A chilling tale consumed in under an hour, but not so quickly digested.She had secretly wanted the baby to die, but Fate never sided with her until twenty-three years later, when Destiny Childs got her wish.Broken, middle-aged Destiny daily struggles to survive her haunting past. Dead parents. Unplanned teen pregnancy. Cyclic addiction and depression. Life hasn't treated her kindly. Then one day she sees the name of her castaway daughter on the news: a victim of murder.Seeing this as an opportunity to extort the rich family her daughter left behind, Destiny crafts a plan. But as all her plans go, it loosens a mess of secrets long buried, along with the truth behind the killing.In this haunting murder mystery short story, discover the gruesomely intimate stranger harbored within Destiny... and who may lurk within any one of us."The Scream of Silence" originally appeared in Reader's Circle of Avenue Park's "Crooked Tales" anthology but is now published for the first time as a standalone short story.

    It has lain in the cold and dark of the bog, waiting patiently for a host to set it free. Now, for John Cluer and his family, nothing will ever be the same again.A novelette of approximately 10,000 words.

    #2: Don't pick up hitchhikers, because the traveler you pick up could be raving nutcase.So what if, on some dark, isolated road, Crazy #1 offered a ride to Crazy #2...

    But even if her abductor, Joseph William Whalen, has since been killed, another, more insidious evil is once more out to get her in the form of the Skinner. The son of an abusive butcher, Skinner intends on finishing the job Whalen started but failed at. How is he going to get to Rebecca? He’s going to do it through her children, by luring them into the cornfield behind the old farmhouse they live in. HORROR IN THE DEPTHS Now, armed with the knowledge that the Skinner has escaped incarceration at a downstate facility for the criminally insane, Rebecca must face the most horrifying challenge of her adult life: Rescuing the children not from a house in the woods, but from the abandoned tunnels that run underneath her property. But the Skinner is watching Rebecca’s every move. Horrifying question is, will she live long enough to save the children?

    But their quiet existence, far from the devastated mainland, is cracking. Father, sensing a coming threat, demands that a wall be built. As the stone blockade rises, Father’s paranoia escalates. So does Leah’s dread that the violence the family left behind has found its way to their sanctuary.Ruth Ware’s Snowflakes is part of Hush, a collection of six stories, ranging from political mysteries to psychological thrillers, in which deception can be a matter of life and death. Each piece can be read or listened to in one truly chilling sitting.

    Now the author of the Lincoln Rhyme series has collected for the first time his award-winning, spine-tingling stories of suspense -- stories that will widen your eyes and stretch your imagination. A beautiful woman goes to extremes to rid herself of her stalker; a daughter begs her father not to go fishing in an area where there have been a series of brutal killings; a contemporary of the playwright William Shakespeare vows to avenge his family's ruin; and Jeffery Deaver's most beloved character, criminalist Lincoln Rhyme, is back to solve a chilling Christmastime disappearance. Diverse, provocative, eerie and inspired, this collection of Jeffery Deaver's best stories exhibits the amazing range and signature plot twists that have earned him the title "master of ticking-bomb suspense" (People). With nods to O. Henry and Edgar Allan Poe, these beautifully crafted pieces, never before compiled in one volume, pulse with subtle intrigue and Deaver's incomparable imagination.

    Their shared secrets drove them apart. But now they're together again in this riveting novella that begins where New York Times bestselling author Maggie Shayne's Sleep with the Lights On ended.She may have been blind for twenty years, but Rachel's always had an uncanny gift for seeing through people—and she distrusts her assistant's new boyfriend at first sight. Amy isn't interested in Rachel's misgivings, though. She's too eager to celebrate Thanksgiving by introducing her family to the new man in her life.Then Amy doesn't show up for the holiday….Desperate to find her missing friend, Rachel has no choice but to turn to Mason. Their investigation into Amy's disappearance takes them ever deeper into danger—and reignites the attraction that they've both sworn to resist. Now it's a race against time as these reluctant partners fight to stave off passion and save a life.

    Jusk ask Tom. He's a man who has a lot to juggle: a frustrated wife, a secret new girlfriend, and the unpleasant task of trying to keep his deteriorating farmhouse from falling down around him. Now with his wife out of town for the week, Tom is eager to get busy under the covers with his beautiful new lover - but first there's something he has to finish up...in the CRAWLSPACE.

    While most of her classmates and instructors at the academy want her to succeed, Detective Johnny Nolasco is hell-bent on keeping the boys’ club intact. The training sessions offer plenty of opportunities for humiliation, but Tracy’s not the type to give in. Fueled by a confrontation with her in the middle of a class, Nolasco is determined to see Tracy fail. Tracy, harboring memories of the loss of her sister and the disintegration of her family, has too much at stake to let one pigheaded detective stand in her way. With so much to lose, will she make the cut in this competitive world?

    Reeling from a painful break-up, English instructor and avid book lover Wesley Smith is haunted by his ex-girlfriend's parting shot: "Why can't you just read off the computer like everyone else?" He buys an e-book reader out of spite, but soon finds he can use the device to glimpse realities he had never before imagined, discovering literary riches beyond his wildest dreams...and all-too-human tragedies that surpass his most terrible nightmares.

    In this vivid world that author Brandon Sanderson has built, society can create a snapshot of a specific day in time. The experiences people have, the paths they follow—all of them are real again for a one day in the snapshot. All for the purposes of investigation by the court. Davis’s job as a cop on Snapshot Duty is straight forward. Sometimes he is tasked with finding where a criminal dumped a weapon. Sometimes he is tasked with documenting domestic disputes. Simple. Mundane. One day, in between two snapshot assignments, Davis decides to investigate the memory of a call that was mysteriously never logged at the precinct, and he makes a horrifying discovery.As in all many stories, Snapshot follows a wonderfully flawed character as he attempts to solve a horrific crime. Sanderson proves that no matter the genre, he is one of the most skilled storytellers in the business.

    His childhood friend Claire, a psychiatrist, desperately needs a haven of her own after one of her patients unleashes his dark side. At turning points in their lives, it's inevitable that they should return to the past. And to Merle House. It's been waiting for them.All My Darkest Impulses is part of House of Crows, a four-part serial about friends with a shard history of darkness. They've spent their lives running, but they can not longer hide from the past. Each story can be read or listened to in a single haunted sitting.

    There once was a killer who knew the night, its secrets and rhythms. How to hide within its shadows. When to hunt. He roamed from town to town, city to city, choosing his prey for their beauty and innocence. His cruelties were infinite, his humanity long since forfeit. But still . . . he had not yet discovered how to make his special mark among monsters, how to come fully alive as Death. This is the story of how he learned those things, and of what we might do to ensure that he does not visit us.

    But his junkie sister has disappeared into the terrifying storm drains below Las Vegas. The tunnels stretch hundreds of miles beneath the city, housing the city’s homeless and criminal element. Armed with only his flashlight, Tate wades into the gritty depths of the storm drains to rescue his sister from her demons.Every step into the smothering darkness challenges Tate’s resolve. With his sister’s life and his own sanity at stake, Tate must face his fears or risk fading into the dank oblivion of the Las Vegas tunnels.

     Faced with his parents’s divorce, eleven-year-old Lucas runs away from his house with the hope that his family will get back together to find him. On his way walking through the empty streets, he is picked up by a mysterious woman who offers to take care of him and provide him with a loving family. The boy then wakes up in shackles, confined to a bed in a decrepit house in the middle of nowhere and will have to face his deepest fears in order to survive in his new home. Join Lucas in a desperate attempt to get back to his family in Madhouse, the first published book from horror-thriller author Miguel Estrada.