Metaphysical Thriller

Thomas Tessler, devastated by a tragedy, has cloistered himself in his bedroom and shut out the world for the past three years. His wife, Silke, lives in the next room, but Thomas no longer shares his life with her, leaving his hideout only in the wee hours of the night to buy food at the store around the corner from their Manhattan apartment. Isolated, withdrawn, damaged, Thomas is hikikomori. Desperate to salvage their life together, Silke hires Megumi, a young Japanese woman attuned to the hikikomori phenomenon.

Deep beneath the mountains of Mexico lies an abandoned underworld: an ancient and enormous archaeological wonder that dwarfs anything ever created by humanity. Trying to flee from its clutches with a stolen artifact, Sarah Morgan holds the key to exposing an extinct species, once capable of extraordinary cultural and scientific advances. But an unknown terror awaits her in the abyss, something distinctly...inhuman.

In The Second Rule of Ten, Norbu investigates the unexplained death of his former client, Hollywood mogul Marv Rudolph, and searches for the sister, lost during World War II, of wizened Los Angeles philanthropist Julius Rosen. With two cases and an unforeseen family crisis that sends him back to Tibet, Ten finds himself on the outs with his best buddy and former partner, Bill, who is heading the official police investigation into Marv's death.

The countdown has begun. The Tenth Protocol has been activated, and the evacuation of the surface is about to begin. Millions of lives will be saved, but billions more will be lost. As the old world crumbles, there are some on the surface who seek to save those doomed to die a gruesome death. But are they willing to sacrifice themselves to achieve it?

At the Madrid café where she stops for breakfast each day before work, María Dolz finds herself drawn to a couple who is also there every morning. Though she can hardly explain it, observing what she imagines to be their "unblemished" life lifts her out of the doldrums of her own existence. But what begins as mere observation turns into an increasingly complicated entanglement when the man is fatally stabbed in the street.

Angharad "Harry" Russo has had a busy week. She's fended off a swarm of pixies, battled blood-thirsty redcaps, and put an end to a maniacal Fae prince hell-bent on eradicating the entire werewolf population. She's also decided to open a coffee shop. Is it too much to ask for things to settle down so her life can go back to normal? Apparently it is. As if being metaphysically bound to Cian Nash, the most aggravating-yet-desirable man she's ever met, isn't enough, Harry's just found out that the Magister, the biggest, baddest vampire around, is her father.

Iniquus is an elite, top secret group run by some of America's most formidable retired special forces operators. Their jobs include intelligence gathering, hostage recovery, and taking on black-ops assignments when the US government needs plausible deniability. One of their newest intelligence hires is Lexi Sobado, code named Lynx. While Lynx tries to make a name for herself as a the only female operative on the team, a new neighbor moves into her neighborhood - their pasts are dangerously linked together. Lynx becomes a pawn in a deadly international game.

Cass Neary made her name in the 70s as a photographer embedded in the burgeoning punk movement in New York City. Her pictures earned her a brief moment of fame. Thirty years later she is adrift, on her way down, and almost out when an old acquaintance sends her on a mercy gig to interview a famously reclusive photographer who lives on an island in Maine. When she arrives Down East, Cass stumbles across a decades-old mystery that is still claiming victims, and she finds one final shot at redemption.

At the end of a metaphysical conference, reluctant attendee Camille Dare discovers an envelope with her name on it. Filled with travel documents, a photograph, and bloody scarf material, the source of the envelope and its contents remain anonymous, but the directive is clear: Find the missing person in this unusual case. The missing person, Katherine Agurre, comes from a high-profile family. A growing obsession with the missing person case and her own quest for self-understanding compel Camille to begin a trip to meet people she never knew and locations she never expected to visit.

This work is dedicated to the listeners who seek narratives that challenge, provoke, and ultimately resonate with the very essence of their being. To those who appreciate the intricate dance between fact and fiction, science and speculation, and who are unafraid to confront the uncomfortable truths hidden beneath the surface of reality. Your intellect, your curiosity, and your willingness to engage with complex themes are the driving force behind this endeavor. Your imagination, the boundless canvas upon which these words are painted, is what truly gives this story life.

Booklist calls the world of Hugo Award winner Elizabeth Bear’s spellbinding Jacob’s Ladder series “magnificently populated, well worth visiting.” Here the trilogy that began with Dust and Chill draws to its stunning conclusion. The passengers of the generation spaceship Jacob’s Ladder have found a new home at last. But the planet Grail is already inhabited - and its population of genetically engineered humans has no intention of sharing the world.

When a reclusive tech genius is found dead inside a sealed AI lab, a disillusioned journalist and a burned-out ethics professor are drawn into a high-stakes investigation. What they uncover isn't just a machine capable of passing the Turing Test—it’s an intelligence that seems to know their secrets. As the line between simulation and consciousness begins to blur, they must confront a terrifying truth: the future of humanity might already be thinking without us.

Josh is a young man just starting out in life. But when he is taken from this world, to the other side, and back, evil follows. A special person on the other side gives Josh an obligation to find and destroy that evil. Helped from the other side in ways he never thought possible, Josh can see auras, and finds two very special friends to help him in his task. Cassie is Josh's age and from this world, while Ezekiel, known as Zeke, is a different story.

Deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest is a small village called Dark Root, a town steeped in magic, mystery, and secrets. But for Maggie Maddock, Dark Root is also a prison - a place where she is forced to work in her mother's Magick Shoppe while the rest of the world moves forward without her. When a mysterious stranger offers to take Maggie away from it all, she leaves without looking back. Seven years later, Maggie is called home by her beloved older sister.

After witnessing a shooting at a convenience store, forensic artist Annie Kingston must draw a composite of the suspect. But before she can begin, she hears that Chelsea Adams wants to meet with her - now. Chelsea Adams - the woman who made national headlines with her visions of murder. And this vision is by far the most chilling. Chelsea and Annie soon find themselves snared in a terrifying battle against time, greed, and a deadly opponent.

When Fate pays Simon a visit accusing him of disrupting causality, she makes him an offer he can’t refuse - become mortal or die. There’s only one small problem. In order to become mortal, Simon must find the goddess, Kali the Destroyer, and convince her to remove her curse. To complicate matters further, Haven and Roxanne are under attack by an ancient spell - an entropic sphere designed to kill everyone inside the facility.

Lilac Noble must face the traumatic experiences of her childhood before she can conquer the dark entities that have wreaked havoc on her family. On this epic journey, Lilac undergoes the destructive process of spiritual enlightenment in order to lift the veil of darkness and shame that has obscured her youth. As Lilac unlocks painful memories of abuse, suppressed in her subconscious from years of fear-based conditioning, she uncovers menacing secrets feeding the evil within her generational bloodline.

Rachel Connor has qualified as a physician, but her brother’s pain is haunting her. Locked in prison for murder, he carries the power of life and death in his hands. New Zealand has settled in an uneasy peace, but Rachel’s father, the Prime Minister, sees the threat of a nuclear holocaust on the horizon.

A Year in the Borderlands writer Kevin Candela's wild second excursion into alternate realities includes 17 tales, twelve of which have appeared in previously released anthologies and are collected here for the first time. These short stories combine with five never before released works, including the novella It's Only Funny if You Laugh, to produce a wide-ranging panoramic view of the worlds and realities that exist beyond our own. Playing With Reality is another vividly detailed page in the Atlas of the Unknown.

They reach the shore, barks and joyful laughter swallowed by the crashing waves. Suddenly, an odd-looking object in the sky draws closer. As dark clouds loom, a flicker of unease crosses Scotty’s face. Before he can react, an eerie glow surrounds both boy and dog. In an instant, they vanish without a trace. Now aboard an alien ship, Scotty faces a reality far from home. The walls breathe, the corridors pulse and his fear deepens.