Metaphysical Mysteries

Goldilocks' latest case takes her to the deserts of the southwest, home to gun-toting cowboys, sun-scorched caverns, and high-noon showdowns. Goldilocks has been given a fresh start, trading in the lush forests and Midwest plains for sandstone cliffs and desert cacti. This time around she’s determined to play it straight and show the higher-ups that she’s got what it takes. Easier said than done, especially when the Great Coyote Spirit Glooskap appears and charges her with finding the Dawn’s Blessing, a mythical flower that only blooms once per century. The race is on, and she’s not...

"Fun, fun, fun! Like the love child of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett!" Man plans, the Multiverse laughs! "It's like that book about anti-gravity. You can't put it down." "A story 14 billion years in the making!" "Finally, a treatment for readers suffering "Dirk Gently or Hitchhiker's Guide withdrawal!" "Not only is this case stranger than we imagine, it's stranger than we can imagine." No other detective is quite like Dr. Ziegfeld Zaggar, Quantum Detective -- and that's probably for the best. Zaggar and his reluctant, obsessively linear-thinking sidekick, Jack Robbins, investigate the ...

The continuing adventures of the survey starship Yellowjacket after an alien force larger than any in living memory sweeps through the worlds of the Engel Empire. Note: The Stars Dark series is an homage to thrilling pulp sci-fi of yesteryear. If you're interested in hard science fiction look elsewhere. But if you're looking for action-packed adventures on strange worlds with even stranger aliens, this series is for you!

Egypt holds a vast amount of hidden treasures, and two prominent archeologists, Dr. Andrew Rogers and Dr. Kathleen Mcgregor have been successful in uncovering many of them. Now their former students are putting into action their skills. But, when compared to Dr. Rogers, they are still novices and prone to making mistakes. Dr. Julie Freeman leads an expedition of seven on a dangerous, mysterious journey in hopes of finding King Solomon's treasures. Believing those items have been purchased by the ancient Pharaoh of Egypt in hopes of bringing wealth and good fortune to his own empire, Julie ...

Set in three cities in three eras, The Mirror Thief calls to mind David Mitchell and Umberto Eco in its mix of entertainment and literary bravado. The core story is set in Venice in the 16th century, when the famed makers of Venetian glass were perfecting one of the old world's most wondrous inventions: the mirror.

Be careful what you wish for. A year earlier, with the help of enigmatic industrialist Michael Walker, all of Penelope Drayton Spence’s dreams had come true. Now, as one of the country’s top journalists, she has discovered what she thought would make her happy was only making her busy. After months of avoiding her, Michael Walker burst back into her life with an outlandish plan to launch his controversial “Hermes” satellite into space. But she soon learns someone just as resourceful and well-financed is willing to go to any lengths to stop the launch.

What if the treasure you’re chasing… is the truth about yourself? After surviving the jungle and unlocking the first ancient vault, Flint Wrynn and his team head to Indonesia in search of a long-lost chamber whispered about in tribal legends and missionary journals alike—The Echo Vault. Said to resonate with the voices of those who have suffered and survived, the vault is more than myth. It's the next step on a journey that has become deeply personal. Still haunted by the death of his brother Clay and the growing threat of the mysterious Silencer, Flint finds his relationships ...

Goldilocks' latest case takes her to the golden west, where wildfires rages across the land, and a murderer stalks his prey under an ash-covered sky. Goldilocks has finally found her footing. As the war with the Cold Ones grinds to a halt, she’s settling into her role beneath her new commander and longtime friend, Francine Brewster. Peace can’t last though, and no sooner does she begin to relax than the call for aid goes out. California is burning. As the department struggles to contain the inferno, Goldilocks is assigned lead on the murder investigation of eight Smokejumpers, their ...

This captivating story combines mysticism, quantum physics, and an exploration into the nature of reality. In the early hours before dawn, a scientist secretly slips into a darkened laboratory and steals a strand from an ancient cloth. This cloth has a special and profound origin, one that some would do anything to possess, while others want it suppressed. How could this small, seemingly insignificant item change the course of the world? Years later, a mysterious man appears in New York City. Who is he, what is his connection with the ancient cloth, and why has he arrived at this time?

Take the plunge down the rabbit hole of insanity and wonder in this fast-paced, nonstop psychological thriller that will leave you questioning the very nature of reality and beyond. Part thriller, part romance, part existential horror, A Dream of Waking Life delves into lucid dreaming, psychedelics, existential ontology, video games, the nature of love, the nature of reality, and more.

In Sleepers 2, Alex is left behind to take over and he soon discovers nothing is as it seems, including the "New Jerusalem". The origin of the virus comes to light and Alex and the group fight to find salvation in a dark dangerous world. A world that is far from ending. A world that thrives but not with human life. The Sleepers now mass and more than that, they have awakened into their next deadly phase.

I'm Natasha. Friends call me Tash. The world calls me loser. No one knows I possess a deadly magic. It was supposed to be a simple surveillance job, just like the zillion others I had run for my tough-guy benefactor, Tobias. An hour into it, I'm sitting with a dead body after barely surviving a warlock's rampage. I thought things couldn't get any worse, but what did I know? Running point for Tobias or being witness to a murder was the least of my worries. Now I've been blackmailed into working with sexy paranormal cop Ian, and I must help him find what the warlock is up to before he ...

Krygelski writes a compelling and startling story centered on the mysterious arrival of a man who claims to be the Creator. Clearly not a mortal, Elohim - as the stranger prefers to be known - astounds those he meets with unexplainable miracles and reality-altering answers. All of this is but a prelude to his announcement that he has come to do something...something which will affect every person on Earth...something which will occur in five days.

Thomas Tessler, devastated by a tragedy, has cloistered himself in his bedroom and shut out the world for the past three years. His wife, Silke, lives in the next room, but Thomas no longer shares his life with her, leaving his hideout only in the wee hours of the night to buy food at the store around the corner from their Manhattan apartment. Isolated, withdrawn, damaged, Thomas is hikikomori. Desperate to salvage their life together, Silke hires Megumi, a young Japanese woman attuned to the hikikomori phenomenon.

Aaron has cheated death once more... the heart attack didn’t kill him, just made him contemplative, walking the corridors of his life’s memories. Read Aaron’s incredible journey, written in a comfortably lazy, lyrical style that evokes all the senses – all the tastes, aromas and sweet touches of life.

An interviewer at a centre for gifted children encounters a child whose perception of the world defies human comprehension. A man experiencing time lapses suspects he may be guilty of murder. A helping hand for the homeless and an unbelievable job opportunity for the unskilled—in a hostile future, can such benevolence be trusted? A man displaced through time over and over again struggles to comprehend his fate while a former space marine discovers that falling in love with an alien can have unintended side effects. These science fiction stories explore diverse aspects of the human mind—...

MI6 Agent Sam Noor isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty to protect his homeland. While overseas interrogating an enemy terrorist, he’s horrified to learn his beloved wife suffered the same brutal tactics from his own men. Determined to expose the betrayal and extract bloody justice, Noor uncovers an unbelievable fact: His wife died and somehow came back to life.... Swept up in an international power struggle, Noor goes rogue to uncover the eye-opening truth. The fallout from Sam’s revenge ripples from the Oval Office through the CIA and MI6.

"The fate of the world hangs on their choices... The past foretells her future..." Zara Khatum is a warrior, a survivor, and a woman fueled by a thirst for vengeance. Haunted by the horrors inflicted on her and her Kurdish people, she seeks only retribution. But a hidden legacy, a powerful artifact, and a destiny woven through millennia threaten to reshape her life and the fate of the world. Enter Peter Gollinger, a troubled Californian whose family is bound by an ancient mystery. He's plagued by dreams, visions of a dark-haired woman he must save. These visions lead him on a path that ...

Hugo Award winner Elizabeth Bear has won high praise for her thought-provoking science fiction. The second in Bear’s powerful Jacob’s Ladder series, Chill finds the generation starship Jacob’s Ladder with a new captain—Perceval. As Perceval struggles with the ship’s recent damage, remnants of the rebellion still linger and a threat to the crew grows.

Neil Double is a 'conference surrogate', hired by his clients to attend industry conferences so that they don't have to. It's a life of budget travel, cheap suits, and out-of-town exhibition centers. But his latest job, at a conference of conference organizers, will radically transform him and everything he believes as it unexpectedly draws him into a bizarre and speculative mystery. In a brand-new Way Inn - a global chain of identikit mid-budget motels - he meets a woman he has seen before in strange and unsettling circumstances.