American Mysteries

Reign thought she found true love when she met Omari, but he proved to be just like every other man from her past. The heart wants what it wants and Reign continues to pursue her dream of being with Omari. When Omari doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to change his ways, Reign finds comfort in another man. When Omari finds out about Reign’s new love interest, he vows to do everything he can to win back her love. However, Reign refuses to rekindle the old flame and ends up in a petrifying predicament when a brief run-in with Omari turns dangerous. Bullet Holes & Broken Hearts is a roller ...

Three individuals are at the pivotal point in their lives – Ashley, Gethambe, and Lana. And somehow, their lives will soon intertwine, but not all parties will get their happy ending. Ashley’s world came crumbling down around her on July 17th. That was the day that she would face her husband for the last time. He had filed for divorce and had moved on to share his life with another woman. Around that same time, Gethambe, a half breed human and wolf, found that he needed to prove himself to his pack and take an epic journey from death to life. During this journey, he must fight seven ...

Carmen has gotten her wish. Renee is no longer queen. Being stripped of her title and the power that comes with it, Renee must start from scratch and rebuild what she once controlled. Having turned their backs on one another, Renee's once strong circle is now dismantled, and each individual is after what ripped them apart - Carmen. Carmen's making it hard for them to capture her and doing whatever she must to survive. Renee wants revenge along with everyone else, but will she achieve it, or will she die in battle without the help of Julian and Dane?

Sarah Myers has a great job! A governess for a rich wealthy Bay Area family comes with its added benefits. A car, a home in a trendy San Francisco neighborhood. Life is divine --until it truly isn’t and the cards fall apart. An unexpected affair and an insane proposal from the wealthy patriarch... and everything hits the fan. Now she is unable to tell what her role is in this mansion. She is surprised by the wealthy wife’s acceptance of her relationship with their perfect doctor husband. She confides in her best friend, a girl she has known since childhood about her love and the strange...

Armand Blackstone wants very little in life, and needs even less--he's a millionaire in his own right, and scion of the Blackstone Empire. He has everything at his fingertips, everything a man could want--except Jo Dawson. His borderline obsession has lasted for over a decade, and he manages it the same way he controls everything else around him: with icy perfection. Simultaneously distancing himself and yet staying constantly aware of her, he's managed to keep his dignity intact and stay away from the one woman that drives him past the point of control. But now she's at risk, his younger ...

In the pulsing heart of New Orleans, where ancient magic whispers through cobblestone streets and neon-lit jazz clubs, Detective Jason Chalk thought he knew the score. But when a routine drug bust spirals into a grotesque tableau of ritualistic murder, Jason finds himself standing at the threshold of a world he never knew existed—one where the lines between saint and sinner, magic and madness blur into oblivion. A cryptic symbol carved into flesh becomes Jason's obsession, a key to unlocking secrets that have lain dormant for centuries. As he delves deeper, the very fabric of reality ...

For John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, deep wreck diving was more than a sport. Testing themselves against treacherous currents, braving depths that induced hallucinatory effects, they pushed themselves to their limits and beyond, brushing against death more than once in the rusting hulks of sunken ships.

In the foothills of the desert mountains west of Smoke Tree, someone has murdered Caleb and Eunice Clovis. They were impoverished squatters living a life of bare subsistence far off the beaten track in a miserable lean-to made of discarded lumber and cast off building materials. Who would want to kill them? And why? There seems to be no motive for the crime. Lieutenant Carlos Caballo, known throughout the Lower Colorado River Basin simply as “Horse,” is charged with solving the crime. A crime that might not have been discovered for months or even years except for a minor twist of fate. ...

A bag of chips. That's all 16-year-old Rashad is looking for at the corner bodega. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop, Paul Galluzzo, who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter, mistakes Rashad's pleadings that he's stolen nothing for belligerence, mistakes Rashad's resistance to leave the bodega as resisting arrest, mistakes Rashad's every flinch at every punch the cop throws as further resistance and refusal to STAY STILL as ordered.

The transporting stories in this year’s The Best American Mystery and Suspense are populated by those who exist on the fringe of our society and want more than what life has dealt them: A haunted veteran turned career criminal is on the run. An injured fighter turned bouncer seeks vengeance for his lost love. An assassin on his last job finds himself questioning his life choices and breaks all the rules to understand his final victim.

Eulan- has raised his niece ever since the death of her parents. He's trained her in the way of their people, the Ohrs, from the planet, Arets Yesna, even though they are stationed on earth. Now, nearly ten years later, he knows she is closer than ever to starting her work, as a protector. Knowing this, he tries to prepare himself to let her go when she is called. Will he be able to let her go out on her own? Or will he be pulled into something bigger in order to help her complete her mission? Echo- has waited impatiently for years to be summoned to do what it is she has trained for all of ...

To dodge a group of ruthless debt collectors, an impoverished southern belle agrees to become the mail-order bride of a rugged cowboy in this sweetly suspenseful historical romance! After refusing to marry the cruel new owner of her childhood home, Annabelle Lane finds herself on the run from the scoundrels he hires to change her mind. In desperation, she signs a mail-order bride contract and hops on the next train, praying the groom she is matched with is a man worth running toward. The most sought-after range rider in the west, Ethan Vasquez is highly skilled at protecting livestock from ...

In the middle of an important investigation,Smoke Tree Substation Commander Carlos Caballo, known up and down the Colorado River Valley as "Horse," is suddenly called away to find a man who has shot an inspector at the California Agricultural Inspection station in the tiny desert community of Vidal, California. A California Highway patrolman has found the car abandoned alongside Highway95. When Horse and and the patrolman force open the trunk, they discover a body: the man's wife. Horse realizes he and his deputies must find a killer who is on foot in the vast, unpopulated area where the ...

Doing Time: For the prison writers whose work is included in this anthology, it means more than "serving a sentence"; it means staying alive and sane, preserving dignity, reinventing oneself, and somehow retaining one's humanity. For the last quarter century the prestigious writers' organization PEN has sponsored a contest for writers behind bars to help prisoners face these challenges. The contest honors the best short stories, plays, essays, and poems among hundreds submitted annually by men and women nationwide.

When newly appointed Sheriff Shea Callahan and her college friends plan a girls' weekend in a secluded cabin on Misty Mountain, they expect laughter, wine, and memories of their last carefree days together. But the weekend takes a dark turn when a group of strangers notices their matching "Girls' Weekend" T-shirts at a small-town gas station. What begins as innocent curiosity quickly spirals into a harrowing game of cat and mouse as the women find themselves stalked and terrorized by men who seem to know every move they make. With the clock ticking and their lives on the line, Shea must ...

Im Dezember 1988 kommen beim Lockerbie-Bombenanschlag alle 259 Passagiere einer Boeing 747 ums Leben, darunter auch Maureen, die Verlobte des US-Collegestudenten Mitch Rapp. Ein Jahr nach ihrem Tod wird Mitch von der CIA rekrutiert und schließt sich dem geheimen Orion-Team an, das gegen den weltweiten Terror in den Kampf zieht. An Krisenherden in Europa, im Nahen Osten und Asien bewältigt er den Verlust seiner großen Liebe und sucht nach einem neuen Sinn für sein Leben.

Spanning from a mediocre spa in Florida, to New York’s gritty East Village, to death row in Alabama, this collection reveals boundless suspense in small, quiet moments, offering startling twists in the least likely of places. From a powerful response to hateful bullying, to a fight for health care, to a gripping desperation to vote, these stories are equal parts shocking, devastating, and enthralling, revealing the tension pulsing through our everyday lives and affirming that mystery and suspense writing is better than ever before.

As Paris rediscovers its joie de vivre, Tabitha Knight, recently arrived from Detroit for an extended stay with her French grandfather, is on her own journey of discovery. Thanks to her neighbor and friend Julia Child, another ex-pat who's fallen head over heels for Paris, Tabitha is learning how to cook for her Grandpere and Oncle Rafe and Tabitha's sojourn is proving thoroughly delightful. That is, until the cold December day they return to Julia's building and learn that a body has been found in the cellar.

A MAN SHOULD NOT DROWN IN A DESERT! BUT ONE HAS. TWICE! Teenage outsiders from the desert town of Smoke Tree find a body floating in a cistern beneath a desert moon, but an autopsy shows the man drowned elsewhere. Why move a drowned man and stage a false drowning? As Deputy Johnny Quentin, investigates, he discovers that the man's wife is also missing. Johnny must find her before the killer claims another victim. Find her in a section of open desert larger than some states. The new deputy, haunted his his tours as a Ranger in Vietnam and the death of his best friend there, must put his ...

These shivery tales were collected from the oral tradition, from people all over the Southwest, and represent the rich cultural diversity of the region, from the Ozarks to the Rio Grande, California to the Big Thicket.