Steve Berry’s bestselling thrillers have mesmerized suspense fans around the world, but his novels alone can’t contain all the exciting exploits of death-defying agent Cotton Malone and his smart, sexy sidekick, Cassiopeia Vitt. Catch all the action between the blockbusters in this trio of suspenseful short stories that capture Cotton and Cassiopeia at their history-hunting, heart-stopping best. Read them as prequels to Cotton’s full-length epics or stunning stand-alone adventures. Either way, this eBook bundle packs all the punch adrenaline junkies have come to expect from the bold imagination of Steve Berry. “In Malone, Berry has created a classic, complex hero.”—*USA Today *  THE BALKAN ESCAPE Prequel to The Emperor’s Tomb As a favor to enigmatic billionaire Henrik Thorvaldsen, Cassiopeia Vitt treks into Bulgaria’s Rila mountains in search of a buried stash of exceedingly rare artifacts from a bygone civilization: the ancient tomb of a Thracian king. But when her presence is discovered by a shadowy group of Russians secretly mining the area, she needs a way out. Whom can I trust?* becomes the question, and her life depends on making the right decision. THE DEVIL’S GOLD Prequel to The Jefferson Key *  For eight years he’s been plotting, waiting, scheming to kill Federal agents Christopher Combs and Cotton Malone, whom he blames for the loss of his career. But as rogue agent Jonathan Wyatt prepares for a final confrontation in a remote South American village, he makes a discovery that stretches back to the horrors of World War II, to the astounding secret of a child’s birth, to Martin Bormann and Eva Braun—and to a fortune in lost gold.   THE ADMIRAL’S MARK Prequel to *The Columbus Affair Cotton Malone never cared for the shady dealings of his brother-in-law, Scott Brown. But after Scott dies while scuba diving, Malone heads to Haiti where he learns that, beneath the crystal clear waters, his brother-in-law had found the sunken wreckage of the Santa Maria,* the fabled flagship of Christopher Columbus. Setting out to piece together what happened, Malone quickly realizes that he’s not the only man there with questions—and that he’ll have to fight just to get out of Haiti alive.

Once in a Blue Moon is a spy novel in the vein of Ian Fleming's James Bond series, delivering edge-of-your-seat suspense and intrigue of the highest order. With high-speed chases on both land and water, the silent infiltration of a heavily guarded embassy, and insidious, deadly enemies, Once in a Blue Moon is a spy-thriller that will engage readers of all kinds.A thrilling espionage adventure starring Jonathan Smythe, Once in a Blue Moon is a spy novel in the vein of Ian Fleming's James Bond series, delivering edge-of-your-seat suspense and intrigue of the highest order. After escaping a doomed ocean-liner off the coast of France, Agent Smythe of the Echo Echelon must follow his only lead: Petrov, a Russian general turned arms-dealer, and his deal with the devil. With high-speed chases on both land and water, the silent infiltration of a heavily guarded embassy, and insidious, deadly enemies, Once in a Blue Moon is a spy-thriller that will engage readers of all kinds.

Episode 2 continues the epic series as the cold war between A House in Chains and Pandora heats towards an inevitable confrontation.The Whirlwind may be unleashed with both group's leader troubled and occupied.Xavier Prince and Serena Tennyson face challenges of a highly volatile, highly personal level that may ultimately destroy them both. And finally, Special Agent Christopher Prince takes his turn at attempting to deliver a crippling blow to Pandora's plans once and for all; as he will be involved in a spectacular chase down the streets of Atlanta that will leave him forever scarred and you, the reader...breathless.

Buck, a Golden Retriever, (the narrator), and eleven other animals on the estate, have learned to speak, assemble, co-exist, and solve problems despite their quirkiness that mirrors humanity. When threatened by a terrorist attack that spreads to the entire country, they find a way to survive through hardship and loss, and love for each other. Includes military canine training and more. Four parts.On Halloween the ghosts and witches and demons roam, so it is said. On many porches and on windowsills the watch is kept by Jack, he of the pumpkin face and candle eyes, but against what? What dark places did he leave to dwell with us, and why? And what is out there, waiting for us in the dark? What does it want with us?

“He had already built a cage of his own fear, and all she did was climb in there with him.”Freight trains pound the rails, steel on steel, crisscrossing America. The dark and lawless freight yards are staging points for the homeless and the adventurous seeking a free ride.But is anything really free?“He had already built a cage of his own fear, and all she did was climb in there with him.”Freight trains pound the rails, steel on steel, crisscrossing America. The dark and lawless freight yards are staging points for the homeless and the adventurous seeking a free ride.But is anything really free?There are rules to the underbelly of society, cruel andhorrifying. Battles are won, souls are lost. Some seek revenge, and some seek redemption. To the Raildogs it's always been about the next score. There's never been enough. Or is there?In the dead of night chaos reigns. In the grim darkness of the boxcars we find hell.

"Kailey? Kailey, who was that?" Katy asked."I have no idea.""Why is someone ringing my doorbell and uncontrollably pounding on my front door?" "I don't know. I really don't.""Should we answer it?" Hanah asked Katy."No! No, we can't. We can't even go downstairs." I replied, scared."Why not, Kailey?" Jessa questioned."Because the person on the other end of my call said not to."Kailey Reid is an average 18 year old girl from El Paso, Texas. She is spending the night at her friend Katy's house for Katy's birthday sleepover when she decides to break up with her boyfriend, David Rogers. Shortly after she breaks up with David, she begins receiving calls to her cell phone from an unknown caller. Crazy things begin happening at Katy's house. Very crazy things. When Kailey and her friends finally escape the house, Kailey is determined to find the person or people that made that night so horrific. Will Kailey be able to find the criminal or criminals and prove it was them? Or will she be taken by their wrath?

A woman commits suicide for no apparent reason. A week later, her son—beautiful, troubled fifteen-year-old Mark Underhill—vanishes from the face of the earth. To his uncle, horror novelist Timothy Underhill, Mark’s inexplicable absence feels like a second death. After his sister-in-law’s funeral, Tim searches his hometown of Millhaven for clues that might help him unravel this mystery of death and disappearance. He soon learns that a pedophilic murderer is on the loose in the vicinity, and that shortly before his mother’s suicide Mark had become obsessed with an abandoned house where he imagined the killer might have taken refuge. No mere empty building, the house on Michigan Street whispers from attic to basement with the echoes of a long-hidden true-life horror story, and Tim Underhill comes to fear that in investigating its unspeakable history, Mark stumbled across its last and greatest secret: a ghostly lost girl who may have coaxed the needy, suggestible boy into her mysterious domain. With lost boy lost girl, Peter Straub affirms once again that he is the master of literary horror. From the Hardcover edition.

Murder vs. Romance: The Bedroom Detective - Clair, a librarian, is involved in a murder investigation that turns her life up side down...Murder vs. Romance: The Bedroom DetectiveHarry Harrison is smart yet lacks common sense. He reads constantly, loves murder mysteries, and decides to become a writer. Clair, Harry’s girlfriend, is tall, blonde, and way too pretty for Harry, and everyone knows it, including harry. She works at the library, where she met Harry. They are enjoying their dream life until one day a body is found and Clair is inevitably involved…What's going to happen?LOOK INSIDE to find out now!This collection is only suitable for readers of age 18 or above.

Seven visitors cross paths in the rooms and corridors of La Chapel Blanche, a love hotel in Tokyo. Each may have entered for vastly different reasons, but eventually each is confronted with the same question: when and how to leave.Bathtime at La Chapel Blanche tells the interlinked tales of seven individuals trapped in one way or another inside a Japanese love hotel. From the receptionist waiting for the mysterious customer who appears every full moon and stays alone in the same room to the professional baseball player with a split personality searching for escape after being fleeced by his hot date, each character links unwittingly to the next in a panorama of comedy, drama and action.

For Jon and Erin Bennett, the world seems to be spinning dangerously out of control. A new dictator is rising in Iraq. China is making threatening new moves toward Taiwan. North Korean forces appear ready to strike south. Israel is feverishly trying to complete the Third Temple. Oil prices are surging. And in the wake of an horrific war in the Middle East, President James MacPherson's second term is coming to an end. Now the battle to succeed him is heating up into one of the most fiercely contested presidential elections in American history, and the Bennetts realize the stakes could not be higher. Who will lead a bitterly divided country over the next four years? What can the U.S. do to shape the new world order? And just what role--if any--does the U.S. play in the last days? As the presidential campaign narrows into a dead heat, the Secret Service learns of a catastrophic plot to assassinate one of the candidates--but which one, and can the terrorists be stopped in time?

The hell called Yuma Prison can destroy the soul of any man. And it's worse for those whose damning crime is the color of their skin. The law says Chiricahua Apache Raymond San Carlos and black-as-night former soldier Harold Jackson are murderers, and they'll stay behind bars until they're dead and rotting. But even in the worst place on Earth, there's hope. And for two hard and hated inmates -- first enemies, then allies by necessity -- it waits at the end of a mad and violent contest ... on a bloody trail that winds toward Arizona's five most dangerous men.

A one hundred fifty-year-old photograph of a dying boy leads a former New Orleans D.A. back to Louisiana when his son is abducted by the sister of a man he falsely convicted of murder.In the Antebellum South, when a family was about to lose a child to yellow fever or small pox, a photograph of the dying child would be commissioned. A desperate and frightening memento, it was called a remembrance photo. 　 Three days ago, ten-year-old Steven Haggerty, son of successful attorney and true crime author Richard Haggerty, disappeared from a playground near his Marin County home. 　 This morning, Richard received a manila envelope in his San Francisco office stamped with a New Orleans postmark. The envelope contained a sepia-toned photograph virtually identical to a remembrance photo from the 1800’s. 　 Except the child in the photo was Steven. 　 Now Richard must return to New Orleans, the city where he began his career. The city from which he escaped, leaving behind a dark secret. The city where someone from his past is holding his son. Remembrance Photo is a dark thriller that takes its audience on a journey through the shadowy underbelly of New Orleans and the surrounding swampy woods and bayous of southern Louisiana. It contains a strong but flawed male protagonist, a dangerous and terrifying antagonist and a series of disturbing twists leading to a shocking conclusion.

Heidi King takes you to particular kind of demented horror. Sex, magick and crime that becomes a mental labyrinth, a psychological game of horror that won’t let you put the book down even after you’ve read it. And that’s ok because a link at the end takes you to real life places and interactive games that put you in the terrifying place of the damned.Heidi King is the new voice of horrorThe twists and turns of the maze were exasperating but I was determined to reach the source of the noise. Then all at once I turned into a small clearing and saw Maria, completely naked. Her skin was ghostly white in the green lights that lit the labyrinth. Even then she was beautiful. She kept digging a small hole, oblivious to my presence. I walked up to her and said,“Maria,” and gently touched her elbow. I startled her. She jerked forward, towards me and tripped backwards into the hole she had been digging. I felt a deep chill and dark sense that I broken something I wasn’t supposed to touch. She squinted at me. “Matt?” she murmured.“No,” I said slowly. She looked disappointed. “Why are you digging?” I asked.She hesitated and looked around. “I don’t know,” she whispered. “Where am I?”Suddenly she stood straight up in the shallow hole and began frantically wiping the palm of her hand as though she were looking for some kind of answer there. She stopped just as quickly and raised her hand slowly to allow the light to catch some kind of symbol drawn on the palm of her hand. I saw her eyes widen in abject terror as if she was watching her own shocking death on the palm of her hand. I think she stopped breathing. Her mouth was wide open like she wanted to scream. She looked down at her body. She began running her hands up her bare thighs to her vagina. I saw something odd there and Maria’s expression changed from horror to disgust, like she was about to vomit. I tried to grasp what could possibly be protruding from between her legs. It slowly started oozing out covered in blood. It dropped to the ground. It was a bulbous vial full of what must have only been blood.Her eyes looked like they would bulge out of the sockets. She collapsed in a hysterical fit and began to scream. I reached down to comfort her but she only screamed louder, transgressing into semi-coherent ranting in English and Spanish. “Rip the zipper, separate my flesh, she won’t be born… yellow, yellow, yellow teeth!” Over and over again convulsing wildly until all at once she passed out. I wrapped her in the red rain jacket I had come to The Lost and Found for. Suddenly Mike appeared out of the dark gloom and in a flurry of movement he scooped Maria up and whisked her into the passages of the labyrinth. A bizarre satyr carrying a limp maiden into the night best describes the unreal image etched into my eyes.“Did Dr. Stephen try to draw a symbol on your hand? Where was Matt? Was it a syringe?” Over and over I would be asked these same questions by my friends, the families, the Panamanian police, but most of all I questioned myself. Over and over again, while I tried to forget, while I literally washed the splattered blood to remove all signs of the sick horror at The Lost and Found. I want to put this to rest and move on with my life even if I can never return to a completely normal life. So once and for all I am going to plunge into the dark corners of the garden of my memories. In the following pages I use the words of those involved; the blogs, the emails and personal diaries and when I have to; my words. With these pages I take the shovel and I will bury this tragedy forever. This is what happened.

A plan to destroy America, a hundred years in the making, is about to be unleashed…can it be stopped? There is a powerful technique called the Overton Window that can shape our lives, our laws, and our future. It works by manipulating public perception so that ideas previously thought of as radical begin to seem acceptable over time. Move the Window and you change the debate. Change the debate and you change the country. For Noah Gardner, a twenty-something public relations executive, it's safe to say that political theory is the furthest thing from his mind. Smart, single, handsome, and insulated from the world's problems by the wealth and power of his father, Noah is far more concerned about the future of his social life than the future of his country. But all of that changes when Noah meets Molly Ross, a woman who is consumed by the knowledge that the America we know is about to be lost forever. She and her group of patriots have vowed to remember the past and fight for the future—but Noah, convinced they're just misguided conspiracy-theorists, isn't interested in lending his considerable skills to their cause. And then the world changes. An unprecedented attack on U.S. soil shakes the country to the core and puts into motion a frightening plan, decades in the making, to transform America and demonize all those who stand in the way. Amidst the chaos, many don't know the difference between conspiracy theory and conspiracy fact—or, more important, which side to fight for. But for Noah, the choice is clear: Exposing the plan, and revealing the conspirators behind it, is the only way to save both the woman he loves and the individual freedoms he once took for granted.

Praying for revenge...Psycho killer Michael Hrubek has escaped to find the woman who put him away. He'll show her what killing is all about...Praying for salvation...Lis knows he's out there. He's haunted every sleepless night, watching and waiting to take her to hell with him...And now Lis is Praying for Sleep.