In this most gothic of Robert McCammon's novels, setting is key: the continuing saga of the Usher family (descended from the brother of Roderick and Madeline of Edgar Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher") takes place in the weird and picturesque heart of the North Carolina mountains. The haughty, aristocratic Ushers live in a mansion near Asheville; the poor but crafty mountain folk (whose families are just as ancient) live on Briartop Mountain nearby. At harvest time, when the book's action unfolds, the mountains are a blaze of color. Add to the mixture a sinister history of mountain kids disappearing every year, a journalist investigating those disappearances, a monster called "The Pumpkin Man," moldy books and paintings in a huge old library at the Usher estate, and a secret chamber with a strange device involving a brass pendulum and tuning forks--and you've got a splendid recipe for atmospheric horror. Originally published: New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1984.

A governess in a French chateau encounters an apparent plot against her young charge's life in this unforgettably haunting and beautifully written suspense novel. When lovely Linda Martin first arrives at Château Valmy as an English governess to the nine-year-old Count Philippe de Valmy, the opulence and history surrounding her seems like a wondrous, ecstatic dream. But a palpable terror is crouching in the shadows. Philippe's uncle, Leon de Valmy, is the epitome of charm, yet dynamic and arrogant, his paralysis little hindrance as he moves noiselessly in his wheelchair from room to room. Only his son Raoul, a handsome, sardonic man who drives himself and his car with equally reckless abandon, seems able to stand up to him. To Linda, Raoul is an enigma, though irresistibly attracted to him, she senses some dark twist in his nature. When an accident deep in the woods nearly kills Linda's innocent charge, she begins to wonder if someone has deadly plans for the young count.

The packed cruise ship is a terrific nesting ground for a Lord and Lady of the Wamphyri on the run from E-Branch and the new Necroscope, Jake Cutter. By the time the ship is reported missing, the few beings still living on board will no longer be human . . . and the Wamphyri will be long fled to their next conquest. Korath, the vampire who lurks in Jake Cutter's mind, is determined to gain control of Jake's life, and Jake is equally determined not to let him have it. But to win this struggle Jake must confide in Ben Trask-and Trask, the head of E-Branch, is likely to want Jake dead the minute he learns of Jake's intrusive passenger! The spore garden planted under London by the third Wamphyri, Lord Swartz, is bearing bitter fruit indeed as a mysterious sleeping sickness-with a vampiric taint-slowly spreads among the population of Great Britain. E-Branch action teams have more on their plates than they can handle. They must locate terrorists who threaten the world with nuclear homicide; permanently close the Gate between the Wamphyri world and Earth; analyze the spore plague; and locate and destroy the three Wamphyri. In Brian Lumley's Necroscope: Avengers, even the powers of Harry Keogh, the original Necroscope, summoned from the Great Beyond via the combined powers of E-Branch's strongest agents, may not be enough to defeat the monsters who have brought Earth to the brink of total destruction.

'An extraordinarily moving love story' Observer A couple lie naked in the dunes at Baritone Bay, at the spot where, almost thirty years before, they had first had sex as students. Nostalgia has sent Celice and Joseph back to their singing stretch of coast, but in the seeming calm of the afternoon they meet a brutal and unexpected fate - one which will still their bodies but not their love, and certainly not their story. 'A work of near-genius' Literary Review 'A swirling symphonic celebration of the glory of the natural world' The Times 'Intensely imagined and deeply felt' Hilary Mantel, Sunday Times 'One of the most haunting books I read this year' Carol Shields, Guardian Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award

The kidnapping is long past. Janie Johnson can never change what happened to her or to the families that love her. But finally life seems to be settling down for the Springs and the Johnsons. The worst part of this new life for Janie is that Reeve Shields is away at college. Janie misses him terribly, no matter how many e-mails they send each other. As for Reeve, he's finding life at college overwhelming. He goes to work at the school radio station, hoping a late-night gig will give him what he craves--popularity and fame. Reeve gets his chance to be the voice on the radio, and when he tells the most fascinating story he knows, his show becomes a sensation. Reeve is so sure that Janie will never discover what's making his broadcast such a hit that he doesn't stop himself. But what will be the price for Janie? As Janie knew, the facts about the little girl on the milk carton had to be uncovered, no matter how much pain they caused. Now the truth about what Reeve is doing must come out. Whose voice will help Janie when she must face not only her incredible past, but also her unknown future? With the page-turning suspense that made The Face on the Milk Carton and Whatever Happened to Janie? best-sellers, Caroline B. Cooney once again explores the meaning of betrayal, the power of words, and the intensity of love. From the Hardcover edition.

Well before Precious Ramotswe founded her Number One Ladies Detective Agency, as an eight-year-old girl she was already solving mysteries. Here we find out just who has been stealing her schoolfriend's snacks and how the young Precious became the crafty and intuitive private investigator we all know and love.

When a crime is committed nearby, Murphy is the logical choice to take the rap. The law thinks so and the neighborhood agrees. Nicholas is horrified when charges are filed and does his utmost to get Murphy safely off the hook. But safety is not to be for the poor, hard-luck bastard Murphy, who's on the superhighway to death row.A cat murder takes place on the very first page. Although this is primarily a tale of crime and punishment, dark and unexpected laughs abound in this deadly serious novel. Insanity involving cats weaves a spell of symbolism in a lateral story. Can nothing stop the beasts? What's it all about and who wins the mini war between cat and man? The narrator is Nicholas, a straight arrow, part of the unofficial neighborhood watch.When a crime is committed nearby, Murphy is the logical choice to take the rap. The law thinks so and the neighborhood agrees. Nicholas is horrified when charges are filed and does his utmost to get Murphy safely off the hook. But safety is not to be for the poor, hard-luck bastard Murphy, who's on the superhighway to death row. There is another major player in this drama, old man Nailor, a gossip who is at the top of his game and who disseminates information to deadly effect.

See alternate cover edition: here He's a charming monster... A macabre hero... A serial killler who only kills bad people. Dexter Morgan has been under considerable pressure. It's just not easy being an ethical serial killer - especially while trying to avoid the unshakable suspicions of the dangerous Sergeant Doakes (who believes Dexter is a homicidal maniac...which, of course, he is). In an attempt to throw Doakes off his trail, Dexter has had to slip deep into his foolproof disguise. While not working as a blood-spatter analyst for the Miami Police Department, he now spends nearly all his time with his cheerful girlfriend, Rita, and her two children, sipping light beer and slowly becoming the world's first serial couch potato. But how long can Dexter play Kick the Can instead of Slice the Slasher? How long before his Dark Passenger forces him to drop the charade and let his inner monster run free? In trying times, opportunity knocks. A particularly nasty psychopath is cutting a trail through Miami - a man whose twisted technique leaves even Dexter speechless. As Dexter's dark appetite is revived, his sister, Deborah (a newly minted, tough-as-nails Miami detective), is drawn headlong into the case. It quickly becomes clear that it will take a monster to catch a monster - but it isn't until his archnemesis is abducted that Dex can finally throw himself into the search for a new plaything. Unless, of course, his plaything finds him first... With the incredible wit and freshness that drew widespread acclaim to Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Jeff Lindsay now takes Dexter Morgan to a new level of macabre appeal and gives us one of the most original, colorful narrators in years.

Average Jones had come by his nickname inevitably. His parents had foredoomed him to it when they furnished him with the initials A. V. R. E. as preface to his birthright of J for Jones. His character apparently justified the chance of concomitant. He was, so to speak, a composite photograph of any thousand well-conditioned, clean-living Americans between the ages of twenty-five and thirty. Happily, his otherwise commonplace face was relieved by the one unfailing characteristic of composite photographs, large, deep-set and thoughtful eyes. Otherwise he would have passed in any crowd, and nobody would have noticed him pass. Now, at twenty-seven, he looked back over the five years since his graduation from college and wondered what he had done with them; and at the four previous years of undergraduate life and wondered how he had done so well with those and why he had not in some manner justified the parting words of his favorite professor.

Family are more deadly than strangers.In this novella series prequel, Emma is staying with her neighbours, the Macdonalds, when a visiting relative is murdered. George Macdonald is the prime suspect, and his terminally ill wife asks Emma to find out who among the visitors and family members is the killer. Little does she know it will lead to a sharp-edged confrontation.Family are more deadly than strangers.In this novella series prequel, Emma Haythorne (unmarried, but soon to meet Sam Berry) is staying at neighbouring Nettifield pastoral station, on the Murray, to help her friend Bea Macdonald look after the household comprising her three brothers, father George and terminally ill mother, Martha. Family visitors arrive by paddle steamer, on their way home from a trip to England. Shortly into their visit, George Macdonald’s half-brother, Vernon Appleton, is found dead in the stable. Emma is charged by the dying woman with finding out who killed him, but who, apart from her husband, had a motive? An Emma Berry Murray River Australia cozy mystery. Includes a sample of Book 1, A Gem of a Problem.

Keep your eyes peeled for a small black iron door. Down the road from a working-class British pub, along the brick wall of a narrow alley, if the conditions are exactly right, you’ll find the entrance to Slade House. A stranger will greet you by name and invite you inside. At first, you won’t want to leave. Later, you’ll find that you can’t. Every nine years, the house’s residents — an odd brother and sister — extend a unique invitation to someone who’s different or lonely: a precocious teenager, a recently divorced policeman, a shy college student. But what really goes on inside Slade House? For those who find out, it’s already too late... Spanning five decades, from the last days of the 1970s to the present, leaping genres, and barreling toward an astonishing conclusion, this intricately woven novel will pull you into a reality-warping new vision of the haunted house story—as only David Mitchell could imagine it.

Three of them are waiting. Rydal Keener is waiting for something exciting to happen in his grubby little Athens hotel. At forty-odd, Chester MacFarland has been waiting much longer, expecting his life of stock manipu­lation and fraud to catch up with him. And Colette, Chester's wife, is waiting for something altogether different. After a nasty little incident in the hotel, they all wait together. As the stakes, and the tension, in their three-cornered waiting game mount, they learn that while passports and silence can be bought, other things can cost as much as your life.

A short story about a single mom's child going missing, but nobody recalls the child existing. About 5000 wordsWe have an obligation to ourselves to be honest and true to ourselves and our readers. If we fail to do this, we shall rise no higher. If we rise no higher, then what are we?

It’s been one year since the creatures of Shadeland have exposed themselves to the world, but 17 year old Liv doesn’t really care; she knew of them long before anyone else did because her best friend Luke is one. But when women begin dying in her hometown, Luke gets blamed for the killings because he isn’t human and it sets Liv on a mission to find out who the killer really is, or what it is.One year after the designated “Eidolon Revolution” and all the other-world demons have been exposed, seventeen year old Liv Burnett is still the same, apathetic person she ever was. And when a woman dies in her home town, Liv doesn’t think anything of it, choosing to focus on more normal things; things like just graduating high school and moving in with her life-long friend, Luke. But soon Luke is thrown into jail on the sole reason that he isn’t human and has been labeled as the Ellengale Nightstalker for crimes he didn’t commit. Trying to figure everything out Liv realizes she has picked up her own stalker by the name of Jared; an aggressive but alluring man who claims he’s trying to find the real killer too. Taking a chance she normally wouldn’t, Liv follows Jared down dangerous roads in hopes of saving not only her friend, but the lives of other women in town.

"Because one can't simply fire a Novak..." Return to The Shade in the EPIC FINAL BOOK of "Season 4"!