"Thrilling and illuminating."--LA Times "A hypnotic psychological thriller." --People A chance encounter sparks an unrelenting web of lies in this new gripping and complex psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl and the upcoming page-turner Don't You Cry, * Mary Kubica She sees the teenage girl on the train platform, standing in the pouring rain, clutching an infant in her arms. She boards a train and is whisked away. But she can't get the girl out of her head... Heidi Wood has always been a charitable woman: she works for a nonprofit, takes in stray cats. Still, her husband and daughter are horrified when Heidi returns home one day with a young woman named Willow and her four-month-old baby in tow. Disheveled and apparently homeless, this girl could be a criminal--or worse. But despite her family's objections, Heidi invites Willow and the baby to take refuge in their home. Heidi spends the next few days helping Willow get back on her feet, but as clues into Willow's past begin to surface, Heidi is forced to decide how far she's willing to go to help a stranger. What starts as an act of kindness quickly spirals into a story far more twisted than anyone could have anticipated. *More Praise: "Hypnotic and anything but predictable." --Kirkus, * starred review "A superb psychological thriller...stunning."--Publishers Weekly, * starred review Read the New York Times bestselling novel that everyone is talking about, The Good Girl, * by Mary Kubica! Look for Mary's latest complex and addictive tale of deceit and obsession, Don't You Cry. Order your copies today!*

An Owen Tremaine Supernatural Mystery (Book One):Owen Tremaine is in more trouble than he ever imagined. The founder of a software company, he thought work-related burnout was a major crisis. But then a friend gets killed on Owen’s houseboat. Now he’s dealing with what used to be his own company, a police detective, and...a surprising discovery about local Native American history.An Owen Tremaine Supernatural Mystery (Book One):Owen Tremaine is in more trouble than he ever imagined. 28 years old, the founder of a software company in Corpus Christi, Texas, he thought work-related burnout was a major crisis. After walking away from his company, he’s spent a year trying to reinvent himself as a private investigator, living on a houseboat. Which he realizes is a fantasy that’s not really working out, but he doesn’t want to admit that to anybody…yet. Maybe a few more months will turn the tide.But then, on a lazy summer afternoon, a good friend gets killed on Owen’s houseboat, and Owen finds his body. The police think Owen’s girlfriend may be involved. She’s missing, and so is Owen’s former business partner. Who, judging from the blood left on his floor, may also be dead. Then there’s the kidnapping of a local child. And…it turns out that not everybody involved is, strictly speaking, human. Which Owen also never saw coming. Magic? Really?Owen’s new skills get a workout. Now he’s dealing with what used to be his own cutting-edge software development company, a police detective who takes a personal interest, some downsides of recent anti-terror legislation, and…a surprising discovery about local Native American history. You know, the magic thing. Turns out extinction is more complicated than it first appears.But hey. Owen’s still got friends. Too bad he doesn’t know as much about them as he thinks he does….

Mary Anne wants to learn about her mother, who died when Mary Anne was a baby, so she goes into the attic and searches through her father's box of photos and papers. There she finds a deep secret. . . .

Now updated with new material that brings the killer's picture into clearer focus. In the fall of 1888, all of London was held in the grip of unspeakable terror.  An elusive madman calling himself Jack the Ripper was brutally butchering women in the slums of London’s East End.  Police seemed powerless to stop the killer, who delighted in taunting them and whose crimes were clearly escalating in violence from victim to victim.  And then the Ripper’s violent spree seemingly ended as abruptly as it had begun.  He had struck out of nowhere and then vanished from the scene.  Decades passed, then fifty years, then a hundred, and the Ripper’s bloody sexual crimes became anemic and impotent fodder for puzzles, mystery weekends, crime conventions, and so-called “Ripper Walks” that end with pints of ale in the pubs of Whitechapel.  But to number-one New York Times bestselling novelist Patricia Cornwell, the Ripper murders are not cute little mysteries to be transformed into parlor games or movies but rather a series of terrible crimes that no one should get away with, even after death.  Now Cornwell applies her trademark skills for meticulous research and scientific expertise to dig deeper into the Ripper case than any detective before her—and reveal the true identity of this fabled Victorian killer. In Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper, Case Closed, Cornwell combines the rigorous discipline of twenty-first century police investigation with forensic techniques undreamed of during the late Victorian era to solve one of the most infamous and difficult serial murder cases in history.  Drawing on unparalleled access to original Ripper evidence, documents, and records, as well as archival, academic, and law-enforcement resources, FBI profilers, and top forensic scientists, Cornwell reveals that Jack the Ripper was none other than a respected painter of his day, an artist now collected by some of the world’s finest museums: Walter Richard Sickert. It has been said of Cornwell that no one depicts the human capability for evil better than she.   Adding layer after layer of circumstantial evidence to the physical evidence discovered by modern forensic science and expert minds, Cornwell shows that Sickert, who died peacefully in his bed in 1942, at the age of 81, was not only one of Great Britain’s greatest painters but also a serial killer, a damaged diabolical man driven by megalomania and hate.  She exposes Sickert as the author of the infamous Ripper letters that were written to the Metropolitan Police and the press.  Her detailed analysis of his paintings shows that his art continually depicted his horrific mutilation of his victims, and her examination of this man’s birth defects, the consequent genital surgical interventions, and their effects on his upbringing present a casebook example of how a psychopathic killer is created. New information and startling revelations detailed in Portrait of a Killer include: How a year-long battery of more than 100 DNA tests—on samples drawn by Cornwell’s forensics team in September 2001 from original Ripper letters and Sickert documents—yielded the first shadows of the 75- to 114 year-old genetic evid...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Vienna, 1913. Lysander Rief, a young English actor, sits in the waiting room of the city's preeminent psychiatrist as he anxiously ponders the particularly intimate nature of his neurosis. When the enigmatic, intensely beautiful Hettie Bull walks in, Lysander is immediately drawn to her, unaware of how destructive the consequences of their subsequent affair will be. One year later, home in London, Lysander finds himself entangled in the dangerous web of wartime intelligence - a world of sex, scandal and spies that is slowly, steadily, permeating every corner of his life...

A lonely widow is romanced by a “brilliantly portrayed” pathological killer in this novel by the National Book Award–winning author of them (The New York Times)*. Dorothea Deverell is a New England art historian working for a Boston museum, resigned to entering middle age alone—until she’s swept off her feet by the flattery of a charming younger man who calls her his soul mate. Colin Asch is swept away too. He admires Dorothea’s gentle nature, innate goodness, decency, and acceptance of others without judgment. She’s nothing at all like the people Colin has met before—and murdered. A self-appointed “Angel of Death,” Colin is determined to keep Dorothea happy—by eliminating anyone who gets in the way of his plan. They’ll be clever kills, untraceable and fast as a knife-slash to the throat. Each one will bring him closer to the woman he loves. And by the time Dorothea discovers what horrors passion has wrought, she’ll be in so deep, so dark, that giving in might be her only chance of survival. This novel, called “a hair-raiser” by Elmore Leonard, comes from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of We Were the Mulvaneys, a four-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and recipient of the O. Henry Award, the National Book Award, and the Bram Stoker Award. In Soul/Mate, “it is clear from the start that we are in Joyce Carol Oates territory, for the book is stamped with her hallmarks—her complex, detailed prose; her fascination with violence; her obsessive concern with rendering not so much action as the way action haunts the hidden consciousness of her characters” (The New York Times).*

Hearts out of Time is the first book in the trilogy An Era Apart. Tracy steps into a futuristic device and plunges into a world she never imagined. Although flaming desire is a tempting pit to dive into, a life is at stake and evil is lurking. In an uncanny nineteenth century where incredible characters love and fight, vengeance and hate are never far away. Aboard a dream train, across a treacherous Nevada desert, down into dark hideouts and nasty secrets, passion and duty struggle to conquer the worst enemy of all: love. For at the end of the line, one must win, one must lose.

Welcome to York, England. Mist lingers in the streets. Narrow buildings cast long shadows. This is the most haunted city in the world. . . . Miranda Tennant arrives in York with a terrible, tragic secret. She is eager to lose herself amid the quaint cobblestones, hoping she won't run into the countless ghosts who supposedly roam the city. . . . Then she meets Nick, an intense, dark-eyed boy who knows all of York's hidden places and histories. Miranda wonders if Nick is falling for her, but she is distracted by another boy — one even more handsome and mysterious than Nick. He lives in the house across from Miranda and seems desperate to send her some sort of message. Could this boy be one of York's haunted souls? Soon, Miranda realizes that something dangerous — and deadly — is being planned. And she may have to face the darkest part of herself in order to unravel the mystery — and find redemption.

HardPress Classic Books Series

The Secret of the Tower By Anthony Hope

The Alden children are going back in time by helping at an old Victorian house that has been turned into a museum. But rumor has it that the place is haunted by the spirit of the practical joker Horace Wagner! Is there really a ghost?

The Aldens discover that many people are obsessed with the bookstore their grandfather just bought in New Orleans.

Captain Lacey accepts a position at the Sudbury School to find the person behind a series of malicious pranks. But when the mischief takes a deadly turn, Lacey must teach a murderer a lesson.

Several murders have taken place in the city of Crastgale. Two nightwatchmen search the dark streets for a murderer that could be anyone. However, what started as a manhunt for a murderer may turn into something bigger than they can handle.In the city of Crastgale several murders have taken place late at night. Two nightwatchmen, an idealistic young man and a pessimistic dwarf, search through the twisting alleyways and streets of one of the busiest and mean districts in the city. As they get closer to catching the murderer they soon realize they may not be able to handle the situation on their own.