Dark Fantasy Mystery Thriller

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

Jane is haunted. Since she was a child, she has carried a ghost girl that feeds on the secrets and fears of everyone around her, whispering to Jane what they are thinking and feeling, even when she doesn't want to know. Henry, Jane's brother, is ridden by a genius ghost that forces him to build strange and dangerous machines. Their mother is possessed by a lonely spirit that burns anyone she touches. In Swine Hill, a place of defeat and depletion, there are more dead than living.

Predatory kraken that sing with - and for - their kin; band members and betrayed friends who happen to be demonic; harpies as likely to attract as to repel. Welcome to a world where humans live side-by-side with monsters, from vampires both nostalgic and bumbling, to an eight-legged alien who makes tea. Here you'll find mercurial forms that burrow into warm fat, spectral boy toys, a Maori force of nature, a landform that claims lives, and an architect of hell on earth.

Stephen Bradford is a teenager who continually suffers from inner turmoil revolving around the family dysfunction he experiences at home as well as complications in school. He decides he wants to throw a high school party right around the time his mother leaves for a business trip. On the eve of the celebrations, Stephen begins to notice subtle changes in the atmosphere that call to mind traumatic and horrifying experiences from his childhood that are about to intermingle with the present in the most unexpected of ways.

Dark State ups the ante on the already volatile situations laid out in the sleek techno-thriller Empire Games, the start to Stross' new story-line and a perfect entry point for new listeners, in The Merchant Princes series . In the near-future, the collision of two nuclear superpowers across timelines, one in the midst of a technological revolution and the other a hyper-police state, is imminent. In Commissioner Miriam Burgeson's timeline, her top level agents run a high risk extraction of a major political player.

Derald Grake's pursuit of the American Dream takes a hilariously dark turn when he puts his family home on the market. But what starts as a simple real estate transaction quickly turns into a nightmare when a body is discovered under the bed. Is it a prank, or something more sinister? As Derald and his family are drawn into a web of wild accusations, bizarre mishaps, and laugh-out-loud absurdity, they find themselves at the center of an outrageous conspiracy that threatens to unravel their lives. In this twisted world, nothing is as it seems, and no one can be trusted.

Wren owes everything she has to her hometown, Hollow’s End, a centuries-old picture-perfect slice of America. Tourists travel miles to marvel at its miracle crops, including the shimmering, iridescent wheat of Wren’s family’s farm. At least, they did. Until five months ago. That’s when the Quicksilver blight first surfaced, poisoning the farms of Hollow’s End one by one. It began by consuming the crops, thick silver sludge bleeding from the earth. Next were the animals.

Cassel always thought he was an ordinary guy, until he realized his memories were being manipulated by his brothers. Now he knows the truth - he’s the most powerful curse worker around. A touch of his hand can transform anything - or anyone - into something else. That was how Lila, the girl he loved, became a white cat. Cassel was tricked into thinking he killed her, when actually he tried to save her. Now that she’s human again, he should be overjoyed. Trouble is, Lila’s been cursed to love him. And if Lila’s love is as phony as Cassel’s made-up memories, then he can’t believe anything she says or does.

Dark Reading Matter is the 8th and final novel in the New York Times bestselling Thursday Next series, following 2012’s The Woman Who Died a Lot.

Alex Bledsoe’s fantasy novels have drawn rave reviews for their ingenious blend of classic fantasy and hard-boiled detective fiction. Now Bledsoe returns with an all-new tale of intrigue and murder.

Welcome to the dark side of suburbia. Barely employed millennials Tom and Jenny Decker have to grow up fast when they lose their cheap Manhattan apartment. Leaving “the city” is hard, but the blow is softened when they stumble upon a surprisingly affordable house in the suburbs. For Tom, the bills, the mortgage, and Jenny's unexpected pregnancy add up to terror. He's not ready for this kind of responsibility. Then he finds the thing in the basement.

Aja Minor has led a life of misfortune. At birth, she was dropped and now sports a scar on her face from the resulting laceration. At the dawn of her adolescence, Aja discovers some unsettling effects she has on certain people. They get sick to their stomachs or recoil in pain in her presence. These episodes are accompanied by overwhelming bouts of self-consciousness. To Aja, these powers are a curse.

Three months after life as she knows it was decimated, Megan Wolford has only one goal: protect her daughter, Caitlin, at any cost. When a mysterious illness strikes Caitlin down, Megan is forced to forage for medical supplies at a remote lodge. The last thing she wants is help from her fellow survivors when so many in her life have let her down - but soon she'll find herself with no other option.

Kit Gordy sees Blackwood Hall towering over black iron gates, and she can't help thinking, This place is evil. The imposing mansion sends a shiver of fear through her. But Kit settles into a routine, trying to ignore the rumors that the highly exclusive boarding school is haunted. Then her classmates begin to show extraordinary and unknown talents. The strange dreams, the voices, the lost letters to family and friends, all become overshadowed by the magic around them.

Written in diary entries from a Polish scholar, this short story features a mysterious femme fatale, Medea, who is responsible for the deaths of five men, including her husbands. The scholar is soon cast under her spell from behind the grave.

Ray Lilly is living on borrowed time. He's the driver for Annalise Powliss, a high-ranking member of the Twenty Palace Society, a group of sorcerers devoted to hunting down and executing rogue magicians. But because Ray betrayed her once, Annalise is looking for an excuse to kill him - or let someone else do the job. Unfortunately for both of them, Annalise's next mission goes wrong, leaving her critically injured. With the little magic he controls, Ray must complete her assignment alone.

For generations, the Night Warriors have used their powers to defend humanity from evil, entering men's dreams to change the shape of waking reality. Now, five modern Night Warriors face their most terrifying enemy: Isabel Gowdie, witch and mistress of Satan. Entombed for three centuries, her powers have grown stronger. Now her evil influence seeps through the earth, carrying the seeds of the Night Plague, a disease that twists men's souls into madness. The Night Warriors can stop it if they can find Isabel Gowdie's hidden prison. But time is short.

A group of mercenaries on an unsanctioned mission survives a plane crash in whiteout conditions in the Tian Shan mountains. The men are accustomed to danger. Now they’re growing accustomed to fear. Team leader Liev and his band of survivors are stranded in the bitter winds with little hope of rescue—or outlasting the wolves that have scented blood. In the distance is the apparent sanctuary of an abandoned stone fortress. That an ancient bulwark even exists on this forsaken summit is beyond comprehension. So is what lies on the other side of its walls.

In a world where magic is illegal, Cassel Sharpe has the most deadly ability of all: With one touch, he can transform any object - including a person - into something else entirely. And that makes him a wanted man. The Feds are willing to forgive all his past crimes if he’ll only leave his con-artist family behind and go straight. But why does going straight feel so crooked? For one thing, it means being on the opposite side of the law from Lila, the girl he loves.

Brian and Iggy are suddenly living the urban legends and ghost stories they love as they witness a jet-black car cruising across the fog-laced, moonlit surface of Gray Lake. At the same moment, in the marshes to the north, the battle for dominance over a troubled gang of small-town meth dealers begins. For Scott Ignatowski, the demonic car's arrival heralds a downward spiral as he dreams of its sometimes lovely, sometimes ghastly occupants chauffeuring him into murky depths.