It could have been just any night, and they could have just been any two brothers -- but it wasn't, and they weren't. The scene is an Atlanta bar. The music is loud and the dance floor is packed. The good-looking brother picks up a girl. But when dark deeds ensue out in the parking lot, what happens next can only be described in two words: vintage Slaughter.

Paramilitary terrorists who have taken over a top-secret nuclear complex kidnap Maryland welder Jack Hummel and force him to cut through a half-ton titanium block that conceals the launch button.

In the summer of 1932, Maisie Dobbs’ career goes in an exciting new direction when she accepts an undercover assignment directed by Scotland Yard’s Special Branch and the Secret Service. Posing as a junior lecturer, she is sent to a private college in Cambridge to monitor any activities “not in the interests of His Majesty’s Government.” When the college’s controversial pacifist founder and principal, Greville Liddicote, is murdered, Maisie is directed to stand back as Detective Chief Superintendent Robert MacFarlane and Detective Chief Inspector Stratton spearhead the investigation. She soon discovers, however, that the circumstances of Liddicote’s death appear inextricably linked to the suspicious comings and goings of faculty and students under her surveillance. To unravel this web, Maisie must overcome a reluctant Secret Service, discover shameful hidden truths about Britain’s conduct during the war, and face off against the rising powers of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei—the Nazi Party—in Britain. A pivotal chapter in the life of Maisie Dobbs, A Lesson In Secrets marks the beginning of her intelligence work for the Crown. As the storm clouds of World War II gather on the horizon, Maisie will confront new challenges and new enemies—and will engage new readers and loyal fans of this bestselling mystery series.

Say goodbye to LonePine, Wyoming, population 438, a typical small town in the American west with typical small town problems -- romantic intrigues, warm beer and vampires. When Lizzie goes missing on their wedding night, Tucker is forced to team up with his bloodthirsty Russian nemesis to find answers. Crashing through cowboy country, the vampire spirit world and wrecked salmon canneries, they confront an evil more ancient than even the undead -- human greed -- twisting science into something terrible. Can there be a happily-ever-after for a cowboy and vampire, or is their unusual love just a delusion? Time to cowboy up!The Cowboy and the Vampire: Rough Trails and Shallow Graves is the third book of The Cowboy and the Vampire Collection, a series that's been called everything from a cult classic to a trailblazer in a new genre: Western Gothic.  

A prolific turn-of-the-century writer of poems, mysteries, children’s literature, parodies, and other humorous pieces, Carolyn Wells was born in Rahway, New Jersey. When she was six, Wells experienced hearing loss caused by scarlet fever, but went on to graduate as high school valedictorian and study humanities and science independently under the mentorship of friends. Wells’s early publications appeared in Britain’s Punch and The Lark, published by editor and leading nonsense-verse writer Gelett Burgess of San Francisco. Wells collected her early nonsense verse in Idle Idyls (1900). Her 1902 publication, The Nonsense Anthology, became her most famous. Wells authored over 75 mystery and detective stories. Her Technique of the Mystery Story (1913, 1929) remains a well-regarded study on the genre. She also wrote stories for youth and is credited for establishing the first humor anthology. A few years before her death in New York City, she published an autobiography, The Rest of My Life (1937). CONTENTS Wanted: A Haunted House The Old Montgomery Place Black Aspens The Story of the House Eve’s Experience At Four O’clock The Mystery By What Means Conflicting Theories Was It Supernatural? The Heir Speaks Out The Professor’s Experience Pennington Wise Zizi Tracy’s Story What Happened to Zizi Stebbins Owns Up Another Confession

Escaping from his North Carolina home after his father murders their family and commits suicide, Trevor McGee returns to confront the past, and finds himself haunted by the same demons that drove his father to insanity.

Two thieves find a mysterious man spying upon them and decide to kill him but they are in for a big surprise.Deep in the dark depths of the archaic dystopian city of Dubh, a young man begins his battle against a being with no soul. With all his family murdered by the sadistic Silus Flax, Jonathan Postlethwaite begins his campaign to avenge his family and destroy his evil nemesis and the foul city that has spawned him. Flax soon senses Jonathon’s presence and the threat he poses to his plans to rule Dubh …and break out of a captive dimension to present day Earth and beyond.So begins a battle against time for Jonathon as Flax puts his plans into action to claim Dubh as his domain and its corrupted citizens as his slaves; and find a way to Earth. Day by day Flax seeks out the young Postlethwaite and his unlikely and contrasting group of allies, while Jonathon slowly formulates a plan that will create the Destruction of Dubh – unless Flax finds him first.Full of splendid, believable characters and dark humour, the Seed of Corruption is set against the gloom and misery of the City of Dubh and the deep struggle that takes place there. David Denny creates a novel which is an intense and entertaining story which explores human nature at its extremes. Page after page of tense drama unfolds in a hurtling narrative taking the tale to a scintillating and apocalyptic finale….but with a twist.

Julie Blalock has a secret--she was once an MI6 Agent. A personal tragedy forced her to quit, but a chance offer to return for a one-time op is too tempting to ignore. Her mission: to pose as a rich socialite during the most anticipated high-class auction of the year--Esther May Morrow's sale of antique treasures, featuring Lot 62, a prize that has even the Ministry of Defence worried.Julie Blalock is approaching thirty and has an unfulfilling job with an accountancy firm. But she also has a secret--she was once an MI6 Agent. A personal tragedy forced her to quit eight years ago, but a chance offer to return for a one-time op is too tempting to ignore. Her mission: to pose as a rich socialite at Sotheby's, to gain critical intelligence during the most anticipated high-class auction of the year--Esther May Morrow's sale of antique treasures, featuring Lot 62, a prize that has even the Ministry of Defence worried. What secrets will Julie discover on her impromptu return to espionage?

Small-time private investigator Ray Lovell veers between paralysis and delirium in a hospital bed. But before the accident that landed him there, he'd been hired to find Rose Janko, the wife of a charismatic son of a traveling Gypsy family, who went missing seven years earlier. Half Romany himself, Ray is well aware that he's been chosen more for his blood than his investigative skills. Still, he's surprised by the intense hostility he encounters from the Jankos, who haven't had an easy past. Touched by tragedy, they're either cursed or hiding a terrible secret-whose discovery Ray can't help suspecting is connected to Rose's disappearance. . . .

Detective Dirk Nickel couldn't care less about clowns, but his is a city without laughs where clowns are a dying breed.Then, one day Nickel is framed - branded a 'chuckler' - and the heat is on. Can Nickel uncover who framed him in time, maybe even bring down the city-wide conspiracy against clowns in the bargain... or will the last laugh be on him?Featuring gripping Independent authors from around the world, FUSION is the first collection of short works published by Breakwater Harbor Books. Contributing heart-pumping tales of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Crime are seven stories that will thrill and rivet you. Authors from across a wide variety of genres, Dee Harrison, Ivan Amberlake, Claire C. Riley, Scott J. Toney, Mindy Haig, Cara Goldthorpe and C.M.T. Stibbe. The Sliver of Abilon – A Mirrorsmith Tale – 'and you thought it was safe to look in the mirror?'Diary of the Gone - Without a girlfriend, bullied by the Principal’s son, and haunted by the dead, Callum Blackwell thinks his life can’t get any worse. But he’s wrong.Life Ever After. Nina's Story: Part one. – When the dead begin to rise, it's time to put your differences aside and run!NovaFall – When the Meteor falls, the essences will come, forging flesh and planetary souls as one.Cybilla. – To claim his Muse, one man must find the gate between the mortal and the immortal worlds.Capturing Perfection – An artist's tale of love, loss and beauty in Renaissance MilanUntil The Ninth Hour – Until a man loses his daughter to a serial killer, until he loses his best friend, until he is down on his luck, Darryl Williams must put all thoughts of retaliation out of his mind.An excerpt from Dee Harrison’s The Sliver of Abilon – A Mirrorsmith Tale Junah Venmark, Master Mirrorsmith, exited the wayportal directly into the seaweed stench of Abilon. The foul odour tickled the back of his throat and he gagged on a rise of bile. Mirrorsmith Guild protocol demanded that he preview his destination before he arrived but it could not prepare him for an assault on his other senses. He vomited onto the trackway, just thankful that there was no-one to witness his most pitiful entrance ever. He loathed the smell of mouldy greens – it stirred up too many reminders of his wretched childhood in the back alleys of Varna, largest city on his homeworld of Vargo – but this was kabbige soup intensified tenfold. When his heaving subsided, Junah sank down onto his rump, trying to ignore the early evening dew which was soaking into his leggings. He pulled a kerchief from his belt-purse, to wipe the spittle from his lips, and cursed this ill-favoured world. Sissik, his wail, chittered and scurried around him like a silver-furred cyclone, mewing her distress. Junah winced when she skipped onto his tender stomach, the better to peer into his face with her large, prosimian eyes. He ran a finger down her spine and she slowly relaxed beneath his touch. Junah ill? She sent. No, I’m fine, Little One he reassured her. He grimaced. The smell caught me out, that’s all. Sissik wrinkled her own nose. Nasty, nasty stink, she concurred. Junah delved into his purse a further time and extracted a couple of lozenges from a packet. A few chews later and he could smell nothing. “Next time I’ll take ‘em before I get here,” he promised out loud. “Not that there’ll be a next time!” Junah clambered to his feet and peeled the sodden fabric from his buttocks. Sissik took her accustomed place on his shoulders, hiding beneath his long, dark hair and curled around his neck like a fur collar. Wails were native to all the worlds of the Regium, even the undeveloped ones like Abilon. Some wails, the silver-furred ones like Sissik, were prized for their ability to generate the acoustic frequencies that Mirrorsmiths depended upon. Others, the plumper, browner ones, made good eating. Whenever Sissik irritated him, which was often, Junah threatened to dye her coat russet. Now, however, she was quiescent, understanding that it was time for work.

A tale of rugby, puddings and murder.Ingredients: 1 handful of illegal drugs, 1 twelve-inch chef's knife, 1 blood-stained handkerchief, 6 rugby forwards and half a motorbike.When stirred by Lannie Herron, a young chef on the run, these make a deadly mixture. One of the players at the rugby club where she works may be a killer - but which one?A tale of rugby, puddings and murder.Ingredients: 1 handful of illegal drugs, 1 twelve-inch chef's knife, 1 blood-stained handkerchief, 6 rugby forwards and half a motorbike.When well stirred by Lannie Herron, a young chef on the run, these make a deadly mixture. One of the players at the rugby club where she's found refuge may be a killer - but which one?.

Benny figures out some puzzling events in a department store.

A female computer expert at the world’s largest bank plans the perfect heist in this New York Times Notable Book from the #1 international bestselling author of *The Eight* Verity Banks is the one of the most powerful women in finance, but she still reports to a man. Her boss not only refuses to implement her security plan to safeguard customers’ deposits, he also sabotages her shot at becoming director of security at the Federal Reserve. Outraged, Verity decides to take revenge by hitting her boss where it will hurt the most: right in his company’s balance sheet. She is about to begin her assault when she hears from the last person she ever expected to see again, Zoltan Tor. A brilliant computer scientist who taught Verity everything she knows, Zoltan will help her if she agrees to an outlandish wager: Which of them can steal $1 billion, invest it to make $30 million in three months, and return it before anyone notices? Verity can use a computer; Zoltan will do it the old-fashioned way. To beat Zoltan at his own game, Verity will risk her fortune, her professional reputation—and her life. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Katherine Neville including rare images from her life and travels.

The sexiest romance you’ll read this year… One moment can change your life forever... For Violet Lee, a chance encounter on a darkened street draws her into a world beyond her wildest imaginings, a timeless place of vast elegance and immeasurable wealth – of beautiful mansions and lavish parties – where a decadent group of friends live for pleasure alone. A place from which there is no escape...no matter how hard Violet tries. Yet all the riches in the world can’t mask the darkness that lies beneath the gilded surface, embodied in the charismatic but dangerous Kaspar Varn. Violet and Kaspar surrender to a passion that transcends their separate worlds – but it’s a passion that comes at a price...

Before there was Raylan, there was Sisco... U.S. Marshal Karen Sisco is on the hunt for world-class gentleman felon Jack Foley in Out of Sight, New York Times bestselling author Elmore Leonard’s sexy thriller that moves from Miami to the Motor City. Based on Miami, Florida's Gold Coast, U.S. Marshal Karen Sisco isn’t about to let a expert criminal like Jack Foley successfully bust out of Florida's Glades Prison. But there’s a major score waiting for him in Detroit, and a shotgun-wielding marshal isn’t going to stop Foley from getting it. Neither counted on sharing a cramped car trunk—or on a sizzling chemistry that’s working overtime. As soon as Sisco escapes, Foley is already missing her. Sisco can’t forget Foley either—and she isn’t about to let him go. Too bad the next time their paths cross, it’s going to be about business, not pleasure.