. . both human and otherwise.Twelve-year-old Crispin has lived on the streets since he was nine—with only his wits and his daring to sustain him, and only his silent dog, Harley, to call his friend. He is always on the move, never lingering in any one place long enough to risk being discovered. Still, there are certain places he returns to. In the midst of the tumultuous city, they are havens of solitude: like the hushed environs of St. Mary Salome Cemetery, a place where Crispin can feel at peace—safe, at least for a while, from the fearsome memories that plague him . . . and seep into his darkest nightmares. But not only his dreams are haunted. The city he roams with Harley has secrets and mysteries, things unexplainable and maybe unimaginable. Crispin has seen ghosts in the dead of night, and sensed dimensions beyond reason in broad daylight. Hints of things disturbing and strange nibble at the edges of his existence, even as dangers wholly natural and earthbound cast their shadows across his path. Alone, drifting, and scavenging to survive is no life for a boy. But the life Crispin has left behind, and is still running scared from, is an unspeakable alternative . . . that may yet catch up with him.There is more to this world, and its darkest corners yet to be encountered, in this eBook’s special bonus: a spine-tingling excerpt from Dean Koontz’s forthcoming novel, 77 Shadow Street.

    She's able to tell the story behind any object simply by touch. It’s a gift that comes in handy when her only brother, a detective with the Atlanta Major Crimes Division, is murdered. Determined to find his killer, Mia reaches out to the one person in Atlanta she believes can help her—Dave’s ex-partner, Jack Burton. Unfortunately, Burton is also the prime suspect. Together, Mia and Jack create a partnership that breaks all the rules, skirts every law, and lobs as many sparks and landmines at each other as if they were adversaries–which half the time they are—all while attempting to ignore their undeniable mutual attraction. Can two people so different—one intuitive and inexperienced, the other cynical and by-the-book—work together to solve the murder? And can they do it before the killer turns his attention to Mia?

    The groom is dead. When a tycoon’s son is murdered the night before his wedding, the grief-stricken father offers private detective Dan Reno a life-changing bounty to find the killer.Reno, nearly broke, thinks he’s finally found himself in the right place at the right time. But when a band of crooked cops get involved, Reno finds himself fighting for his life.Who committed the murder, and why? Which cops can he trust, if any?Haunted by his murdered father and a violent past, Reno wants no more blood on his hands. But a man’s got to make a living, and backing off is not in his DNA.Traversing the snowy alpine winter in the Sierras and the lonely deserts of Nevada, Reno must revert to his old ways to survive. Because the bounty won’t do him much good if he’s dead.

    Matt Seattle, a Sarasota stockbroker, befriends an older stock enthusiast, Joe Jesso. During one of their weekly Wednesday morning sessions, Joe announces he’s gotten married. A week later, Joe dies. Believing Joe may have been the victim of a black widow, Matt hires an investigator to look into Joe’s death. The investigator finds old Joe wasn’t so innocent; he embezzled money from a drug cartel. Suddenly, Matt finds himself battling Joe’s widow and her shyster lawyer who want his money, The National Association of Security Dealers who wants his broker’s license, and, oh yes, the cartel who wants his life. It’s enough to turn any bull into a bear.

    She's just taking out the trash. Don’t call Lucy Kendall a serial killer. She’s fighting for the innocent, and she’ll do whatever it takes to bring justice. When a child disappears, Lucy quickly discovers the link to a predator she’s faced before–a man the state of Pennsylvania decided to turn loose on the streets. Determined to find the little girl and put a criminal behind bars for good, Lucy forces her way onto the case.As the search for the kidnapped child pulls Lucy into a web of evil beyond her darkest imagination, she’ll have to face her own dark truths to save the little girl–and herself.

    The sleuth is not a detective, private eye, or lawyer. He's an ordinary guy with an extraordinary dog.Jacob Martin is trying to make the best of a divorce and mid-life crisis when he gets a call at two o’clock Sunday morning from his mother. His sister has been arrested for the murder of her fourth husband, and his father is near death. Thus begins an adventure that takes Jake and his golden retriever from their Colorado retreat to a backwater town in the Missouri Ozarks where they search for cold-blooded killers, a cache of gold coins buried by Jesse James, and the love of a beautiful nurse.

    Can she uncover it before the police do? Melissa Byatt’s life in Forest Grove seems as perfect as can be: a doting husband, three loving children and a beautiful house in a close-knit community. But appearances can be deceiving.One evening, Melissa arrives home to the unimaginable: her husband lies stabbed on the kitchen floor, their children standing calmly around him…With horror, she realises that one of them is to blame. But which one? And why would they attack their own father?Her loyalties torn, in a split second she decides to protect her children at all costs—even if that means lying to the police. But when someone in the neighbourhood claims to know more than they should, Melissa discovers that some secrets are beyond her control…Can she find out the truth of what happened before the rumours spread? And can the family unite to escape the spotlight of scandal—or are none of them as innocent as Melissa insists?

    Parker's Spenser and Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, Dark Horse and The Mummy Case introduce a hard-hitting, wise-cracking hero with a modern twist.DARK HORSEWhen high school student Derrick Booker, the only black student at a posh Orange County high school, is accused of killing his white girlfriend, ex-college football hero and detective Jim Knighthorse is hired to dig a little deeper into the murder. It doesn't take long for Knighthorse to realize that not all is as it seems at tranquil Huntington High, from a band director who preys on the innocent to a vice-principal with a secret agenda of her own. Not to mention someone's hired a professional killer to keep Knighthorse permanently off the case. As the investigation continues, Knighthorse's personal life is shattered by the discovery of new evidence relating to his mother's unsolved murder, a murder dating back twenty years. Reeling from the discovery, a determined Jim Knighthorse sets out to bring two killers to justice.THE MUMMY CASEPrivate investigator Jim Knighthorse takes on a very, very cold case. When historian Willie Clarke dies of mysteriously of dehydration in the California deserts, ex-football hero Jim Knighthorse is hired to dig a little deeper―and discovers a shocking connection to one of the West's oldest mysteries. Over a hundred years ago, an unnamed cowboy was murdered in the California desert and, due to freak weather conditions, would become mummified within twenty-four hours. Now known to the world as Sylvester the Mummy and displayed in a creepy curiosity shop, Sylvester and historian Willie Clarke will be forever linked in mystery. That is, unless private investigator Jim Knighthorse can survive long enough to untangle one of the West's greatest unsolved murders. **Acclaim for the Novels of J.R. Rain**"Gripping, adventurous, and romantic―J.R. Rain's The Lost Ark is a breakneck thriller that traces the thread of history from Biblical stories to current-day headlines. Be prepared to lose sleep!"―JAMES ROLLINS, international bestselling author of Altar of Eden and The Doomsday Key"Dark Horse is one of the best books I've read in a long time! A great classic detective story with a modern twist. Unique and interesting characters (I think I'm half in love with Jim Knighthorse now!), a great plot that kept me guessing until the end, and some of the funniest lines I've read anywhere."―GEMMA HALLIDAY, author of Deadly Cool and Play Dead"Impossible to put down. J.R. Rain's Moon Dance is a fabulous urban fantasy."―APRIL VINE, author of The Midnight Rose and Blindfolded by Lust"Moon Dance is absolutely brilliant!"―LISA TENZIN-DOLMA, author of Understanding the Planetary Myths and The Dolphin Experience"Moon Dance is a must read. If you like Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum, bounty hunter, be prepared to love J. R. Rain's Samantha Moon, vampire private investigator.

    "In a panic I gasped for air, but there wasn't any. I tried to cry out, but I was alone. And in my hysteria it hit me: I had felt a similar feeling before - like my body was giving out on me, and I knew what it meant. I was dying."Enter the world of Sloane Monroe in Black Diamond Death...A SKIER CRASHES On the slopes of Park City, Utah's newest ski resort a woman is found dead. At first glance, it has all the makings of an accident. But what if wasn't? What if she was murdered? A SECOND BODY IS FOUND Just as Private Investigator Sloane Monroe feels she's close to solving the case, a second dead body is found. With the killer aware that Sloane will stop at nothing to find him, her life is in danger, her every move being tracked. Will Sloane uncover the truth before he strikes again?

    His father, Joseph Stanyer, has been struggling to cope with his wife Evie, whose dementia is rapidly worsening. When their bodies are found close to Blackwater Lake, a local beauty spot, the inquest rules the deaths as a murder-suicide. A conclusion that's supported by the note Joseph leaves for his son. Grief-stricken, Matthew begins to clear his parents' house of decades of compulsive hoarding, only to discover the dark enigmas hidden within its walls. Ones that lead Matthew to ask: why did his father choose Blackwater Lake to end his life? What other secrets do its waters conceal?A short (25,000-words) novella, Blackwater Lake examines one man's determination to uncover his family's troubled past.

    When Becker takes a mysterious job, he has no idea that it will force him to delve deeply into his own past. Undeterred by obstacles he is determined to complete his assignment. But he may realize too late that his success will permanently alter his future.

    It's a place where neighbors keep an eye on one another's kids, where people say hello in the grocery store, and where high school cliques and antics are never quite forgotten. As a child, Maggie found living under the microscope of small-town life stifling. But as a wife and mother, she has happily returned to The Hollows's insular embrace. As a psychologist, her knowledge of family histories provides powerful insights into her patients' lives. So when the girlfriend of her teenage son, Rick, disappears, Maggie's intuitive gift proves useful to the case--and also dangerous.The investigation has her husband, Jones, the lead detective on the case, acting strangely. Rick, already a brooding teenager, becomes even more withdrawn. In a town where the past is always present, nobody is above suspicion, not even a son in the eyes of his father.Determined to uncover the truth, Maggie pursues her own leads into Charlene's disappearance and exposes a long-buried town secret--one that could destroy everything she holds dear.

    Scottoline delivers once again with Keep Quiet, an emotionally gripping and complex story about one man's split-second decision to protect his son - and the devastating consequences that follow.Jake Buckmans relationship with his sixteen-year-old son Ryan is not an easy one, so at the urging of his loving wife, Pam, Jake goes alone to pick up Ryan at their suburban movie theater. On the way home, Ryan asks to drive on a deserted road, and Jake sees it as a chance to make a connection. However, what starts as a father-son bonding opportunity instantly turns into a nightmare. Tragedy strikes, and with Ryan's entire future hanging in the balance, Jake is forced to make a split-second decision that plunges them both into a world of guilt and lies. Without ever meaning to, Jake and Ryan find themselves living under the crushing weight of their secret, which threatens to tear their family to shreds and ruin them all. Powerful and dramatic, Keep Quiet will have readers and book clubs debating what it means to be a parent and how far you can, and should, go to protect those you love.

    There's no identification on the body. Only the dogged work of a pair of local newspapermen and a graduate student in forensics turns up any clues. But that's just the beginning of the mystery. Because the more they learn about the man and the baffling circumstances of his death, the less they understand. Was it an impossible crime? Or something stranger still...? No one but Stephen King could tell this story about the darkness at the heart of the unknown and our compulsion to investigate the unexplained. With echoes of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon and the work of Graham Greene, one of the world's great storytellers presents a surprising tale that explores the nature of mystery itself...

     Everyone wondered about Shaye Archer’s past. Including Shaye. Shaye Archer’s life effectively began the night police found her in an alley, beaten and abused and with no memory of the previous fifteen years, not even her name. Nine years later, she’s a licensed private investigator, with a single goal—to get answers for her clients when there aren’t supposed to be any. And maybe someday, answers for herself. Emma Frederick thought her nightmare was over when she killed her abusive husband, but someone is stalking her and tormenting her with mementos from her past. With no evidence to support her claims, the police dismiss her claims as post-traumatic stress, but Shaye is convinced that someone is deliberately terrorizing Emma…playing a cat and mouse game with only one goal in mind. To kill Emma.