First Mystery

Second Pocket First shoehorns comedy, crime, and small-town charm into this delightful romp as Issey must decide between old habits and a sudden devotion to the town's goodwill.

Flynn Carroll works for the most secret police unit on the planet, seeking the most brilliant and lethal criminals who have ever walked free: thieves and murderers from another world. As part of a top secret CIA alien communications project, Flynn's unit has been tasked with tracking down rogue agents from the planet Aeon. While Aeon claims to be a free planet desiring open communications with humanity, Aeon criminals have committed a series of brutal and bizarre murders on Earth.

For years, people have feared that sexual material removed from victims of alien abductions might lead to the creation of something that modern science considers impossible: hybrids of the alien and the human. They would think like aliens, but appear human, and be able to do something that full-blooded aliens can't: walk the earth freely.

Hugo and Nebula Award winner Joe Haldeman ranks among the greatest science fiction authors to ever live. This thrilling entry from his Marsbound saga finds the mysterious alien Others prohibiting humans from space travel by destroying Earth’s fleet of starships in a display of unimaginable power. But Carmen Dula, the first human to encounter the Others, is determined to find a way to reclaim the future that has been stolen from humankind.

At the end of the world, who will survive? The year is 2061, and the planet is dying. Cataclysmic solar storms have forced leaders from around the world to finally put aside their differences and agree on one thing-to jump ship. The human race is headed to Mars. Dr. Sophie Winston is hired by New Tech Corporation to test a biosphere deep within the heart of Cheyenne Mountain; a mission she believes will help prepare the company for the three-year flight to the red planet. But, just days into the assignment, things start to go wrong. When the blast doors open, it's a changed world.

There could be no doubt of the terrifying presence of the Helgrammaw. She had seen them when the Ashfall came. The day of humanity's upheaval. The day when the creatures arrived and her morbid curiosity drove her to see them again with her own eyes, and kill them. “Mad” Madeline Yazzie, a young Ordnance Corps soldier on the front lines of humanity's fight against the Helgrammaw, an unknown species overtaking the Earth, discovers the price of war and the nature of her enemy.

He’s used to catching crooks, not proving their innocence. Can this Hawaiian investigator say aloha to the real killer? Edgar Allan “Poe” Rutherford knows his personal connection to a crime boss is wrong. But when she needs his PI expertise to solve a reopened cold case, he can’t refuse the woman who feels like family. The only catch...the police are convinced she’s the murderer.

New York, September 1949. When Dennis Collins arrives at Madison Square Garden for the Friday night fights, he is on top of the world. His career as the man-about-town columnist of the New York Sentinel is on the upswing; his beloved Brooklyn Dodgers are contending for the pennant; and a lover who had jilted him years ago has unexpectedly agreed to drinks and dinner at the Stork Club. Collins is sure that his luck has turned for the better.

A deadly explosion rocks the nation’s capital... Three seemingly unconnected people—a British ex-Special Forces operative, an ex-Navy Seal, and a teenage girl—find themselves under suspicion for the attack. Soon, they’re in the middle of a conspiracy that threatens to unsettle the entire United States. If they have any hope to survive the dangerous situation they’ve found themselves in, these strangers must learn to rely on each other, all while the question remains: Did one of them cause the explosion?

As Major Charles Rutledge takes in the cool night air, he senses something stirring in the trees just beyond the compound's perimeter. His first instinct is to reach for his sidearm, but he has strict orders to keep these things alive at all costs - no matter the situation. Meanwhile, Ben and Sandra Mitchell, new residents of Lyons, Colorado, are having trouble adapting to their new surroundings. And not because of the expected change in culture, but because of the strange noises they keep hearing at night, and the law enforcement activity taking place across the street.

During the height of the escalating cold war between the Superpowers, strange events are occurring on the Welsh coastline, an area that would later become known as, The Welsh Triangle. On the opposite side of the country, even more disturbing occurrences are unfolding in Rendlesham Forest, in Suffolk, England, which separates the twin airbases of RAF Woodbridge and Bentwaters, occupied by the USAF The event is now known as The Rendlesham Forest Incident.

Following the death of Dr. Edwards, a new principal is sent to take his place, undercover for a secret organization called The Company. The man in blue’s true mission is the identification and eradication of alien life forms. The entity he pursues, this time, is as dangerous as they come. He must identify the source of the creature's powers to capture the subject and complete his job.

Light years from Earth, an alien planet forced their queen from power and cast her into space. For millions of years, the queen's ship wandered the cosmos, until it crashed on Earth. As a child, Michael Hems first lost his mother to cancer, and then his father to the bottom of a bottle. Growing up in a small town, Michael's friends became his life. The only one he knew. The only one he wanted. But the night he found the ship, everything he loved was thrown into jeopardy.

Elliott Grey refuses to believe. As a top-notch journalist for a Seattle-based magazine, he is trained to have an open mind. But he simply refuses to believe extra-terrestrials actually exist. After a disturbing interview with a man who claims to have been abducted by aliens, Elliott is plagued by nightmares of his own abduction. Terrorized and tortured by entities he cannot understand, Elliot has come face to face with his unbelief.

A teenage girl disappears after witnessing a gangland murder in Chicago. Nine months later and heavily pregnant, she arrives in England … only to disappear again. Special Agent Ingrid Skyberg, working out of the US embassy in London, has just two days to find the girl and get her to testify or else a brutal killer walks free. But Ingrid isn’t the only one looking for the girl, and a gang war that started on the streets of Chicago is about to explode in the peaceful English countryside.

After her husband's death, Lexi has refused to return to the Pinecrest Estate on the Florida Keys because there are too many hard memories on that strip of land, including the memories of meeting her husband on the set of an iconic horror movie, being cast as an extra, watching herself get killed on screen, and scoffing at the rumors of the Pinecrest Estate curse...until she witnessed a cast member die that very summer. But when her daughter sneaks away to visit her grandfather, legendary horror-movie director Rick Plummer, Lexi is forced to face her past.

Four years ago, Dr. Rayne Lee lost her husband and her four-year-old daughter, Sierra, to a group of hostile guerrillas in the Amazonian Valley of Peru. It had taken every bit of her constitution to rebuild her life and to join her uncle's international security team, First Force, as the team's head medic. Then a young girl called, claiming to be Sierra. The tiny, trembling voice said the guerrillas were holding her captive and there was only one way for them to be reunited - Rayne must travel to Peru and give them something she has. They had another stipulation: She must come alone.

Five years ago, Grant Ketchum let the ballerina of his dreams dance out of his life. After her American adoptive parents had been killed in an automobile accident, Silja Ramsay returned to her birthplace, Russia, to become the principal dancer for the Novikov Ballet Company. Natalia Novikov, the owner of the company, has become so desperate to keep the company afloat that she’s forced her dancers to prostitute themselves to financial contributors at exclusive after-show parties. An American takes Ramsay back to his mansion, but she manages to text Grant "HELP!" before leaving.

Am Starnberger See wird die Leiche eines polnischen Gastarbeiters gefunden. Gemeinsam mit seinen Kollegen und einer attraktiven Immobilienmaklerin stößt der frisch aus Hamburg zugezogene Kriminalrat Madsen auf geheime Veranstaltungen der Oberschicht, bei denen man sich aus Amüsement bis zum Tod bekämpft. Madsen schleust sich undercover in die Szene ein - und muss leidvoll erfahren, dass er den Sumpf aus Geld, Sex und Gewalt maßlos unterschätzt hat.

Spannung und Action treffen auf schwarzen Humor. Als in einem Falkennest auf dem Dach des Andechser Klosters die inneren Organe eines Mannes gefunden werden, ahnt Kriminalrat Madsen, dass ihn dieser Fall mit den dunkelsten Tiefen der menschlichen Psyche konfrontieren wird. Doch die Grenze zwischen Gut und Böse verschwimmt, denn das Opfer entpuppt sich als brutaler Vergewaltiger - und Madsen muss sich letztlich die Frage stellen, ob er wirklich auf der richtigen Seite kämpft.