Her parents are still uptight and disinterested, her bedroom is exactly the way she left it, and the outcast Gavin Timothy still looks like he’s crawled out of one of her dark, twisted drawings.Delilah is instantly smitten.Gavin has always lived in the strange house: an odd building isolated in a stand of trees where the town gives in to mild wilderness. The house is an irresistible lure for Delilah, but the tall fence surrounding it exists for good reason, and Gavin urges Delilah to be careful. Whatever lives with him there isn’t human, and isn’t afraid of hurting her to keep her away.

    In this creepy tale, the twist comes with the very last word…

    Summer. Late at night.Two teenage girls are picked up by two boys, who invite them back to their place to party.But an innocent mistake turns the party into a nightmare, where nothing is what it seems...Wild Night Is Calling is a 6000 word short story by thriller writer J.A. Konrath (Shaken, Trapped) and romantic suspense writer Ann Voss Peterson (A Cop in Her Stocking, Seized By The Sheik).Peterson wrote the first half. Konrath wrote the second half.This ebook, specially formatted for Nook with an active table of contents, also contains an excerpt from Konrath and Peterson's collaborative spy thriller, FLEE, coming out this Spring.

    In “Shining Rock,” an older couple encounter a strange and menacing visitor during a camping trip in the North Carolina mountains. Friendly at first, this stranger seems to know them, seems to know their secrets, and as things escalate, they become convinced that they may never leave these mountains alive.*Note: This story is collected with others in the eBook, FOUR LIVE ROUNDS, which also contains a Foreword by J.A. Konrath and introductions to each story by Blake Crouch.

    With her bright green eyes and short red hair, she looks like an Irish pixie. But she is no soft touch. In this exclusive short story, Ireland's most fearless detective hunts down a priest-killer in county Cork.

    She’s rock hard, but capable of extraordinary tenderness. She’s a brilliant cop, but she’s capable of making life-altering mistakes. She’s uncannily talented, and she’s heartbreakingly human.In this novella, set before the action in Dewey’s first novel, Protector, a man named Devinder Bashir reaches across the threshold of the hereafter to ask for Jane’s help. When Jane investigates his case, she learns that the man died ignominiously, but not suspiciously. But when Bashir continues to haunt her dreams, she realizes that the story of the man’s death is far from finished.

    Sixto is his hulking, pistol-packing attendant, whose job satisfaction is on the wane. When an aging mobster enters their lives with a promise to help the rebel cause—with a planeload of chickens originally intended for voodoo sacrifice—a tense situation turns combustible. From the wickedly funny mind of Carl Hiaasen comes “The Edible Exile,” a raucous story of sleazeball nihilists, lovable thugs, and jungle-weary freedom fighters who collide in a battle of wills, ego, and the almighty dollar. This cheeky tale, written twenty-five years ago, set aside, and recently rediscovered, is a time-capsule glimpse of Miami during the over-the-top 1980s, when everyone was on the make and gross excess was the order of the day. In an intriguing twist, Hiaasen had lost his original ending to the story. “So I decided to write a new ending,” he says. “As a friend said, ‘How often does a writer get the opportunity to collaborate with a younger version of himself?’” “The Edible Exile” is a wild romp through Hiaasen Country, sure to appeal to the outlaw in all of us.

    Six people will enter the contest, but not everyone will win. In fact, there can only be one winner. A drug dealer, an exotic dancer, a drug addict, an entrepreneur, a district attorney, and a rich kid, are all desperate in some way. Whether they need the money, or are looking for something different and need a break from their boring everyday life. It may seem that these contestants have nothing in common, but that's not the case. They have one very important thing in common, their desperation to win the prize . But, winning the money is going to be anything but easy. Not only will they have to spend a full twenty-four hours together in a haunted mansion, but they will have to overcome their weaknesses and make alliances with their competitors just to survive. The many people who have visited Waverly Mansion have gone missing and never returned home to their loved ones. Are these contestants so desperate that they would risk their lives just to win money? A million dollars can mean the difference between life and death to some people, but there are many questions you need to ask yourself. Is the money worth the torment and anguish you will have to endure in order to win? What about your life? Is dying the price you are willing to pay in order to win that amount of money? Can these people survive long enough to claim their prize? Or will their desperation take hold of them and sabotage the other's chances at winning the game? Who deserves to win the money when no one is really the person they appear to be?

    She immediately became enamored with tales of Holmes and his esteemed biographer Dr. John Watson, and later, began spinning these quintessential characters into her own works of fiction—from her acclaimed debut novel, Dust and Shadow, which pitted the famous detective against Jack the Ripper, to a series of short stories for the Strand Magazine, whose predecessor published the very first Sherlock Holmes short story in 1891.Faye’s best Holmes tales, including two new works, are brought together in The Whole Art of Detection, a stunning collection that spans Holmes’s career, from self-taught young upstart to publicly lauded detective, both before and after his faked death over a Swiss waterfall in 1894. In The Lowther Park Mystery, the unsociable Holmes is forced to attend a garden party at the request of his politician brother and improvises a bit of theater to foil a conspiracy against the government. The Adventure of the Thames Tunnel brings Holmes’s attention to the baffling murder of a jewel thief in the middle of an underground railway passage. With Holmes and Watson encountering all manner of ungrateful relatives, phony psychologists, wronged wives, plaid-garbed villains, and even a peculiar species of deadly red leech, The Whole Art of Detection is a must-read for Sherlockians and any fan of historical crime fiction with a modern sensibility.

    Banks, Kelley Armstrong, and many more! Horror fiction explores the dark side of human nature, often pushing the limits of violence, graphic gore, and extreme emotions. But with the popularity of shows and movies, such as "The Walking Dead," "True Blood," "Twilight," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," audiences have demonstrated their love for the genre--especially accompanied with a dose of humor to tone down the terror."Blood Lite III: Aftertaste" continues to put the fun back into dark fiction, featuring a wide range of humorous and highly entertaining horror-filled tales. Edited by Horror Writers Association founding member and award-winning author Kevin J. Anderson, the stories vary in tone from wry to downright laugh-out-loud funny. Featuring such well-known horror writers as Jim Butcher, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Christopher Golden, and many others, this collection of tales is perfect for anyone who enjoys being entertained as much as they love a good scare.Contents:I was a teenage Bigfoot / Jim Butcher --Blood-red greens / Joel A. Sutherland --V plates / Kelley Armstong --Put on a happy face / Christopher Golden --Devil's contract / E.S. Magill --Nine-tenths of the law / Eric James Stone --Scrumptious bone bread / Jeff Strand --Let that be a lesson to you / Mark Onspaugh --Mint in box / Mike Baron --Great zombie invasion of 1979 / J.G. Faherty --Dating after the apocalypse / Stephen Dorato --Typecast / Jeff Ryan --Making the cut / Mike Resnick, Lezli Robyn --Acknowledgments / Will Ludwigsen --Mannequin / Heather Graham --Short term / Daniel Pyle --Distressed travelers / Nina Kiriki Hoffman --Bayou brawl / L.A. Banks --Steeple people / John Alfred Taylor --For sale / David Sakmyster --Man who could not be bothered to die / Norman Prentiss --Last demon / Don D'Ammassa --Misadventure to call your own / Adrian Ludens --Smoke and mirrorballs / Chris Abbey --Brians!!! / D.L. Snell --Still life / Ken Lilli-Paetz --Day in the life / Sherrilyn

    . .But instead she opened the door to HellRomantic novelist Mandy Freeman thinks all her dreams have come true when she becomes the new owner of Summer Cottage, the former home of her idol, bestselling author Ellen Grace. With her new life starting and love on the horizon, Mandy's future is looking bright.But as Mandy begins to learn, all is not as it seems at Summer Cottage. As a series of increasingly disturbing and sinister events forces her to delve into the mysterious past of its former owner Ellen Grace, Mandy finds herself caught up in a horrifying nightmare that threatens to destroy her sanity . . . and perhaps claim her life.

    Stine team up for the first time ever, pitting FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast against the most unusual villain he’s ever faced—Stine’s classic creation: Slappy the Ventriloquist Dummy.First introduced in R.L. Stine’s 400 million-copy bestselling Goosebumps series, Slappy is a dummy carved from coffin wood who boasts enormous strength and a sarcastic, sadistic personality. In contrast, Agent Pendergast is an elegant, intelligent man who never lets himself be ruffled by the particulars of an investigation. Yet when these two meet for the first time—at Stony Mountain Sanatorium—Pendergast is quite clearly out of his element, and nothing is as it seems… For more exciting pairs, check out all eleven stories in FaceOff!

     A group of estranged friends, now in their forties, reunite in Gerlach, Nevada for their 30-year high school reunion at the time of the annual Burning Man Festival. They soon find themselves at the heart of a viral apocalypse and are forced to rely on the very people they were at odds with to survive.

    They know just the right spell to kill a man with one kiss—or raise him back again. And they’re not afraid to exact sweet revenge on those who dare to cross them. But what if you’re the unlucky soul who falls victim to a conjurer’s curse? And if you had the power to cast a magic spell of your own, would you use it?In this bewitching collection, nine of today’s hottest paranormal authors tell all-new, otherworldly tales.  Spellbinding stories featuring bigfoot, albino vampires, professional wizards, resurrected boyfriends and even a sex droid from the twenty-third century named Silicon Lily.  But as our conjurers are about to discover, it’s all fun and games until someone gets hexed.  And sometimes, even the best spun spells can lead to complete and utter mayhem. Includes:Retribution Clause by Ilona AndrewsBigfoot on Campus by Jim ButcherHolly’s Balm by Rachel CaineSnow Job by Carole Nelson DouglasOutside The Box by P. N. ElrodHow Do You Feel? by Simon R. GreenThere Will Be Demons by Lori HandelandCherry Kisses by Erica HayesThe Arcane Art of Misdirection by Carrie VaughnLength: 13 hours and 8 minutes

    Unfortunately, the way home isn't as clear-cut as he'd hoped and he's forced to turn to Aria, his GPS, for an alternate route. However, Aria has something far more sinister in mind...