Contemporary Thriller

At exactly 7:30 p.m., Walter Pettibone arrived home to over a hundred friends and family shouting, "surprise!" It was his birthday. Although he had known about the planned event for weeks, the real surprise was yet to come. At 8:45 p.m., a woman with emerald eyes and red hair handed him a glass of champagne. One sip of birthday bubbly, and he was dead.

Navy SEAL Ian Dunn went rogue in a big way when he turned his talents to a lawless life of jewel heists and con jobs - or so the world has been led to believe. In reality, the former Special Ops warrior is still fighting for good, leading a small band of freelance covert operatives who take care of high-stakes business in highly unofficial ways. That makes Ian the hands-down choice when the US government must breach a heavily guarded embassy and rescue a pair of children kidnapped by their own father, a sinister foreign national willing to turn his kids into casualties.

Things were finally looking up for Douglas Tanner. His divorce was about to be final. His construction company was doing better than ever, and he was ready to start a new beginning. He just hadn’t expected that new beginning included his longtime friend and daughter of his business partner. But just as he expresses his newfound feelings for Stacey, his soon-to-be ex-wife is found dead in the bottom of Lake George one day before he was to sign the divorce papers. And Doug is the prime suspect. Not just in his wife’s murder, but also her lover’s disappearance.

In Danielle Steel’s powerful new novel, four trauma doctors - the best and brightest in their field - confront exciting new challenges, both personally and professionally, when given an unusual opportunity. When an unspeakable act of mass violence galvanizes them into action, their temporary life in Paris becomes a stark turning point: a time to face harder choices than they have ever made before - with consequences that will last a lifetime.

It may be less than a month since the doors of New Order opened, but that doesn't mean Bo Blackman isn't busy. It's not just daft allegations about vampire dogs and complicated relationships that she has to deal with, however.

"Mom seems off." Her brother's words echo in Sam Montgomery's ear as she turns onto the quiet North Carolina street where their mother lives alone. She brushes the thought away as she climbs the front steps. Sam's excited for this rare extended visit, and looking forward to nights with just the two of them, drinking boxed wine, watching murder mystery shows, and guessing who the killer is long before the characters figure it out. But stepping inside, she quickly realizes home isn’t what it used to be.

Anthony Award-winning author Charlaine Harris has earned a devoted fan base with her USA Today and New York Times best-selling Sookie Stackhouse mystery series. All Together Dead features more dark but frequently hilarious adventures of buxom, blonde, beautiful, and telepathic cocktail waitress Sookie, who prefers the company of vampires to that of the living.

Smashed heirlooms, ripped upholstery, and rifled drawers - who is breaking into homes during a record-breaking snowy winter, vandalizing and stealing? Whoever it may be is targeting the most vulnerable - the seniors of a small Northwoods town. In the course of her duties, Wendy Carey, the home health nurse, discovers each new break-in and wants more than anything to stop him. The small town reels as the burglar eludes capture and steps up his crimes. A vindictive woman and a secret baby heighten the suspense.

Rosemary and Athena are just settling into their new life in the unapologetically magical village of Myrtlewood. After so many years in financial turmoil, things are looking up. Rosemary even nabs the perfect part-time job while waiting on a certain handsome vampire lawyer to process her inheritance. Life is surprisingly peaceful until strange disappearances throw everything into chaos leading up to the Spring Equinox.

This second novel in the acclaimed Greywalker series finds PI Blaine Harper investigating a chilling case as Halloween approaches. After university researchers create an artificial poltergeist, the team leader suspects someone is faking the phenomena. When a student is murdered, Blaine is asked to investigate. Stepping into the spirit world, she realizes the haunting may be very real. But that doesn't necessarily mean a ghost did the killing.

The eighth entry in Charlaine Harris' New York Times best selling, Anthony Award-winning series finds Sookie reeling from an explosive attack on the previous month's vampire summit. Many vampires were killed, including several of Sookie's friends. But most pressing for Sookie is the unknown status of her weretiger boyfriend Quinn. Like it or not, everything is changing in the supernatural world - and Sookie is caught in the middle.

With her knack for being in trouble's way, Sookie witnesses the firebombing of Merlotte's, the bar where she works. Since Sam Merlotte is now known to be two-natured, suspicion falls immediately on the anti-shifters in the area. Sookie suspects otherwise, but her attention is divided when she realizes that her lover, Eric Northman, and his "child", Pam, are plotting to kill the vampire who is now their master. Gradually, Sookie is drawn into the plot - which is much more complicated than she knows.

The Winter Queen of Faerie has manipulated Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden into accepting a case to solve a murder and stop a war between the courts of Summer and Winter that could have literally earth shattering consequences. His own soul is up for grabs. Dresden must dig deep to discover that at time a willingness to accept a little help from your friends, be they a cub pack of werewolves, old loves in sheep's clothing, or a battalion of pizza loving dewdrop fairies, is a very good thing.

In the chilling finale of the Frozen Fate trilogy, Frankie enters a world far deadlier than the one she escaped. A sinister threat lurks in the shadows, hunting her with a dark obsession as her savage protectors battle the rules of society. Thrust into the civilized world, they spiral into violence and refuse to conform, their wild natures threatening to tear apart their bond.

Peter Grant is facing fatherhood, and an uncertain future, with equal amounts of panic and enthusiasm. Rather than sit around, he takes a job with émigré Silicon Valley tech genius Terrence Skinner's brand new London start up - the Serious Cybernetics Company. Drawn into the orbit of Old Street's famous "silicon roundabout", Peter must learn how to blend in with people who are both civilians and geekier than he is.

A juicy glimpse into the lives of contemporary blacks Player Haters blends romance, comedy, and drama in a novel that's hip, stylish, fun, and totally entertaining. A sassy reading from various narrators ensures hours of good times for adult listeners.

New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Cindy Gerard plunges listeners into the heart of a seductive contest of wills between a hard-living hero and a beautiful rogue operative who is on a mission to dig up the secrets of his past. Tension sizzles in this pulse-pounding first adventure in Gerard’s action-packed new series as Eva Salinas lures Mike Brown from the sultry streets of Lima, Peru, to the desolate Idaho wilderness on the hunt for the cold-blooded traitor behind a fatal military operation that haunts them both.

Growing up with telepathic abilities, Sookie Stackhouse realized early on there were things she'd rather not know. And now that she's an adult, she also realizes that some things that she knows about, she'd rather not see—like Eric Northman feeding off another woman. A younger one. There's a thing or two she'd like to say about that, but she has to keep quiet—Felipe de Castro, the Vampire King of Louisiana (and Arkansas and Nevada), is in town.

The Future—as the richest people on the planet have discovered—is where the money is. The Future is a few billionaires leading the world to destruction while safeguarding their own survival with secret lavish bunkers. The Future is private weather, technological prophecy and highly deniable weapons. The Future is a handful of friends—the daughter of a cult leader, a non-binary hacker, an ousted Silicon Valley visionary, the concerned wife of a dangerous CEO and an Internet-famous survivalist—hatching a daring plan. It could be the greatest heist ever. Or the cataclysmic end of civilization.

Is it so bad that I tricked my older brother’s best friend into taking my virginity? Maybe. In my defense, it was Dante Reid—my crush, my first love, and the one I ended up pushing away. Our paths split in opposite directions. I went to college on one coast while he returned to work with the US Army on the other. The end. Or so I thought. After graduating and attempting a bucket list of self-discovery, guess who I find standing outside the jail, bailing me out from a crime I didn’t commit? Dante freaking Reid—this time with more muscles, more tattoos, and more demands.