A young babysitter gets in way over her head when she's hired to sit by a dangerous man with a strange request. A young couple's hopeful visit to the city turns to anything but when they step into the middle of a mob turf war and watch more than just friends die. And a young man just trying to help his hustler cousin out of a bad spot instead becomes the ultimate killer. These are only some of the eight stories comprising KILLERS, the newest arc in the ongoing world of STRAY BULLETS. Each story stands on its own but collectively they tell the twisted story of two teens - Virginia and Eli - both scarred by tragic childhood intersections with the Baltimore underworld, drawn together in the sleepy seaside town of Sandcastle, unable to escape their dark pasts....

    When a man called Bill spots a sign in a restaurant window, he grabs his carry-on and gets off his bus. Within an hour he’s got himself a job as a short-order cook, and a start on a whole new life in Cross Creek, Montana. Things just fall into place. He applies for a library card, and the next thing you know he’s having dinner with the librarian. One thing leads to another, and he can see a whole new life stretching out before him… Lawrence Block (b. 1938) is the recipient of a Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and an internationally renowned bestselling author. His prolific career spans over one hundred books, including four bestselling series as well as dozens of short stories, articles, and books on writing. He has won four Edgar and Shamus Awards, two Falcon Awards from the Maltese Falcon Society of Japan, the Nero and Philip Marlowe Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association of the United Kingdom. In France, he has been awarded the title Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice received the Societe 813 trophy.

    But now Hank is here, working as a bartender and taking care of a cat named Bud who is surely going to get him killed.It begins when Hank’s neighbor, Russ, has to leave town in a rush and hands over Bud in a carrier. But it isn’t until two Russians in tracksuits drag Hank over the bar at the joint where he works and beat him to a pulp that he starts to get the idea: Someone wants something from him. He just doesn’t know what it is, where it is, or how to make them understand he doesn’t have it.Within twenty-four hours Hank is running over rooftops, swinging his old aluminum bat for the sweet spot of a guy’s head, playing hide and seek with the NYPD, riding the subway with a dead man at his side, and counting a whole lot of cash on a concrete floor.All because of two cowboys, two Russian mafia men, and some of the weirdest goons ever assembled in one place. All because of Bud. All because once, in another life, in another world, the only thing Hank wanted was to take third base—without getting caught.

    He’s got a beautiful wife, but he can’t get enough of other women. And instead of bedtime stories, he regales his daughters with bloody crime stories. He’s a thinking man’s cop with a dark past and an obsessive drive to hunt down monsters who prey on the innocent. Now, there’s something haunting him. He sees a connection in a series of increasingly gruesome murders of women committed over a period of twenty years. To solve the case, Hopkins will dump all the rules and risk his career to make the final link and get the killer.

    They're back in the fifth adventure in the beloved and acclaimed series that influenced generations of crime writers. Retired pro football star Ed Cross did most of his scoring between bed posts with other player's women, including Hump's ex-girlfriend. That was bad enough. But, just to rub it in, Cross sends Hump an x-rated birthday skin flick of him celebrating in bed with two women. Hump goes looking for blood... and finds it. Cross is murdered and Hump becomes the prime suspect. Hardman works to clear Hump and discovers there's plenty of murderous hate for Cross out there...from the top of the sports world to the pits of Atlanta's illegal gambling scene... and revealing it could get them both killed. This new edition includes an Afterword from Ben Jones, the Dukes of Hazzard actor and former U.S. Congressman from Georgia. PRAISE FOR THE HARDMAN NOVELS "Like Chandler and Hammett before him, Dennis was trying to do something different with what was thought of as throwaway literature.” Joe R. Lansdale, New York Times bestselling author of the Hap & Leonard series “The Hardman books are by far the best of the men’s action-adventure series.” Mother Jones Magazine “Among the best series books around.” Philadelphia Daily News

    Betrayal. Rage. Paranoia. Lust. Revenge. Murder. Anthony Award–winning author Hilary Davidson’s short stories invariably lead to dark places.In “Stepmonster,” a jilted wife learns that the younger woman who stole her husband may be on the prowl again. In “Son of So Many Tears,” the mother of a criminal discovers the carnage left behind by her son. In “Anniversary,” a man prepares a very special meal for the girl of his dreams. In “Beast,” a wedding-obsessed woman refuses to accept a bad breakup. In “Undying Love,” a dead man with a fading memory tries to piece together the mystery of his own murder. In “Insatiable,” a wealthy old man watches his beautiful wife seduce a new lover. In “Fetish,” a father’s terror about the sick, twisted world his daughter inhabits leads him to take some terrible measures to save her. In “The Other Man,” a bar owner realizes his adulterous days may be numbered when a cuckolded husband starts stalking him. And in the title story, “The Black Widow Club,” a young mother discovers that murder may be a family tradition.Read The Black Widow Club: Nine Tales of Obsession and Murder at your own risk.

    Rose and Luke have known each other since childhood and their families have both joked about a possible union in recent years.When Luke asks her to marry him, Rose agrees out of a sense of duty and a willingness to settle for solid friendship as a basis for the engagement. But, as she witnesses Priscilla’s excitement, despite a trail of mishaps leading to the wedding, Rose begins to wonder if there shouldn’t be more to a relationship.Rose begins to examine Luke and his life more closely, and she’s amazed when she stumbles upon an exciting, secret side of him. But what if she isn’t as adventurous as Luke expects? The Lord will whisper to Rose and Luke that they both have much to offer that’s worth the telling in A Perfect Secret.

    For some reason, the fact that rabbits' hearts can stop from fear alone popped into my head—literally being scared to death” My plan to save my family’s business didn’t include getting kidnapped by a crew of mutineers. Or ending up beaten and chained in the hull of a ship. The man who “rescues" me is equally evil and full of contradictions.Fearsome but handsome.Deadly but respected.He locks me in a cell but claims it’s for my own good. His hands are covered in blood... but tender in touch.If this pirate captain doesn’t stop my heart, he may just steal it.

    She is hurt and frightened. The man and woman who live there take her in. But their decency is utterly unequipped to deal with the Woman in the Dark, or with the designs of the men who want her.First published in installments in Liberty magazine [in 1933] and now rediscovered after many years, Woman in the Dark shows Dashiell Hammett at the peak of his narrative powers. With an introduction by Robert B. Parker, the author of the celebrated Spenser novels.A one-time detective and a maser of deft understatement, Dashiell Hammett virtually invented the hard-boiled crime novel.

    Even though they had a thousand dollars with them, they were good boys. Everyone says, “They were good boys.”

     Enjoy the complete volume two of the Stone Security series. Romance, Suspense, Mystery and a touch of Comedy. 5 Books. No Cliffhangers. More than 1,000 pages :) JACK Jack goes to a small town in Arizona where a local militant group has taken over, harassing honest business owners in an attempt to run them out of town. Jack is pulled into a war between the right and the righteous, caught up in a world that is as foreign to him as a distant county. Among it all, he meets Ruth, an angel who makes him rethink the direction of his life. At the end, he’s faced with a choice: the stubborn woman who dominated his past, or the pious woman who could fulfill his dreams of the future. CRISPIN I lost my wife five years ago. I left my job three months ago. My life has never been in such a state of flux. I’d always known what to do and how to do it. But now, it seemed like fate or the universe or whatever was determined to push me down a road I couldn’t control. And her name was Alli. A wildcat like no one I’d ever known before, she was almost more than I could handle. Therefore, when I learned we’d be stuck in a car together for three days, I was not exactly thrilled. She had this way of plowing through life, knocking people out of her way whenever they got too close. But she found her match when she came up against me. I wasn’t going anywhere, even if it meant risking everything, including my heart. PATRICK No one knew who he was and that was a source of pride to him for a long time. But those secrets were growing heavy, almost too heavy to carry on his own. Patrick Shaughnessy loved his work at Stone Security, but he was wondering if it wasn’t time to move on, to find a way to unburden himself from his past. But then this woman bursts into his life, a victim of a vicious attack that is too reminiscent of a time of darkness in his past that he’s been running from for more than a decade. He offers this woman sanctuary, doing for her what he might have wanted for his sister or for the woman he loved. But when he catches her in a lie, can he continue to protect her and face the possibility of his carefully hidden past unraveling around them, or will he run? QUENTIN They foreclosed on his family’s ranch while he was away fighting a war on terror. He brought the fight home with him, turning the life of the man who served the papers, the man who broke promises and stole from his family, upside down. He promised he’d take everything away from this bank manager and he was very close to fulfilling that promise. But then she walked into his life and turned it upside down. Can Quentin Forrester save his family from the shame and poverty that losing their livelihood dropped on them with a distraction as complete as Malaika Gray? Can he be cynical and still feel hope? Can he save them both from a shared enemy? MATTHEW Matthew Pearce was a member of the Guardians, the militant religious group responsible for the death of Harry Cravits. He hadn’t been able to save Harry, but he did what he could to help Jack Stone put his killer in jail. But that guilt never went away, wouldn’t until he could stop the Guardians from the darkness they were spewing on his hometown. He has to go back, has to take up arms with the Guardians again in order to take them down from the inside. But why does she have to pick this moment to come home? Whit Ellington is the girl of Matthew’s dream, but she is also a reporter threatening to spill everyone’s secrets. Can he protect her and take down the Guardians?

    Eddie is a reckless and dissolute operator, under investigation by the force and in debt to local mob chief, Vincent Mullis. When a killer starts targeting prostitutes in north London, Mullis is unusually keen for Eddie to solve the crime, but why? A serial killer is targeting prostitutes in Islington, the victims having a number of unusual links. The killings begin the same week that convicted killer and local man, Paddy Graham, is released from prison following a life sentence for murder. DS Eddie Kane has inadvertently found himself under the thumb of Vincent Mullis, who has taken ownership of a debt Eddie has built up with terminally-ill bookmaker, Arnie Duggan. Eddie’s troubles begin to spiral out of control when he is placed under investigation following a drugs-bust gone wrong. While suspended, he is forced to investigate the murders for Mullis, who wants to get to the murderer before the police. He then reluctantly hears a murder confession from his former bookmaker... In this heart-stopping, gripping crime drama, Eddie’s investigations lead him into a murky world of pornography, murder and revenge, all of which seems to centre around a local church and the charismatic vicar, Jonathan Carter. Eddie is feeling the pressure from all sides, but will there be any chance of salvation?

    One night of heavy emotions and bad decisions severs their tie for years. Can a chance encounter reconnect their hearts or will they continue to live life alone, forever yearning?

    Her mother is reluctant. She is terrified of birds. As she rightfully should be...The Bird is a short story from The Queen of Scream. A quick and scary read, as only Willow Rose can deliver it.

    Rollo Martins, a second-rate novelist, arrives penniless in Vienna to visit his old friend and hero Harry Lime. Harry is dead, but the circumstances surrounding his death are highly suspicious, and his reputation, at the very least, dubious. Graham Greene said of The Third Man that he "wanted to entertain [people], to frighten them a little, to make them laugh" and the result is both a compelling narrative and a haunting thriller. The Fallen Idol is the chilling story of a small boy caught up in the games that adults play. Left in the care of the butler, Baines, and his wife, Philip realizes too late the danger of lies and deceit. But the truth is even deadlier.