This is edge-of-the-seat, page-turning reading.

    During bizarre nightly rites, she tortured and killed the young women she had taken on as servants. A devil, a demon, the terror of Royal Hungary—she bathed in their blood to preserve her own youth.400 years later, echoes of the Countess’s legendary brutality reach Aspen, Colorado. Betsy Path, a psychoanalyst of uncommon intuition, has a breakthrough with sullen teenager Daisy Hart. Together, they are haunted by the past, as they struggle to understand its imprint upon the present. Betsy and her troubled but perceptive patient learn the truth: the curse of the House of Bathory lives still and has the power to do evil even now.The story, brimming with palace intrigue, memorable characters intimately realized, and a wealth of evocative detail, travels back and forth between the familiar, modern world and a seventeenth-century Eastern Europe brought startlingly to life.Inspired by the actual crimes of Elizabeth Báthory, The House of Bathory is another thrilling historical fiction from Linda Lafferty (The Bloodletter’s Daughter and The Drowning Guard). The novel carries readers along with suspense and the sweep of historical events both repellent and fascinating.

    A trio of investigators—Sergeant Jordan Stone, a military forensic expert; Father Rhun Korza, a Vatican priest; and Dr. Erin Granger, a brilliant but disillusioned archaeologist—are sent to explore the macabre discovery, a subterranean temple holding the crucified body of a mummified girl.But a brutal attack at the site sets the three on the run, thrusting them into a race to recover what was once preserved in the tomb’s sarcophagus: a book rumored to have been written by Christ’s own hand, a tome that is said to hold the secrets to His divinity. But the enemy who hounds them is like no other, a force of ancient evil directed by a leader of impossible ambitions and incalculable cunning.From crumbling tombs to splendorous churches, Erin and her two companions must confront a past that traces back thousands of years, to a time when ungodly beasts hunted the dark spaces of the world, to a moment in history when Christ made a miraculous offer, a pact of salvation for those who were damned for eternity.Here is a novel that is explosive in its revelation of a secret history. Why do Catholic priests wear pectoral crosses? Why are they sworn to celibacy? Why do the monks hide their countenances under hoods? And why does Catholicism insist that the consecration of wine during Mass results in its transformation to Christ’s own blood? The answers to all go back to a secret sect within the Vatican, one whispered as rumor but whose very existence was painted for all to see by Rembrandt himself, a shadowy order known simply as the Sanguines.In the end, be warned: some books should never be found, never opened—until now.

    When Brother Ciarán, a resourceful Irish monk, discovers a forbidden tome and a mystery about a lost book of scripture, he finds himself plunged into a secret war as old as the origin of evil itself.Pursued by a heretic-hunting bishop, Ciarán and his freethinking mentor flee to France in search of the scripture. The lost book of the Bible warns of the Nephilim, the descendants of fallen angels who seek to free their master, The Dragon, and bring about the events foretold in the book of Revelation. Yet the book also speaks of Enoch’s device, a cryptic weapon with the power to defeat them.Along with a beautiful noblewoman who holds a key to the mystery, Ciarán and his mentor must race across Europe to find the device, which has left clues of its passage through history: from the time of Solomon to the reign of King Arthur and the paladins of Charlemagne. But time is running out, and if they don’t find the device soon, all that they love could perish with the End of Days.

    And a secret that would destroy her world.Ella Stevens never knew a mother's love. Her fierce independence was the keystone of her identity--unfettered by romantic involvements or family demands--until the day she moved to Germany, and her world began to unravel. There, she discovered the terrible secret her mother died to protect. There, she stumbled onto a hidden time portal that took her to 1620 Heidelberg where the brutal realities of life were not restricted to the poor and the infirm.Fighting to survive in a world she's ill-equipped to understand, Ella is befriended by a convent of nuns who stand in the shadow of the executioner's block of the Warlord Krüger, one of the bloodiest butchers in all Europe. With the aid of a sexy US Marshal, Ella is determined to help her new friends. Along the way, she learns that when it comes to the things that really matter--love, trust and friendship--sometimes the truth is the least important thing of all.

    But three months ago, he ran through the wrong door and found himself trapped in the city of Meridian – a literal necropolis, concealed from the modern world, made up of forgotten places and populated entirely by the dead. As the only living, breathing resident, Jake has struggled to scrape out an existence while waiting for the Necropolis Police Department to decide his fate, and it’s not looking good. But when an unusual string of crimes hits the city, Jake’s overseer and tormentor, NPD Detective Marsh offers him a deal: Jake’s life in exchange for helping them solve the worst series of crimes in the necropolis’ history. Someone, or some thing is killing the dead, and if Jake can’t figure out who’s responsible, he could be next. Necropolis PD is a hidden world fantasy that combines mystery, horror, magic, and more than a little humor. This book is perfect for the living and recently-departed alike.

    The world is shocked by the family’s sensational disappearance. Were they eliminated by the Soviet intelligence service? Or have the Digbys defected to Moscow with a trove of the West’s most vital secrets?Four years later, Ruth Macallister receives a postcard from the twin sister she hasn’t seen since their catastrophic parting in Rome in the summer of 1940, as war engulfed the continent and Iris fell desperately in love with an enigmatic United States Embassy official named Sasha Digby. Within days, Ruth is on her way to Moscow, posing as the wife of counterintelligence agent Sumner Fox in a precarious plot to extract the Digbys from behind the Iron Curtain.But the complex truth behind Iris’s marriage defies Ruth’s understanding, and as the sisters race toward safety, a dogged Soviet KGB officer forces them to make a heartbreaking choice between two irreconcilable loyalties.

    As stranger and more disturbing bodies are discovered, how can the city hold on to a reality that is already tearing at its seams? If you're Detective Versado's geeky teenage daughter, Layla, you commence a dangerous flirtation with a potential predator online. If you're desperate freelance journalist Jonno, you do whatever it takes to get the exclusive on a horrific story. If you're Thomas Keen, known on the street as TK, you'll do what you can to keep your homeless family safe--and find the monster who is possessed by the dream of violently remaking the world. If Lauren Beukes's internationally bestselling The Shining Girls was a time-jumping thrill ride through the past, her Broken Monsters is a genre-redefining thriller about broken cities, broken dreams, and broken people trying to put themselves back together again.

    He has little to go on other than his instincts, and his instincts have been wrong in the past - sometimes spectacularly wrong.But he gets involved anyway, never imagining that Hailey’s disappearance might be linked to the tragic events that ended his career six years earlier, drawing him back into a deadly world that has neither forgiven nor forgotten.

    One stark day in 1745, everything she loved was taken from her, ripped away by the very man who should have protected her. Somehow, miraculously, Ava survived. Now it was time for revenge. Long before Ava O’Hare became the successful leader of a modern-day Renegade cell, she had other battles to fight. If you’ve enjoyed the Unbounded series, you will love this extra peek into the events that shaped Ava’s life and made her a Guardian of Humanity. Please note: Ava’s Revenge is not as long as the books from Erin's viewpoint. It is a tie-in to the series and can be enjoyed at any time. However, the last scene is present day and fits into the Unbounded timeline just after the end of The Change (Unbounded Book 1), so readers may better appreciate Ava’s Revenge after reading the first book.

    . .For several years Miss Lane was companion, amanuensis, collaborator and friend to the lady known to the Psychical Society only as Miss X - until she discovered that Miss X was actually a fraud.Now she works with Mr Jasper Jesperson as a consulting detective, but the cases are not as plentiful as they might be and money is getting tight - until a case that reaches across the entirety of London lands in their laps.It concerns a somnambulist, the disappearance of several mediums, and a cat stuck up a tree . . . the links with the cat are negligible, but there is only one team that can investigate the seemingly supernatural disappearances of the psychics and defy the nefarious purpose behind them.Jesperson and Lane, at your service.

    Equal parts modern-day thriller, historical fiction, and love story, with one foot in present-day Rome and New York City, and the other in Rome some 1600 years ago.Photojournalist Josh Ryder survives a terrorist's bomb, only to be haunted by near-hallucinatory memories of a past life in Rome as a pagan priest whose dangerous congress with Sabina, one of the Vestal Virgins, poses a transgression so serious the lovers will face a certain death if exposed. Scents of jasmine and sandalwood and images of furtive liaisons and violence descend on Josh at will, pulling him to an ancient yet strangely familiar Roman burial chamber harboring the remains of a woman clutching a wooden box.A trail of present-day murders takes the reader deeper into a labyrinth at whose heart lies the enigma of a collection of ancient gems, or memory stones, whose origins trace back to both ancient Egypt and India. The stones' promise to "assist the wearer in reaching his next incarnation" sets the ancient and modern worlds on a collision course.The question of who we are cannot be asked without first asking who we were, according to the author. Rose attempts to answer that question based on her own reincarnation research and on the writings of others, spanning thousands of years.

    My name is Lincoln Delabar. I was born without a face. Yes, you heard that right. Smooth, clear skin from my forehead to my chin.I see the world differently, yet it is still a place that holds wonder. At least most of the time. With my uniqueness comes a burden. My mind is powerful. Very powerful. And I have an obligation, a purpose, to see things in my own special way. Some of the things I see are frightening. The evil in this world is beyond anyone’s control. Or so you might think. There is a violence in me. I’m not afraid. I can control it. But should I?

    Green including a brand-new adventure of the Droods take us deep into the Darkside, embroil us in the Secret Histories, and lead us into the shadowy places where monsters and demons roam.Welcome to the worlds of Simon R. Green. In this wide-ranging collection, the New York Times' bestselling urban fantasist opens doors into hidden places: strange realms bordering our own mundane existence and prowled by creatures of fancy and nightmare.Here are the strange, frequently deadly and sometimes even dead things that lurk in garbage-strewn city alleyways and grimy subway stations after midnight, visible only to the most perceptive human or inhuman eye. In these tales, Green revisits the ingenious worlds within worlds that he created for his wildly popular novels. Take a stroll on the Darkside with a jaded street wizard, an underpaid government functionary responsible for keeping demons, vamps, and aliens in line. Enter the hidden recesses of Drood Hall, where the aging family member who creates powerful weapons that protect humankind recalls his long and bloody career. Join a squad of no-longer-human soldiers dispatched to combat the all-consuming jungle on a distant planet. Visit a house at the intersection of two realities that serves as a sanctuary from the evil of "all" worlds. Confront the unstoppable zombie army of General Kurtz in a brilliant homage to"Apocalypse Now".And whatever you do, never forget that there "are" monsters out there. Really. Each story includes a new afterword by the author.

    Raymond Shaw is a hero of the first order. He's an ex-prisoner of war who saved the life of his entire outfit, a winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, the stepson of an influential senator...and the perfect assassin. Brainwashed during his time as a P.O.W., he is a "sleeper" -- a living weapon to be triggered by a secret signal. He will act without question, no matter what order he is made to carry out. To stop Shaw and those who now control him, his former commanding officer, Bennett Marco, must uncover the truth behind a twisted conspiracy of torture, betrayal, and power that will lead him to the highest levels of the government -- and into the darkest recesses of his own mind....