Kings of the Night

      Mark Z. Kammell
     Kings of the Night

John Paris wakes up in a hospital bed, in a coma, listening to doctors discussing his coming death. Just before the final moment he finds himself in someone else's body. His desperation to discover who he was throws him into a dark world of murder, betrayal, revenge, love, black magic, a teen pop sensation band, and the quest for everlasting lifeJohn Paris wakes up in a hospital bed, in a coma, with no memory of how or why. He can’t speak, can’t move, can only hear the doctors discussing how long until they switch off life support. As he grows more desperate, he suddenly finds himself in the body of the doctor who is about to throw the switch and end his life. In another body, another life, without any idea how or why, he sets out to discover who killed him, and how he survived. His journey takes him into a dark world of murder, betrayal, revenge, love, black magic, a teen pop sensation band, and the quest for everlasting life, as he gets closer to the truth about what killed him, and ultimately, who he is

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    A Warning For Earth: Episode One

      Christian Cross
     A Warning For Earth: Episode One

Episode One of the two-part short story. At the Earth Consulate located by the border of the Andromeda Galaxy, the building is just closing down when a wounded female alien walks up inside the entrance and leaves a message in an unknown and unfamiliar language.Episode One of the two-part short story. At the Earth Consulate located by the border of the Andromeda Galaxy, the building is just closing down when a wounded female alien walks up inside the entrance and leaves a message in an unknown and unfamiliar language. The Consul is then called up when the alien was suddenly gone in a swift, not leaving a trace. Who is the woman, and what is the meaning of her message?About the Short Story:At the Earth Consulate located by the border of the Andromeda Galaxy, the building is just closing down when a wounded female alien walks up inside the entrance and leaves a message in an unknown and unfamiliar language. The Consul is then called up when the alien was suddenly gone in a swift, not leaving a trace. The only clue is a periwinkle-colored fluid by the side-road drain of the main space-highway. The whole Consulate is now down to its very core as the Consul and the staff rush to search for the female extraterrestrial, her identity, and the meaning her message - a message that not only concerns the Consulate, but home itself.It's the year 9917, when Earth has now become a unified republic planetary state, consisting of its different countries unified and governed by the United Nations as its central governing body, and when deep-space exploration has long been successful, being able to make contact and interact with extraterrestrial races, and establish interstellar and intergalactic colonies, city-states, and provinces across the whole Milky Way, Andromeda, and the whole Local Group Galaxies, and parts of deep-space Universe. Filled with hi-tech surveillance computers, facial-recognition software, image filters, modern optics, language translators, and high-end futuristic physics, with a mix of espionage and terrorism, "A Warning For Earth" is packed with deep-cosmic action."A Warning for Earth" is a two-part short story, totaling to 6,000 words.

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    The Woods: Part One

      Milo Abrams
     The Woods: Part One

-Part One of Three in The Woods Series-At the edge of the woods behind his father's house, James Callum thinks he sees a monster. His father thinks he's interested in watching the deer, but James is more interested in what's watching him.-Part One of Three in The Woods Series-Is there something looking back at me? Is there something there waiting for me?At the edge of the woods behind his father's house, James Callum thinks he sees a monster. His father thinks he's interested in watching the deer, but James is more interested in what's watching him. For a twelve-year-old city boy, the intense openness of the Ohio countryside is like another world. The fields stretch forever, the summer heat is unrelenting, and the thick woods at the edge of the property hide untold secrets.When no one believes he's seeing a monster, his entire world unravels, leaving the frayed strands of his identity entangled with the mystery of the monster in the woods. With the help of his friends Jack and Owen, James risks his life, family, and friendships to prove the monster is real and uncover the truth behind it.In THE WOODS, Milo Abrams pierces the veil of curiosity with an almost unbearable build-up of suspense and emotion. Don't go outside. Don't look into the backyard. There's something in the woods.

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    Break In

      Ohiaeri Amauche
     Break In

The illustrious life of a wealthy couple is shattered.THE THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT ARE REAL.Kamlyn Paige is a young woman who has suffered great loss in her life. At nineteen, when she was seven months pregnant, her parents were in a fatal car accident. And at twenty-four, when her son was only five years old, he was murdered before her eyes by a cloaked figure in the middle of the night. It takes everything she has to hold on after the devastation.But when a mysterious neighbor sees her weeping on the sidewalk, he picks her up and introduces her to a new world. She goes with him to the Chamber of Darkness, an underground society, where she learns to fight evil beings and creatures as a Huntsman. The sole motivation to complete her training is getting revenge on the demon that killed her little boy. But while she's there, she realizes there are other beings that threaten the way of life on Earth. Prophetic dreams reveal there is a mysterious traitor in the Chamber's headquarters and he's trying to get his hands on a goblet that will open the portal to the demon world, unleashing them all on the humans.Will she be able to figure out who the traitor is in time to stop them from destroying the human race? With the help of her new friends and fellow Huntsmen, they may stand a chance at saving the world from a massive possession of epic proportions.

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    The Ghostwriter

      Alessandra Torre
     The Ghostwriter

Four years ago, I lied. I stood in front of the police, my friends and family, and made up a story, my best one yet. And all of them believed me. I wasn't surprised. Telling stories is what made me famous. Fifteen bestsellers. Millions of fans. Fame and fortune. Now, I have one last story to write. It'll be my best one yet, with a jaw-dropping twist that will leave them stunned and gasping for breath. They say that sticks and stones will break your bones, but this story? It will be the one that kills me. This book is not a romance. It is contemporary fiction, but very suspenseful in nature. It is about a famous romance author and a dark secret she keeps. *

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    Ordinary Grace

      William Kent Krueger
     Ordinary Grace

“That was it. That was all of it. A grace so ordinary there was no reason at all to remember it. Yet I have never across the forty years since it was spoken forgotten a single word.”New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were selling out at the soda counter of Halderson’s Drugstore, and Hot Stuff comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack. It was a time of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. But for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum it was a grim summer in which death visited frequently and assumed many forms. Accident. Nature. Suicide. Murder. Frank begins the season preoccupied with the concerns of any teenage boy, but when tragedy unexpectedly strikes his family— which includes his Methodist minister father; his passionate, artistic mother; Juilliard-bound older sister; and wise-beyond-his-years kid brother— he finds himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery, and betrayal, suddenly called upon to demonstrate a maturity and gumption beyond his years. Told from Frank’s perspective forty years after that fateful summer, Ordinary Grace is a brilliantly moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God.Review“A pitch-perfect, wonderfully evocative examination of violent loss. In Frank Drum's journey away from the shores of childhood—a journey from which he can never return—we recognize the heartbreaking price of adulthood and it's 'wisdoms.' I loved this book.” (Dennis Lehane, New York Times bestselling author of Live by Night and *The Given Day* )“A respected mystery writer turns his attention to the biggest mystery of all: God. An award-winning author for his long-running Cork O’ Connor series, Krueger aims higher and hits harder with a standalone novel that shares much with his other work.... 'the awful grace of God,' as it manifests itself within the novel, would try the faith of the most devout believer. Yet, ultimately, the world of this novel is one of redemptive grace and mercy, as well as unidentified corpses and unexplainable tragedy. A novel that transforms narrator and reader alike.” (Kirkus Reviews (starred) )“...elegiac, evocative.... a resonant tale of fury, guilt, and redemption.” (*Publishers Weekly* )“Once in a blue moon a book drops down on your desk that demands to be read. You pick it up and read the first page, and then the second, and you are hooked. Such a book is Ordinary Grace…This is a book that makes the reader feel better just by having been exposed to the delights of the story. It will stay with you for quite some time and you will always remember it with a smile.” (*Huffington Post* ) About the AuthorWilliam Kent Krueger is the award-winning author of twelve previous Cork O’Connor novels, including Northwest Angle and Trickster’s Point, as well as the novel Ordinary Grace. He lives in the Twin Cities with his family. Visit his website at WilliamKentKrueger.com.

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    Dark Water

      Kōji Suzuki
     Dark Water

A haunting collection of short stories from Koji Suzuki, author of the smash thriller, Ring, which spawned the hit film and sequels. The first story in this collection has been adapted to film (Dark Water, Walter Salles), and another, "Adrift" is currently in production with Dimension Films.

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    The Chicken Suit

      Roger Busby
     The Chicken Suit

When you’re about to get the chop in the dog-eat-dog motor trade and the blonde with a brace of sawn-off shotguns in her bag is eyeing up an ‘80s muscle car, there’s only one thing left to do – reach for the chicken suit! Another short story from Roger Busby which will entertain you and amuse with the pitfalls of the motor trade.Lately Jack Bowen had taken to wearing the chicken suit in the morning. He’d get to work early, before the others arrived, lock the door of his prefab office, take the suit out of the cupboard where it had hung all those years and slip it on, just for a few minutes. So where was the harm in that? The yellow plumage was a little ratty now and when he put the head on the beak sagged forlornly as he strutted up and down flapping the stubby wings. All the same, it felt good; took him back to the old days when he and John Tully were the top dogs at Lomax Ford, beating the sales target every time and picking up the cut glass decanters and all the other trinkets at the end of the month when the figures came out.Jack had bought the Wurlitzer to hang onto the same memories; picked it up caked in dirt at a junk auction, cleaned it up good as new until the chrome and plastic gleamed. When Betty finally got exasperated and threw it out, he’d brought it to the office, and in his lunch break would plug it in and watch the coloured lights flicker up and down the tubes; press one of the buttons from which the paper slips with the song titles had long since disappeared and feel the thrill of anticipation as the selector arm plucked a 45 from the stack and placed it on the turntable, the needle going down…Ricky Nelson singing “My babe”. Those were the days. When Big John Tully took the UK Ford Salesman of the Year Award for the third time running he’d put on his big confident smile and told Jack: “Jackie, kid, we’re wasting our talents busting a gut for Lomax when we could be coining it for ourselves!” Gone straight out and sweet talked the bank into a loan to buy Stan Gifford’s place on The Old Kent Road; clinched the deal on the strength of poaching a fair chunk of the Lomax trade. That was John all over, the wheeler-dealer, and Jack, who’d always played straight-arrow to this flamboyant showman, leafing through the Glass’s Guide and shaking his head whenever a punter grew over optimistic, had naturally thrown in with him. “Ha-ha Jackie boy, we’ve got it made,” John told him in his booming voice, arm thrown around his shoulder, “you and me, kiddo, we’re set up for the good life.” And so they were in those distant days before Tully went over the top, took to wearing cowboy boots and watching John Wayne DVD’s on a giant home cinema rig he’d set up in the back room, leaving Jack to run the business; before he named his only son after the Duke; before he snuffed it on the day Jack sold a blinged-up Bentley to a minor Saudi royal and Tully overdid the celebration; choked himself to death on a T-bone steak with pepper sauce.

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    Charisma

      Jeanne Ryan
     Charisma

A chance at the ultimate makeover means deadly consequences in this Sarah Dessen-meets-Robin Cook thriller Aislyn suffers from crippling shyness—that is, until she’s offered a dose of Charisma, an underground gene therapy drug guaranteed to make her shine. The effects are instant. She’s charming, vivacious, and popular. But strangely, so are some other kids she knows. The media goes into a frenzy when the disease turns contagious, and then deadly, and the doctor who gave it to them disappears. Aislyn must find a way to stop it, before it's too late. Part medical thriller, part social justice commentary, Charisma will have readers on the edge of their seats.

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    Up in Honey's Room

      Elmore Leonard
     Up in Honey's Room

Walter Schoen isn't just a Heinrich Himmler look-alike; this Detroit butcher is a dedicated Nazi spy who, when not busy slicing sausage, is avidly assembling Allied production data for his friends in Berlin. Tired of his covert shenanigans, his wife, Honey, divorces him. Looking for a good time, if not more, she lands in the lap of Carl Webster, the "Hot Kid" of the U.S. Marshals Service. At the moment though, the only couplings that interest Webster are the handcuffs that he'd like to snap onto the wrists of Hitler's American helpers. Elmore Leonard's unconventional crime novel has more wrinkles than a bloodhound.

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    Penny Dreadful

      Will Christopher Baer
     Penny Dreadful

When Phineas Poe is enlisted by his old ally, Detective Moon, to find a missing cop named Jimmy Sky, he is drawn into the Game of Tongues, a violent fantasy game played by the disaffected and delusional in the punk clubs, rooftops, and sewers of Denver. With everyone he meets possessing multiple personalities and his own identity slipping away, Poe realizes if he can hang on to his sanity long enough to find Jimmy Sky, he might just beat the game.

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    Urban Exploration & The Curse of Chillingham Castle

      Pete Rossi
     Urban Exploration & The Curse of Chillingham Castle

Two short stories.Urban Exploration.An abandoned Victorian mental asylum, derelict for decades, sits in the middle of the English countryside. Three people set out to explore.The Curse of Chillingham Castle.Over from America on their first European holiday, tourists Mark and Susie take a detour to one of England's most haunted castles.15000 words approx.This collection consists of two short stories.Urban ExplorationAn abandoned Victorian mental asylum, derelict for decades, sits in the middle of the English countryside. Three University graduates decide to explore the decaying ruin one summer day. A week later, one of them returns for a second visit. Will this trip go as planned?The Curse of Chillingham CastleChillingham Castle is one of the most haunted places in England, with a long and bloody past. Over from America on their first European holiday, tourists Mark and Susie take a detour to the atmospheric castle. It was a decision that they would later regret. Life for them will never be quite the same again.Together, the stories come to about 15000 words long. Just long enough to fit nicely in to a couple of lunch breaks!

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    The Median

      Nicholas House
     The Median

Richard Weignright is a Median. A living bridge between our world and that of the dead. Sworn to guard and protect the boundary between worlds he patrols nightly, placing lost souls to rest and banishing malevolent wraiths. But now a force long forgotten threatens the fine balance kept by the Medians and Richard is forced to confront his own torments and buried secrets to preserve all he has ever.This book is for fantasy junkies. it takes the reader to a world that has just entered its Iron Age. It is a time when kings battle kings for revenge and survival, and sorcerers and alchemists pit magic against science. It tells the story of a half-goblin orphan, Trak, who is hated by both goblins and men. His world is torn by racial hatred, and Trak struggles to be accepted. When he finds love, it is taken from him by fate. It will not surprise regular fantasy readers that the half-goblin eventually overcomes his humble beginnings.Trak's destiny becomes clear when the earth is overrun by white goblins fleeing the Underworld. His magic is critical in the battle between the surface dwellers and a malevolent demigod who seeks domination of the earth. But which side does Trak support? Be warned, this tale has many twists that will keep the reader guessing as the final battle between good and evil unfolds.

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