A chocoholic grizzly bear, a talking Christmas tree, mince pie overdoses and a very bloody murder. Will poor old Saint Nick make it out alive? Sad, strange, funny and gruesome, this overlapping, multi-genre collection of tales has a little something for every reader. Curl up with a mulled wine and some fictional festive misery, and discover what Father Christmas really likes to drink when he wriggles down your chimney. Spoiler: it isn’t milk.

    But when a critical mission gets botched by a member of an iconic Hollywood family, he'll have to fight to protect his team's identity, as well as keep himself from falling for the woman who's turned his life upside down.Eva Sharp's the writer and co-producer for the hit TV series SEAL Security. While on break from filming, the last thing she expects is to end up in the middle of a real-life action scene--one that puts her life on the line. At first, she's not sure if she can trust this stranger in the mountains, even if he has military written all over him. But the more time she spends with him, the harder it is to fight the pull of attraction, without also jeopardizing his op.They'll soon realize not everything is as it seems, and Luke will be forced to discover how far he's willing to go to find his mark.Finding Justice:They say the truth will set you free--if it doesn't bury you first.As a Navy SEAL for a covert special ops team, Owen York has no time for relationships. But when he's forced to go on vacation, he finds himself falling for a sexy stranger, a woman who turns out to be linked not only to his latest assignment but to his past. Owen's spent years searching for his brother's killer, but now that he has a chance at revenge . . . he'll have to see how far he's willing to go for justice.After losing her fiancé a decade ago, Samantha McCarthy lives and breathes her job at the Intelligence Committee. She puts everything, especially love, aside--until one day her world flips upside down, and she finds herself at the center of a massive government cover-up. Turning to Owen York for help is her only hope. What she doesn't count on is for him to knock down the walls around her heart.Thrown together on a mission that's as personal as it is dangerous, Owen and Samantha will face their toughest challenge yet--and risk falling for each other in the process.Finding the Fight:Their well-kept secrets are about to unravel.Former CIA officer Jessica Scott and Navy SEAL Asher Hayes have worked together for years as part of a black-ops team for the president, but Jessica's close encounter with death is about to change everything between them . . .As the team hunts down her abductor and tries to prevent an impending attack, Asher will stop at nothing to protect the woman he cares about. But will his actions push Jessica, aka the Ice Queen, further away; or will he knock down her impenetrable walls?With their pasts coming back to haunt them, and their insatiable desire for one another pushing them to the brink, Asher and Jessica will find themselves faced with impossible choices--ones that could topple their very world.In this high-stakes mission, will they be able to find the fight inside of them to win--or will this be one mission that hits far too close to home?

    The trouble with Thera, though, is that she doesn’t always know when to stop – and sometimes there’s a fine line between doing the right thing and doing something very, very bad indeed.Tense, visceral and thought-provoking, Dead Girls is the new novel from Abigail Tarttelin, the critically acclaimed author of Golden Boy.

    While twisting through one of the narrow underground passageways, Leah’s flashlight illuminates the remains of a violent massacre. Ancient human remains—all slaughtered in a long-ago massacre—cover the cavern floor, along with a number of brilliantly colored, granite crystals. The rare crystals are native to only one place on earth: a frozen mountain range in central Antarctica. Could Native Americans have traveled to the frozen continent of Antarctica 800 years prior to the first known human exploration? If so how? And why? There’s only one person who can get Leah to those mountains in Antarctica: her estranged husband and climbing guide Jack Hobson. At their destination they make a stunning discovery that will change history and science forever. But Leah’s team is far from the only interested party. As her secret makes its way to the highest levels of government, a race to seize the Russian-claimed Antarctic territory brings the world to the brink of nuclear conflict.

    J. Chambers When Sidney Reilly, twice divorced and mother of two, moves to Lassiter Cove, she’s hoping for a fresh start. But the women of Lassiter Cove are too good to be true. They work high-powered jobs, spend quality time with their children, cook healthy and balanced meals from scratch, look ten years younger than their actual age, and are all incredibly thin. Then she discovers their secret: the Regimen, an invitation-only program offered by the local gym and spa, which promises a complete transformation. It all seems perfect. Until Sidney discovers the women who are disappearing from the spa. Until she tangles with the dark, brawny man at its center, who everyone seems to worship. Until her own daughter becomes a target. Lassiter Cove isn't what it seems, and Sidney is heading for the fight of her life.

    Lee Child selects the twenty best mystery short stories of the year, including tales by Stephen King, Sara Paretsky, and many more.Under the auspices of New York City's legendary mystery fiction specialty bookstore, The Mysterious Bookshop, and aided by Edgar Award-winning anthologist Otto Penzler, international bestseller Lee Child has selected the twenty most suspenseful, most confounding, and most mysterious short stories from the past year, collected now in one entertaining volume.

    Upon their arrival, they disappear without a trace.A second team, including sedimentologist Dr Megan Stoker, are ordered to seek out Alpha Team and report back their findings. But Alpha team are nowhere to be found – instead, they are faced with something unexpected in the depths.Something ancient. Something huge.Something dangerous.Predator X.

    A rich, gothic story of murder and mystery, A God in The Shed is quite possibly one of the most enthralling novels I've read in the last ten years. Dubeau is a force to be reckoned with.- --Jerry Smith, Fangoria Magazine and Blumhouse.com The village of Saint-Ferdinand has all the trappings of a quiet life: farmhouses stretching from one main street, a small police precinct, a few diners and cafes, and a grocery store. Though if an out-of-towner stopped in, they would notice one unusual thing--a cemetery far too large and much too full for such a small town, lined with the victims of the Saint-Ferdinand Killer, who has eluded police for nearly two decades. It's not until after Inspector Stephen Crowley finally catches the killer that the town discovers even darker forces are at play. When a dark spirit reveals itself to Venus McKenzie, one of Saint-Ferdinand's teenage residents, she learns that this creature's power has a long history with her town--and that the serial murders merely scratch the surface of a past burdened by evil secrets.

    Brought to Newport, Rhode Island, from her native Ireland to nurse ailing millionaire Sean O'Riley, she's living a life few can imagine. But money can't hide the tension between O Reily s trophy wife, his paranoid daughter, the eccentric aunt in the attic and the staff members who run the house. When O Riley s business partner goes missing, family friend Zach Flynn arrives. Determined to help him solve the case, Caer becomes enmeshed in a mystery that weaves together the sins of the past with one family s destiny and a spirit that watches the mansion, possessing a deadly gift.DEADLY HARVESTWhen a young woman is found dead in a field, dressed up as a scarecrow with a slashed grin and a broken neck, the residents of Salem, Massachusetts, begin to fear that the infamous Harvest Man is more than just a rumor. But out-of town cop Jeremy Flynn doesn t have time for ghost stories. He's in town on another investigation, looking for a friend s wife, who mysteriously vanished in a cemetery. Complicating his efforts is local occult expert Rowenna Cavanaugh, who launches her own investigation, convinced that a horror from the past has crept into the present and is seducing women to their deaths. Jeremy uses logic and solid policework. Rowena depends on intuition. But they both have the same goal: to stop the abductions and locate the missing women before Rowena herself falls prey to the Harvest Man s dark seduction.DEADLY NIGHTAidan Flynn, a private investigator and eldest of the Flynn brothers, scoffs at the haunted-house rumors--especially since Kendall Montgomery, a tarot card reader who has been living in the mansion, is the one to tell him the tale of a woman in white. But when he finds a human bone on the grounds, and another by the river, Aidan delves into the dark history of the Flynn plantation. Forced together to uncover the truth, Aidan and Kendall realize that a serial killer whose victims seem to vanish into thin air has long been at work and that their own fates are about to be sealed forever unless they believe in the unbelievable.

    Unbeknownst to her, this would be the start of a bold new chapter in her life, fighting to protect other women from his heartless gaslighting campaigns—and putting a stop to his endless deception.

    an intimate look at the horrors of enduring the ghostly affection of a dead spouse, night after night ... a man discovers the terrible secret to eternal life ...Anecdotes in Ashes is a short stroll through the side streets and alleyways of your nightmares, featuring the dark microfiction of the writing collective known as The Assembly, and original illustrations by artist Slade Adams. Get comfortable, turn down the lights, and prepare to have the protective shell of your comfort zone chipped away, one anecdote at a time.

    The Arnold Estate, located just beyond the village of Harrisville, Rhode Island seemed the idyllic setting in which to raise a family. The couple unwittingly moved their five young daughters into the ancient and mysterious farmhouse. Secrets were kept and then revealed within a space shared by mortal and immortal alike. Time suddenly became irrelevant; fractured by spirits making their presence known then dispersing into the ether. The house is a portal to the past and a passage to the future. This is a sacred story of spiritual enlightenment, told some thirty years hence. The family is now somewhat less reticent to divulge a closely-guarded experience. Their odyssey is chronicled by the eldest sibling and is an unabridged account of a supernatural excursion. Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated this haunting in a futile attempt to intervene on their behalf. They consider the Perron family saga to be one of the most compelling and significant of a famously ghost-storied career as paranormal researchers. During a s�ance gone horribly wrong, they unleashed an unholy hostess; the spirit called Bathsheba...a God-forsaken soul. Perceiving herself to be mistress of the house, she did not appreciate the competition. Carolyn had long been under siege; overt threats issued in the form of fire...a mother's greatest fear. It transformed the woman in unimaginable ways. After nearly a decade the family left a once beloved home behind though it will never leave them, as each remains haunted by a memory. This tale is an inspiring testament to the resilience of the human spirit on a pathway of discovery: an eternal journey for the living and the dead.

    She’s been told that she's in a witness protection program. That she escaped a dangerous magic-wielding serial killer who still hunts her. The only thing she knows for sure is that there is something horrifying in her memories the people hiding her want to access—and there is nothing they won’t say—or do—to her to get her to remember.At night she dreams of a tattered carnival tent and buttons being sewn into her skin. But during the day, she shelves books at the local library, trying to not let anyone know that she can do things—things like change the color of her eyes or walk through walls. When she does use her strange powers, she blacks out and is drawn into terrifying visions, returning to find that days or weeks have passed—and she’s lost all short-term memories. Eve must find out who and what she really is before the killer finds her—but the truth may be more dangerous than anyone could have ever imagined.

    Humorous, touching, creepy, but most of all entertaining, this collection is superb." — Tracy Michelle Anderson *** If you're a fan of Roald Dahl or Gillian Flynn you'll love this collection of unsettling stories with a twist in the tale. Get it now.

    Scarred. Alone. And the nightmare's just beginning.  Of all the end-of-the-world places he could have run to after he was burned, Miles McEwan chose Ross River.             Buried deep in the vast wilderness of the Yukon, it seemed the perfect place to escape the past. Best of all, he could carry on doing what he did best--fighting fire. But five years on, Miles is still troubled by two phantoms of his previous life: the young man whose agonizing death preys on his conscience, and the woman he abandoned as a consequence.             And in the dark forest around Ross River, fire and violence are brewing. As a small blaze becomes an inferno, a group of bear trackers is about to encounter nature in its wildest form. Elsewhere a killer is going about his work, quietly and ruthlessly. As the survivors of the hunting party are picked off one by one and fire rages through the mountains, Miles embarks on a desperate rescue mission, driven by love for a daughter who, until this dangerous summer, had been a perfect stranger.             A remarkable work, The Wildfire Season is an edgy psychological thriller, a supernatural chiller, a terrifying tale of untamed nature, and an unusual--and unusually moving--story of what one can choose to endure in the name of love.