Jack Parker thought he'd already seen his fair share of tragedy. His grandmother was killed in a farm accident when he was barely five years old. His parents have just succumbed to the smallpox epidemic sweeping turn-of-the-century East Texas -- orphaning him and his younger sister, Lula. Then catastrophe strikes on the way to their uncle's farm, when a traveling group of bank-robbing bandits murder Jack's grandfather and kidnap his sister. With no elders left for miles, Jack must grow up fast and enlist a band of heroes the likes of which has never been seen if his sister stands any chance at survival. But the best he can come up with is a charismatic, bounty-hunting dwarf named Shorty, a grave-digging son of an ex-slave named Eustace, and a street-smart woman-for-hire named Jimmie Sue who's come into some very intimate knowledge about the bandits (and a few members of Jack's extended family to boot). In the throes of being civilized, East Texas is still a wild, feral place. Oil wells spurt liquid money from the ground. But as Jack's about to find out, blood and redemption rule supreme. In The Thicket, award-winning novelist Joe R. Lansdale lets loose like never before, in a rip-roaring adventure equal parts True Grit and Stand by Me - - the perfect introduction to an acclaimed writer whose work has been called "as funny and frightening as anything that could have been dreamed up by the Brothers Grimm -- or Mark Twain" (New York Times Book Review).

    Death stalks these streets in the form of a hired killer named Rawhead--a shadowy yet powerful figure desperate to control a ruthless mob family called The Priesthood. He will stop at nothing to invade their inner sanctum.Author Billy Dye has finally found success after years of struggle. But now Rawhead, his childhood friend turned maniacal assassin, has reentered his life and involved him in a plot to take over The Priesthood and wrest control of the Manchester underworld. Nobody is safe in this action-packed, violent, and often hilarious crime novel.David Bowker is the new voice of British crime and the most original author to burst on the scene in years.

    Jack Schiller and I are back together. Raymond James is settling in to life in Vegas. Life is good.Of course it couldn't last.A golfing legend dies after playing poker with me and once again I become embroiled in one of Jack's cases. And it's one too many for him. He's done--and not just with me.I try to protect Raymond's identity from being made public during the spectacle of the sports hero's death by offering up myself as a scapegoat. Life is getting pretty complicated... And then JoJo shows up. What are the odds I make it out of this one alive? *NOTE: The case is solved, the perpetrator caught, but there are a few threads that are continuing on through the next book and the series.Books in the Anna Dawson series thus far:1 - Against The Odds2 - Against The Spread3 - Against the Rules

    

    . . THE LEGEND BEGINS In 1863, a teenaged boy fled his home in Atherton, Missouri, to escape the power-hungry men who murdered his father and stole his family's land. He joined the Confederacy under an assumed name and led guerilla raids in the Civil War. Then came a decade as a Texas Ranger. Now, after ten blood-soaked years, he is finally coming home. Finally using his real name. And finally getting revenge against the cold-hearted devils who destroyed his family and his life . . .This is the story of Samuel Pritchard. Now a small town sheriff with a long history of violence, a deep sense of honor, and wild streak of justice as dangerous as the guns that made him famous . . ."A riveting thriller that bristles with hard-boiled authenticity." --bestselling author Mark Greaney on Thy Partner's Wife "Sean Lynch spins a tale that is fast, fun and realistic." --Bestselling author James O. Born on Like Hell

    Box: Back of Beyond Cody Hoyt, although a brilliant cop, is an alcoholic struggling with two months of sobriety when his friend Hank Winters turns up dead in a remote mountain cabin. At first it looks like suicide, but Cody knows Hank better than that. As Cody digs deeper into the case, all roads lead to foul play. After years of bad behavior with his department, Cody in no position to be investigating a homicide. But he will stop at nothing to find out who murdered Hank. And why... The Highway When two sisters set out across a remote stretch of Montana road to visit their friend, little do they know it will be the last time anyone might ever hear from them again. The girls—and their car—simply vanish. Convinced by his son and his former rookie partner, Cassie Dewell, former police investigator Cody Hoyt begins the drive to the girls' last known location. As Cody makes his way to the stretch of highway where they went missing, Cassie discovers that Gracie and Danielle Sullivan aren't the first girls who have disappeared in this area. This majestic landscape is the hunting ground for a killer. Can Cassie overcome her doubts and lack of experience and use her innate skill? Can Cody Hoyt battle his own demons and find this killer before another victim vanishes on the highway?BadlandsTwelve-year-old Kyle Westergaard dreams of getting out of Grimstad and leading a better life. One day, while delivering newspapers, he witnesses a car accident and takes a mysterious bundle from the scene. Suddenly he’s in possession of a lot of money—and packets of white powder—and Kyle can’t help but wonder whether his luck has changed…for better or for worse. When a gang war heats up, it’s up to Cassie Dewell to help restore law and order. As she is propelled on a collision course with a murderous enemy, she finds that the key to it all might come in the most unlikely form: a boy on a bike named Kyle. He seems to know something that Cassie does not about what lies beneath the surface of this small and troubled town… Paradise Valley For three years, Investigator Cassie Dewell has been on a hunt for a serial killer known as the Lizard King whose hunting grounds are the highways and truck stops where runaways and prostitutes are most likely to vanish. Cassie almost caught him...once. Now, she has set what she believes is the perfect trap. But the plan goes horribly wrong, and the blame falls on Cassie. Disgraced, she loses her job. At the same time, Kyle Westergaard, has disappeared and Kyle's grandmother begs Cassie to find him. Cassie agrees—all the while hunting the truck driver. Kyle's disappearance may have a more sinister meaning than anyone realizes. With no allies, no support, and only her own wits to rely on, Cassie must take down a killer who is as ruthless as he is cunning.

    As Sam covers a once-in-a-lifetime story---one that has turned Webster County into bedlam but is at last providing Sam with an opportunity for media stardom---he suddenly sees an even better chance: to solve his personal problems forever. But there’s another player thrust into the national spotlight along with Sam: It’s Sheriff Billy Wyatt, who’s in way over his head. The FBI is breathing down his neck, and the national press highlights his every bungle. He’s confronting a madman---and his own limits. Can he outsmart either? Out of elements that thriller readers have come to expect, Jonathan Stone has woven a story they assuredly will not expect. In whirlwind action and hurricane prose that echo the best of James Patterson and Harlan Coben, Stone is in top form here, delivering a tale about the unchecked power of the media and the unreasonable passions of fatherhood---with a payoff that will stun and startle, yet make perfect sense.

    But a man was shot in the back there a couple of years back. The murder is still unsolved, but someone seems convinced that Allen Ring has the missing answer. Ross Bilton was one of the men who found the body, and now he's the town marshall. Ring finds himself in the middle of a mysterious conflict—and maybe headed for a showdown with the marshall.

    Warring Indian tribes still populate America's western territories, even as lawless gold-rush towns begin to mark the landscape, and two paleontologists pillage the Wild West, hunting for dinosaur fossils while surveilling, deceiving, and sabotaging each other.Into this treacherous territory plunges William Johnson, a student who has joined world-renowned paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh on his latest expedition. But when Marsh becomes convinced that William is spying for his nemesis, Edwin Drinker Cope, he abandons him in Cheyenne, Wyoming, a locus of crime and vice.William joins forces with Cope and soon stumbles upon a discovery of historic proportions. With this extraordinary treasure, however, comes exceptional danger, and Johnson's newfound resilience will be sorely tested..

    What she finds are untrustworthy strangers, endless dust and heat, and a surprising band of allies, among them a young Apache girl and a pair of stubborn brothers who refuse to quit riding in her shadow. But as Kate gets closer to the secrets about her family, a startling truth becomes clear: some men will stop at nothing to get their hands on gold, and Kate’s quest for revenge may prove fatal.

    After escaping the Texas brothel where she'd been a virtual prisoner, Lucinda Carter heads for Middle Bayou to meet her lover, who has a plan to make them both rich, chasing rumors of a pirate's buried treasure. Meanwhile Nate Cannon, a young Texas policeman with a pure heart and a strong sense of justice, is on the hunt for a ruthless killer named McGill who has claimed the lives of men, women, and even children across the frontier. Who--if anyone--will survive when their paths finally cross? As Lucinda and Nate's stories converge, guns are drawn, debts are paid, and Kathleen Kent delivers an unforgettable portrait of a woman who will stop at nothing to make a new life for herself.

    And they certainly weren’t all heroes.Give-a-Damn Jones, a free-spirited itinerant typographer, hates his nickname almost as much as the rumors spread about him. He’s a kind soul who keeps finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.That’s what happened in Box Elder, a small Montana town. Tensions are running high, and anything (or anyone) could be the fuse to ignite them: a recently released convict trying to prove his innocence, a prominent cattleman who craves respect at any cost, a wily traveling dentist at odds with a violent local blacksmith, or a firebrand of an editor who is determined to unlock the town’s secrets.Jones walks into the middle of it all, and this time, he may be the hero that this town needs.

    She has died many times . . . but her many deaths are not final: They are comas, a waking slumber indistinguishable from death, each lasting days.Only two people know of Carol’s eerie condition. One is her husband, Dwight, who married Carol for her fortune, and—when she lapses into another coma—plots to seize it by proclaiming her dead and quickly burying her . . . alive. The other is her lost love, the infamous outlaw James Moxie. When word of Carol’s dreadful fate reaches him, Moxie rides the Trail again to save his beloved from an early, unnatural grave.And all the while, awake and aware, Carol fights to free herself from the crippling darkness that binds her—summoning her own fierce will to survive. As the players in this drama of life and death fight to decide her fate, Carol must in the end battle to save herself.

    The victim, a male, has been left in a terrifying mess. Why? What do the clues left behind mean? They’re not obviously pointing to anything, and working it out is nigh on impossible. Then a second body is found, a woman this time, and the connection between the dead isn’t apparent—apart from the same clues being present. With a third body, things make sense. Someone has a serious issue and intends to let the players in the game know it—but who the hell is it? A fourth body links them all in a chilling way. What does a skull image have to do with it? Why red contact lenses? And why is a vacuum cleaner one of the tools of the killer’s trade?

    Joe Rose—rambler, gambler, and professional thief—has just hit the city. He soon finds himself caught in a three-sided puzzle that involves a black-hearted police officer called “the Captain,” the pimp and crapshooter Little Jesse Williams, and a wicked beauty named Pearl Spencer. Behind it all is Atlanta, the city once nothing but dust and ashes, now the richest, busiest metropolis in the South, mixing sin with success and vibrating with mayhem and music.  In his acclaimed Storyville series, David Fulmer brought the jazz-soaked streets of New Orleans to life. Now he brings us another absorbing mystery in a new setting raucous with music and rich with history.