Gigi has fallen in love with Jake. But Jake was a rare animal. A biker who specialized in the theft of rare gems. He "retired" from the world of crime two years ago but now there is another burglar who has copied his modus operandi. Jake is immediately under suspicion by both Gigi and the cops and decides to catch the copy cat thief himself to prove his innocence.** Views: 69
In his house at R’lyeh, Cthulhu waits dreaming…
What are the dreams that monsters dream? When will the stars grow right? Where are the sunken temples in which the dreamers dwell? How will it all change when they come home?
Within these pages lie the answers, and more, in all-new stories by many of the brightest lights in dark fiction. Gathered together by Ross E. Lockhart, the editor who brought you The Book of Cthulhu, The Children of Old Leech, and Giallo Fantastique, Cthulhu Fhtagn! features nineteen weird tales inspired by H. P. Lovecraft. Views: 69
The Isles of Elysium: Book 6 in the Babylon Series Views: 69
The mayor's six-year-old son, Ben Carter, is missing—and Lauren's brother, Tom, is the main suspect. Lauren knows her brother would never harm anyone, but the police don't agree. Ben's stepbrother doesn't agree. The mayor certainly doesn't agree. To some people in Resurrection Falls, Tom is the freak who, rumor has it, once tried to lure a kid into the woods. But if Tom is innocent, why was he lurking around outside the mayor's house the night Ben disappeared? And why has he also vanished? After teaming up with Tom's friend, Grady, a computer enthusiast and part-time hacker, Lauren decides that rather than try to prove Tom's innocence, they should simply give the police some more options. Because everyone, even the mayor's apparently perfect family, has secrets. Views: 69
In a review of his first collection, The Convulsion Factory, esteemed critic Stanley Wiater stated, “This writer knows where the sad people, the bad people, and the mad people live.” Indeed. For his expansive command of characters as well as the situations, from the visionary to the grittily mundane, in which he finds them, and for his lyrically crafted prose and skewed perspectives (not to mention his penchant for run-on sentences), Hodge has racked up an eclectic list of comparisons: from Elmore Leonard to Clive Barker, from Honoré Daumier to David Cronenberg, from Carl Jung to Marilyn Monroe*.
Now comes his most far-reaching collection yet, 150,000 words chronicling the people, places, and things that his readers have come to expect, but never predict: The dancer who becomes the latest repository for the fervent sexuality that fueled the world’s most ancient cities. The serial killer whose grasp of media symbiosis puts him light-years ahead of the law. The modern-day castrato learning undreamt-of lessons in love, death, and divine madness. The Civil War veteran living a grotesque twist on the Old West myth of the outlaw who never takes off his gun belt.
William Faulkner once noted that writers are congenital liars … that if they weren’t liars, they would never have become writers in the first place. In that spirit, Brian Hodge has been enthusiastically lying ever since his earliest mastery of the alphabet, guided by only one stipulation:
Never letting a trivial thing like the facts get in the way of the ugly truth.
* Sadly, the Monroe comparison is a total fabrication.
Stories included in this collection:
“Madame Babylon”
“The 121st Day of Sodom”
“Empathy”
“Cancer Causes Rats”
“Some Other Me”
“Nesting Instincts”
“Before the Last Snowflake Falls”
“An Autumnal Equinox Folly”
“Confession”
“Cenotaph”
“Far Flew the Boast of Him”
“Now Day Was Fled As the Worm Had Wished”
“Pages Stuck By a Bowie Knife to a Cheyenne Gallows”
“Driving the Last Spike”
“Little Holocausts”
“Dead Giveaway”
“Past Tense”
“Our Lady of Sloth and Scarlet Ivy”
“The Last Testament”
“The Alchemy of the Throat”
“Come Unto Me, All Ye Heavy Laden”
“Endnotes: From the Gutters of Civilization to Your Discerning Eye” Views: 69
“Having someone get murdered at your wedding has to be the worst.”
Scott Deering, cellist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, doesn’t usually play weddings. But a friend’s family emergency finds him reluctantly anchoring a college string quartet at the wedding of a couple with more money than taste. When his second violinist goes missing after the ceremony, Scott is determined that the show must go on - until the violinist turns up dead and Scott’s day goes to hell.
Jamie Brodie and Pete Ferguson are attending the lavishly over-the-top wedding of an acquaintance of Pete’s when Jamie spots a ghost from his past in the string quartet - Scott Deering, the last guy he dated before Pete. The murder at the wedding is shocking, but it’s not Jamie’s business - until a theft from the music library at UCLA sucks him into the investigation. All Jamie wants to do is finalize the plans for his own wedding to Pete, but first he has to join forces with Scott to track down a killer - and deal with another ghost that throws everyone’s lives into turmoil.
** Views: 69
This is not made for TV. This is the raw, brutal underground of no-holds-barred combat. Inside the cage there is nothing but me and the pain I inflict on those who dare enter. In the cage, I never have to worry about anyone but myself. Yet, when she began standing outside of the cage, everything changed. I was no longer fighting for the money or the glory – I was fighting for her. "Hands down one of the best books Shay has ever written....Five plus stars. I couldn't put it down once I started it." - Teresa, Two Girls with Books** Views: 69
