In This Sweet Sickness, Patricia Highsmith, in her own inimitable fashion, has created a complex psychological tale as suspenseful as The Talented Mr. Ripley. David Kelsey, a young scientist, has an unyielding conviction that life will turn out all right for him; he just has to fix the Situation: he is in love with a married woman. Obsessed with Annabelle and the life he has imagined for them—including the fully furnished cabin he maintains for her—David prepares to win her over, whatever it takes. In this riveting tale of a deluded loner, Highsmith reveals her uncanny ability to draw out the secret obsessions that overwhelm the human heart.

An SCU team investigates a string of accidents, only to uncover a deadly and deliberate monster in the latest novel from New York Times bestselling author Kay Hooper. In Clarity, North Carolina, the residents have fallen victim to an unfortunate series of events. Seemingly random accidents have taken the lives of several citizens in the small mountain town. But these deadly coincidences are anything but. Something is on the hunt in Clarity, and the only clue as to what is a cryptic note given to the victims 24 hours before they meet their ends: “Wait for dark.” Sheriff Mal Gordon knows how to handle his town, but he has no idea how to handle this. Hollis Templeton and her team from the Special Crimes Unit, including her partner and lover, telepath Reese DeMarco, are called in to investigate. But while the SCU has prepared them for the unknown, the incredible evil stalking Clarity shakes the team to their core when one of their own is targeted. Now Hollis, the “cat with nine lives” finds herself facing death again. And this time, not even her partner can protect her...

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Iris Johansen, an explosive thriller featuring fan favorite Margaret Douglas, an animal psychic ON THE RUN Margaret Douglas has worked hard to put her painful past behind her. Raised off the grid in an abusive home, her only escape was the nearby forest where she sought refuge whenever she could. There, in the peaceful woods, she discovered a strange gift: the ability to understand animals and to communicate with them. Now, Margaret wants nothing more than to live a quiet life, close to the animals and under the radar. But her abilities have not gone unnoticed...and there are those who would use them for their own purposes. Determined not to be a pawn in anyone's game, every time someone gets too close, Margaret uproots her life and outruns them. INTO THE LINE OF FIRE When CIA operative John Lassiter breaks into Margaret's apartment, she vanishes again. Still, Lassiter has good reason to be persistent: one of his men is being held captive by an unrelenting enemy--someone who has set his sights on Margaret. Which means that Lassiter must control her to use her as bait...With danger in hot pursuit, Margaret finds herself matching wits with a man who refuses to stop or be stopped. Turning from the hunted to the hunter, Margaret must use everything she has ever learned to not only survive, but to defeat a great evil. And to prove once and for all that she's no easy target. . . This edition of the book is the deluxe, tall rack mass market paperback.

When a man is found dead at his doorstep on the edge of Walden Pond, naturalist and writer Henry David Thoreau follows his highly developed moral compass to track down the killer. A short story by an Edgar short story winner.Tom is pleased with the direction that his life has taken him, and enjoys his structured life as a young American soldier stationed overseas. Alyse is a beautiful young Canadian on summer vacation far from home. A chance meeting between the two while in Germany sets off a mysterious chain of events that will take them across continents and place them at odds with the most powerful people in the world. What the two uncover will shake their faith in the institutions that they believe in, and uncover shocking secrets that could cost them their lives.

The world's leading mystery writers have come together to champion the greatest mystery novels ever written. In a series of personal essays they often reveal as much about themselves and their work as they do about the books that they love.

'Smith' introduces us to DS Jason Smith, an Australian living in York. After an apparent suicide in a student house, a series of events unravels that nobody, especially Smith, could have ever anticipated. Smith finds himself in a race against time to try and unravel this sinister mystery.'The sleepy historical city of York is about to wake up'. It is Christmas Day in York. A woman is found dead in her bed. A suicide note is found on her chest. It reads ‘I am so sorry Martin’. Hours later the police are called to a house a few miles away. A mother and her daughter have been brutally attacked; the mother is dead and the daughter is barely alive. The father is found shaking uncontrollably in the corner of the room. He is covered in blood but he is unharmed. His name is Martin Willow. Detective Sergeant Jason Smith is put in charge of the investigation. After reaching dead end after dead end, Smith starts to put the pieces together and figures out that Martin Willow is innocent and the killer is still out there. The little girl who was attacked on Christmas Day wakes from her coma and gives Smith a clue about the attacker; a piece of a song she heard directly before the attack. Smith then finds himself in a race against time to find this maniac before he kills again.

A brief vignette, and one that I wrote mainly to understand Amelie and Oliver’s relationship. This was written very early on, between Glass Houses and The Dead Girls’ Dance … It was also before I’d thought about Bishop, or even much about Myrnin, although I already had the broad strokes of his character in mind. This little scene was written to help me understand how these very long-lived, somewhat disinterested characters would see these teenagers who’d defied them … and it also gives us a bit more about Shane’s father, since I was beginning to write that book and had a feeling for what was coming. The characters changed over time, developed more depth and richness and personality, but I think the outlines are there in this story, and the sense of their long view of things. This was originally posted as part of the Captain Obvious ‘hidden content’ on the Morganville website.

I wrote this account one year after I'd found Hannah dead. I thought I'd managed to erase all traces of that night within myself. But I was wrong. Every night when I tried to sleep, I'd close my eyes and see her again, exactly as I found her, hanging from a pine tree by an orange elctrical cord, her neck twisted like a tulip stem, her eyes seeing nothing. Or else that was the problem. They'd seen everything. This mesmerizing debut, uncannily uniting the trials of a postmodern upbringing with a murder mystery, heralds the arrival of a vibrant new voice in literary fiction.

Nowhere is Patricia Highsmith's affinity for animals more apparent than in The Animal-Lover's Book of Beastly Murder, for here she transfers the murderous thoughts and rages most associated with humans onto the animals themselves. You will meet, for example, in "In the Dead of Truffle Season," a truffle-hunting pig who tries to whet his own appetite for a while; or Jumbo in "Chorus Girl's Absolutely Final Performance," a lonely, old circus elephant who decides she's had enough of show business and cruel trainers for one lifetime. In this satirical reprise of Kafka, cats, dogs, and breeding rodents are no longer ordinary beings in the happy home, but actually have the power to destroy the world in which we live.

This is a compilation of short stories that will scare you, shock you, and make you afraid to turn out the lights!!!A compilation of short stories from the mind of a young author. Scary stories, sad stories and ones that will just leave you scratching your head. Two young children get all that they bargained for when they ask their father for a scary bedtime story. A Sheriff in a small town confronts an evil he is all to familiar with, and much more.

Short story, 17 pages. When Charles Lawson (aka God) is forty and enjoying a career as a troubleshooter for coin fraud, he goes to Maralinga in South Australia to determine the authenticity of a mysterious coin found there after the British atomic explosions of 1960. Here he meets 25-year old Jamie Stanborough, chief archeologist on the coin dig. Jamie sets out to seduce Lawson for his own ends.Short story, 17 pages. When Charles Lawson (aka God) is forty and enjoying a career as a troubleshooter for coin fraud, he goes to Maralinga in South Australia to determine the authenticity of a mysterious coin found there after the British atomic explosions of 1960. Here he meets twenty-five-year old Jamie Stanborough, chief archeologist on the coin dig. Jamie sets out to seduce Lawson for his own ends. 5,885 words.

Nancy searches for the practical joker who is stalking the Emerson College basketball team before the team blows its chance for the playoffs.

During Karen's month-long stay with her little-house family in Chicago, she teams up with a new friend to nab an art thief.

Stephanie Plum In Between the Numbers Christmas novel It's five days before Christmas and things are not looking merry for Fugitive Apprehension Agent Stephanie Plum. She hasn't got a tree. She hasn't bought any presents. The malls are jam-packed with staggering shoppers. There's not a twinkle light anywhere to be seen in her apartment. And there's a strange man in her kitchen. Sure, this has happened to Stephanie Plum before. Strangers, weirdos, felons, creeps, and lunatics are always finding their way to her front door. But this guy is different. This guy is mysterious, sexy-and he has his own agenda. His name is Diesel and he is a man on a mission. And Diesel is unlike anyone Stephanie has ever met before in her life. The question is, what does he want with her? Can he help her find a little old toy maker who has skipped out on his bail right before Christmas? Can he survive the Plum family holiday dinner? Can he get Stephanie a tree that doesn't look like it was grown next to a nuclear power plant? These questions and more are keeping Stephanie awake at night. Not to mention the fact that she needs to find a bunch of nasty elves, her sister Valerie has a Christmas "surprise" for the Plums, her niece Mary Alice doesn't believe in Santa anymore, and Grandma Mazur has a new stud muffin. So bring out the plastic reindeer, strap on your jingle bells, and get ready to celebrate the holidays-Jersey style. In Janet Evanovich's Visions of Sugar Plums, the world of Plum has never been merrier!