First Mystery

Jennifer Smythe escapes Earth's invasion by the insidious Kasari race, hijacks an alien starship, and survives the deadly passage through a wormhole. But escape is short-lived.... When Jennifer emerges on the new world of Scion, she is confronted by the same deadly enemy. Now the Kasari have sided with the planet's angel-like elite against the warrior underclass, but with the intent of ultimately ruling both.

It's 1956, and the cold war is hot. Hungary has just fallen, and Blackford Oakes is back from Budapest, puzzling over a betrayal and mourning a tragedy he couldn't prevent. But in Washington, all attention is focused on the race to put the first satellite in space. Ironically, Russia and America each have the secrets the other needs to succeed. The solution: kidnap a pair of extraordinary Russian scientists who can put the U.S. in the lead.

In a research hangar in Virginia, a Unit 51 team studies an ancient but long-dormant virus that can transform human physiology - and turn it into something else.... In the Amazon rain forest, a newly evolving life form known as Subject Z acquires the ability to think conceptually, build elaborate traps, create new carriers - and spawn a new race....

Welcome, welcome, I can only guess you are here to read about my wonderful adventures. Oh, you don’t know who I am? Well, I’m Foxx Honeywell. An adorable, fierce vampire with a kink for violence. Anywho, this marks the beginning of my story. A story of violence, blood, possibly pain, and love. Though the love part is not so apparent at first. So how does this story start you may ask. Well, it starts with a simple… Okay, maybe not so simple, law change, and a new job.

At the start of a new century, a shocking murder transfixes Manhattan, forcing bitter rivals Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr to work together to save a man from the gallows. Just before Christmas 1799, Elma Sands slips out of her Quaker cousin’s boarding house—and doesn’t come home. Has she eloped? Run away? No one knows—until her body appears in the Manhattan Well. Her family insists they know who killed her. Handbills circulate around the city accusing a carpenter named Levi Weeks of seducing and murdering Elma. But privately, quietly, Levi’s wealthy brother calls in a special favor.

Three months into Ethan's transfer-in-exile in Des Moines, Iowa, the pressures of dating Jack, the president of the United States, start to wear Ethan down. His weeks are measured by the days he works in Iowa, chasing counterfeiters and financial crimes, and the weekends he manages to steal with Jack back in DC. The media stalks his every move; he's isolated by his coworkers and loneliness hammers at his heart. In DC, Jack tries to piece together a global alliance to take down the Caliphate, while the world seems focused on tearing apart his personal life.

A weekend visit to picturesque Newfoundland by a large crew of outlaw bikers leaves behind another mess for Sgt. Windflower to clean up. This time, he’s facing violence, murder, mystery, and intrigue. This adventure has Windflower questioning everything he thought he knew. There are troubles on the home front, cutbacks in the policing budget, old friends leaving, and new ones not quite here yet. Windflower is seeking to find answers in territory that is both dangerous and unfamiliar.

A delectable variety of real paranormal tales you are sure to binge... First responders are those that aid us in our time of need. But have you ever wondered that some of their calls may not be classified as "typical"? Ever wondered what happens when you mix ghosts with dispatchers? How about accident sites? I know I have. That is why this book came to be. After interviewing multiple types of first responders, from 911 operators to police to firemen, you will hear the experiences they cannot quite explain as anything less than "ghostly".

Wallachia, 15th century: Vlad the Impaler’s battle against the Ottoman Empire gives rise to a horror beyond imagination. The First Vampire reveals the shocking origin of vampirism, born from a blood plague that transforms the battlefield into a breeding ground for the undead. Through the eyes of Vlad’s eldest son, Andrea, the novella explores the clash between dark magic, loyalty, and an ancient curse that will haunt humanity for generations.

When a disabled spaceship enters Earth's atmosphere, seven members of the advanced Tosok race are welcomed by the world. Then a popular scientist is murdered, and all evidence points to one of the Tosoks. Now, an alien is tried in a court of law -and there may be far more at stake than accounting for one human life.

Death hits close to home for Elizabeth “E. M.” Danniher - or, rather, close to Hovel, as she's dubbed her decrepit rental house in rustic Sherman, Wyoming. Her elderly neighbor has killed a man apparently after her Western artifacts. As a former top-flight national TV reporter, Elizabeth knows self-defense can satisfy the legal system, yet leave her neighbor in danger. Doing what she does best - asking questions - Elizabeth sidesteps her boss to inquire into an eccentric billionaire.

The crew of the deep-sea exploration rig Leaguer discovers oil sweeter, purer, and easier to refine than the fields in Saudi Arabia. To confirm their own analysis of their trillion dollar find, a test barrel is flown from the drill site off the coast of Papua/New Guinea to Houston Analytical Laboratories (HAL).

A tense, feverish thriller about two women’s lives that are forever intertwined when a murder threatens to expose them both. Everyone at Chantilly’s Bar noticed out-of-towner Camille Bayliss. Red lips, designer heels, sipping a Negroni. But that woman wasn’t Camille Bayliss. It was Aubrey Price. Camille Bayliss appears to have the picture-perfect life; she’s married to hotshot lawyer Ben and is the daughter of a wealthy Louisiana family. Only nothing is as it seems: Camille believes Ben has been hiding dirty secrets for years, but she can’t find proof because he tracks her every move.

First Thrills will include never-before-published stories by New York Times best-selling authors including Lee Child, Stephen Coonts, Jeffery Deaver, Heather Graham, Joan Johnston, John Lescroart, Alex Kava and Deb Carlin, Michael Palmer (with Daniel James Palmer), Karin Slaughter, and Wendi Corsi Staub.

Dr. Xin Rou is a Chinese researcher working at the IceCube neutrino experiment at the South Pole. On lucky days a single flash might signal the passage of a ghostly interstellar particle. Suddenly, IceCube’s entire array lights up. A million detectors at once. Which is impossible. The Antarctic sky is clear and calm—but she is already running for the door.

Noah is thrilled when the week's library theme is sea creatures. But when Noah can't find the stuffed shark, he is disappointed. Noah knows there is a shark in the library, and he is going to find it!

From the outbreak in Afghanistan to the struggles at sea, Brad and his comrades realize the war for humanity has only just begun. And there's no guarantee any of them will survive the long journey home....

Cleopatra. Nefertiti. Hatshepsut. All of them are ancient Egyptian female rulers who rose above their predominantly patriarchal societies to become controllers of a great empire. Missing from this list, however, is Sobekneferu, ancient Egypt’s first female ruler. Why was the reign of this powerful woman all but forgotten? Piecing together the lost history of the first female pharaoh, Andrew Collins presents the first comprehensive biography of Sobekneferu.

Dylan First, brilliant psychologist turned FBI agent, is trying to forget the horrific discovery of her past: that her mentor and father figure, a brilliant psychiatrist and professor, was secretly a serial killer. Though behind bars, he haunts Dylan’s psyche, and when a new killer turns up, seemingly targeting people from her mentor’s past, the FBI desperately need Dylan to solve the mind games that only a brilliant criminal psychologist like her can.

Octa has the spear of Woden, but the redemption he sought is out of his grasp. With his banishment and the death of his father, he can no longer return to his Saxon homelands. His only salvation is to join forces with Hengist and Horsa, and their Jutish army that beaches itself on Brittania’s shores. But can he trust their motivation or are there greater plans afoot? The Gods have their own plans, though, and Octa’s fate is not his own to control as Friga, the mother of the Saxon gods, battles to avoid a war with the gods of the Britons and Saxons using Octa as her weapon.