Science Fiction Suspense

Sharon Shinn's Twelve Houses books have fascinated fans and critics alike with their irresistible blend of fantasy, romance, and adventure. Now in Quatrain, she weaves compelling stories in four of the worlds that fans love in "Flight", "Blood", "Gold", and "Flame".

Harmon Cooper presents Book 8 in the Cherry Blossom Girls series.

What if I told you that heroes lived among us, that a US government agency had grown these super powered children in labs, raising them to be super soldiers? What if the technology got out? What if the tech made it all the way to Asia? You probably wouldn't believe me. You would probably would tell me that I was crazy, or that I was some type of conspiracy theorist, that there was no way that a person could turn themselves invisible, or teleport, or morph into a terrible monster. But you would be dead wrong.

The phone rang, and like a fool I answered. Mistake number one. Then I agreed to do a job for the Hidden Council. Definitely mistake number two. Now I've lost count of my bad choices, same as I have the bodies, as they're piling up faster than a troll after free chalk. As I get to grips with this new magic I've been gifted, the city remains under a spell of violence, and it's down to yours truly to deal with it. But I'm a noob at this job, ill-prepared and with my own personal demons to fight.

Being one of the four horsemen sucks. The hours are long, the pay is crap, and every god or monster you meet wants to kill you. For Lazarus Kerrigan, professional necromancer, even helping the police search for some missing internal organs is a welcome relief. That is, until his ex-girlfriend shows up in the employ of an ancient Egyptian deity, and a faerie queen makes him an offer he can't refuse.

An accident during the construction of a tunnel beneath the Bering Strait leads to the discovery of a network of caverns and evidence that hints at the survival of a primitive human species. Led by DARPA technologist Reinhard Thyssen, a team of experts from around the globe is dispatched into the subterranean maze to discover all they can before the caves completely flood. Something lurks in the darkness, though. A creature has evolved into a predator unlike any the world has ever known, and it's up to the scientists to make sure that it never reaches the surface.

The deadly dimensions over London have been sealed, and the monsters have departed. But word has come to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson of a more terrifying creature still - the great Cthulhu has been sighted off the waters of Innsmouth, Massachusetts. Only Holmes can defeat him. And in the muddy village of Innsmouth, surrounded by villagers who are more sea-monster than human, Holmes meets again his nemesis, Moriarty, and yet greater foes: Amelia Scarcliffe and Maria Fitzgerald, harbingers of Dagon, who have called forth Cthulhu.

After a lifetime of hunting down criminals, Ryan just wants to live out his days in peace and in the shadows of Tokyo to grieve the loss of his wife and son. But his old team - the Nameless, experts in extraction and recon - comes with an urgent request for help. The young daughter of one of his closest friends, a girl he once treated as his own, has been kidnapped.

Mitch Matthews is writer struggling to make ends meet when his wife's brother offers them a first-class seat on a flight from Hong Kong to New York. When his wife needs to stay behind, it becomes an opportunity for some quality daddy-daughter time with his five-year-old Lilly. At check-in, they run into a strange Norwegian arguing with a huge Russian. A mysterious redhead is guarding a package in the business lounge. But everything is fine...right up until the event. Within hours of Allied Airlines 695 disappearing, a massive international search is launched.

2015. Dr. Quinn Allenby thinks she’s seen it all, but when the remains of a young woman and her newborn are discovered in a cave in Cornwall, the only clue to her death is a smooth-edged hole in the top of the skull and the indisputable evidence that the victim was still alive, and possibly in labor, when the coffin was sealed. Torn between her professional commitments and her desperate need to find her missing twin, Quinn agrees to a daring plan, one that will lead to the Taliban-occupied mountains of Afghanistan and the snow-covered alps of Germany.

Country music icon Shane Black is this year’s headliner for the New Year’s Eve bash in Times Square, but when violent riots break out, he’ll need more than a six string to escape New York City. After decades of abuse as the world’s reserve currency, the US dollar’s day of reckoning is at hand. Without a functioning monetary system to purchase basic goods, society rapidly descends into abject chaos. Protests, looting, and bloodletting take the place of civility in a country which becomes thoroughly unhinged.

After a scourge of griefer attacks and a change in headmasters, Minecrafters Academy is once again at peace, and Lucy is working hard to keep up in all her classes. Meanwhile, the school is gearing up for an end-of-the-year talent show where everyone will showcase their greatest skills, from master building and clever potion making to strategic fighting. But when a hoard of skeletons and hostile mobs attacks the campus one night, an all-too-familiar struggle begins.

Not every danger comes in the form of a mega-threat like a Titan. Some predators are a lot cozier...more personal. When one such creature threatens an independent tutor, Harry Dresden must shake off the blood and dirt of his most recent battles and rise to the occasion, even when it turns out that the new predator is far more dangerous and connected than first appearances would suggest.

I am Blair Sheach, and my life will never be the same. Newfound powers don't make a hero overnight, but somehow I've become the last line of defense for the city of London. Vampires and demons crawl the streets, magic cops suck at keeping them in line, and the easy job I took to pay my rent has turned into something far more complicated. The cheating deadbeat my client hired me to find just so happens to be the necromancer hell-bent on destroying London, and it's up to me to stop him.

With Charleston's council poised to take over Honeysuckle Hollow, the town and all of its people must band together to prove they don't need to be absorbed into the big city magical district. What better way to show off the small supernatural Southern town than to host a barbecue contest and some classic broom racing?

Lydia is pulled into the Crow Family business by her shady uncle Charlie. He has decided that Lydia needs to learn the truth about her infamous Family and to step into her role within it - whether she likes it or not. After Lydia’s wrongful arrest, her relationship with DCI Fleet is decidedly rocky, but when a teenage girl goes missing from Highgate Woods, she must put aside her emotions and work the case. Lydia is increasingly alarmed by Charlie’s methods but is trapped by loyalty.

Harriet, Jack, and Toby are treasure hunters, searching the Minecraft world for its most valuable hidden secrets. In an abandoned mineshaft, they discovered the first of three lost journals that once belonged to William, a legendary explorer who has gone missing. The journals have taken them on a daring adventure to a secret temple deep within a desert biome, then into the perilous depths of the Nether. Now the treasure hunters are facing their greatest challenge yet.

Since his wife died, Ralph Roberts has been having trouble sleeping. Each night he wakes up a bit earlier until he's barely sleeping at all. During his late-night walks, he observes some strange things going on in Derry, Maine. He sees colored ribbons streaming from people's heads, two strange little men wandering around town after dark, and more. He begins to suspect that these visions are something more than hallucinations brought on by lack of sleep.

In the present day, as the man-made apocalypse unfolds, three strangers navigate the chaos. Lila, a doctor and an expectant mother, is so shattered by the spread of violence and infection that she continues to plan for her child’s arrival even as society dissolves around her. Kittridge, known to the world as "Last Stand in Denver", has been forced to flee his stronghold and is now on the road, dodging the infected, armed but alone and well aware that a tank of gas will get him only so far. April is a teenager fighting to guide her little brother safely through a landscape of death.

In the spring of 1914, renowned photographer August Sander took a photograph of three young men on their way to a country dance. This haunting image, capturing the last moments of innocence on the brink of World War I, provides the central focus of Powers' brilliant and compelling novel. As the fate of the three farmers is chronicled, two contemporary stories unfold.