But when she and her all-female crew answer a mysterious distress call during a tropical storm, they stumble across an abandoned yacht worth millions. It seems like a dream come true, the Lotto, the Big Ticket to all their dreams... Until they discover what's waiting for them inside the ship... DERELICT A horror novella by Todd Travis

    In his particular case, the drug of choice is religion. Now with his wife dead and city officials to blame, Mayton is out for revenge. In order to commit the atrocities necessary to spread his message of justice, he must change his ways and become the evil he has always abhorred.Pittsburgh Homicide Detective Jackson Channing is struggling to break free from his own addiction. His alcoholism may have already cost him his marriage and now threatens to sweep away his sanity. Ever since he and his partner were brutally tortured by a sadistic murderer, his life has spun out of control. Following a failed suicide attempt, Channing - a former distance runner - decides his life must have some meaning and the only way he can put the pieces back together is to break free of his addiction and commit acts of redemption.When the body of a city official is discovered in a public location, the entire city of Pittsburgh bears witness to a form of evil that is difficult to comprehend. Channing learns the killer is patient, methodical, and precise. In order to stop the killing, Channing will have to pull his life together and come to terms with a secret that is tearing him apart.With each chapter of this thriller representing one of the 12 steps of addiction recovery, Measure Twice is a story of personal struggle, revenge, and the search for redemption.Pay attention throughout this heart-pounding pursuit. The details are important because every cut is lethal.

    They travel to a mountain hideaway to celebrate their first year together as a family when things begin to unravel. Her husband goes missing after a treacherous car accident, and the wife and daughter seem trapped and isolated, and stalked from both inside and outside the cabin. What ensues is the story of a woman driven by her soulless greed and self entitlement, and a man who is wronged and apparently out to get revenge. This deadly game of cat and mouse will keep you on the edge of your seat. The macabre scenes include deadly traps and medieval torture devices, hidden doors, secret rooms, and an underground labyrinth of torture chambers. Add in the legend of a hoard of pure gold bars, and it becomes clear that someone has a much bigger plan in mind and will let nothing get in their way. But who? This is the story of a plot so devious that it is set up to fool the State police investigation. But can it fool you? Keep guessing until the final scene as to what is really going on and let your intuition guide you.

    They invite readers to follow the clues and sketches to solve crimes in their hometown of Lakewood Hills. All of the books in the “Can You Solve the Mystery” series contain 9-10 short mysteries, this is a free sample of one of those stories. Readers are given written clues as well as visual clues to help them solve the crime. The answers and a brief wrap-up are given in the back of the book.

    Even the high cost of tuition can’t damper her enthusiasm. Luck continues to be on her side when she finds the perfect place to live, a beautiful house that is close to campus and within her meager budget.But when Shelly moves into the large Victorian house at 1020 Sycamore Lane, strange things begin to occur. Unexplained noises that wake her up at night and a flowery odor that fills her bedroom at odd times. When she sees a frightening apparition emerge from her basement, she finally concedes that it is not her imagination playing tricks on her. It isn’t long before Shelly realizes her dream of attending Pennwood has become a nightmare. She turns to the only person who can help, Dr. Larry Barnett, Pennwood University’s only parapsychologist. Together they embark on a journey to discover the identity of the spirit haunting Shelly’s house. But as the haunting escalates and events turn violent, it soon becomes apparent that it will take more than Shelly and Dr. Barnett to put the spirits at 1020 Sycamore Lane to rest.

    His memory has been slipping, and he worries that soon he won’t remember her at all.When he finds a vintage cigar box hidden in June’s old dresser, he begins to obsess over the odd collection of knick-knacks contained inside it — but his journey to remember the past will take a horrifying turn for the worse.

    But I think I'm the one it's waiting for.” Two years ago, Rita Bone's sister vanished after a series of bizarre, violent incidents near their home. Now Rita is old enough to search for Shannon herself, and she starts by taking a job at the same all-night store. Soon, however, she starts to hear strange stories about a powerful force that lives in the nearby forest, and she realizes that finding her sister might mean going past the line of trees and entering the darkness. Something is alive in the forest. Something hungry. As Rita's search continues, the forest reaches out to claim fresh victims. A local serial killer suffers a freak accident that puts him in a coma, and when he wakes up he finds himself experiencing a series of horrific visions. Meanwhile, echoes of the past start to leak into the present, leading Rita to make a terrifying journey. What lurks in the heart of the forest? What did it do to Rita's sister? And why do those who enter the forest never return? At the Edge of the Forest is a horror fantasy novel about a girl who sets out to find her sister, and about the darkness left behind by a centuries-old effort to save a dying child.

    Ryan believes all good short stories should have unexpected twists and turns. Applying his thriller techniques he manages to achieve this end. Readers will find Ryan’s short story writing gripping and easy to read.In this first collection one of the short story’s ‘Ruth’ was included in an anthology recently published in the USA.Quoting a recent reviewer, ‘these are very intriguing, original stories, all well written and enjoyable. Ryan really gets inside his characters and makes their world our world, whatever its moral code or unwritten rules. These stories are powerful and stay with you once you've finished them.’Short Stories by Thomas Ryan are a must read.

    This peaceful life is upended when death comes to town. And not just any death. O'Hara's career is on the line as the corpse of a US Senator is found. The Senator, while searching for his ancestors, has uncovered an old, still burning hatred from the time of the Great Famine. Dermot needs all the help he can get to solve the crime but as he starts to unravel the mystery it becomes clear that those around him are not what they seem. This first book in the series introduces us to Dermot, his long suffering wife Jo and his disreputable friends in the local bar.

    Soldier” program, Maggie Flynn begins to write to a soldier, Gage McDermott, deployed in Afghanistan. What started as merely writing innocent letters to the Infantryman would soon turn very complicated when Gage shows up on her doorstep for an unannounced visit. There were a few minor details Maggie neglected to tell Gage when she’d written to him and those minute details would complicate her once simple existence beyond belief.

    Sometimes we tell these stories to make people laugh. Sometimes we tell them to make people think. Sometimes we tell them so we can increase the chances we'll see the other person naked.Paul Shirley's stories are about an adulthood spent all over the world: living in Spain, playing in the NBA, and having his heart (and spleen) broken. But they're also stories about growing up in small-town Kansas: triumphant spelling bees, catastrophic middle school dances, and a Sex Ed. class taught by his mother.They're funny stories. They're vulnerable stories. Most of all, they're universal stories, just as the stories we tell on dates should be.

    Spanners don't. These rare beings have different lifespans than the rest of us. Some live their lives in reverse, some live only six months, and some are immortal. There are hundreds of classes of spanners that live hundreds of different ways, and each class has a unique lifespan that gives them unique powers. A few spanners find a way to live in normal human society, but most live in the shadows. There are some spanners that are extremely dangerous, and with the help of a mayfly-class spanner, an 8,000-year-old detective named Adam Parr is doing everything he can to keep them under control. The Fountain of Youth When one of Adam's old adversaries uncovers the most powerful and deadly spanner in history, it's up to Adam and Mayfly to take her back before she unleashes her full power and ends the world as we know it.

    Set high up a hillside overlooking the ocean, even David, her architect husband, falls in love with it. Determined that they should swap city for country, Dubliner Kate decides to try living her dream. Curiosity draws her to the ancient circle of standing stones at the end of the lane – stones that her elderly neighbour is strangely yet fiercely determined to keep everyone well away from. Little realising the grave danger she faces, Kate visits the stones at sunset and her life is set on a terrifying course that will bring her face to face with an ancient evil. As her dream of the country life rapidly turns into a nightmare, events at the cottage become more and more sinister. Why is the old lady so determined to keep people away? What does the Parish priest know that he isn’t telling her? Will Kate discover the secret to her personal haunting before it’s too late? Set in the ancient and atmospheric surrounds of rural Ireland in the winter time, this paranormal thriller will leave you reluctant to turn out the lights.

    Founded: 1855. “She wears an old uniform,” Nisha continued, “pale white face, dark shadows around her eyes. She is often seen sitting on this very chair. And it is said that the chair is always found in front of the mirror no matter where you leave it.” Rohan Agarwal has been appointed the manager of a play, and how excited he is to work with Chandni Joshi – his childhood crush, and unfortunately, his senior! A happy-go-lucky high school boarder, he has his fun with his friends, enjoys the odd sport and does not think twice before raiding his warden’s office to leak question papers. Then, one misty night, he sneaks into the infamous Green Room; and there, he finds something that wasn’t meant to be found… Mysterious happenings in the Green Room begin to follow. That's when Rohan stumbles on the fact that the same play was supposed to have taken place before, but it was cancelled. There was something evil associated with the play. Something terrible had happened in the Green Room the first time around, or at least, that’s what the stories said. And yet, Rohan finds, the old stories turn out to be true. And then, he learns a dark secret the school had been hiding…

    In the small town of Crescent Point, Jake will come face to face with an enemy unlike any he's ever faced before, and with the sins he's tried to ignore. He will discover that sometimes when you dig too deep into the darkness, you find something dragging you further down, and the only escape from the darkness is a desperate scramble toward the light.