Killer Instinct


S.E. Green - 2014
    urges.Lane is a typical teenager. Loving family. Good grades. Afterschool job at the local animal hospital. Martial arts enthusiast. But her secret obsession is studying serial killers. She understands them, knows what makes them tick.Why?Because she might be one herself.Lane channels her dark impulses by hunting criminals—delivering justice when the law fails. The vigilantism stops shy of murder. But with each visceral rush the line of self-control blurs.And then a young preschool teacher goes missing. Only to return... in parts.When Lane excitedly gets involved in the hunt for “the Decapitator,” the vicious serial murderer that has come to her hometown, she gets dangerously caught up in a web of lies about her birth dad and her own dark past. And once the Decapitator contacts Lane directly, Lane knows she is no longer invisible or safe. Now she needs to use her unique talents to find the true killer’s identity before she—or someone she loves—becomes the next victim...

Long Island Noir


Kaylie JonesTim Tomlinson - 2012
    She is the author of five novels, including A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries and the memoir Lies My Mother Never Told Me. She teaches in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton and in the Wilkes University low-residency MFA program in professional writing.

Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty


Christine Heppermann - 2014
    But you are more than just a hero ora villain, cursed or charmed. You are everything in between. You are everything. In fifty poems Christine Heppermann places fairy tales side by side with the modern teenage girl. Powerful and provocative, deadly funny and deadly serious, this collection is one to read, to share, to treasure, and to come back to again and again.

Scar Tissue


Marcus Sakey - 2010
    KONRATH: “Scar Tissue will make your heart race and your heart ache, often in the same sentence.” Not only that, but buying this collection helps battle real-life heartache—50% of every e-book sold is donated to fighting pediatric cancer. Marcus Sakey’s thrillers have won numerous awards and been translated into twenty languages. Celebrities like Ben Affleck and Tobey Maguire have snatched up his film rights. Now from the “modern master of suspense” (Chicago Sun-Times) comes seven stories of men and women pushed to—and beyond—the ragged edge: --* “The Desert Here and the Desert Far Away”Nick is back from Iraq, or so he keeps telling himself. But an old squad mate shows there are some battlefields you can’t leave behind. (Twice short-listed for Best Short Story of 2009)* “Gravity and Need”After having sex with a total stranger atop a $3000 television, you’re supposed to walk away. But for two lonely people, that’s just the beginning of a very complicated relationship.* “No One”The line between love and obsession is stretched razor-taut in this story where nothing is as it seems—and no one can be trusted.* “Cobalt”In this comic send-up the dotcom era, as the world panics over the last days of Y2K, one man searches for his soul. If he could only remember where last he saw it…* “The Time Before the Last”The shortest story I’ve ever written. It’s also inspired three paintings and made my wife cry.* “As Breathing”Billy Dexter has sworn off killing. But when he falls in love with the wrong woman, Dex discovers murder is a hard habit to break.* “The Days When You Were Anything Else”Frank has been many things: a conman, a hustler, a thief. But when his little girl finds herself in desperate trouble, he has one final shot at becoming something that matters.--These seven stories “contain some of the best writing in crime fiction today. You're in for quite a ride.” (J.A. Konrath). And it’s a ride you can feel good about, with 50% of every sale going to defeat pediatric cancer.---A PERSONAL NOTE FROM MARCUS---In 2010, two of the best people I know received unimaginable news: their four-year-old son had an incurable brain tumor. Julian Boivin was a superhero in training, and fought an epic battle. But in the end, cancer stole this beautiful boy. Nothing can make that right. But the Team Julian Foundation is trying to give other kids a fighting chance against this devastating disease. To help, I’m donating 50% of the proceeds from every single copy of SCAR TISSUE sold to pediatric cancer research. It’s a small way to work toward a big change. Want to get more involved? Visit TeamJulianFoundation.com.---MARCUS SAKEY IS:---“A brilliant writer.” -The Huffington Post “Brainy, twisty, twisted, and entirely ingenious.” -Gillian Flynn, bestselling author of GONE GIRL“One of our best storytellers.” -Michael Connelly, bestselling author of THE LINCOLN LAWYER“Exactly the electric jolt crime fiction needs.” -Dennis Lehane, bestselling author of MYSTIC RIVER“The new reigning prince of crime fiction.” -The Chicago Tribune

Three by Cain: Serenade/Love's Lovely Counterfeit/The Butterfly


James M. Cain - 1989
    Cain hammered high art out of the crude matter of betrayal, bloodshed, and perversity.

Sherlock Holmes: The Ultimate Collection


Arthur Conan Doyle - 2009
     Links to free, full-length audio recordings of the novels and stories in this collection. An individual, active Table of Contents for each book accessible from the Kindle "go to" feature. Perfect formatting in rich text compatible with Kindle's Text-to-Speech features. A low, can't-say-no price! Forty-Eight Complete WorksFour novels and forty-four short stories starring Sherlock Holmes, in order and unabridged. Books included:Novels: A Study in Scarlet The Sign of the Four The Hound of the Baskervilles The Valley of Fear Short Story Collections: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes The Return of Sherlock Holmes His Last Bow Additional Fan ResourcesAlso included are special features for any Holmes enthusiast, including: A list of films and television series starring the character Sherlock Holmes. A Reading Guide to additional books about Sherlock Holmes by other authors. Links to free, full-length audio recordings of all the novels and short stories in this collection.

65 Proof


J.A. Konrath - 2009
    Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels thrilller series (Whiskey Sour, Bloody Mary, Rusty Nail, Dirty Martini, Fuzzy Navel, Cherry Bomb, Shaken, Stirred, Rum Runner, Last Call) offers a gigantic 180,000 word collection of sixty-five previously published short stories from the thriller, horror, and comedy genres, including many from his award-winning series.Stories to make you laugh, scream, cringe, think, scratch your head, and roll your eyes. This collection has something to please every type of Kindle reader, and is an inexpensive way to get introduced to the author and his work.Contents include:INTRODUCTION by JA KonrathJACK DANIELS AND FRIENDSOn the Rocks - Jack Daniels solves a locked room mysteryWhelp Wanted - Harry McGlade becomes a dognapperStreet Music - Phineas Troutt hunts a prostituteThe One That Got Away - The Gingerbread Man's last victimWith a Twist - Jack Daniels solves an impossible crimeEpitaph - Phineas Troutt avenges a deathTaken to the Cleaners - Harry McGlade goofs offBody Shots - Jack Daniels at a school shootingSuffer - Phineas Troutt as a hitmanOverproof - Jack Daniels discovers what is stopping trafficBereavement - Phineas Troutt as hitmanPot Shot - Herb Benedict gets shot atLast Request - Phineas Troutt meets his matchPlanter's Punch - Jack Daniels meets Tom Schreck's Duffy DomborwskiTruck Stop - Jack Daniels meets Taylor from AFRAID and Donaldson from SERIALCRIME STORIESThe Big Guys - flash fictionThe Agreement - very nasty noirA Fistful of Cozy - a satire of the cozy genreCleansing - a crime of biblical proportionsLying Eyes - solve it yourselfPerfect Plan - solve it yourselfPiece of Cake - solve it yourselfAnimal Attraction - solve it yourselfBasketcase - hardboiled horrorUrgent Reply Needed - how to deal with spammersBlaine's Deal - parody of hardboiled noirThe Confession - horrific noirHORROR STORIESFinicky Eater - nuclear holocaust and cannibalsThe Screaming - Van Helsing livesMr. Pull Ups - body modification horrorThe Shed - some losers find the door to hellThem's Good Eats - rednecks vs. aliensFirst Time - a tender coming of age storyForgiveness - the genesis of evilRedux - ghost story noirThe Bag - what's in the bag?Careful, He Bites - lyncanthrope flash fictionSymbios - sci-fi horrorA Matter of Taste - zombie flash fictionEmbrace - gothic fictionTrailer Sucks - gross out goreMarkey - psychological horrorPunishment Room - horrific suspenseShapeshifter's Anonymous - funny paranormalSERIAL - with Blake CrouchDear Diary - a dip into madnessThe Eagle - early horrorA Sound of Blunder - with F. Paul WilsonFUNNY STUFFLight Drizzle - parody of hitman storiesMr. Spaceman - science fiction satireDon't Press That Button! - essay on James BondPiranha Pool - comedy about writingWell Balanced Meal - gross out humorA Newbie's Guide to Thrillerfest - essay on writing conventionsInspector Oxnard - parody of mysteriesAppalachian Lullaby - radioactive monkeysOne Night Only - humorous sto

Family Furnishings: Selected Stories, 1995-2014


Alice Munro - 2011
    Subtly honed with her hallmark precision, grace, and compassion, these stories illuminate the quotidian yet extraordinary particularity in the lives of men and women, parents and children, friends and lovers as they discover sex, fall in love, part, quarrel, suffer defeat, set off into the unknown, or find a way to be in the world.Peopled with characters as real to us as we are to ourselves, Munro’s stories encompass the fullness of human experience—from the wild exhilaration of first love, in “Passion,” to the lengths a once-straying husband will go to make his wife happy as her memory fades, in “The Bear Came Over the Mountain.” Other stories suggest the punishing consequences of leaving home (“Runaway”) or leaving a marriage (“The Children Stay”). The part romantic love plays in one’s existence is explored in “Too Much Happiness,” based on the life of the noted nineteenth-century mathematician, Sophia Kovalevsky. And in stories that Munro has described as “closer to the truth than usual”—“Dear Life,” “Working for a Living,” and “Home” among them—we glimpse the author’s own life.As the Nobel Prize presentation speech says in part: “Reading one of Alice Munro’s texts is like watching a cat walk across a laid dinner table. A brief short story can often cover decades, summarizing a life, as she moves deftly between different periods. No wonder Alice Munro is often able to say more in thirty pages than an ordinary novelist is capable of in three hundred. She is a virtuoso of the elliptical and the master of the contemporary short story.”

Beat to a Pulp: Hardboiled


David CranmerAmy Grech - 2011
    This collection includes thirteen lean and mean stories from the fingertips of Garnett Elliott, Glenn Gray, John Hornor Jacobs, Patricia Abbott, Thomas Pluck, Brad Green, Ron Earl Phillips, Kent Gowran, Amy Grech, Benoit Lelievre, Kieran Shea, David Cranmer, and Wayne D. Dundee and a boiled down look at hardboiled fiction in an introduction by Ron Scheer. Edited by David Cranmer and Scott D. Parker.

The Familiar Dark


Amy Engel - 2020
    Sometimes it's better not to know.Set in the poorest part of the Missouri Ozarks, in a small town with big secrets, The Familiar Dark opens with a murder. Eve Taggert, desperate with grief over losing her daughter, takes it upon herself to find out the truth about what happened. Eve is no stranger to the dark side of life, having been raised by a hard-edged mother whose lessons Eve tried not to pass on to her own daughter. But Eve may need her mother's cruel brand of strength if she's going to face the reality about her daughter's death and about her own true nature. Her quest for justice takes her from the seedy underbelly of town to the quiet woods and, most frighteningly, back to her mother's trailer for a final lesson.The Familiar Dark is a story about the bonds of family—women doing the best they can for their daughters in dire circumstances—as well as a story about how even the darkest and most terrifying of places can provide the comfort of home.

The Sisters Brothers


Patrick deWitt - 2011
    The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli and Charlie Sisters, will make sure of it. Though Eli doesn't share his brother's appetite for whiskey and killing, he's never known anything else. But their prey isn't an easy mark, and on the road from Oregon City to Warm's gold-mining claim outside Sacramento, Eli begins to question what he does for a living - and whom he does it for.With The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt pays homage to the classic Western, transforming it into an unforgettable comic tour de force. Filled with a remarkable cast of characters - losers, cheaters, and ne'er-do-wells from all stripes of life - and told by a complex and compelling narrator, it is a violent, lustful odyssey through the underworld of the 1850s frontier that beautifully captures the humor, melancholy, and grit of the Old West, and two brothers bound by blood, violence, and love.

From the Fifteenth District


Mavis Gallant - 1979
    An English family goes to the south of France for the sake of the father’s health, and to get away from an England of rationing and poverty. A displaced person turned French soldier in Algeria now makes a living as an actor in Paris. A group of selfish English expatriates on the Italian Riviera are incredulous that Mussolini and the Germans may affect their lives. A great writer’s quiet widow blossoms in widowhood, to the surprise and alarm of her children, who send a ten-year-old grandson to Switzerland to keep her company one Christmas. Full of wry humour and penetrating insights, this is Mavis Gallant at her most unforgettable.

Full Disclosure


Beverley McLachlin - 2018
    A searing look at what justice means in the courts and on the streets, Full Disclosure is perfect for fans of Kathy Reichs, Louise Penny, and Lisa Scottoline.When everyone has something to hide, the truth is the only defense.There’s nothing Jilly Truitt likes more than winning a case, especially against her former mentor, prosecutor Cy Kenge. Jilly has baggage, the residue of a dark time in a series of foster homes, but that’s in the past. Now she’s building her own criminal defense firm and making a name for herself as a tough-as-nails lawyer willing to take risks in the courtroom.When the affluent and enigmatic Vincent Trussardi is accused of his wife Laura’s murder, Jilly agrees to defend him, despite predictions that the case is a sure loser and warnings from those close to her to stay away from the Trussardi family. Determined to prove everyone wrong, Jilly investigates Laura’s death, hoping to discover a shred of evidence that might give the jury a reasonable doubt. Instead, she is confronted by damning evidence and uncooperative witnesses at every turn. Someone isn’t telling the truth, but who?With her reputation and Vincent’s life on the line, Jilly tries to unravel the web of secrets surrounding Laura’s murder. As she digs deeper, she uncovers a startling revelation that will change not only the case, but her life forever.From the gritty streets of Vancouver to the fateful halls of justice, Full Disclosure is a razor-sharp thriller that pulses with authenticity and intrigue.

Terror in the Shadows: Volume 3


Ron Ripley - 2019
    A dark ritual turns a woman obsessed with supernatural powers against the people who love her most. A possessed TV proves that old B-Movie monsters can still terrify an unsuspecting audience…Scare Street’s roster of authors brings you eleven new tales of supernatural horror, in one blood-chilling volume. This macabre collection of short stories is guaranteed to get your pulse racing, and send shivers down your spine.Each deliciously dark tale will haunt your dreams, and keep you reading long past the witching hour. But wait…What was that noise? Did something move in the shadows?Just keep telling yourself… it’s only a story.

Death of Choice: Eight Tales of Murder, Mayhem, and Mystery


Micheal Maxwell - 2015
    It is our hope that in this anthology you will find a story to love. We come from as varied backgrounds as we do locations. Hawaii to New York, California to Texas, and Texas to Tennessee; we have come together to share our love of storytelling. The characters within these pages are a wondrous mix as well. A flamboyant Knoxville designer, a 1900s investigative reporter, a neurosurgeon, a coroner, a woman dripping of Russian opulence and Parisian elegance, a detective that has simply had enough, and a Tennessee Police Chief all fill the pages and the imagination in Death of Choice. Come along with us to a Children’s Cemetery, 1920’s London, a daisy fresh diner in L.A., a fog shrouded barn, a small town in Tennessee, a Honolulu beach, and meet a collection of short stories from writers that will give you chills, thrills, and a set of tales you will long remember. Our hope is through these intriguing introductions you will discover an author or two you will want to read more of, and get to know better. Each of the authors in this anthology have many more books for you to enjoy. So find that spot where you love to curl up and read, and enjoy this collection of murder, mayhem and mystery. Micheal Maxwell Editor and Compiler September 2015