When Miss Hilary Wentworth takes up an appointment at Carisbrooke Abbey, little does she suspect it will lead her into a whirlwind of mystery and suspense. Her petulant employer, Lord Marcus Carisbrooke, is as enigmatic as one of the heroes from her favorite Gothic romance novels. Yet behind his gruff manner she senses a deep and abiding pain. As Marcus's brittle exterior dissolves, Hilary catches a glimpse of the man beneath. But when she discovers the secret that haunts the Abbey, it puts them both in terrible danger - a danger they might never escape.

Three hard-boiled stories that hark back to the days of pulp fiction.Meet private dick Jay Dafoe. He’s in a dirty business, and cold hard cash has always made up for twinges his conscience might occasionally feel.Ben Andropov is a cop. The bosses are management, and the beat is the moon. Management wants order and doesn’t care how it’s kept.Cold Pulp Trio is hard-boiled American noir.Three hard-boiled stories that hark back to the days of Black Mask and Astounding Science Fiction. The first tale is a novella that introduces private dick Jay Dafoe. He’s in a dirty business, and cold hard cash has always made up for twinges his conscience might occasionally feel, or so he thought until he’s hired to find a missing daughter. How does the amoral Dafoe handle the horror he unwittingly becomes entwined with? The second story finds Dafoe doing what he thought was routine work for a lawyer. What he doesn’t know is that he is the final pawn in a tragedy that was thirty years in the making. Some sins, Dafoe finds out, can’t be forgiven.The third story is a study of a thug with a badge. Ben Andropov is a cop. The bosses are management, and the beat is the moon. Management wants order and doesn’t care how it’s kept. Andropov is a low-level enforcer of the status quo, having used his natural brutality to escape the drudgery and poverty of the everyday citizen. Seventeen years he’s been a cop, and it’s starting to take its toll. Solving a simple murder winds up inflicting more damage to what’s left of his crippled soul and there’s no way out.Cold Pulp Trio is hard-boiled noir. American as hollow point bullets.

New York Times bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon and rising stars Jaid Black and Kresley Cole unlock the pleasures and perils of embracing the boldest and most powerful of lovers -- 100% alpha males -- in three sensually erotic tales. Discover the physical rapture of his muscular arms.... Become a prisoner of passion, swept away by an encounter with his primal side.... And get lost in the all-consuming thrill of white-hot pursuit by a relentless stranger who may be your most dangerous foe, the best lover you've ever had -- or both. Let your fantasies run wild with these unforgettable novellas where bigger is most definitely better -- and playing easy-to-get is the only way to go! "Turn Up The Heat" / Sherrilyn Kenyon The story of an average woman who wins the vacation of a lifetime - a trip to Sex Camp. But what Allison George gets is a race for her life with an ex-Mafia who is now being sought by his previous employer. Vince Cappelleti knew the island was a risky proposition, but he'd run out of options. Now the only thing he wants in his sights is Allison, but in order to have a future with her, he must first deal with his past. "Hunter's Oath" / Jaid Black What was supposed to be a simple taxi ride to Fairbanks, Alaska for Sofia Rowley ends up becoming a terrifying fight for her freedom. Sold by the cab driver to a mysterious man who imprisons her in a lost Viking world, Sofia is forced to stand all but naked on a bride auction block, her fate now in the hands of the highest bidder. "The Warlord Wants Forever" / Kresley Cole Nikolai Wroth, a ruthless vampire general, will stop at nothing to find his Bride, the one woman who can “blood” him, making his heart beat and filling him with strength. Coldly interested only in the power his mate will bring, he can hardly believe when Myst the Coveted, his army’s new immortal captive, awakens him body -- and soul. Famed throughout the world as the most beautiful Valkyrie, Myst has devoted her life to protecting a magical jewel and to fighting the vampires.

View our feature on Glen Cook's Cruel Zinc Melodies.Garrett uncovers the dark side of the fantasy city TunFaire, where no-one is to be trusted especially beautiful woman. When a pack of gorgeous woman knock on his door, Garrett knows it’s too good to be true. The leader of the group is Alyx Weider, the daughter of the largest brewer in town. Her father and friends are opening a new theater in TunFaire and the lovely ladies are there to persuade Garrett to help get rid of the paranormal parasites living in the new construction. Garrett agrees because after all, it means free beer and the company of these beautiful girls. What else could a man want? But Garrett doesn’t realize the drama he’s stepping into.

Opening with the exotic Lady Death entering the gumshoe-writer's seedy office in pursuit of a writer named Celine, this novel demonstrates Bukowski's own brand of humour and realism, opening up a landscape of seamy Los Angeles.

Having served in the Royal Navy, Police force, and currently working for MI5. Dave Slater finds himself found guilty of murder. A crime he did not commit. A couple of years later and after his release from prison, he is once again accused of committing another murder. Is it a Coincidence or just bad luck? Being in the Right Place at the Wrong Time.Legal mystery, suspense, smart fictionDion demands justice and a rewarding career making a difference in people's lives, but... be careful what you demand. Nothing is ever as it seems with his clients and they drive him crazy. His girlfriend and clients try to be good, but it's hard work keeping them all out of jail. Justice narrowly prevails at this nexus of the individual and larger questions about justice.A chance encounter in a lounge gets Dion involved with a "come here, get away" new girl friend. She's an ex-police detective who seems to have a warehouse full of problems. She is running because of a death threat from her corrupt husband, who could attack her at any time.She involves Dion in interrelated cases in which an injured veteran is accused of hacking, and his friend is accused of vehicular homicide. "Of course" both are innocent, even though they hide multiple secrets protecting others, that Dion must unravel.A complex legal mystery with subplots, this is "smart fiction," in which very few liberties are taken with the realistic experience of law. The reader is challenged to figure out the mystery - nothing is completely hidden. In the courtroom it emphasizes real legal practice. In the field, it's down to earth. It's a solid and entertaining probe of justice, with a little humor mixed in.This story takes its inspiration from "Boston Legal" with its unique defenses and humor, with a splash of "Ally McBeal" with its romance, and "Perry Mason" with its attention to investigation and law, and "Conviction" with its emphasis on thoroughness and justice. It is similar in complexity to the British TV series, "Broadchurch." If you like authors like James Grippando and Lincoln Child, you might like this story.

**If you loved the Dark Protectors series, these wicked hot Realm Enforcers are for you... **Daire Dunne is more than ready to take a quick break from his duties as a Coven Nine Enforcer. When he spots a sexy blonde across a Titans of Fire party, it’s not long before she’s on the back of his Harley on the fast track to his apartment. Unfortunately, one overheated kiss in, the woman drugs Daire and steals valuable files that can’t fall into enemy hands. The second he comes to, the hunt is on... Now that Cee Cee Kyllwood has the information to take down an enemy that destroyed her family, she can implement her perfect plan for revenge. Nothing will stop her, not even a shockingly sexy enforcer barging into her life. Not even the spectacular, fire-branding sex engulfing them. But if Daire ever figures out who her family really is, all bets are off...

As readers, we are accustomed to reading stories of war and injustice from the victims’ point of view, sympathizing with their plight. In Detective Story, the tables have been turned, leaving us in the mind of a monster, as Nobel Laureate Imre Kertész plunges us into a story of the worst kind, told by a man living outside morality. Now in prison, Antonio Martens is a torturer for the secret police of a recently defunct dictatorship. He requests and is given writing materials in his cell, and what he has to recount is his involvement in the surveillance, torture, and assassination of Federigo and Enrique Salinas, a prominent father and son whose principled but passive opposition to the regime left them vulnerable to the secret police. Preying on young Enrique’s aimless life, the secret police began to position him as a subversive and then targeted his father. Once this plan was set into motion, any means were justified to reach the regime’s chosen end—the destruction of an entire liberal class. Inside Martens’s mind, we inhabit the rationalizing world of evil and see firsthand the inherent danger of inertia during times of crisis. A slim, explosive novel of justice railroaded by malevolence, Detective Story is a warning cry for our time.

With a priceless collection at stake...Is everything for the taking? It had taken centuries for Max Bannister's family to acquire their treasures, and now he's been asked to risk his collection as bait for a master criminal. For his own reasons, Max allows a public exhibition, and to protect the family fortune he must rely on the skills of his half brother--a world-class security expert--and his smart and savvy exhibit director, Morgan West. But almost immediately, Morgan comes face-to-face with the mysterious Quinn, Interpol's most wanted thief for the past decade--and a man who makes it very clear he has an eye on the Bannister collection. And if that's not enough, Morgan begins to realize that she's surrounded by secrets and lies, and that someone very close to Max is moving behind the scenes, intent on murder as well as robbery...someone whose ultimate plan threatens to ruin them all. From the Paperback edition.

Macey McHenry—Glamorous society girl or spy-in-training? W.W. Hale V—Heir to an American dynasty or master thief? There are two sides to every coin. Whether these two can work together is a tossup. Born into privilege, Macey and Hale are experts at mingling with the upper class. But even if they’ve never raised an eyebrow at the glitz, neither teenager has ever felt at home with the glamour. When Macey and Hale meet at a society gala, the party takes a dangerous turn. Suddenly they’re at the center of a hostage situation, and it’s up to them to stop the thugs from becoming hostile. Will Macey’s spy skills and Hale’s con-man ways be enough to outsmart a ruthless gang? Or will they have to seek out the ultimate inside girl to help? The worlds of Heist Society and the Gallagher Girls collide in Ally Carter’s fast-paced, high-stakes and tantalizing new story. Get a behind the scenes glimpse as Ally delivers an irresistible thriller that is full of her signature style and savvy twists.

The toughest cases are the ones that hit close to home. When his cousin is accused of a heinous crime, Alex Cross returns to his North Carolina hometown for the first time in over three decades. As he tries to prove his cousin's innocence in a town where everyone seems to be on the take, Cross unearths a family secret that forces him to question everything he's ever known. Chasing a ghost he believed was long dead, Cross gets pulled into a case that has local cops scratching their heads and needing his help: a grisly string of socialite murders. Now he's hot on the trail of both a brutal killer, and the truth about his own past—and the answers he finds might be fatal.

In unmistakable Highsmithian fashion, Small g, Patricia Highsmith's final novel, opens near a seedy Zurich bar with the brutal murder of Petey Ritter. Unraveling the vagaries of love, sexuality, jealousy, and death, Highsmith weaves a mystery both hilarious and astonishing, a classic fairy tale executed with a characteristic penchant for darkness. Published in paperback for the first time in America, Small g is at once an exorcism of Highsmith's literary demons and a revelatory capstone to a wholly remarkable career. It is a delightfully incantatory work that, in the tradition of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, shows us how bizarre and unpredictable love can be.

Ranch owner Quinn Pedraza has to find someone to run the saloon he won in a bet, but more than that, he needs a woman who can handle his alpha personality…and closet submissive sexual cravings. When vampire Selene Torres arrives on the scene, he gets everything he wants – and learns what he really needs.

Robert Forester didn't look like the kind of man to be a prowler. His ex-wife had told the police he was erratic, liable to violence, had even fired a gun at her. Maybe he was a psychopathic murderer...

Young love has tragic, violent consequences in this “grippingly readable” thriller from the #1 bestselling author of * La Belle Sauvage* (Times Educational Supplement).** Chris Marshall met the girl he was going to kill on a warm night in early June . . . Working at an Oxford ball, Chris falls in love with Jenny the moment he sets eyes on her. When beautiful, secretive Jenny rushes headlong into his life, it seems fate has brought them together. But fate will also drive them mercilessly apart, as enemies hidden in the shadows send the innocent affair spiraling down a dark road of danger, revenge, and betrayal. Chris is about to discover that his ideals of honesty and trust are more complicated than he thought. With Northern Lights and its sequels, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, Carnegie Medal–winning author Philip Pullman established himself as a multimillion-copy bestselling phenomenon whose work speaks deeply to all ages. This contemporary novel, first published as The White Mercedes, tells the suspenseful story of a teenage romance with profound moral implications.