Only a handful of fictional characters are recognized by first name alone. Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas is one of those rare literary heroes who have come alive in readers' imaginations as he explores the greatest mysteries of this world and the next with his inimitable wit, heart, and quiet gallantry. Now Koontz follows Odd as he is irresistibly drawn onward to a destiny he cannot imagine and to undreamed of places where the perils he will face and the stakes for which he fights will eclipse all that he has known. The legend began in the obscure little town of Pico Mundo. A fry cook named Odd was rumored to have the extraordinary ability to communicate with the dead. Through tragedy and triumph, exhilaration and heartbreak, word of Odd Thomas's gifts filtered far beyond Pico Mundo, attracting unforgettable new friends--and enemies of implacable evil. With great gifts comes the responsibility to meet great challenges. But no mere human being was ever meant to face the darkness that now stalks the world--not even one as oddly special as Odd Thomas. After grappling with the very essence of reality itself, after finding the veil that separates him from his soul mate, Stormy Llewellyn, tantalizingly thin yet impenetrable, Odd longed only to return to a life of quiet anonymity with his two otherworldly sidekicks--his dog Boo and a new companion, one of the few who might rival his old pal Elvis. But a true hero, however humble, must persevere. Haunted by dreams of an all-encompassing red tide, Odd is pulled inexorably to the sea, to a small California coastal town where nothing is as it seems. Now the forces arrayed against him have both official sanction and an infinitely more sinister authority...and in this dark night of the soul dawn will come only after the most shattering revelations of all. Burnishing Dean Koontz's stature as a master of suspense and one of our most innovative and gifted storytellers, Odd Hours illuminates a legacy of mystery and hope that will shine on long after the final page.

President Jack Ryan is dealing with an aggressive challenge from the Chinese government. Pawns are being moved around a global chessboard, an attack on an oil platform in Africa, a terrorist attack on an American destroyer and a storm-tossed American spy ship that may fall into Chinese hands. It seems that Premier Zhou is determined to limit Ryan’s options in the upcoming G20 negotiations. But there are hints that there’s even more going on behind the scene. A routine traffic stop in rural Texas leads to a shocking discovery—a link to a Chinese spy who may have information that leads to an unexpected revelation. John Clark and the members of the Campus are in close pursuit, but can they get the information in time?

Boone Daniels, the most laid-back of private investigators, gathers with his surfing buddies on Pacific Beach, California as per usual. There's no surf to speak of, but the Dawn Patrol are out in force anyway...it's what they do. Having no work at the moment, and no real reason to go to the office other than to see the red ink getting redder, Boone sticks around for the second shift on the daily surfing clock - the Gentlemen's Hour, frequented by the older veteranos and successful entrepreneurs - and ends up taking on a hated matrimonial case. But that soon becomes the least of his worries. When The Sundowner, symbolic icon of the San Diego surf scene, sees a dispute between a young surfer and a member of the territorial Rockpile Crew - a dispute that ends in murder - the painful truth that violence is seeping into the surf community can no longer be ignored. So when lawyer Petra Hall, who has a thing with Boone, asks him to help the defence on that particular case, Boone knows he'll be courting outrage from the community...and from the rest of the Dawn Patrol. As his closest friendships begin to fray, and he digs deeper into the murkier side of surfing culture, Boone sees his two cases overlap in unexpected ways and finds himself struggling to stay afloat as the water gets deeper and deeper...and more deadly.

She had the perfect life. She had the perfect cover. She was the perfect witness. Until they found her. When Teresa Casali was young she discovered she had a strange gift: the ability to read people's memories. But the gift seemed more like a curse as her mob boss father used her to gain the upper hand in his world of corruption and violence. Exposed by her own family to the darkest impulses of mankind, Teresa is alone and unprotected. She realizes that if she is to survive, she has to run. Out of nowhere, or so she believes, a man by the name of Andre Mandak appears. He kills her pursuers--but that's not nearly enough for Teresa to trust him. It is his promise to get her into Witness Protection, along with his mind-blowing ability to help her control her gift before it consumes her, that convinces Teresa Casali to become Allie Girard. Living a normal life with a new family, she shuts the door to the past …although Mandak is clear: when the time is right, he too will benefit from her powers. For years Allie flourishes …until the day her cover is blown and the truth comes tumbling out. Once again she is on the run, with her own life and those of her loved ones at stake. But this time she will not be a pawn. This time she will use her finely honed gift to end the threat that began with her family's betrayal. From perfect target to perfect witness, Allie Girard is ready to take on the past even if it kills her.

Harry Benson suffers from violent seizures. So violent that he often blackouts when they take hold. Shortly after severely beating two men during an episode, the police escort Benson to a Los Angeles hospital for treatment. There, Dr. Roger McPherson, head of the prestigious Neuropsychiatric Research Unit, is convinced he can cure Benson with an experimental procedure that would place electrodes deep in his brain’s pleasure centers, effectively short-circuiting Harry's seizures with pulses of bliss. The surgery is successful, but while Benson is in recovery, he discovers how to trigger the pulses himself. To make matters worse his violent impulses have only grown, and he soon escapes the hospital with a deadly agenda. . .

Twenty two tales of horror and mystery unearth dark secrets and terrible truths. From serial killers to short-order cooks, disillusioned office workers to child prodigies, the members of this braying human menagerie are on a collision course with the end times – and one another. Ashton Raze’s debut short story collection weaves a series of narratives into a creepy, tangled, darkly comic whole.“Reality made this factual. The monsters weren’t the undead, the wolfmen or the creeping horrors. The monsters were living; they were alive. They lived among the population, waiting, watching and then, when they were content to watch no longer… they snapped.”A shot is fired. Passengers on the Underground get too close for comfort. A stoic grandmother reaches out to her estranged granddaughter through her first computer. A familiar drive home takes an unfamiliar turn – literally. A Hollywood effects artist discovers that even heroes have a dark side.Twenty two tales of horror and mystery unearth dark secrets and terrible truths. From serial killers to short-order cooks, disillusioned office workers to child prodigies, the members of this braying human menagerie are on a collision course with the end times – and one another. Ashton Raze’s debut short story collection weaves a series of narratives into a creepy, tangled, darkly comic whole.

The extraordinary new adventure from the #1 "New York Times"- bestselling author. Jungles come in many forms. There are the steamy rain forests of the Burmese highlands. There are the lies and betrayals of the world of covert operations. And there are the dark and twisted thoughts of a man bent on near-global domination. To pull off their latest mission, Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon must survive them all. A devastating new weapon unleashed in thirteenth-century China...a daring rescue in the snowbound mountains along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border...a woman gone missing in the jungles of northern Thailand and Myanmar...for Cabrillo and his crew, all of these events will come together-leading to the greatest threat against U.S. security that the world has ever known.

A man wakes up in a strange place with no knowledge of how he got there or who he is when a mysterious woman enters the scene and his life. Armed with nothing but his own intuition and a mysterious package to guide him he must make a crucial decision that will change his world and that of his new acquaintance forever.Have you ever wondered why you were born? You know deep in your soul that life has purpose, but answers to your questions are illusive. We are all searching. A million years before the Florida peninsula existed, a chain of small islands arose from Earth’s primordial oceans. Today, people call it the Florida Ridge. It was there an ancient and highly advanced civilization established a final sanctuary containing an underground library with historical records and remnants of technology. The archaeological site was discovered in 1930 by French explorer Claude Gautier, but remains a closely guarded secret to this day. Sleep was difficult for Haley King. For as long as she could remember, her nights were filled with recurring dreams of a strange civilization. Everyone in her community knew her. They all loved the little blind girl, everyone except Brian. He learned of her true identity from a strange old man with glowing eyes, but he didn’t dare tell anyone; they would laugh at him. She was the biological offspring of two full-blooded Hopi Indians, but her DNA was very different. Her eyes were fluorescent yellow, hair blond, and her skin was pale. An ancient Hopi legend predicted her birth, but the tribe’s partial conversion to Catholicism in the late sixteenth century resulted in a serious misinterpretation of what to do with her. The medicine man took Haley from her mother and gave her to the Catholic Church. Haley was adopted and moved to Florida when she was twelve years old. She became close friends with five boys who had the suspicious happening of all being born on the same day. While the boys were on a fishing trip celebrating their sixteenth birthday, their boat was struck by lightning. Four of them (including Brian) were nearly killed. A tattoo of a leafless tree was burned on their feet. The fifth boy experienced a vision of the future. They were all changed by the incident and their lives became more intermingled with Haley.

This should be considered sample chapters in the novel: THE SKIES ARE LIGHTED WITH LAMPS, which will be out in a couple of months.Toney enters onto Kiskadee Street with his son, looking for work. Toney, after getting a job for his son that morning, witnesses an incident in front of a bar, that brings him face-to-face with a man who recently returned to the village.Rembrandt is famous for his paintings but not many people know about his personal life. After his wife Saskia had died, his life became embroiled in relationships that would shock the world even today. This short story is about the other side of Rembrandt, that is documented, but few people know of. He was a great artist, but at the same time - a great criminal.In 2003 historian Hans Benting receives a manuscript written in ancient Dutch discovered in Rome at the sight of an old library. Amongst the text it makes reference to the house of 'lost souls'in an area in the heart of Amsterdam that still exists today.With the manuscript in hand, Hans tries to find the exact location and what it may reveal. He finally finds what he is looking for, but is shocked at revelations it brings.

The crash of a U.S. military research satellite in the remote wilds of Mongolia triggers an explosive search for the valuable cargo it holds: a code-black physics project connected to the study of dark energy, the energy connected to the birth of our universe. But the last blurry image from the falling satellite captures a chilling sight: a frightening look into the future, a view of a smoldering eastern seaboard of the United States in utter ruin. At the Vatican, a mysterious package arrives for the head of Pontifical ancient studies, sent by a colleague who had vanished a decade earlier. It contains two strange artifacts: a skull scrawled with ancient Aramaic and a tome bound in human skin. DNA testing reveals both are from Genghis Khan — the long-dead Mongol king whose undiscovered tomb is rumored to hold the vast treasures and knowledge of a lost ancient empire. Commander Gray Pierce, and Sigma — joined by a pair of Vatican historians — race to uncover a truth tied to the fall of the Roman Empire, to a mystery bound in the roots of Christianity's origins, and to a weapon hidden for centuries that holds the fate of humanity.

THE DEAD WOMAN WORE RED... Gossip columnist Ethel Lambston knew everything about everybody who was somebody---so there were more than enough suspects in her murder. But for Neeve Kearny, owner of an expensive Madison Avenue boutique, the killing of one of her best customers had eerie echoes of another death that occurred many years earlier---the murder of her own mother. Suddenly, Neeve is plunged into the mystery of Ethel Lambston's murder, following a trail that leads from the glittering pleasure palaces of New York's rich and beautiful to the Mafia underworld. In the tradition of Mary Higgins Clark's staggering bestsellers, Neeve Kearny is a woman determined to find the truth, caught in a swirl of money and romance---and stalked by a killer who's closer than she could ever dream...

Alex Cross's first case since joining the FBI has his new colleagues stymied. Across the country, beautiful women are being kidnapped-to be bought and sold as slaves. Behind this depraved scheme stands a shadowy figure known only as The Wolf, a master criminal who has brought a new reign of terror to organized crime. With Alex's personal life in chaos because of his ex-fiancée's return and with the FBI's caution testing his patience, Alex has to go out on his own. For to stalk a ruthless predator without a name or a face, Alex Cross must become a lone wolf himself...

Perry keeps having weird, strange dreams, only to discover that it was trying to warn him from something or in this case , someone. ...Meet, Harvey Valentine. A tough as nails, top-notch, Private Dick that doesn’t take sh#t! Based on the Harvey Valentine Novels. Each adventure is fast moving, hard-hitting, and punches you right in the chops with excitement!If you’ve read the Harvey Valentine Novels, you will know that Harvey had a sidekick and assistant, Cato, in both the Novels. In this short series, the timeline is after The Judge and the Cultist, and now Harvey has a secretary for a little-added tension and possibly added excitement if he can take his mind off the job and the bad guys long enough to pay attention to his new secretary. A hot tamale named, Connie.But for Harvey, it’s always work and no play!Follow a top notch private dick as he takes down the bad guys, and does it his way. Hold on to those pages as you turn them, because each story moves fast from beginning to end at a pace rarely told by today's crime fiction writers.The Case of Mr. Nobody marks the 4th Case File in this Hard-Boiled Short Series from Hard-Boiled Books in the Harvey Valentine Short Series. Each Adventure can be read in any order as the stories themselves do not take place in sequence. Grab a Case File and READ Harvey’s Reports of his exploits.In this Case, Harvey takes on a Client that isn’t really sure just who he is.

Yusuf's parents were murdered when he was ten. The Master promised him vengeance in exchange for his soul. He owed his life and death to the Master. Until he was given another mission that made him question the choices he'd made.Zainab had the perfect life, until her sister returned a murderer and she found herself drawn to the new family driver; a man with a with a lot of secrets.A mother awaits her son's visit in the nineteenth century before his life - and her life - will change forever. A short story of a mother's love and belief in her son's future greatness, you will walk away smiling, learning about a little known woman in American history that enabled a nation's greatest change with her belief in literacy and love of a son... who wasn't even her real child.

CIA Special Agent Dylan Kane is in a race across the globe to stop a conspiracy reaching the highest levels of political and corporate America, that if not stopped, could lead to war with an enemy armed with a weapon far worse than anything in the American arsenal, with the potential to not only destroy the world, but consume it.FROM USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR J. ROBERT KENNEDYThree top secret research scientists are presumed dead in a boating accident, but the kidnapping of their families the same day raises questions the FBI and local police can’t answer, leaving them waiting for a ransom demand that will never come.Central Intelligence Agency Analyst Chris Leroux stumbles upon the story, and finds a phone conversation that was never supposed to happen. When he reports it to his boss, the National Clandestine Services Chief, he is uncharacteristically reprimanded for conducting an unauthorized investigation and told to leave it to the FBI.But he can’t let it go.For he knows something the FBI doesn’t.One of the scientists is alive.Chris makes a call to his childhood friend, CIA Special Agent Dylan Kane, leading to a race across the globe to stop a conspiracy reaching the highest levels of political and corporate America, that if not stopped, could lead to war with an enemy armed with a weapon far worse than anything in the American arsenal, with the potential to not only destroy the world, but consume it.USA Today bestselling author J. Robert Kennedy introduces Rogue Operator, the first installment of his newest series, The Special Agent Dylan Kane Thrillers, promising to bring all of the action and intrigue of the James Acton Thrillers with a hero who lives below the radar, waiting for his country to call when it most desperately needs him.