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Popchuck's Ghost by Paul Toffanello


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Checking Inn


Emily Harper - 2013
    Make sure the caterers don't serve devil's food cake to the Christian Women's Alliance- check. Tell my mother that having a séance to get rid of any unwanted spirits in the kitchen during dinnertime is not okay- check. Send a friendly reminder to all staff that the pens are colour coded for everyone's enjoyment, and therefore it is not a good idea to put them all in one jar in order to spice things up as was anonymously suggested- check. But, when an acclaimed hotel critic dies at the Inn, just before she's about to publish a scathing review that would ruin the business, Kate's life and checklists are thrown into disarray. And it doesn't help matters that the detective assigned to the case is messy, unorganized, and too charming for his own good. Now Kate has to prove her innocence and save her Inn, or else the only thing that she'll be organizing is the prison's next bake sale.

Water from Stone


Katherine Mariaca-Sullivan - 2013
    With so much going for him, his life is perfect. Until the morning of his biggest case yet. That day, Jack makes a mistake, one that costs him everything.Artist Mar Delgado had it all – marriage to her childhood sweetheart, a successful career. She had never been happier, until the boat carrying her husband on a trip to dive with hammerhead sharks returns without him.For four years, as his career tanks and his personal life is non-existent, Jack tries to make amends for his mistake the only way he can – by searching for and bringing home the child that was stolen from him.Mar’s attempts at rebuilding her life after her husband’s death founder. She can no longer paint the coral reef paintings that she had been famous for because water terrifies her. She can no longer trust herself to love because the toll is too high. But then, in the most unexpected way, she is given a second chance.Private Investigator Sy Colomanos has seen it all. Still, for him, finding the Westfield baby is personal. For years, he follows the kidnapper’s convoluted trail across the country searching for the one clue that will help bring young Mia home. When the trail dead ends at Mar’s door, however, all hell breaks loose as the question becomes, what makes a family?

Wicked Wives


Anna-Lou Weatherley - 2013
    After all, the serial gambler and womaniser has made plenty of enemies.As events come to light however, the finger of suspicion points to three women in particular – and the men they’re married to.Ellie Scott, the beautiful socialite with a dubious past; Loretta Fiorentino, the fame-seeking gold-digger and Victoria Mayfield, the glamorous successful author.Full of intrigue, revenge and decadence, this is a tale you’ll want to revisit again and again.

The Labrador Response


Melissa Crickard - 2019
    doctor must save her daughter from a genetically modified filovirus as the nation fights for access to healthcare. When she's not working in the Emergency Department at George Washington University Hospital, Dr. Sara Sullivan lives an adventurous life. But the chance at another vacation seems to diminish with each passing day when the dangerous Labrador virus begins spreading throughout the capital, devastating the African American population and escalating racial tension. As a biracial woman, Sara begins to fear for her and her daughter's lives when mortality rates continue to grow, with no cure in sight. After being forced into quarantine due to exposure to the virus, her fear becomes reality. Escape is no longer a consideration—it's the only way she can save millions of lives, including her daughter's. Sara's journey to find a cure becomes increasingly complex as she begins to unravel a conspiracy within the pharmaceutical industry and learns the disturbing truth about the disease's purpose.

The 2017 Short Story Advent Calendar


Michael Hingston - 2017
    Plus, this year featuring more all-new material than ever before!Contributors to the 2017 calendar include:Kelly Link (Get in Trouble, Magic for Beginners)Jim Gavin (Middle Men, AMC's forthcoming Lodge 49)Carmen Maria Machado (Her Body and Other Parties)Ken Liu (The Paper Menagerie, The Grace of Kings)Maggie Shipstead (Astonish Me, Seating Arrangements)and [REDACTED x 19]!As always, each booklet is sealed, so you won't know what story you're getting until the morning you open it. Calendars are available in a one-time print run, which means that once they're gone, they're gone forever. The 2017 edition has also been reimagined, design-wise—did someone say translucent vellum sleeve? Yes. It was us.

The Wild Card


Teresa Crane - 2000
    With them is Mary McCarthy and her volatile son, Liam. All is well until the arrival of Siobhan’s husband George. A man of strong views and even stronger temper, he browbeats his gentle wife, belittles his daughter Christine and treats Liam like a servant…A year later, on a visit to Ireland, Liam unexpectedly comes face to face with the father he has never known. Liam wants nothing to do with him, but when George Clough throws him out, he has little choice but to enter his father’s dangerous world of Irish politics…As the Clough children grow up they each react to their domineering father in different ways, and his daughter Christine finds herself attracted to the man her father would disapprove of above all others, the wild card Liam McCarthy… Perfect for fans of Emily Gunnis, Fiona Valpy and Santa Montefiore, The Wild Card is an intensely gripping and unforgettable read.

A Night in Halloween House


Elyse Willems - 2020
    

Dead in the Water


A.J. Basinski - 2015
    Realizing he had retired too soon from police work, he signs on as the head of security aboard a Caribbean cruise ship. Shortly afterwards, he becomes involved in the investigation of the disappearance, seemingly into thin air, of a bride on her honeymoon. In the process of finding out what really happened to her, he uncovers an international plot involving a Chinese entrepreneur and a Miami trial lawyer. Just like P.D. James' Adam Dalgliesh, Morales conducts his investigation strictly according to the rules and solves another crime that had gone unnoticed.

The Sand Dollar


Maggie Christensen - 2014
    What she doesn’t bargain for is to uncover the secret of her adoption at birth and her Native American heritage. This revelation sees her embark on a journey of self-discovery such as she’d never envisaged. Moving between Australia’s Sunshine Coast and the Oregon Coast, The Sand Dollar is a story of new beginnings, of a woman whose life is suddenly turned upside down, and the reclusive man who helps her solve the puzzle of her past.

Captain


Thomas Block - 2012
    It is a chilling and all-too-real story about a routine Trans-Atlantic airline flight that suddenly turns absolutely insane. In the doomed airliner's cockpit, inside the passenger cabin and on the ground, a complex array of characters have been propelled at jet speed into a sudden and frantic race for survival."Captain" is about the individual and collective struggles of each of these men and women as they attempt to deal with and ultimately fight against the odds and circumstances that are stacked against them."Captain" is a novel that pits man against man while also pitting man against machine. It is a story about the need for human judgments, hard-learned experiences, gut feelings and unbridled perseverance in an effort to rise up against a world where the strict adherence to written rules, regulations and procedures have been accepted as the norm."Captain" is about the way real airline pilots think, feel and react, especially after those giant airliners that they've strapped themselves to have suddenly turned vicious and unpredictable.Author Nelson DeMille says of "Captain": After a long hiatus from writing, Captain Block rejoins the ranks of legendary pilots-turned-novelists such as Ernest K. Gann ("The High and the Mighty") and brings us "Captain" - one of the best aviation/adventure thrillers you will ever read."Captain" puts you in the cockpit, in the passenger cabin, and at airline headquarters with an intricate and intriguing array of characters. This novel is nothing short of the most frightening and heart-pounding Trans-Atlantic fliight since Charles Lindbergh's solo. Or will it turn out to be Amelia Earhart's tragic Pacific crossing?"Captain" is right up there with the best of the aviation thrillers; an edge of your seat story of what happens when something goes horribly wrong when there is no room for wrong. Captain Block knows his stuff, and it shows on every page. Welcome aboard.

The 3 U-Turns of My Life: • LOVE-RACE-DESTINY •


Jeet Gian - 2015
    Except their feelings for Urvashi, they have nothing in common. Yet, they are ‘friends’.They part ways, only to come together in a web of destiny that puts them against each other, testing their friendship, love, patience, and even their choice of a profession!Will this race between CA and MBA lead them to a fall, or do they need something more to pull them out of the mess created by The 3 U-Turns of My Life?

Toby: A Man


Todd Babiak - 2010
    But in the days after hisfather has a startling accident, Toby makes a series of terrible, wincing choices. As a result, he is fired from his job as an etiquette commentator and loses his superb condo, his beautiful girlfriend and his beloved BMW. Worse still, he must move back to the grey Montreal suburb of Dollard-des-Ormeaux and live in his parents’ basement.With his silent BlackBerry and a sudden absence of friends or saviours, Toby feels he has reached the limits of misery and humiliation. But his father’s increasingly frightening behaviour is where the real trouble—and risk—lies. Who is this man? What can Toby do? Then, in a moment of misplaced gallantry, Toby encounters an unstable francophone mother who disappears and abandons her two-year-old son, Hugo, to his care. Trapped with a toddler and forced to deal with his father’s tragedies, Toby emerges from the basement bungalow of his life—muddy, broke, bruised, heartbroken—but, finally, a man.

Taking the Fall


A.P. McCoy - 2013
    He's one of the country's up-and-coming young jockeys and this season his sights are set on getting right to the top, but his demons threaten to overwhelm him. Duncan was taught everything he knows by his father, Charlie, a former trainer whose career and reputation were destroyed when a series of bitter rivalries got out of hand. It ruined him and Charlie hasn't been able to set foot on a racecourse since. Now, with his father's health rapidly declining, Duncan is desperate to beat the best and at the same time take down the men responsible for Charlie's ruin. But can he do both or must he choose between his family and his future?

Dark Side: The Haunting


J.M. Barlog - 1999
    Because only a miracle could have brought her through after a terrible car crash.Do you believe in ghosts?Jenny didn't either, until...A tenacious and talented surgeon made Jenny almost as good as new. Almost.Accidents happen--sometimes. But sometimes accidents are planned. Somebody wanted Jenny Garrett dead, and now Detective Rick Walker has to find out who and why. But Jenny can't help with the investigation. Jenny's memory of the accident, and the weeks preceding it, are gone. Yet somehow Rick has to get to the truth before the killer tries again.But the real horror in Jenny's life transcends far beyond the stalking of an earthly killer. Jenny is being terrorized by a Doppelganger--a ghostly image of herself. Dwight Mackenzie believes in ghosts. So much so, that he is willing to help Jenny uncover the truth behind her torment.But the real truth is: there is only one way to escape the vicious torment of a Doppelganger.

An Assassin Is Born


Simon Harrak - 2018
    AND HE’S ABOUT TO BE UNLEASHED. Frederich Abel knows he’s not normal, but being adopted age seven by an elite soldier isn’t why. It lies deeper inside - a morbid, unhinged savagery. Invisible. Deadly.Luckily, his father helped him control it with a mixture of weapons, combat and survival training. Now, his father is dead, and the shadow has emerged stronger than ever. He flees in panic, ending up in cold, grimy Berlin.He’s on edge, until Ida’s scream through the rain pulls him into action. He’s forced to kill, unaware that the perpetrator had dangerous friends - powerful enough to tame world governments. It's time to decide; flee again, or face the darkness - both inside and out. ‘An Assassin Is Born’ is the intriguing origin story of Frederich Abel and the first book in the ‘Wrath Of Abel’ crime-action book series.