Short Thrillers

A dangerous secret lies hidden within humanity's DNA waiting to be awakened... Daniel O'Brien's life is thrown into chaos when his daughter, Rachel, an MI6 agent, is suddenly taken ill while working on a case to uncover the identity of a mysterious criminal known only as the Imperator. With shocking events, involving bombings, murder, stock market manipulation and espionage transpiring across the globe Daniel is thrust into a race against time to find the connection between what's happening throughout the world and his daughter's illness. His only clues lie within the symbols contained in a...

Joe Haynes is addicted to trophy hunting, with unusual weapons to make it more of a challenge. In a Manhattan bar, someone makes him an offer he can't resist. Later, he wishes he had... Be warned - the author's favorite short story author is Saki, and his favorite story is Sredni Vashtar. This tale is not for the faint-hearted, and it does not glorify trophy hunting.

Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city. In Hong Kong Noir, 14 of the city’s finest authors explore the dark heart of the Pearl of the Orient in haunting stories of depravity and despair.

Step beyond the biohazard tape and into the chilling silence of places where healing meets horror. Have you ever felt an inexplicable chill in a sterile corridor, or heard a whisper from an empty hospital room? Ghost Stories: Haunted Hospitals cracks open the locked doors to fifteen terrifying tales, each one breathing life into the unsettling atmosphere of abandoned asylums, forgotten wards, and modern medical facilities with dark secrets. This gripping horror anthology invites you to explore: The sealed ward where a "Charred Lady" weeps for a past tragedy... and a new victim. An ...

★★★★★ "Keeps you thinking and on your toes! But watch out, the twist will get you every time!" - Reader review ___ Five riveting stories that remind us that fate can change our lives in a heartbeat! These intriguing tales encompass every evil deed from revenge to cold-blooded murder to human trafficking and yet never assume you know how they will end until you read the last page. Things are not always what they appear to be, especially when fate intervenes. Atonement: A serial killer is terrorizing the Dallas-Fort Worth area and wherever he strikes he leaves a strange memento ...

Major Hastings and Hercule Poirot are not interested in the mystery of the Spanish chest, which has been reported in the papers so often that it seems to be an entirely closed case. But, when Hastings persuades Poirot to attend a fabulous party given by Lady Chatterton, they discover someone sequestered upstairs who is desperate for their help. Will the contents of a dead man's pockets reveal to the inscrutable eye of Hercule Poirot who the culprit is?

In this unflinching psychological portrait, The Gray Hours unfolds through the fragmented journal of Nora Holt—a sharp-witted, self-aware woman quietly unraveling beneath the surface of an ordinary life. Written in raw, intimate entries, Nora chronicles the slow descent into a place where even the air feels heavy and the mirror reflects a stranger. With biting dark humor and startling honesty, this book doesn’t promise healing—it documents the fight to even believe healing is possible. What begins as numbness becomes an interrogation of self, memory, and survival. For readers of ...

Nine stories that will redefine your fears from the fairy tales and nursery rhymes of your childhood. A small town hires a unique exterminator to clear their fields of pests, but when they refuse to pay he uses his skill for revenge. The U.S. military embarks on an experiment unlike any other and offers soldiers the chance to reach new heights and shorter contracts. An anesthesiologist discovers his skills go beyond simply guiding people to sleep and that they have lasting consequences. A brother and sister get lost in the woods and discover a beautiful woman with a house luring teenagers ...

Did you hear the one about the thief and the sorcerer who went to rob a senator? No, of course you didn’t, it’s a dull tale hardly worth recounting. Ah. But what happened after, now that is a story. After being most unfairly swived and abandoned in the wilds, Breed Blake stumbles upon a barbarian who is also having a very bad day. It turns out when the great oaf isn’t being attacked by bandits, he’s on a mission to save a damsel in distress who is being held somewhere in the doom haunted Scathblight Mountains.

A collection of horror/thriller stories with surprise endings to chill you and thrill you to the bone on Halloween. Selections are from previously published anthologies, Black As Night, Shivers & Other Nightmares, Don't Look Behind You, Scary Stories-Vols. 1-5, Scare Factory, Midnight Snacks, & Creepers- Vols 4. The nightmares include: SOMETHING IN THE ATTIC: Norma went to the attic to get her costume for Halloween. After reading from an old book that belonged to a grandma who was burned at the stake during the Salem witch trials, she lapsed into unconsciousness. Scary Stories 1 THE PARTY: ...

Last year at Cherringham High, and for three girls that means facing the School Summer Challenge, a grueling fifty-mile hike across the Cotswolds, through thick woods, over steep hills, camping each night under the stars. But when one of them disappears in the middle of the night and is found dead in the morning, most believe a terrible accident has taken place. Was it really an accident? Jack and Sarah aren't convinced - and soon discover that secrets and lies can have terrible consequences... and always leave a trail.

An ancient tomb. A deadly secret. A brotherhood that kills to protect it. When professional treasure hunter Porter Pursley receives an urgent call from his archaeologist friend George Jackson, he drops everything to fly to the Egyptian desert. The team has discovered the tomb of Bek-rah, a master sculptor from the nineteenth dynasty—but the magnificent chamber is completely empty. Porter specializes in solving the puzzles that technology can't crack, reading the minds of ancient architects who built elaborate deceptions to protect their greatest treasures. But as he investigates the ...

If you like Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Outer Limits, One Step Beyond, Thriller, Serials with Surprise Endings, and stories with a plot, Billy Wells Horror is for you. Billy Wells Horror's average review rating for all horror collections is 4.3! Twelve stories from the warped mind of Billy Wells. Scary Stories-Volume 5 is the eighth collection of short stories mostly in the horror genre with surprise endings by Billy Wells. Please be aware that some of these offerings are quite gruesome and not for those readers whose parents did not let them watch scary movies and TV shows as a child. ...

“Homecoming” takes us back to Ford County, the fictional setting of many of John Grisham’s unforgettable stories. Jake Brigance is back, but he’s not in the courtroom. He’s called upon to help an old friend, Mack Stafford, a former lawyer in Clanton, who three years earlier became a local legend when he stole money from his clients, divorced his wife, filed for bankruptcy, and left his family in the middle of the night, never to be heard from again—until now. Now Mack is back, and he’s leaning on his old pals, Jake and Harry Rex, to help him return. His homecoming does not go as planned.

"He was walking down the alley. He seemed to do this every night – although he didn’t know why. So far, this time was no different than the other times. It was the same thing night after night. There it was. The shadow. It stuck out from around the corner. This time it seemed obvious, more than ever. He ran as fast as he could. The shadow came out from around the corner and started to chase him. He ran. The shadow ran. He ran faster. The shadow ran faster." So begins an exciting new suspense thriller short story, "The Face of the Shadow." Matthew Robinson is plagued by a recurring dream...

It's nearly Christmas and Leon has had a Brilliant Idea. A holiday - to enable a very reluctant Max to recover from her recently acquired injuries. Devon, 1924 - Martingale Manor. Lovely surroundings, good food and very pleasant guests. Or, as they soon become known - the usual suspects. Because this is the world of Agatha Christie and before long one of them is dead. And when the police arrive, the only person without a cast-iron alibi is... Leon. It was supposed to be a holiday, for heaven's sake.

Hot 6 Story Bundle! Be the First to Read the Bundle of Lakelyn Wilder & Jaden Fair Stories… Includes Lakelyn Wilder’s: Ganged At the Cabin Forced By Strangers ~ Book 1 Forced By Strangers ~ Book 2 Forced By Strangers ~ Book 3 Forced By Strangers ~ Book 4 Plus a Story By Jaden Fair: BIG Surprise for the Sitter 6 Stories Dripping With Delicious Suspense! Intimate explicit situations, backdoor, threesome, group, and more!

Fifteen vampire tales selected from my horror story collections, Black As Night, Shivers and Other Nightmares, Don't Look Behind You, Scary Stories- Vols. 1, 4 and 5, Midnight Snacks, and Scare Factory. Table of Contents: The Vampire Club: Something big in the basement has devoured Mike's neighbor's cat on loan to catch a mouse. The Babysitter: A psychotic teen impersonates a new sitter in order to obtain entrance to a wealthy estate. Vampire: After a woman and son move to town, a serial killer who drains his victims of blood begins a reign of terror. Tooth Fairy: A serial killer has driven...

Get the first three books in one collection by USA Today best-selling author Mike Ryan. Includes: The Extractor, Past Dead, and Pressure Point.

Sticking their noses where they are most definitely not wanted. Despairing of their humans, these pets take it upon themselves to solve the cases they see as only cats and dogs can. Whether they sniff out the clues or fool the criminals into thinking they are harmless pets to be ignored, Rex, Amber, Buster, and more enjoy escapades a plenty in this fun collection of short stories. Grab your copy and be ready for the fur to fly! Includes: Police Dog - Day One Amber's Bust The Little Lost Dachshund Hell Cat Hell Hounds The Clown, the Witch, and the Cat The Case of the Missing Pasty