A MONUMENTAL COLLECTION OF SHORT FICTION FROM ACCLAIMED MASTER OF HORROR AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR PETER STRAUB
“Peter Straub brilliantly defies and blurs literary genres.” —LORRIE MOORE
An American icon renowned for his bestselling novels, Peter Straub displays his full and stunning range in this crowning collection. He has consistently subverted the boundaries of genre for years, transcending horror and suspense to unlock the dark, unsettling, and troubling dissonances that exist on the edges of our perception. Straub’s fiction cracks the foundation of reality and opens our eyes to an unblinking experience of true horror, told in his inimitable and lush style with skill, wit, and impeccable craft.
With uncanny precision, Straub writes of the city and of the Midwest, of the depraved and of the righteous, of the working class and of the wealthy—nothing and no one is safe from the ever-present darkness that he understands so well. “Blue Rose” follows the cycles of violence and power through the most innocent among us, leading to a conclusion that is audacious and devastating. In the darkly satirical masterpiece “Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff,” a stern estate lawyer known as the Deacon hires a pair of “Private Detectives Extraordinaire” to investigate and seek revenge on his unfaithful wife. “The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine” follows a man and his much younger lover as they explore their decadent and increasingly sinister fantasies aboard a luxurious yacht on the remotest stretch of the Amazon River.
Interior Darkness brings together sixteen stories from twenty-five years of dazzling excellence. It is a thrilling, highly entertaining, and terrifying testament to the prodigious talent of Peter Straub.
From the Hardcover edition. Views: 466
From the New York Times bestselling author of THE DEAD WILL TELL comes a new short story offering a glimpse into Chief of Police Kate Burkholder's past and her Amish roots.
It's autumn in Painter's Mill, and fourteen year old Katie Burkholder has been tasked with picking apples in Zimmerman’s Orchard with her brother. It’s just another day filled with chores—until her best friend Mattie arrives to help. Somehow, boredom transforms into fun and games whenever the girls are together. The innocent fun comes to an end when Billy Marquardt and his gang of friends interrupts. Katie is no prude, but she knows better than to associate with the older English boys, especially since they’re known troublemakers. Mattie has no such compunction. Thumbing her nose at the Ordnung and all of the Amish rules, she disappears into the old barn with Billy.
Moments later, the Zimmerman’s barn is consumed by fire. Katie suspects Billy had something to do with the blaze, but he denies it. When the facts don’t add up, Katie begins her own investigation—and she doesn’t like what she finds. Will her friendship with Mattie survive the truth? Views: 466
They are sent to the world's hot spots-on covert missions fraught with danger. They are called on to perform at the peak of their physical and mental capabilities, primed for combat and surveillance, yet ready to pitch in with disaster relief operations. They are the Army's Special Forces Groups. Now follow Tom Clancy as he delves into the training and tools, missions and mindset of these elite operatives.
Special Forces includes:
The making of Special Forces personnel: recruitment and training
A rare look at actual Special Forces Group deployment Exercises
Tools of the trade: weapons, communications and sensor equipment, survival gear
Roles and missions: a mini-novel illustrates a probable scenario of Special Forces intervention
Exclusive photographs, illustrations and diagrams
Plus: an interview with General Hugh Shelton, USA, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (and the former Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Special Operations Command-USSOCOM) Views: 466
Cats sometimes catch mice and bring them home to show off to their owners. What happens when the cat brings back something... bigger? This short story is part of Ian Rogers' s Every House is Haunted, a short fiction collection that explores the border-places between our world and the dark reaches of the supernatural.ChiZine Publications (CZP) curates the best of the bizarre, bringing you the most excitingly weird, subtle, dark, and disturbing literary fiction. Look for more titles in the ChiZine short stories collection to build your digital library. Views: 466
It's been ten years since Spencer Wyatt jilted Drew Haviland for another man. Now she is free--and Drew will do anything to get vengeance and take what's been promised to him. But closer inspection tells him that Spencer is in dire straits--and in desperate need of his help.
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Nothing is the same in Thistle Cove after Rose Waller's disappearance.
The police ruled it a suicide and even though there's disturbing evidence to suggest otherwise. Rose's influential family has accepted this as the truth and are ready to move on.
Me? I'm not convinced.
Not that that I have much time for solving mysteries.
Ever since Rose vanished, my life has turned upside down. Not only is handsome quarterback, Finn Holloway, back in my life, but Ozzy Drake and Ezra Baxter are eager to test the waters of a unconventional relationship.
But, as much as I would love to focus on high school romance and homecoming traditions, the dark secrets that tormented Rose aren't happy to be exposed. There's a killer on the loose - one that may have struck before - and if I don't watch out, I could be the next victim.
Games We Play* is part two of the Thistle Cove series, a thrilling, murder-mystery, perfect for lovers of *Riverdale, Pretty Little Liars and Nancy Drew. It's a reverse harem dark romance that contains foul language and any sexual relationships are consensual. Views: 465
'One of my all-time favourite novels.' Tsitsi Dangarembga'The first African novel in English to draw international attention.' New York Times'The forerunner of an entire school of African literary art.' Sunday TimesAnd the black man and the white were like two men alone in the world ..Xuma will never forget the day he arrived in the Johannesburg slums: the charismatic woman who takes him in, the brutal police raids, the fights, friendships, dancing, drinking and romances - yet it soon feels like home. But when he becomes a leader in the city's gold mines, he is shocked by the racist treatment of the labourers. And as he begins to question whether 'man could be without colour', Xuma stages an act of defiance that changes his life forever . . .In 1946, Peter Abrahams' classic novel Mine Boy exposed South Africa's fledgling racial apartheid system and townships to the world - and its wisdom, vividness and... Views: 465
The Dark Realms are taking cover after an angel onslaught from On High. The Antichrist has been injured and the fourth biblical seal has been broken. Yonnie and Val, a strange combination of a daywalker and an angel hybrid, have joined Damali and Carlos's team. And the two new Council-level vamps, Elizabeth Bathory and Lucrezia Borgia, are still in recovery from their last mission. Seething in the underworld is the Unnamed One, so furious that he's bringing the battle topside, unleashing a full-frontal assault on mankind for the offenses committed by the Neteru team. This time, the Guardian team must address serious human casualties and collateral damage while Nuit rebuilds Blood Music from a mere record label into a media brainwashing empire for the Dark Lord. Views: 465
The new Chief Inspector Gamache novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author.When a peculiar letter arrives inviting Armand Gamache to an abandoned farmhouse, the former head of the Sûreté du Québec discovers that a complete stranger has named him one of the executors of her will. Still on suspension, and frankly curious, Gamache accepts and soon learns that the other two executors are Myrna Landers, the bookseller from Three Pines, and a young builder. None of them had ever met the elderly woman.The will is so odd and includes bequests that are so wildly unlikely that Gamache and the others suspect the woman must have been delusional. But what if, Gamache begins to ask himself, she was perfectly sane? When a body is found, the terms of the bizarre will suddenly seem less peculiar and far more menacing.But it isn’t the only menace Gamache is facing. The investigation into what happened six months ago―the events that led to his suspension―has dragged on, into the dead of winter. And while most of the opioids he allowed to slip through his hands, in order to bring down the cartels, have been retrieved, there is one devastating exception.Enough narcotic to kill thousands has disappeared into inner city Montreal. With the deadly drug about to hit the streets, Gamache races for answers.As he uses increasingly audacious, even desperate, measures to retrieve the drug, Armand Gamache begins to see his own blind spots. And the terrible things hiding there.
** Views: 465
Welcome back to Shakespeare -- a charming Arkansas town with endless back roads, an eclectic mix of residents, and a dollop of noir. Featuring cleaning woman/karate expert Lily Bard, Charlaine Harris\'s series puts a unique spin on the traditional cozy to create mysteries that "work on every level". — In the latest installment, Lily discovers lifelong Shakespeare resident Deedra Dean murdered inside a car parked in a woodsy area outside town. Determined not to get involved, Lily wants to leave the police work to Sheriff Marta Schuster and her team of deputies, and concentrate on cleaning, high kicks, and her boyfriend Jack\'s impending visit. But when Deedra\'s notoriously promiscuous lifestyle provides an extensive list of suspects but very few clues, Lily has no choice but to resume the roll of amateur detective and join the investigation.
In this fourth book in Charlaine Harris\'s highly acclaimed and darkly compelling series, Lily Bard delivers a hard-hitting mix of Southern charm and street smarts, a combination so alluring that long-time readers and newcomers will be dying to visit Shakespeare again. Views: 465
Megan and Duncan Richards have come a long way from 1968 and their radical past. He's a banker; she's in real estate. They have two teenage daughters and a young son. But the past has not forgotten them. From her prison cell, the beautiful and cold-blooded terrorist Tanya, with whom the Richards were involved in 1968, plots her revenge on the couple she blames for her capture. Soon she will be released from jail. Then she will start to pay them back -- beginning with their son . . . Views: 465
Trenton, New Jersey, bounty hunter Stephanie Plum has inherited a “lucky” bottle from her Uncle Pip. Problem is, Uncle Pip didn’t specify if the bottle brought good luck or bad luck. . . .
BAD LUCK:
Vinnie, of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds, has run up a gambling debt of $786,000 with mobster Bobby Sunflower and is being held until the cash can be produced. Nobody else will pay to get Vinnie back, leaving it up to Stephanie, office manager Connie, and file clerk Lula to raise the money if they want to save their jobs.
GOOD LUCK:
Being in the business of tracking down people, Stephanie, Lula, and Connie have an advantage in finding Vinnie. If they can rescue him, it will buy them some time to raise the cash.
BAD LUCK:
Finding a safe place to hide Vinnie turns out to be harder than raising $786,000. Vinnie’s messing up Mooner’s vibe, running up pay-per-view porn charges in Ranger’s apartment, and making Stephanie question genetics.
GOOD LUCK:
Between a bonds office yard sale that has the entire Burg turning out, Mooner’s Hobbit-Con charity event, and Uncle Pip’s lucky bottle, they just might raise enough money to save the business, and Vinnie, from ruin.
BAD LUCK:
Saving Vincent Plum Bail Bonds means Stephanie can keep being a bounty hunter. In Trenton, this involves hunting down a man wanted for polygamy, a turnpike toilet paper bandit, and a drug dealer with a pet alligator named Mr. Jingles.
GOOD LUCK:
The job of bounty hunter comes with perks in the guise of Trenton’s hottest cop, Joe Morelli, and the dark and dangerous security expert, Ranger. With any luck at all, Uncle Pip’s lucky bottle will have Stephanie getting lucky--the only question is . . . with whom?
Sizzling Sixteen . . . so hot, the pages might spontaneously combust! Views: 464
On the case from 1911 is the detective the Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection called mystery master Samuel Hopkins Adams' "most famous creation," the man whose moniker totally belies his real character, that ratiocinating genius and member of the Cosmic Club, Adrian Van Reypen Egerton, or "Average" Jones as his friends shorten it. Here how the Enyclopedia describes his adventures, This handsome young advertising genius maintains a remarkable sense of humor throughout a series of unusual cases which often have a medical background. Match wits with Jones as he takes on the cases of :ContentsI. The B-Flat TromboneII. Red DotIII. Open TrailIV. The Mercy Sign—OneV. The Mercy Sign—TwoVI. Blue FiresVII. Pin-PricksVIII. Big PrintIX. The Man Who Spoke LatinX. The One Best BetXI. The Million-Dollar Dog Views: 464
