Everyone in Kenton Hills knows that short-tempered, tongue-tied Bob Talbert wasn't the one responsible for the brutal crime that ended Josie Eddleman's life. Nevermind that he was the last one to see her alive. But in a town filled with the likes of an amoral tabloid reporter known only as The Captain, a district attorney who'll do anything for a confession, and Bob's parents, who care as little for Bob as they do for each other, guilt and innocence are little more than a matter of perspective. In a masterfully woven tapestry of multiple points of view, THE CRIMINAL explores the nature of guilt and responsibility in a psychological thriller of an entire town under the spell of an act of brutal violence. Jim Thompson unlike you're ever read him before.

In this fiendishly clever and darkly funny novel, Jess Walter speaks deeply to the bonds and compromises we make as children -- and the fatal errors we can make at any moment in our lives. While working the weekend night shift, Caroline Mabry, a weary Spokane police detective, encounters a seemingly unstable but charming derelict. "I'd like to confess," he proclaims. But he insists on writing out his confession in longhand. In the forty-eight hours that follow, the stranger admits to not just a crime, but an entire life: a wry and haunting tale of poverty and politics, of obsession and revenge. And as he writes, Caroline pushes herself to near collapse, racing against the clock to investigate not merely a murder, but the story of two men's darkly intertwined lives.

Now in development for TV!Since its debut in 1990, The Wheel of Time® by Robert Jordan has captivated millions of readers around the globe with its scope, originality, and compelling characters.The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.Tarmon Gai'don, the Last Battle, looms. And mankind is not ready.The final volume of the Wheel of Time, A Memory of Light, was partially written by Robert Jordan before his untimely passing in 2007. Brandon Sanderson, New York Times bestselling author of the Mistborn books, and now Stormlight Archive, among others, was chosen by Jordan's editor--his wife, Harriet McDougal--to complete the final volume, later expanded to three books.In this epic novel, Robert Jordan's international bestselling series begins its dramatic conclusion. Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, struggles to unite a fractured network of kingdoms and alliances in preparation for the Last Battle. As he attempts to halt the Seanchan encroachment northward--wishing he could form at least a temporary truce with the invaders--his allies watch in terror the shadow that seems to be growing within the heart of the Dragon Reborn himself.Egwene al'Vere, the Amyrlin Seat of the rebel Aes Sedai, is a captive of the White Tower and subject to the whims of their tyrannical leader. As days tick toward the Seanchan attack she knows is imminent, Egwene works to hold together the disparate factions of Aes Sedai while providing leadership in the face of increasing uncertainty and despair. Her fight will prove the mettle of the Aes Sedai, and her conflict will decide the future of the White Tower--and possibly the world itself.TV series update: "Sony will produce along with Red Eagle Entertainment and Radar Pictures. Rafe Judkins is attached to write and executive produce. Judkins previously worked on shows such as ABC’s “Agents of SHIELD,” the Netflix series “Hemlock Grove,” and the NBC series “Chuck.” Red Eagle partners Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon will executive produce along with Radar’s Ted Field and Mike Weber. Darren Lemke will also executive produce, with Jordan’s widow Harriet McDougal serving as consulting producer." ―VarietyThe Wheel of Time®New Spring: The Novel#1 The Eye of the World#2 The Great Hunt#3 The Dragon Reborn#4 The Shadow Rising#5 The Fires of Heaven#6 Lord of Chaos#7 A Crown of Swords#8 The Path of Daggers#9 Winter's Heart#10 Crossroads of Twilight#11 Knife of DreamsBy Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson#12 The Gathering Storm#13 Towers of Midnight#14 A Memory of LightBy Robert Jordan and Teresa PattersonThe World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of TimeBy Robert Jordan, Harriet McDougal, Alan Romanczuk, and Maria SimonsThe Wheel of Time CompanionBy Robert Jordan and Amy RomanczukPatterns of the Wheel: Coloring Art Based on Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time

A movie starlet with a gangster boyfriend and a pair of siblings with a shared secret lure Marlowe into the less than glamorous and more than a little dangerous world of Hollywood fame. Chandler's first foray into the industry that dominates the company town that is Los Angeles. "From the Trade Paperback edition."

Charles Bukowski examines cats and his childhood in You Get So Alone at Times, a book of poetry that reveals his tender side. He delves into his youth to analyze its repercussions.

Ijon Tichy is the only human who knows for sure whether the self-programming robots on the moon are plotting a terrestrial invasion. But a highly focused ray severs his corpus collosum. Now his left brain can’t remember the secret and his uncooperative right brain won’t tell. Tichy struggles for control of the lost memory and of his own two warring sides. Translated by Elinor Ford with Michael Kandel. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

"The Queen's Witch" is a short story connected to the New York Times bestselling Cassandra Palmer and Dorina Basarab series of urban fantasy novels. It features Kit Marlowe in a supernatural thriller set in Elizabethan England. It's a companion novel to The Gauntlet.

Dr. Ashe Walters is violently pulled back into the life that he had chosen to walk away from four years before, a life in which he worked with the YPD to hunt down criminals, a life that had led to the savage killing of his lovely wife. As Ashe fights to prove that his only son is innocent of murder, he finds his mental abilities, his beliefs, his sanity, and his overall faith in reality tested.While serving as an outside psychological consultant for the Youngstown Police Department of Youngstown Ohio, Ashe had once assisted Detective Oscar Harrison and the YPD Homicide Division in the investigation and pursuit of many types of criminals, spanning from jealous and vengeful housewives to chaotic and sometimes maniacal serial killers. Some cases would take the psychologist deep down into mud with the filth of society. But it was a duty that he happily juggled with his part-time career at the Wilson Maximum Security Prison. He enjoyed the work. He enjoyed the chase. He enjoyed stopping the so-called bad guys of the world. Until one investigation went horribly wrong leaving his beautiful wife dead and his sturdy family shattered. After choosing to walk away from the YPD and his long-time friend, Ashes decided to take a full-time position at the prison and lock himself away within its thick stone walls. Four years passed since the death of his wife and Dr. Ashe Walters continues to focus his every waking moment on being a Forensic Psychologist for the prison. From his office deep in the dusty catacombs, he spends his days and nights navigating the minds and methods of dangerous criminals, in an attempt at understanding the factors at the root of the madness. It is often a frustrating and demanding career, one that challenges him time after time, but he is content with his niche in life. That is until an unexpected phone call from an old friend forces Ashe to dig up the bones that he had been desperately struggling to keep buried. A new crime has come across the homicide desk, one involving the brutal slaying of a college student, shot to death while asleep in his bed. Ashe wishes he could ignore the case, but the suspect turns out to be his own son, Scott. Even though the relationship between his son and himself had long turned distant and strained, Ashe refuses to believe that his son is capable of such a cold blooded crime. Against the bizarre demands of Detective Harrison, he begins his own investigation, focusing on proving Scott’s innocence. He is immediately swallowed up by questions and doubts. Could his son actually be guilty? Why did the crime resemble that of another, well publicized slaying? And then there is the mysterious pill. What Ashe discovers along the way forces him to travel darkened roads, the ones that lead deep into the lunacy that might exist within us all. As he fights to discover the facts about Scott and the brutal murder, he must also come to terms with his own limitations, as a psychologist and as a father. The possibilities begin to stack up and Ashe finds his mental abilities, his beliefs, his sanity, and his overall faith in reality tested.

When Lucy Pennykettle suspects there's a monster in her bedroom, her mum knows exactly what to do. She makes a guard dragon - Gruffen - to look after Lucy. But soon Gruffen realises there's a mystery behind the monster...

Welcome to Fifteen, a world where every inhabitant is fifteen years old and dangerous. The laws of this strange world demand that boys and girls remain mortal enemies and these laws are upheld with cold-blooded determination."You will always be fifteen, just like everyone else here.""But, where are the adults, the babies, the cities?""There are none. It’s just the castle, the forest, the cornfield and us."Welcome to Fifteen, a world where each inhabitant is fifteen years old and dangerous. The laws of this strange world demand that boys and girls remain mortal enemies and these laws are upheld with cold-blooded determination.When Akeem and his best friend Quinn find themselves in the world of Fifteen, they become opponents on opposite sides of an endless war. Though separated, they have the same goal, to find each other and find a way home but their friendship is forbidden and they would face a death sentence if their true feelings for one another are ever discovered. Will Akeem risk the wrath of the collective to find Quinn or will he save his own life by hunting her down?

Short story of 7k words On the night that Christ was born, he received many visitors, and among those, unchronicled, the vast host of the legendary creatures who still roamed the world: the dragon, the unicorn, the phoenix, and the Queen of all Faerie, to name only a few. The immortals were called by a strange, unknown constellation, drawn to the child whose birth would herald the start of a new age—and the end of an old one.

A young professional finally finds the apartment she's been looking for. But she can't seem to turn it into a home. And then strange things start to happen.But this is not a ghost story. Or is it?This sampler is the fastest way to satisfy your curiosity about those fabled members of the Owen Family from Shenandoah County, Virginia. Acclaimed author Marsha Ward introduces the family in three chapters from each of the first three novels in The Owen Family Saga. Then there's the bonus chapter from the forthcoming novel, Spinster's Folly, Book 4 in the Saga. A "don't miss" way to get acquainted."Marsha Ward has the ability to grab readers by the lapels, yank them into her stories, and make them care deeply about her characters." ~Phyllis Dugan, Former President, Wyoming Writers, Inc."Trail of Storms by Marsha Ward is the third book in a western series featuring the Owen family that takes place during those first years following the conclusion of the US Civil War. Ward is recognized as an award winning western writer, the founder of the American Night Writers Association, and an authority on Southwestern history. "This series chronicles the events...that send several families from the Shenandoah Valley west following the war, their journey westward, and their struggle to establish homes in the American Southwest.... It is the historical details of Colorado and New Mexico and the writer's understanding of both the American and Hispanic cultures of this place and time period that are superbly done and make all three novels worth reading.... Ward doesn't glamorize the West and some of her characters aren't particularly likable, but they are realistic and she is true to the rough times of that settlement period.... Historical and Western fans of either gender will enjoy this series from the compelling covers to the last word of this third volume. It's a series I'm glad I had the opportunity to read."~Jennie Hansen, Reviewer, Meridian Magazine

A SF short story, inspired by Neal Asher's Polity novels, offering an alternative genesis for Earth Central, its all encompassing AI. A survey and mining team sent to Titan get rather more than they expected.Every night little Johnny would lie in his bed and read his favorite comic book series "The Boogeyman." Johnny’s big sister Betty would tease him about his comic book on a daily basis, and say things like, "Johnny if you don't stop reading those stupid comic books the boogeyman is going to get you." She would come in his room and yank the comic book out of his hands and throw it across the room. The more his sister tormented him, the more anger for his sister was mounting.Finally one night as he was reading about the boogeyman his sister yanked the comic book out of his hands and started tearing the pages out of the comic book. She said as she was laughing "Sorry, Johnny, but it's for your own good."Johnny replied, "I wish you were dead."

Mark is happy . . . or at least he thinks so. Suzy is a living dream, but is this the thing that dreams are made of? Is it an illusion . . . but one that satisfies and haunts him at the same time? Or is it a reality formed by a nebulous entity, and locked firmly in his consciousness? Perhaps it for you, dear reader, to decide.With T.H.E.I., Karl Tutt, the master of mayhem and murder, he launches into a new genre . . . one that asks questions of a future that lurks just over a hideous horizon. Meet Mark . . . a man who has everything, a life that is perfect and a woman who honors his every desire. And if he has it all, why do the visions . . . the uncertainty . . . the demons . . . invade his mind and chase him into what could be his own personal hell?

Killing and mingling don't mix, which is why Atropos' number-one rule is to avoid relationships with humans. Caring for the people she has to kill is a fast track to insanity. But, when Alex Morgan walks into her English class, she knows she's in trouble. He's the worst kind of human for her to like—one with a rapidly approaching expiration date. And he makes Atropos want to break all the rules.Zeus gave her one simple job: Kill every human. Atropos—daughter of Zeus and the third goddess of Fate from Greek mythology —spends her eternal life snipping human lifelines when their mortal lives are over. As if being a killer doesn't make life miserable enough, she and her Fate-wielding sisters must live amongst the humans on Earth thanks to a long-running feud between their mother and Zeus. Living on Earth means they must mingle with the mortals, attend the local high school, and attempt to fit in—or at least not stand out too much.Killing and mingling don't mix, which is why Atropos' number-one rule is to avoid all relationships with the humans. Caring for the people she has to kill is a fast track to insanity. However, when Alex Morgan walks into her first-period English class, she knows she's in for trouble. He's the worst kind of human for her to like—one with a rapidly approaching expiration date. And he makes Atropos want to break all the rules.

Free short story in Nalini Singh's November Newsletter. Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t yet read KISS OF SNOW, you might want to save this short story to read later. This is part of the series of shorts focusing on the everyday lives of the characters, away from politics and danger. Set soon after Naya’s birth, this short story features... For those of you new to the Psy-Changeling world, this short story is set in the changeling leopard pack DarkRiver (changelings are able to shapeshift into their animal form at will). Sascha is the mate of the DarkRiver alpha, Lucas, and a Psy member of the pack. The Psy race is gifted with incredible mental abilities from telepathy to telekinesis.

The men and women of the Otherworld – witches, werewolves, demons, vampires – live unseen among us. Only now a reckless killer has torn down the wall, trapping one very human woman in the supernatural crossfire. Robyn moved to LA after her husband died to try to put some distance between herself and the life they had together. And the challenges of her job as the PR consultant to a Paris Hilton wannabe are pretty distracting. But then her celebutante is gunned down in a night club, and Robyn is suddenly the prime suspect. The two people most determined to clear her are her old friend, the half-demon tabloid reporter Hope Adams, and a homicide detective with an uncanny affinity for the dead. Soon Robyn finds herself in the heart of a world she never even knew existed – and which she was safer knowing nothing about . . .

Bruce Stevens is a young buyer for a big discount house when he meets the recently divorced Susan Faine. She suggests that he might like to manage her ailing typewriter store and he leaps at the suggestion. Then he realizes that Susan was his teacher when he was in fifth grade. In spite of that, they are married within days. And then the odd compulsions and instabilities start to interfere with their plans. Milton Lumky, the paper salesman in whose area they live, is uneasy about their future...

After a year at the king's palace, Miri has learned all about being a proper princess. But the tables turn when the student must become the teacher! Instead of returning to her beloved Mount Eskel, Miri is ordered to journey to a distant swamp and start a princess academy for three sisters, cousins of the royal family. Unfortunately, Astrid, Felissa, and Sus are more interested in hunting and fishing than becoming princesses. As Miri spends more time with the sisters, she realizes the king and queen's interest in them hides a long-buried secret. She must rely on her own strength and intelligence to unravel the mystery, protect the girls, complete her assignment, and finally make her way home. Fans of Shannon Hale won't want to miss this gorgeously woven return to this best-selling, award-winning series.

Deep in a high security shifter prison dwells the most dangerous shifter in the world. Vyr Daye is the Red Dragon, alpha to the Sons of Beasts Crew, loner, watcher, fire-breather…and he’s also completely misunderstood. The media has dragged him through the mud, his reputation is shot, and his own father helped to put him in prison for a one-year sentence. Only this prison isn’t what it seems and he’s fighting to keep his dragon alive. All he needs to do is keep steady for six more months and then he can live his life as quietly as possible with his crew, but one sexy, fast-talking prison counselor saunters in and wrecks his focus. Riyah isn’t what she seems, but no one can sense her powers besides Vyr. He’ll keep her secrets if she keeps his. And as the dragon inside of him starts losing his battle, he’ll need her help to gather his crew and pull him from the brink before it’s too late. And the more he gets to know the beguiling woman, the more he thinks she’s here for more important reasons than even he understands. Riyah Mercer has been hired to infiltrate the shifter prison and watch Vyr’s back. He doesn’t trust her, but he doesn’t realize she is his only friend here. She can see him struggling, and can see the dragon fading. As she starts falling hard for the stoic man, she becomes determined to do anything to save him. But saving the dragon means unleashing his fire on the world, and that’s not the only danger Riyah is in. There are eyes everywhere in the prison and they are creating something monstrous down in the cell where they keep the Red Dragon. If she is caught helping the man she’s falling in love with, it could mean the end for them both. Content Warning: Explicit love scenes, naughty language, and piles of sexy shifter secrets. Intended for mature audiences.