Contemporary Thriller

He was standing face-to-face with a dead woman…and she was holding a gun. Lieutenant Seth Buchanan finds his homicide investigation - and his heart - thrown into turmoil when Grace Fontaine turns up very much alive - and in possession of one of the huge blue diamonds known as the Stars of Mithra. The cool, controlled cop never lets his feelings get in the way of his job, and everything he knows about the notorious heiress tells him she's bad news.

In Hot Blooded, she transports listeners into the heart of New Orleans, where a deluded murderer is on a holy quest of vengeance. Dr. Samantha Leeds hosts her own late-night radio talk-show on WSLJ. One day she receives a menacing phone call at her home, while miles away, a prostitute is strangled to death. Seemingly unrelated, nobody connects the two events until more murders occur under similar circumstances.

Casey Cox is still on the run, fleeing prosecution for a murder she didn’t commit. Dylan Roberts—her most relentless pursuer—is still on her trail, but his secret emails claim he knows the truth and wants to help her. He’s let her escape before, but trust doesn’t come easily.

In this entry from Anthony Award winner Charlaine Harris' New York Times best-selling series, the gorgeous and feisty telepath hits the road to find her missing boyfriend, who may have run off with his former lover - a notorious vamp.

Seattle gallery owner Virginia Troy has spent years battling the demons that stem from her childhood time in a cult and the night a fire burned through the compound, killing her mother. And now one of her artists has taken her own life, but not before sending Virginia a last picture: a painting that makes Virginia doubt everything about the so-called suicide - and her own past. Like Virginia, PI Cabot Sutter was one of the children in the cult who survived that fire - and only he can help her now.

This collection includes Law and Disorder, Shadows in the Night, Out of the Darkness, and Undercover Connection.

In this dark and gritty collection - featuring short stories from Jim Butcher, Seanan McGuire, Kevin J. Anderson, and Rob Thurman - nothing is as simple as black and white, light and dark, good and evil.... Unfortunately, that's exactly what makes it so easy to cross the line.

Violet Winters once had it all but lost it when her husband was murdered by a criminal madman. During a cold winter night Violet has to leave her warm bed to tell her neighbor to turn the music down. And that's when she meets sinister, scarred, scarily attractive security specialist, Joe Callahan.

Emma loves her husband, Leo, and their young daughter, Ruby: she’d do anything for them. But almost everything she's told them about herself is a lie. And she might just have got away with it, if it weren’t for her husband’s job. Leo is an obituary writer, and Emma is a well-known marine biologist, so when she suffers a serious illness, Leo copes by doing what he knows best - reading and writing about her life. But as he starts to unravel her past, he discovers the woman he loves doesn’t really exist. Even her name is fictitious.

Ethan Wate thought he was getting used to the strange, impossible events happening in Gatlin, his small Southern town. But now that Ethan and Lena have returned home, strange and impossible have taken on new meanings. Swarms of locusts, record-breaking heat, and devastating storms ravage Gatlin as Ethan and Lena struggle to understand the impact of Lena's Claiming. Even Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals is affected - and their abilities begin to dangerously misfire. As time passes, one question becomes clear: What - or who - will need to be sacrificed?

The princess and a dead man. They say money makes the world go round. They’d be wrong. Sure, power can be bought, but you can gain a hell of a lot more with knowledge. With knowledge comes fear. I’ve seen it. I’ve caused it. I’ve even been the brunt of it. But when a stowaway princess barrels into my life like a runaway train, I throw patience out the window—the same one I jump out of, taking her with me.

Daisy Minor is bored. Worse than that, she's boring. A plain, small-town librarian, she's got a wardrobe as sexy as a dictionary and hasn't been on a date in years. She's never even had a lukewarm love affair, let alone a hot one. So when she wakes up on her 34th birthday and wonders how it is that she still lives with her widowed mom and spinster aunt while her friends have all gotten married and started families, she decides it's time to get a life - and a sex life.

Vampire hunter and zombie animator Anita Blake is an expert at sniffing out the bad from the good. But in The Lunatic Cafe - now in trade paperback for the first time - she's about to learn that nothing is ever as it seems, especially in matters of the not-so-human heart. Dating a werewolf with self-esteem issues is stressing Anita out. Especially when something - or someone - starts taking out the city's shapeshifters.

Precious Ramotswe, Botswana's premier lady detective, is a little short on help. The codirector of the agency, Grace Makutsi, is busy with her own case, her client none other than their erstwhile assistant, Mr. Polopetsi, who has unwittingly involved himself in a pyramid scheme. The agency's other assistant, Charlie, may also need more help than he can offer, as he is newly embroiled in a romance with a glamorous woman about whom the others have their doubts.

Meet Stephanie Plum, a bounty hunter with attitude. Desperate for work, with her Miata repossessed and her refrigerator empty, she cons her way into a job as an "apprehension agent" for a bail bondsman. This best selling debut earned Evanovich nominations for the Edgar, Anthony, Agatha, Shamus, and Macavity awards.

A rogue master vampire hits town, and Anita gets caught in the middle of an undead turf war. Jean-Claude, the Master Vamp of the city, wants her for his own - but his enemies have other plans. And to make matters worse, Anita takes a hit to the heart when she meets a stunningly handsome junior high science teacher named Richard Zeeman. They're two humans caught in the crossfire - or so Anita thinks.

The marriage of Dylan Buchanan and Kate MacKenna is no ordinary occasion. It represents the joining of two family dynasties. The ceremony and reception proceed without a hitch - until a crasher appears claiming to be a MacKenna guest. The disheveled and eccentric professor of medieval history warns that there's "bad blood" between the couple's clans, stemming from an ancient feud that originated in Scotland and involving the Buchanan theft of a coveted MacKenna treasure.

Blair Mallory, last seen in To Die For, has already survived one murder attempt. Now, while planning her wedding and dealing with holiday-season madness, Blair once again dodges a bullet. Or, more precisely, a Buick. And though the driver's identity remains a mystery, his or her murderous intentions are all too clear.

The Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter backlist lights up the night. In her eighth adventure, Anita Blake can't turn her back on a former lover during the full moon. Especially since he's behind bars - and he's a werewolf.

Former military cop Jack Reacher makes it all the way from snowbound South Dakota to his destination in northeastern Virginia, near Washington, D.C.: the headquarters of his old unit, the 110th MP. The old stone building is the closest thing to a home he ever had.