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.

     Two men stand out in a crowd overlooking the Ohio River. A plane is being taken from the water where it crashed decades before. Both men helped put it there. Jim Christensen’s daughter, Melissa, has been troubled of late. She has dreams that feel like memories, unsettling images percolate to the surface. She remembers a terrifying past, possibly her own, from a time before she was adopted by her father. Christensen’s work as an expert in memory makes him the ideal person to help unlock his daughter’s fragile grasp on her own history. But will he want to learn the truth of where Melissa came from? Who she was before? Who might still be looking for her? This dizzying novel of suspense takes the reader back into a dirty war and its human costs, into the fevered mind of one of its survivors, and through the crosshairs of a man desperate to keep his own history vanished.

    . . but nothing could be farther from the truth. In Adam Cesare’s thrilling novel, the residents will find little mercy—only a shocking eruption of unfathomable horror.   Harriet Laurel notices the odor at Mercy House as soon as she sets foot inside, brought there against her will by her son, Don, and his wife, Nikki. In the early stages of dementia, Harriet has grown resentful of Nikki, blaming her daughter-in-law for failing to supply grandchildren. Yet even Harriet must admit that her mind becomes clearer as soon as she crosses the threshold. If it wasn’t for that annoying smell.   Arnold Piper is an eighty-five-year-old ex-Marine, a proud man who has cared for himself his whole life. But no longer. Betrayed by his aging body, Arnold is learning that the trials he survived long ago in war-torn Korea pale beside the daily indignities of growing old. Little does he know that his greatest nightmares are still ahead of him.   Sarah Campbell is an idealistic nurse whose compassion has been stretched to the breaking point at the chronically understaffed facility that is Mercy House. But now Sarah’s list of unpleasant duties is about to take a terrifying turn. For something wicked is brewing in Mercy House. Something dark and rotten . . . and deadly.

    And when she finds a tiny part of a doll house outside her flat, it feels as if it’s a sign.But as more pieces begin to turn up, Corinne realises that they are far too familiar. Someone knows about the miniature rocking horse and the little doll with its red velvet dress. Someone has been inside her house…How does the stranger know so much about her life? How long have they been watching? And what are they waiting for…?

    Anna Hall arrives in Sebring, Maine with her two teenage boys and a bold dream. Investing her late husband's life insurance policy into the classy yet nearly forgotten motel, Club Blue, the ambitious single mother hits the much-needed reset button on her troubled life. However, when peculiar guests arrive and strange sounds leak through the oddly thick walls, Anna quickly finds her lifelong dream plummeting into a short-lived nightmare.The Haunting of Meade MansionEmily thought she was leaving her money troubles behind when she inherited an old house from her great aunt who went missing the previous year.When she and her husband Jesse arrive at the house, they discover Aunt Matilda was murdered--and the culprit is still at large. Guided by the ghosts of Matilda and the orphans she raised, Emily and Jesse must catch the criminal and save themselves before it's too late.

    He knocks out Connor's father, tasers his mother, and then, as quick as he came, he is gone.The police quickly exhaust their leads. No ransom call comes. And Connor takes it upon himself to find his parents before it is too late. That quest, however, is complicated when he crosses paths with a group of anarchists bent on causing chaos in New York City. And their plan, Connor learns, is not only related to the abductions, it will also upend everything he thought he knew about his family.

    It’s the latest in a series of seemingly random murders all over London, which Tom suspects might be linked… but how?Just when Tom feels all his leads have run dry, he discovers a startling connection between the victims. The killer is tracing a sinister web of murder through the capital – but where does it lead, and who is next?But then another victim is found, just as Tom’s wife and teenage daughter find themselves in grave danger. Is it a coincidence, or has his job put his family at risk? Has Tom unknowingly sacrificed those he loves most to the darkest case of his career… and can he catch the killer before he strikes again?A completely gripping, pulse-racing crime thriller that will keep you guessing until the last page. Perfect for fans of Melinda Leigh, Mark Edwards and Robert Dugoni.

    . . After his mother is sent to a nursing home for therapy following hip surgery, artist David Reid soon learns the truth about Haven. Once a magnificent seaside hotel on the coast of Maine, the property is now managed by a greedy corporation and a nursing staff who neglect and abuse the residents. Dealing with the inept staff is an endless battle. And to make matters worse, David's mother claims ghosts are haunting the facility. Are the spirits hallucinations caused by her medications? Or is Haven really haunted?

    Her sense of peace and security is shattered when she’s brutally attacked, and an innocent person is murdered. The authorities believe the incident is random, until Emily becomes the target of further violence and threats.With the help of her enigmatic neighbor, she uncovers an eerily similar crime that dates back sixty years. Could there be a connection between the two attacks? Did malevolence stretch its deadly arm across generations?Emily is convinced there’s a link, but she needs to find it before it finds her.

    Now, some thirty years later, Shank, retired and widowed, is giving up his large rambling Victorian house to his grandson Matt, whom he helped raise.Settling back into his childhood home and doing some renovations in the backyard to make the house feel like his own, Matt, a young up-and-coming chef and restaurateur, stumbles upon a locked crate he’s never seen before. Curious, he picks the padlock and makes a discovery so gruesome it will forever haunt him… Faced with this deep dark family secret, Matt must decide whether to keep what he knows buried in the past, go to the police, or take matters into his own hands.Meanwhile Matt’s girlfriend, Sam, has always suspected that her mother was murdered by the Beacon Hill Butcher—two years after the supposed Butcher was gunned down. As she pursues leads that will prove her right, Sam heads right into the path of Matt’s terrible secret.

    Y2K is expected to end in chaos: planes falling from the sky, elevators plunging to earth, world markets collapsing. A digital apocalypse. None of that happens. But at a Blockbuster Video in Linden, New Jersey, four teenage girls working the night shift are attacked. Only one survives. Police quickly identify a suspect who flees and is never seen again.Fifteen years later, in the same town, four teenage employees working late at an ice cream store are attacked, and again only one makes it out alive. Both surviving victims recall the killer speaking only a few final words... “Goodnight, pretty girl.”In the aftermath, three lives intersect: the survivor of the Blockbuster massacre who’s forced to relive her tragedy; the brother of the original suspect, who’s convinced the police have it wrong; and the FBI agent, who’s determined to solve both cases. On a collision course toward the truth, all three lives will forever be changed, and not everyone will make it out alive.Twisty, poignant, and redemptive, The Night Shift is a story about the legacy of trauma and how the broken can come out on the other side, and it solidifies Alex Finlay as one of the new leading voices in the world of thrillers.

    Why do psychopaths act as they do? How do they come to be? Why don’t they feel any remorse for the suffering they cause? And are there better ways of spotting and stopping them?After having been kidnapped, tortured and left for dead when she was just a teenager—by her high school boyfriend—she’s determined to understand how someone she trusted so much could turn on her. So she’s established a revolutionary new medical health center in the remote town of Hilltop, Alaska, where she studies the worst of the worst.But not everyone in Hilltop is excited to have Hanover House and its many serial killers in the area. Alaskan State Trooper, Sergeant Amarok, is one of them. And yet he can’t help feeling bad about what Evelyn has been through. He’s even attracted to her. Which is partly why he worries.He knows what could happen if only one little thing goes wrong...

    Coleman is both wrapping up a reunion for childhood friends and battening down the hatches for an approaching hurricane when his life gets a jolt of adrenaline.Francisco Escobar, nephew of Columbian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, has spent the last two decades maintaining a low profile but now ready to expand his family’s empire. As Escobar plans for new business opportunities, he also wrestles with how to handle old grievances.In this riveting thriller, Seth Coker develops a range of unforgettable characters while providing a nuanced glimpse of a waterman’s life on the North Carolina coast.

    News of the attack sends shock waves through her family and their small Swedish community. Anna seems to have had no enemies, so who wanted her dead?As loved-ones wait anxiously by her bedside, her husband Erik is determined to get to the bottom of the attack, and soon begins uncovering his wife's secret life, and a small town riven with desire, betrayal and jealousy. As the list of suspects grows longer, it soon becomes clear that only one person can reveal the truth, and she's lying silent in a hospital bed...

    The boys stayed in Black Creek Lodge, a "man camp" providing room and board. The mothers of the two boys come to Lawton to find out what happened to their sons and form an uneasy alliance. Shay Capparelli, a 41-year-old single grandmother, has more grit than resources; for wealthy suburban housewife Colleen Mitchell, the opposite is true. Overtaxed by worry, exhaustion, and fear, they question each others' methods and motivations - but there is no one else to help, and they must learn to work together if they are to have any chance of breaking through the barriers put up by their sons employer, the indifference of an overtaxed police department, and a town of strangers with their own secrets against a backdrop of a modern day gold rush.