These are just some of the stories included in Bernard Schaffer's first collection, Women and Other Monsters. ***Vampires are assholes. They're not sparkly, reticent killers yearning for true love. They aren't gothic romantics who read poetry. They aren't even mysterious Romanians who turn into bats and terrorize the countryside. Really, they're just douche bags. - Room ServiceThus begins "Room Service," a dark comedy about a loser named Robbie who lives with his mom and dates a stripper. One night his girlfriend does a "private" with a suspiciously pasty customer and is never heard from again. As soon as Robbie figures out his girl was served up as a vampire Slurpee, he's out to exact revenge. Not that he has any clue how do it. But when you have nothing to lose and a bloodsucking freak to get even with, you don't mind improvising. ***Women and Other Monsters is the first collection of short stories by best-selling author Bernard Schaffer. Readers will have plenty more to feast on (nearly as much as Blake the vampire did in the story mentioned above), whether it's a Civil War Era woman too beloved by Death to die, or Ancient Astronauts who are only supposed to observe Earth, but instead tamper with humanity and trigger a history-altering event. Prepare to be seduced, surprised and sometimes horrified at the twists and turns that await as you venture into the darkness with Bernard Schaffer.***Women and Other Monsters is a short story collection recommended for fans of scary short stories, sexy short stories, superhero stories, secret agent short stories, horror stories and more.

    Taken from Little Tales of Misogyny, Highsmith's satirical, cultish short-story collection, these dark and often funny sketches reveal how your lover may not always have your best interests at heart...

    MillerNever Go Home - L.T. RyanThe Critical Element - John L. BetcherThe Dark Path - Luke RomynThirteen to None - Claude BouchardThe Devil's Cauldron - Michael WallaceCrazy Days in Big Lake by Nick RussellThe Delilah Complex by MJ RoseThe Blurbs:JET by Russell BlakeJET - the code name of a former Mossad operative who faked her own death to escape the clandestine life. But the past doesn't let go of its secrets easily, and when old enemies hunt her down she is forced to kill or be killed in a deadly conflict that spans the globe. A breakneck thriller in the tradition of Bourne and Bond, JET is a non-stop adrenaline rush that redefines the genre.Irretrievably Broken by Melissa F. MillerIrretrievably Broken features the return of fierce and fearless attorney Sasha McCandless. Someone's killing the female partners at her old firm, and she's asked to represent their accused husbands. The cases put a strain on her own relationship, but that's the least of her troubles, because the real killer is waging a vendetta for a past case gone wrong: and there's one more lawyer on his list.Never Go Home by L.T. RyanWhen a woman is found brutally murdered in a small Florida town, Jack Noble breaks his vow to never return home in order to assist the local sheriff with her investigation. As the hunt for the killer intensifies, Jack realizes his past as a government assassin has come back to haunt those closest to him.The Critical Element by John L. BetcherThe theft of a mysterious meteor leads Beck, Beth, Gunner and Bull to uncover a terror plot that threatens the country's largest shopping mall. Meanwhile, the FBI, CDC & CIA attempt to defuse a large-scale biological attack and avert a crippling pandemic.The Dark Path by Luke RomynVain, a man versed in torture and death, is chosen to protect a boy whose sacrifice will release Satan's lieutenant from the pits of Hell. Armageddon sits upon the horizon & all that stands in its way is a man whose path has always been dark.Thirteen to None by Claude BouchardHome invasions were the new pastime for Butch Kincaid and his criminal crew during their nomadic summer vacations... Drunken orgies of terror, destruction, rape and murder... Until they chose the wrong home...The Devil's Cauldron by Michael WallaceParalyzed & locked in, Meggie can't tell anyone what really happened the night of her accident seven years earlier. Now, for the first time, there's hope for a cure -- and there are those who will kill to keep it away from her...Crazy Days in Big Lake by Nick RussellEverybody seems to have gone crazy in Big Lake; neighbors are threatening violence, eco-protestors are on the march, flower children are camping in the forest, the grocery store manager has locked himself in his office & won't come out, bears are chasing dogs into houses, and a retired couple have shot an intruder during a home invasion. By the time it's over more blood will be shed & the good people of Big Lake will be left wondering just how well they really know their neighbors.The Delilah Complex by MJ RoseThe Scarlet Society is a secret club of twelve powerful & sexually adventurous women. But when a photograph of the body of one of the men they've recruited to dominate is sent to the New York Times, they're shocked and frightened. Unable to cope with the tragedy, the women turn to NYC sex therapist Dr. Morgan Snow. But their grief counseling quickly becomes a murder investigation.

    But someone has a plan to shake up Borrego that involves controlling the minds of the local residents. When Judith Sheffield is asked to return to her sleepy hometown to teach high school math, she discovers that the students' mandatory flu shots don't really contain flu vaccine. The teacher joins forces with refinery worker Frank Arnold; his teenage son, Jed, whose mother belonged to the neighboring tribe; and Brown Eagle, the boy's grandfather, to find out what and who is behind the flu-shot edict and an equally mysterious takeover bid for the oil refinery.Cover Artist: Tom Hallman

    Her body was discovered days later, her beautiful face bashed in with a rock. Police determine her brutal death to be a mugging gone wrong and drop the matter into their cold case files.Over a year later, Tracy’s sister, Sondra, still can’t come to grips with what happened. She throws herself into her work as a documentary filmmaker to try and forget the cruelty of her sister’s death. However, a chance encounter with a man from Tracy’s past rips the wound open and sends Sondra on a desperate search for answers about the secrets from her sister’s life that may have led to her death.As Sondra struggles to uncover what happened to Tracy, she’s launched into a tangled web of deceit and danger that put her on a collision course with life and death…

    

    Sick and tired of living in fear, Ruby arranges a date without her mother’s knowledge. On first impressions, charming and sensitive Cody Strong seems perfect. When they visit his home overlooking the Welsh coast, she meets his delightful father Steve and brother Kyle. But it isn’t long before she discovers all is not as it seems. After a shocking turn of events, Ruby’s world is blown apart. Terrified and desperate, she prepares to face her darkest hour yet. Will she ever escape this nightmare?

    This was the challenge we put to three Penguin authors - Nicci French, Time Weaver and Alastair Gunn. How different would the stories be? And how would the authors cope, with so much of the detail out of their hands? #Youdunnit Three very different murders and three unique takes on your travel photographer turned reluctant sleuth, Lucinda Berrington. Deep in the suffocating British countryside, the gangland streets of Cape Town or the glossy world of professional cycling, Twitter followers are meeting an unsavoury demise.Maybe next time you log in you'll wonder... Are you following them, or are they following you? This ebook is brought to you free of charge by Penguin, in association with Specsavers. Look out for other titles by all three authors: Thursday's Children by Nicci French, follows Blue Monday, Tuesday's Gone and Waiting for Wednesday as the fourth in the Frieda Klein series.Richard & Judy book club pick Never Coming Back is the fourth David Raker thriller by Tim Weaver, author of Vanished,Chasing the Dead and The Dead Tracks. Alastair Gunn's debut crime novel, The Advent Killer, is available from Penguin from November 2013, and introduces DCI Antonia Hawkins.

    Their honeymoon plans go puff as India announces a nationwide lockdown.Months after living under the pressures of joint family, social distancing rules, and work-from-home stress, they get an opportunity to venture out. Viraj plans a trip to the inviting Green Villa for an intimate weekend getaway. But something is lurking beneath the surface.Will it pan out to be the exciting honeymoon that Viraj thinks they desperately need?What is Jhanak scared about?Who is the girl in the Green Villa?Key highlights of the story:• Fast-paced narration• Non-linear storytelling• Interesting twists and turns• Flavours of the supernatural• Imminent dread, doom, and deceit

    Attorney Clay McCann admitted to slaughtering four campers in a back-country corner of Yellowstone National Park - a 'free-fire' zone with no residents or jurisdiction. In this remote fifty-square-mile stretch a man can literally get away with murder. Now McCann's a free man, and Pickett's about to discover his motive - one buried in Yellowstone's rugged terrain, and as dangerous as the man who wants to keep it hidden.Blood TrailGame wardens have found a man dead at a mountain camp-strung up, gutted, and flayed as if he were the elk he'd been hunting. Is the murder the work of a deranged anti-hunting activist or of a lone psychopath with a personal vendetta? Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett is the man to track the murderer and stop him, before someone declares open season on humans...Below ZeroSix years ago, Joe Pickett's foster daughter, April, was murdered. Now, someone is leaving phone messages claiming to be the dead girl. As his family struggles with the disturbing event, he discovers that the calls have been placed from locations where serious environmental crimes have occurred. And as the phone calls grow closer, so does the danger...Nowhere to RunIt's Joe Pickett's last week as a temporary game warden in the mountain town of Baggs, Wyoming, but his conscience won't let him leave without checking out the strange reports coming from the wilderness: camps looted, tents slashed, elk butchered. What awaits him is like something out of an old campfire tale, except this story is all too real-and all too deadly.Cold WindA body hangs from a wind turbine, a bullet hole in his chest: Earl Alden, millionaire property developer. His wife, Missy, is the prime suspect. It wouldn't be a problem for Joe Pickett, if Missy weren't his mother-in-law. Missy claims she's innocent, and for his wife's sake, Joe would like to believe her... but all the early signs point to her being as guilty as sin. With his wife on one side and the law on the other, Joe needs to get to the truth before his family is ripped apart.Force of NatureYears ago Joe Pickett's best friend, Nate Romanowski, was in a Special Forces unit abroad when his commander, John Nemecek, did something terrible. Now the high-ranking government official and cold-blooded sociopath is determined to eliminate anyone who knows about it - like Nate, who's hidden himself away in Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains. And he knows exactly how Nemecek will do it-by targeting Nate's friends to draw him out. That includes his friend, game warden Joe Pickett, and Pickett's entire family. The only way to fight back is outside the law. Nate knows he can do it, but he isn't sure about his straight-arrow friend. And all their lives could depend on it.

     Garrett Walker is a warrior. For the last decade and a half he’s been continuously at war –combat rotation after combat rotation. He’s a veteran of the close fight. And he’s taken a great many lives. Yet, all that combat and all those deaths were in the service of his country. Now, that’s about to change. Since their college days, Garrett and his identical twin have been estranged. They were both in love with the same woman, and she chose Garrett’s brother. So Garrett chose the Navy SEALs. Then, following the death of their younger brother, also a Navy SEAL, yet another tragedy strikes the Walker family. The twin is caught in the web of a Russian Mafia organ-theft ring. He was just another business man in Las Vegas on just another business trip. Then drugged and alone, strange men enter his hotel room and crudely remove his kidneys. It’s a rare crime, but one that happens more than is reported. For those in the black-market organ trade, easy pickings right? But they didn’t count on the resiliency of the one twin, nor the rage of the warrior twin. Together, they embark on a mission. Together, they put all the rules to aside bring about the ultimate Act of Revenge. About the Author Dick Couch. Navy SEAL, Combat Veteran, CIA Case Officer, New York Times Best Selling Author–with eighteen books to his credit. During the Global War on Terror, Dick Couch alone has been allowed to embed with the component commands of the US Special Operations Command. Dick Couch alone has tracked the SEALs, Green Berets, Rangers, and Marine Special Operators as they trained for war–and written extensively about this training. Now after eight books of special-operations nonfiction, Act of Revenge marks his return to fiction.

    "Gone" and "The Box" were honored with the prestigious Bram Stoker Award. Whether you are already familiar with Ketchum's unique brand of suspense or are experiencing it for the first time, here is a book no aficionado of fear can do without.Contents:1 · Introduction · in 5 · The Rifle · ss Cemetery Dance Win ’95 18 · The Box · ss Cemetery Dance Spr ’94 31 · Mail Order · ss Voices from the Night, ed. John Maclay, Maclay & Associates, 1994 45 · Luck · ss Skull Full of Spurs: A Roundup of Weird Westerns, ed. Jason Bovberg & Kirk Whitham, Dark Highway Press, 2000 56 · The Haunt · ss Cemetery Dance #34, 2001 70 · Megan’s Law · ss Subterranean Gallery, ed. Richard T. Chizmar & William K. Schafer, Subterranean Press, 1999 81 · If Memory Serves · ss Darkside, ed. John Pelan, Darkside Press, 1996 93 · Father and Son · ss, 2000 99 · The Business · ss Murder for Mother, ed. Martin H. Greenberg, Signet, 1994 109 · Mother and Daughter · ss The Spook (online) Aug, 2001 120 · When the Penny Drops · ss The Exit at Toledo Blade Boulevard, Obsidian Books, 1998 133 · Rabid Squirrels in Love · ss Cemetery Dance Spr ’97 143 · Sundays · ss, 2000 153 · Twins · ss * 168 · Amid the Walking Wounded · ss The UFO Files, ed. Ed Gorman & Martin H. Greenberg, DAW, 1998 183 · The Great San Diego Sleasy Bimbo Massacre · ss The Exit at Toledo Blade Boulevard, Obsidian Books, 1998 202 · The Holding Cell · ss Bizarre Bazaar #2 ’93 216 · The Work · ss, 1997 226 · The Best · ss, 2000 231 · Redemption · ss Night Screams, ed. Ed Gorman & Martin H. Greenberg, Roc, 1996 245 · The Exit at Toledo Blade Boulevard · ss The Exit at Toledo Blade Boulevard, Obsidian Books, 1998 259 · Chain Letter · ss The Exit at Toledo Blade Boulevard, Obsidian Books, 1998 267 · Forever · ss Imagination Fully Dilated 2, ed. Elizabeth Engstrom, IFD Publishing, 2000 281 · Gone · ss October Dreams, ed. Richard Chizmar & Robert Morrish, CD Publications, 2000 288 · Closing Time · na * 331 · The Rose · ss Deadly After Dark, ed. Jeff Gelb & Michael Garrett, Pocket, 1994 348 · The Turning · ss Vampire Detectives, ed. Martin H. Greenberg, DAW, 1995 354 · To Suit the Crime · ss Bizarre Sex & Other Crimes of Passion #1, ed. Stan Tal, Tal Publications ’92 363 · Lines: or Like Franco, Elvis Is Still Dead · ss * 372 · The Visitor · ss The Exit at Toledo Blade Boulevard, Obsidian Books, 1998 380 · Snakes · ss Fear Itself, ed. Jeff Gelb, Warner, 1995 400 · Firedance · ss Imagination Fully Dilated, ed. Alan M. Clark & Elizabeth Engstrom, CD Publications, 1998 413 · Afterword · aw

    Terry Lawler had exposed the secrets of powerful people and apparently got his comeuppance.But when DI Tara Grogan digs further, she makes a startling discovery. Within the victim’s home are details about dozens of missing women. Details that might only be known to the last person who saw them.Just what was his connection to these disappearances in Belfast and Liverpool? Has Grogan stumbled upon evidence of a serial killer who someone else has got to first?In which case, exactly who is Grogan hunting for? And does she really want to find them?

    Contents:The Devil in the BelfryLionizingX-ing a ParagraphMetzengersteinThe System of Doctor Tarr and Professor FetherHow to Write a Blackwood ArticleA PredicamentMystificationDIddlingThe Angel of the OddMellonta TautaThe Duc de L'omeletteThe Oblong BoxLoss of BreathThe Man that was Used UpThe Business ManThe Landscape GardenMaelzel's Chess PlayerThe power of WordsThe Colloquy of Monos and UnasThe Conversation of Eiros and CharmionShadow, A Parable

    Mary returned to Death Wears a Beauty Mask nearly forty years later and the result is spectacular.Featuring the same chills and heart-pounding drama we’ve come to expect from a Mary Higgins Clark title, and including an exclusive author’s introduction, Death Wears a Beauty Mask and Other Stories is a spine-tingling read and glimpse into the evolution of the remarkable career of the “Queen of Suspense.”