keep Shaw from learning the truth.

    Ellison.One terrifying storm; three thrilling tales.They call it an Alberta Clipper – a massive storm system that rides the jet stream southward from Canada and across the United States. It’s early October, and this storm is unleashing its fury from Illinois to Florida – where it collides with a tropical disturbance and rages up the eastern seaboard. In the midst of the wind, rain and snow, Rockford Homicide Detective M.C. Riggio, FBI profiler Maggie O’Dell, and Nashville Homicide Lieutenant Taylor Jackson find themselves fighting not just the elements, but three diabolical killers ...Rockford, Illinois – A young co-ed’s body is pulled from the Rock River, and Violent Crimes Bureau Detective Mary Catherine “M.C.” Riggio and her partner, Kitt Lundgren, quickly learn that things are not always as they appear at first glance. When it’s determined that the girl’s death was no accident, the detectives start collecting information about her life – and discover a connection that hits too close to home for M.C. With a major winter weather system moving in and threatening to shut down the city, M.C. and Kitt race to fit together the scattered pieces of a chilling puzzle – one that may prove more devastating than the storm.Pensacola, Florida – FBI Agent Maggie O’Dell is about to do something she swore she’d never do again: climb into a helicopter. Worse, that helicopter is about to take her out over the Gulf of Mexico, in the face of a nasty storm system that has already dumped rain and snow in record-breaking amounts across the eastern half of the country. But a U.S. Senator’s family has gone missing aboard their houseboat, and Maggie and her partner, R.J. Tully, have been dispatched from Washington, D.C. to accompany the rescue crew on their search. While Tully remains on shore to ferret out clues as to what happened to the boat, Maggie flies out with the Coast Guard to find it. With wind and rain threatening to knock their chopper out of the sky, Maggie and Coast Guard rescue swimmer Liz Bailey board the houseboat in an effort to save the Senator’s family – only to discover an even greater danger on board.Washington, D.C. – Metro Nashville Homicide Lieutenant Taylor Jackson has reluctantly agreed to take the place of her fiancé, FBI profiler John Baldwin, as a presenter at the annual Freedom Conference – a foreign intelligence initiative attended by the best in the business of ‘clandestine services’. Then a blizzard effectively isolates their hotel on Chesapeake Bay – no power, no generators, and no possibility of outside help. When two guests go missing, and one of them is found dead in his room, Taylor discovers an assassin amongst the spies – one with a deadly score to settle.In STORM SEASON, Erica Spindler, Alex Kava and J.T. Ellison team up to bring you their most exciting thriller novella yet!

    At least that is what she's always believed.Everyone has secretsUntil the day she arrives at her childhood home to find a house ringing with silence. Her mother is hanging from a tree. Her father is lying in a pool of his own blood, near to death.Especially those closest to you The police are convinced it is an attempted murder-suicide. But Sophia is sure that the woman who brought her up isn't a killer. As her father is too ill to talk it is up to Sophia to clear her mother's name. And to do this she needs to delve deep into her family's past - a past full of dark secrets she never suspected were there . . .What if your parents had been lying to you since the day you were born?

    Novelist Andrew Thomas finds his peaceful life transformed into a nightmare by a mysterious killer who has framed him for the murder of a young woman whose body is buried on his property, covered in Andrew's blood, and who threatens to turn Andrew over to the police unless he does what his unknown adversary wants.