Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct location within the geographic area of the book.Brand-new stories by: Michael Connelly, Lori Roy, Ace Atkins, Karen Brown, Tim Dorsey, Lisa Unger, Sterling Watson, Luis Castillo, Sarah Gerard, Danny López, Ladee Hubbard, Gale Massey, Yuly Restrepo Garcés, Eliot Schrefer, and Colette Bancroft.From the introduction by Colette Bancroft:Ask most people what the Tampa Bay area is famous for, and they might mention sparkling beaches and sleek urban centers and contented retirees strolling the golf courses year-round. But it’s always had a dark side. Just look at its signature event: a giant pirate parade.Not only does Gasparilla honor the buccaneer traditions of theft, debauchery, and violence; its namesake pirate captain, José Gaspar, is a fake who probably never existed. And if there’s any variety of crime baked into Florida’s history, it’s fraud. From the indigenous residents who supposedly conned Spanish explorers seeking the Fountain of Youth through the rolling cycles of real estate scams that have shaped the Sunshine State for the last century or so, the place is a grifter’s native habitat.

    Before he met Lexi... Before they faced the witch... Who was the boy named Cole? Follow us to Dale, a city on a hill, where in a matter of days fire will devour everything. Meet the Lord and Lady, and their son, the boy destined to inherit all...until everything turns to ash. It's time to learn the truth behind the stranger's story.

    

    The first volume was featured in the "New York Times," which named it a Notable Book of the Year.ContentsFiction. Ibo landing / ihsan bracy --The quality of sand / Cherene Sherrard --Yahimba's choice / Charles R. Saunders --The glass bottle trick / Nalo Hopkinson --Desire / Kiini Ibura Salaam --Recovery from a fall / David Findlay --Anansi meets Peter Parker at the Taco Bell on Lexington / Douglas Kearney --The magical Negro / Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu --Jesus Christ in Texas / W.E.B. DuBois --Will the circle be unbroken? / Henry Dumas --'Cause Harlem needs heroes / Kevin Brockenbrough --Whipping boy / Pam Noles --Old flesh song / Ibi Aanu Zoboi --Whispers in the dark / Walter Mosley --Aftermoon / Tananarive Due --Voodoo Vincent and the astrostoriograms / Tyehimba Jess --The binary / John Cooley --BLACKout / Jill Robinson --Sweet dreams / Charles Johnson --Buying primo time / Wanda Coleman --Corona / Samuel R. Delaney --Maggies / Nisi Shawl --Excerpt from Mindscape / Andrea Hairston --Trance / Kalamu ya Salaam --Essays. The second law of thermodynamics: transcription of a panel at the 1997 Black speculative fiction writer's conference held at Clark Atlanta University / Jewelle Gomez --Her pen could fly: remembering Virginia Hamilton / Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu --Celebrating the alien: the politics of race and species in the juveniles of Andre Norton / Carol Cooper.

    On a day like today, what could go wrong?As a mortician beautician and housekeeper, Mercedes is no stranger to corpses or messy bathrooms. But the last thing she expects to find in a client’s bathtub is a dead body! Now she’s a murder suspect and it seems like her life is going down the drain. She turns to local lawyer Walker Boone to get her out of hot water.But Walker has his own surprising connections to the dead man in the tub, and now he needs Reagan’s help to clear his own name—and keep him alive…

    . . If that’s the case, I’ve got one thing to say: read these short stories. You can thank me later.” Patterson has collected a batch of stories that have the sharp tension, drama, and visceral emotion of an Oscar-worthy Hollywood production. Spanning the extremes of human behavior, The Best American Mystery Stories 2015 features characters that must make desperate choices: an imaginative bank-robbing couple, a vengeful high school shooter, a lovesick heiress who will do anything for her man, and many others in “these imaginative, rich, complex tales” worthy of big-screen treatment.  The Best American Mystery Stories 2015 includes   Tomiko M. Breland, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Jeffery Deaver, Brendan DuBois, Janette Turner Hospital, Dennis Lehane, Theresa E. Lehr, Joyce Carol Oates,  and others  JAMES PATTERSON, guest editor, has sold over 300 million books worldwide, including the Alex Cross, Michael Bennett, Women’s Murder Club, Maximum Ride, and Middle School series. He supports getting kids reading through his children’s book imprint, jimmy patterson, as well as through scholarships, grants, book donations, and his website, ReadKiddoRead.com. OTTO PENZLER, series editor, is a renowned mystery editor, publisher, columnist, and the owner of New York’s The Mysterious Bookshop, the oldest and largest bookstore solely dedicated to mystery fiction. He has edited more than fifty crime-fiction anthologies.

    Betrayal. Rage. Paranoia. Lust. Revenge. Murder. Anthony Award–winning author Hilary Davidson’s short stories invariably lead to dark places.In “Stepmonster,” a jilted wife learns that the younger woman who stole her husband may be on the prowl again. In “Son of So Many Tears,” the mother of a criminal discovers the carnage left behind by her son. In “Anniversary,” a man prepares a very special meal for the girl of his dreams. In “Beast,” a wedding-obsessed woman refuses to accept a bad breakup. In “Undying Love,” a dead man with a fading memory tries to piece together the mystery of his own murder. In “Insatiable,” a wealthy old man watches his beautiful wife seduce a new lover. In “Fetish,” a father’s terror about the sick, twisted world his daughter inhabits leads him to take some terrible measures to save her. In “The Other Man,” a bar owner realizes his adulterous days may be numbered when a cuckolded husband starts stalking him. And in the title story, “The Black Widow Club,” a young mother discovers that murder may be a family tradition.Read The Black Widow Club: Nine Tales of Obsession and Murder at your own risk.

    With little sanity left in her packed days, and with only the sanctuary of a cramped linen closed to sustain her, Cat is slowly losing her patience and her mind. That is, until an intriguing police detective investigating the brutal beating of a celebrated artist brings a ray of hope into Cat's frantic and lonely existence. Before romance, however, comes the care of the patients who pull her back from burnout to compassion:CROSS—the famous young artist whose psychopath boyfriend nearly kills her. He tries again, only to have Catalina get in his way CORKY—the All American teen from a happy family, except Corky has attempted suicide and will do it again before telling anyone the nightmarish truth behind itPROFESSOR DEAN—a victim of AIDS whose gentle courage and love of life bring the fight home to CatSTELLA—95 years old and full of piss and vinegar, but her determination to keep a 45 year old bloody tragedy hidden is slowly beginning to waneWALKER—A San Francisco bartender and father of the precocious 8 year-old Zoe, is dying from cancer. He refuses to let go until he finds the answers to what his life was all about

    Circumstances kept her from getting her college degree out of high school, and now, at twenty-eight, she is finally getting her life on track. She and her mother, Janet, share a house, and they get along well. Nothing has prepared Mariah for the news heading her way via a letter from the law offices of Hardy, Hardy, and Hardy. From the letter, Mariah learns that she was born to a teenage girl named Kathleen Warren, the granddaughter of a wealthy woman named Cora. Cora’s legacy is one of pain and loss. Her daughter died tragically, and her granddaughter withered away behind the walls of the old Victorian house on the shore. Their pain was so great that it has lingered, and when Mariah is told she has inherited the house from her hitherto unknown great-grandmother, she must contend with the spirits dwelling there when she takes possession of the charming white house by the sea. Since she was a child, Mariah was a loner whose imaginary friends were her constant companions. Now, as an adult, when she is confronted by visions while packing up her dead relatives belongings, she isn’t afraid. She is, however, intrigued, and with the help of a mysterious man named Jerry and an investigator named Sam, Mariah seeks to discover what the “ghosts” are trying to tell her.

    While the pair have always maintained a close relationship, the dynamic she shares with her mother has proven much more challenging throughout the years. Now at seventeen years old, June has found herself contemplating life beyond working at her father’s shop. Though it isn’t until she is befriended by a ritzy, older customer that June begins to come out of her shell. The woman’s kindness and infectious energy are a welcome addition to her young life the summer before her senior year of high school. However, secrets from her mother’s past begin to threaten June’s newfound happiness - calling into question all that she has ever known. Confronted with the often-perverse intentions of the human heart, the teen must uncover the truth which has been concealed by years of deceit.

    But before he was stuck in America's most haunted city, he was a teenager with a bright future ahead of him. In this story, we find Oliver saving up to attend his dream college in the fall and leave behind his family's New Orleans antique shop for good. And if his job just happens to involve robbing graves for a group calling themselves the Bone Artists, well—money is money, and it's only for now. But Oliver soon learns that the Bone Artists don't take kindly to deserters. And there are some debts that can never be repaid.With a mounting sense of dread that builds to a terrible end, The Bone Artists is a thrilling installment in the Asylum series that can stand on its own for new readers or provide a missing piece of the puzzle for series fans.Epic Reads Impulse is a digital imprint focused on young adult short stories and novellas, with new releases the first Tuesday of each month.

    In this 7,400+ word story, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson investigate the disappearance of a jewel which was left in a locked room, on the desk of the Mayor of Portsmouth.Holmes displays his deductive skills and wide ranging knowledge of science and the natural world.

    

    New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice tells the powerful story of the young couple about to get married, a mother and daughter three thousand miles apart, and best friends who could never forget each other. Lydia Madison, an artist with a carefully guarded secret, opens her home and her heart to Danny Byrne (last seen in Silver Bells) and Sara Castillo. When the storm hits memories are cracked open, Lydia’s inspiration as an artist is revealed, and love and heartbreak intertwine. This brand new short story returns to the setting of Rice’s beloved Black Hall and Hubbard’s Point series of novels, and poignantly reveals that when there is love this deep there’s no such thing as time or distance. A rare treat from an acclaimed and treasured author.

    What you don't know won't hurt you. What you don't fear… will kill you. The unthinkable has happened. We are at war. Across a crippled America struggling to rebuild in the after effects of what has happened, one woman faces a different battle. Separated from her family in the midst of a violent war upon American soil, she returns home to find her husband has died, her mother has been murdered and her children are gone. Through the chaotic torn country, with limited means of resources and communication, she begins a search. A search she will not give up no matter what the cost until she is reunited with her children or finds a painful truth in what has become of them. This new version contains the originally omitted epilogue.