You're probably wondering how I ended up here. I'm still wondering the same thing.Olivia, Kelly, Christopher, Jason, and Eva have one thing in common: They're addicts. Addicts who have hit rock bottom and been stuck together in rehab to face their problems, face sobriety, and face themselves. None of them wants to be there. None of them wants to confront the truths about their pasts. And they certainly don't want to share their darkest secrets and most desperate fears with a room of strangers. But they'll all have to deal with themselves and one another if they want to learn how to live. Because when you get that high, there's nowhere to go but down, down, down. Views: 25
"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."--H. P. LOVECRAFTWelcome to the world of H. P. Lovecraft, the undisputed master of terror. His work has inspired countless nightmares, and this collection of some of his most chilling stories is likely to inspire even more.Cool Air--An icy apartment hides secrets no man dares unlock.The Case of Charles Dexter Ward--Ward delves into the black arts and resurrects the darkest evil from beyond the grave.The Terrible Old Man--The intruders seek a fortune but find only death. Herbert West--Reanimator--Mad experiments yield hideous results in this bloodcurdling tale, the inspiration for the cult film Re-Animator.The Shadow Over Innsmouth--A small fishing town's population is obscenely corrupted by a race of fiendish undersea creatures.The Lurking Fear--An upstate... Views: 25
After the final battle in Blood & Tears, Jane's team struggles with the death of one of their own. When things get too tough, they call in reinforcements--the Italian military. Will the extra men and women help Jane, Felipe, and the others defeat Conrad and his minions? Or will the rogue vampires finally win? This is the fourth novella in the Jane series. It runs approximately 17,000 words. Views: 25
Ring of Flowers is a Novella (only 46 pages) and is a companion piece to the full length novel The Calypso Directive, written by the same author... In 1665, in the Derbyshire village of Eyam, the tailor, George Vicars orders a bolt of fabric from London to make a wedding dress for his betrothed daughter, Kathryn. To escape her fate of marrying the town's wealthiest and most odious bachelor, she elopes with her true love, farmhand Paul Foster. Kathryn's departure is fortuitous, because when the fabric is delivered, the parcel is infested with fleas carrying bubonic plague. First bitten and first to die, George Vicars' misfortune becomes the community's death sentence when the town Rector boldly imposes a quarantine on all Eyam residents. Months later, expecting a child, the newlyweds return home to find their world turned upside down. Once inside the township, they are forbidden to leave and Kathryn is forced to give birth in quarantine. Under the shadow plague, and against all odds, Will Foster's paternal ancestor is born . . . with a genetic mutation that will change the world 345 years later.From the AuthorNOTE TO THE READER: Ring of Flowers was originally a historical subplot that wove throughout The Calypso Directive. At first blush, it was meant to be an origin story for my protagonist Will Foster. Also, I had hoped for it to function allegorically, reinforcing two of the novel's main themes: (1) the costs associated with the morality of serving the "greatest good for the greatest number of people", and (2) the hardship of being forced to choose between a path of self sacrifice and one of self-interest. As the backstory blossomed to 40+ pages, it became clear to both me and my editor that this tragic love story deserved to be a stand alone novella. I hope you enjoy it, and if you do, please consider reading about Paul and Kathryn's progeny, Will Foster, in the 21st century thriller: The Calypso Directive (available on Amazon in hardback and Kindle editions). Views: 25
Anna is one of the invisible people. She fled her own country when the police murdered her brother and her father, and now she serves your food, cleans your table, changes your bed, and keeps the secrets of her past well hidden. When she used her medical school experience to treat a man with a gunshot wound, Anna thought it would be a way to a better life. Instead, it leads to a world of people trafficking, prostitution, murder and the biggest decision of Anna's life: how much is she prepared to give up to be one of us? Shortlisted for the UK Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger award, One of Us is a novel by award-winning writer Iain Rowan. Praise for Iain Rowan's Nowhere To Go: "fine examples of modern crime stories, gripping and perceptive, probing the dark secrets of the human soul, just like an old Alfred Hitchcock movie... Crime enthusiasts must not miss the book: this is noir at its very best." -- SF Site featured review "During the five years that I published Hardluck Stories, One Step Closer and Moth were two of my favorite stories. I loved the nuances and true heartfelt emotion that Iain filled his stories with, and Iain quickly became a must read author for me--everything I read of Iain's had this tragic, and sometimes, horrific beauty filling it, and was guaranteed to be something special." -- Dave Zeltserman, author of Outsourced, and Washington Post best books of year Small Crimes and Pariah "A short story writer of the highest calibre." -- Allan Guthrie, author of Top Ten Kindle Bestseller Bye Bye Baby, winner of Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year "Iain Rowan's stories never fail to surprise and delight, and just when you think you know what will happen next, you realize how much you've been caught unaware." -- Sarah Weinman, writer, critic, reviewer, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and News Editor for Publishers Marketplace "Iain Rowan is both a meticulous and a passionate writer, and these stories showcase his ample talent wonderfully well. You owe it to yourself to discover Rowan's fiction if you haven't already had the pleasure." -- Jeff Vandermeer, author of Finch, Shriek: An Afterword, City of Saints and Madmen; two-time winner of the World Fantasy Award "Every story in this collection is a gem... classy and clever Brit Grit at its best." -- Paul D Brazill, Death By Killing** Views: 25
Review“Munro, the hugely gifted chronicler, is fast becoming one of the world’s great totemic writers. . . . Each short story is a mansion of many rooms.” –The New York Times Book Review“How honest and how lovely. . . . A spellbinding tour through a world of love, menace and surprise. . . . [Munro] is a writer of enormous gifts and perception.” –Los Angeles Times“Wonderful. . . . A sheer pleasure.” –Seattle Post-Intelligencer“A rich exploration of womanhood. . . . A more supple, honest, sensitive and sympathetic imagination would be hard to find among writers of fiction today.” –Ms.“Masterful . . . proves beyond question Alice Munro’s trenchant ability to capture the essence of personality in the vagaries of human impulses. . . . It is hard to imagine a perception more acute.” –Houston PostFrom the Publisher6 1.5-hour cassettes Views: 25
In The Dark Descent, hailed as one of the most important anthologies ever to examine horror fiction, editor David G. Hartwell traces the complex history of horror in literature back to the earliest short stories. The Dark Descent, which won the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology, showcases the finest of these ever written—from the time-honored classics of Edgar Allan Poe, D. H. Lawrence, and Edith Wharton to the contemporary writing of Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Ray Bradbury. Views: 25
After his widely celebrated debut, Mr. Peanut, Adam Ross now presents a darkly compelling collection of stories about brothers, loners, lovers, and lives full of good intentions, misunderstandings, and obscured motives.A hotshot lawyer, burdened by years of guilt and resentment, comes to the rescue of his irresponsible, irresistible younger brother. An unsettling story resonates between the dysfunctional couple telling it and their listening friends as well. A lonely professor, frequently regaled with unbelievably entertaining tales by the office handyman, suddenly fears he’s being asked to abet a murderous fugitive. An awkward but nervy adolescent uses his brief career as a child actor to further his designs on a WASPy friend’s seemingly untouchable sister. A man down on his luck closes in on a mysterious, much-needed job offer while doing a good turn for his fragile neighbor, with results at once surreal and hilarious. And when two college kids goad each other on in an escalating series of breathtaking dares, the outcome is as tragic as it is ambiguous.Laced with glimmers of redemption, youthful energy, and hard-won wisdom, these noirish stories unspool purposefully and fluidly; together they confirm the arrival of—as Michiko Kakutani put it in The New York Times—“an enormously talented writer.” Views: 24
Andrew Vachss stabs his trademark hard-boiled style into the heart of a quaint little seacoast village . . . one seething with corruption beneath its idyllic facade.After a life in various war zones, Dell and Dolly have settled in this town, fulfilling Dolly's lifelong dream. Though she has given up her Médecins Sans Frontières nursing career and moved smoothly into civilian life, Dell had been a mercenary originally trained by the French Foreign Legion, so they both have to sacrifice their prior identities. Dolly becomes a part-time foster mother to dozens of teenagers, while Dell has no interest in the town or its people. But when the shining star of the girls' softball team shoots and kills the most popular boy in school, Dolly asks Dell to uncover the true motive behind this inexplicable crime. Dell treats the job as he would any other mission--no boundaries. So it doesn't take him long to uncover a horrifying rite of passage demanded of... Views: 24
A madcap, bawdy tale about an ordinary man who goes to work for a racketeer and has the adventure of a lifetime: the last novel by an iconic British writer. Michael Cullen, from Nottingham, has a shady past, but nearing his forties, he's settled down, married a doctor, and started working for an ad agency. That is, until the agency fires him. He's not terribly upset though. Actually, he feels free—he hated that job. But he knows he's disappointed his wife and isn't sure what to do next, so he decides to hit the road for a few weeks. Then, he's contacted by his old boss, Claude Moggerhanger. A racketeer whom Cullen once tried—and failed—to put in jail, Moggerhanger seems to have forgiven him, and wants to hire him to do a little "job." All he has to do is drive Moggerhanger's Rolls Royce to Greece, get Greek food for Moggerhanger's wife, collect a few packages, and deliver one in Belgrade. This sounds pretty suspect to Cullen,... Views: 24
