An alternate history novel, which unwraps in the backdrop of violent anti-Hindi agitations that rocked the State of Tamil Nadu (India) 50 years ago, narrated over two time frames – 1965 and 2005. It is the story of a son's search for the truth about his father's disappearance and the political intrigue that led to India's second partition into South & North, intertwined with the history of KoreaSCATTERED FATES is an alternate history novel, which unwraps in the backdrop of violent anti-Hindi agitations that rocked the State of Tamil Nadu and is narrated over two time frames – 1965 and 2005. It is the story, in lucid conversational style, of Subbaiah, a university professor who gets drawn to the ideology of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, a political party that opposed the imposition of Hindi as the sole national language on 60 percent of the country’s population. He is entrusted with the task of rallying students to protest against the government’s decision to remove English as an official Indian language. The violence that follows spreads across South India, and the military is called in to restore order. He shelters Moon, a young injured foreign exchange student from Corea. While recuperating in his house, Moon gets acquainted with the culture and traditions of his host, including the intricacies of the caste system, thanks to his inquisitive nature and friendly banter with Subbaiah’s neighbor and best friend Ganapathy, a Brahmin, who is initially against this movement led by the backward castes, but slowly changes his mind. Moon is put on the first flight home as the civil war spirals out of control. Starting as a minor party functionary, Subbaiah ends up playing a crucial role in the freedom movement that ultimately leads to the second partition of India into Dravida (South India) and Hindustan (North India). He is even tipped to be the first Finance Minister of his newly independent country, but loses out to his political rival.A decade after independence, Subbaiah suddenly disappears without a trace. While everyone assumes that Hindustan spies abducted him, there are also doubts that he may have willingly defected to enemy territory.Thirty years later, Subbaiah’s son Naga, a journalist in Dravida, Asia’s most prosperous capitalist economy, plays host to Maya, a beautiful online friend from Corea who comes visiting for her research. She has strong sympathies for the socialist ideology and is pursuing her PhD on countries divided by civil wars. While helping her get acquainted with his country’s cultural traditions, they encounter a retired university professor, Ganapathy, who denies knowing Subbaiah, reacting in a suspicious and evasive manner. They are convinced that he is hiding something, suspect his role in Subbaiah’s disappearance, and are determined to unravel the truth.The duo finally manages to get the truth out. It was not something they were prepared to hear.

Three hundred years after a global pandemic, Webster City, near the ruins of Chicago, is the last city on Earth. Surrounding enemies threaten to destroy it. However, when Major Carl Davidson investigates the suspicious death of a brilliant biochemist, he discovers the city's real enemies are within and a dark plot is afoot to slaughter the last of mankind. A post-apocalyptic dystopian thriller.Centuries ago, the human race was nearly crushed in its struggle to defeat the evil forces of Aboleth. Led by a powerful order known as the Valier, humankind prevailed, but at a terrible price. In their desperate attempt to achieve victory at any cost, the Valier fell and became a curse on civilization known as The Dread Lords.Time has passed. The world has moved on. The Lake Valleys of Sheridan has known peace for centuries. Only, for Niam Maldies, life has been anything but tranquil. He has been hounded by a gang of ruthless bullies all of his life; and to make matters worse, a year ago, his brother and sister died in a mysterious accident that left him reeling in pain.When Niam hears a mysterious Voice that leads him into a series of dangerous situations, he and his two best friends are set on a collision course with an evil sorcerer. As the three friends struggle to uncover the culprit behind a string of ghastly and supernatural murders, they discover a greater plot that may spell doom for their homeland. Now they must rely on the strength of their friendship if they are to survive, for they were born in fulfillment of a dire prophecy: The Dread Lords must rise once again if mankind is to survive its most ancient and implacable enemy.

**-Reading Order- 1 - KILLING SARAI 2 - REVIVING IZABEL 3 - THE SWAN & THE JACKAL 4 - SEEDS OF INIQUITY 5 - THE BLACK WOLF 6 - BEHIND THE HANDS THAT KILL 7 - SPIDERS IN THE GROVE** Victor Faust’s new Order is growing. Business is good as there is no rest for the wicked in an underground world of hardcore criminals and contract killing. Relationships among the operatives have changed little over the past year—but things are about to change now, and all six high-ranking members of the new Order will be blindsided by an unlikely enemy. Loved ones whose only ties to Victor’s organization are their relationships with its members, are abducted. The price to get them back safely—the six must confess their deepest, darkest secret to this mysterious young woman named Nora, who is as deadly as she is beautiful, and who seems to know more about each of them than they know about each other. And although no one has any clue about who Nora really is, it becomes clear that she also isn’t who she appears to be. So much more is at stake than secrets and the lives of innocent loved ones; with each member that Nora forces to confess, the truth about their dark pasts and their present objectives will cast suspicion, pit some against each other, and may tear others apart. Before the game is over everyone will know who this woman is and why she is here, but the damage she will leave in her wake could be the beginning of the new Order’s destruction. Whose dark secret will be the darkest of all? And can Victor’s Order survive any of them?

Supernatural detective Jack Nightingale investigates a spate of mysterious deaths in a struggling hotel. Plus six extra short stories from fans and writers drawing inspiration from the Blood Bath title and cover.Supernatural detective Jack Nightingale investigates a spate of mysterious deaths in a struggling hotel. Plus six extra short stories from fans and writers drawing inspiration from the Blood Bath title and cover. Other top writers contributing to the collection include Matt Hilton, Alex Shaw, Conrad Jones and Andrew Peters.

A missing girl in the news reminds Julia Carroll of herself: nineteen, beautiful, blonde hair, blue eyes. Julia begins to dig deeper and plans an article for her college paper. She becomes gradually more obsessed with the case, never imagining how close she herself is to danger. Includes an extract from Karin Slaughter’s gripping new novel, Pretty Girls.

An Egyptian holy man for the religion of Islam is assassinated, and the killer leaves a gold cross as his calling card. The same Christian assassin kills on US soil, and it is now up to the FBI and Interpol to bring him to justice. FBI Agents John Knox and Beth White team up with Interpol Inspector Malik Sharif in this thriller that will make you not quite know who to pull for in the end.An assassin bent on vengeance begins carrying out his own personal crusade against Islamic imams, leaving a gold crucifix as his calling card. The assassin begins his killing spree overseas in Egypt, demanding the attention of Inspector Malik Sharif of Interpol. It doesn't take long for the Christian assassin to kill on US soil, and FBI Agents John Knox and Beth White are assigned the case. Can a worldly Muslim inspector cooperate with a downhome southern Christian FBI agent to capture the assassin? Can investigators pursue the killer while competing with the media and the moniker they assign to the killer in question...the Jesus Assassin? Once the assassin begins posing more problems for investigators, he also draws the attention of the people for which he unofficially works. Despite numerous resources at his disposal, the clandestine group sends someone else after the assassin, and the story turns into a race to see who catches the assassin first, if anyone.Before it's all said and done, what lies in store for the assassin? The investigators? Others who want to stop the elusive killer? Find out in this action packed story that although doesn't condone the behavior of the main killer, it very well may have you pulling for him before the book ends. But there's a lot more to this story than just violence and vengeance. Despite the dark circumstances that seem to surround almost everyone in the book, there is hope to be found. What exactly is the source of that hope?

Rafe Lincozzi’s metal band has just played their best show ever. Now they need a place to crash or it’s another night in the van. Fortunately, they’ve found an ad that offers free lodging to struggling musicians. Their benefactor turns out to be a man well-connected in the music industry, but could his plans for them be more sinister than they appear?This book of short verse and haiku was inspired by nature. Many of the poems reference the river and were written after visits to the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. The book is dedicated to Columbia Bottoms Conservation Area in Spanish Lake, Missouri. Read, relax, enjoy!

Four decades ago, Richard Forthrast, the black sheep of an Iowa family, fled to a wild and lonely mountainous corner of British Columbia to avoid the draft. Smuggling backpack loads of high-grade marijuana across the border into Northern Idaho, he quickly amassed an enormous and illegal fortune. With plenty of time and money to burn, he became addicted to an online fantasy game in which opposing factions battle for power and treasure in a vast cyber realm. Like many serious gamers, he began routinely purchasing virtual gold pieces and other desirables from Chinese gold farmers—young professional players in Asia who accumulated virtual weapons and armor to sell to busy American and European buyers. For Richard, the game was the perfect opportunity to launder his aging hundred dollar bills and begin his own high-tech start up—a venture that has morphed into a Fortune 500 computer gaming group, Corporation 9592, with its own super successful online role-playing game, T’Rain. But the line between fantasy and reality becomes dangerously blurred when a young gold farmer accidently triggers a virtual war for dominance—and Richard is caught at the center. In this edgy, 21st century tale, Neal Stephenson, one of the most ambitious and prophetic writers of our time, returns to the terrain of his cyberpunk masterpieces Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, leading readers through the looking glass and into the dark heart of imagination.

Billy grinned. “Oh, New York,” he whispered. “We’re gonna have so much fun.” I Hunt Killers introduced the world to Jazz, the son of history’s most infamous serial killer, Billy Dent. In an effort to prove murder didn’t run in the family, Jazz teamed with the police in the small town of Lobo’s Nod to solve a deadly case. And now, when a determined New York City detective comes knocking on Jazz’s door asking for help, he can’t say no. The Hat-Dog Killer has the Big Apple–and its police force–running scared. So Jazz and his girlfriend, Connie, hop on a plane to the big city and get swept up in a killer’s murderous game.

It begins on a very normal Monday morning. But in the space of only a few days, the world's oil supplies have been severed and at a horrifying pace things begin to unravel everywhere. This is no natural disaster; someone is behind this. Oil engineer Andy Sutherland is stranded in Iraq with a company of British soldiers, desperate to find a way home, trapped as the very infrastructure of daily life begins to collapse around him. Back in Britain, his wife Jenny is stuck in Manchester, fighting desperately against the rising chaos to get back to their children; London as events begin to spiral out of control -- riots, raging fires, looting, rape, and murder. In the space of a week, London is transformed into an anarchic vision of hell. Meanwhile, a mysterious man is tracking Andy's family. He'll silence anyone who can reveal the identities of those behind this global disaster. The people with a stranglehold on the future of civilization have flexed their muscles at other significant tipping points in history, and they are prepared to do anything to keep their secret -- and their power -- safe.

The electrifying new thriller from New York Times bestseller Stephen Hunter takes you deep inside the mind of the most notorious serial killer of all time: Jack the Ripper. In the fall of 1888, Jack the Ripper slaughtered five prostitutes in London’s seamy Whitechapel District. He did not just kill—he ripped with a butcher’s glee—and then, after the particularly gruesome slaying of Mary Jane Kelly, he disappeared. For 127 years, Jack has haunted the dark corners of our imagination, the paradigm of the psychotic killer. We remember him not only for his crimes, but because, despite one of the biggest dragnets in London history, he was never caught. I, Ripper is a vivid reimagining of Jack’s personal story entwined with that of an Irish journalist who covered the case, knew the principals, charted the investigation, and at last, stymied, went off in a bold new direction. These two men stalk each other through a city twisted in fear of the madman’s blade, a cat-and-mouse game that brings to life the sounds and smells of the fleshpot tenderloin of Whitechapel and all the lurid acts that fueled the Ripper headlines. Dripping with intrigue, atmosphere, and diabolical twists, this is a magnificent psychological thriller from perennial New York Times bestseller Stephen Hunter, who the San Francisco Examiner calls “one of the best storytellers of his generation.”

Ben Hawkins blames his father for a psychologically abusive childhood and for triggering his mother’s suicide. The two men have been estranged for years. But when Ben is falsely accused of murder, he has no other option than to turn to his father, a retired homicide detective, for help.As Ben languishes in jail, the noose growing tighter, his father desperately searches for the real killer.Ben Hawkins blames his father for a psychologically abusive childhood and for triggering his mother’s suicide. The two men have been estranged for years. But when Ben is falsely accused of murder, he has no other option than to turn to his father, a retired homicide detective, for help.As Ben languishes in jail, the noose growing tighter, his father desperately searches for the real killer. The evidence continues to mount against Ben until the case takes an unexpected turn.

An incapacitated student gets more than he bargained for when curiosity leads him to join an online self help community. At first the members of The Room welcome him with open arms, but things take a turn for the deadly when one of them confesses to a murder...He had two problems: a broken leg and terminal boredom. The long days and nights alone in his flat after an accident lead an incapactitated young student to renounce his aversion to the internet and take his first tentative steps into the world wide web.Before long, he finds himself entering a new kind of social network: an online self-help community called simply 'The Room'. The experience of eavesdropping on the lives of others quickly becomes addictive, and the members of The Room seem welcoming enough.But then something changes: a man called Bryan confesses to a murder. It could be a fantasy, or a sick joke, but it's not. And the terror doesn't stay online for long... The Room is a tale of murder in the age of social networking. A dark psychological thriller of curiosity and killing that has been called a Rear Window for the Facebook generation.Short story length: 4000 words approx.Also includes as a bonus feature the first chapter of Gavin Bell's full-length thriller: Halfway to Hell.

Violet Milton is working as a shorthand typist in New York when she inherits the largest paper mill in Europe. Feisty Violet decides to take over the running of the English company, and is warned by a well meaning employee that something mysterious and dangerous is being manufactured in secret in a hidden part of the factory. This thriller with a touch of romance was written in the 1920s.Violet Milton is working as a shorthand typist in New York when she inherits the largest paper mill in Europe. Feisty Violet decides to take over the running of the English company, and is warned by a well meaning employee that something mysterious and dangerous is being manufactured in secret in a hidden part of the factory.This story was written in the 1920s when political correctness in fiction was not even on the horizon, and a villain was often physically disabled or disfigured to make him or her appear more villainous. Note that the physical descriptions of the characters are from the original book. This is an old fashioned story of murder, industrial mayhem, and a weapon of mass destruction -- with a touch of romance.