Science Mysteries

As a storyteller, Maureen Nash can't help but see the narrative cues woven through her life. Like the series of letters addressed to her late husband from a stranger—the proprietor of The Moon Shell, a shop on Ocracoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina. The store is famous with shell collectors, but it's the cryptic letters from Allen Withrow, the shop's owner, that convince Maureen to travel to the small coastal town in the middle of hurricane season. At the very least, she expects she'll get a good story out of the experience, never anticipating it could end up a murder mystery.

Another day, another hijacked body. And just 13 hours to solve a murder…Detective Vincent Graves has made a habit of dying. Waking up in someone else’s body isn’t pleasant, especially when it's inside a coffin with tons of dirt pressing down on it. Once he’s out, he learns his soul has 13 hours to find the borrowed body’s killer. With the help of a brilliant FBI agent, Vincent’s quest for clues leads to a looming supernatural presence. And escaping the dark threat may be impossible with his ever-ticking clock… Can Vincent close the case in time?

Charles Forbin has dedicated the last 10 years of his life to the construction of his own supercomputer, Colossus, rejecting romantic and social endeavors in order to create the United States' very first Artificially Intelligent defense system. Colossus is a supercomputer capable of taking in and analyzing data rapidly, allowing it to make real time decisions about the nation's defense.

Doc may have made a terrible mistake toying with one of the most powerful witches in existence, and it’s not Abigail Jury! Edgar Achaean and his remaining Acolytes are far from finished, and if Doc can’t derail their plans ASAP, all his efforts thus far won’t mean a damn thing. In the face of annihilation, playing by the rules is not an option. Fortunately, Doc has never been one for playing by the rules. Unfortunately, some rules were never meant to be broken...

Gumshoe Conrad Metcalf has problems - not the least of which are the rabbit in his waiting room and the trigger-happy kangaroo on his tail. Near-future Oakland is an ominous place where evolved animals function as members of society, the police monitor citizens by their karma levels, and mind-numbing drugs such as Forgettol and Acceptol are all the rage. In this brave new world, Metcalf has been shadowing the wife of an affluent doctor, perhaps falling a little in love with her at the same time.

The Corrupt Lord of the Ice has been rejected. King Uthar is seeking to kill him once and for all. But Darthor has retreated to the Frozen Continent with his forces. Lasgol and his friends are making every effort to pass their third year of instruction, where the tests change from practical competitions to real missions and where they risk their lives. Conflicts, rivalries, and love will emerge more strongly than ever. Egil and Lasgol will discover the truth about the king's secret and the identity of the real enemy. They will choose sides and try to persuade their teammates.

Urgent! An epidemic is sweeping the country. You are among the infected. There is no cure, and you cannot be permitted to infect others. You are now under quarantine. The five percent of the infected who survive are dangerous and will be taken into the custody of the army. Young runaway Callie survived the disease but not the so-called treatment. Her brother, Kai, is still looking for her. And his new friend, Shay, may hold the key to uncovering what truly happened.

Hallie works as a skip tracer—hunting down people wanted by the law, for one reason or another. It's not glamourous, and it doesn't pay all that well. But it's legal work, and that's hard to come by in low city. When her best-and only—friend calls her in a panic, Hallie goes to help and gets a lot more than she bargained for. One of the elite has been murdered and the city police and special investigators are looking for someone to blame. The moment Hallie is near a dead body of one of the ruling class, her hard work and clean record count for nothing.

1983. The US nuclear submarine USS Roanoke embarks on a classified spy mission into Soviet waters. Their goal: to find evidence of a new, faster, and deadlier Soviet submarine that could tip the balance of the Cold War. But the Roanoke crew isn't alone. Something is on board with them. Something cunning and malevolent. Trapped in enemy territory and hunted by Soviet submarines, tensions escalate and crew members turn on each other. When the lights go out and horror fills the corridors, it will take everything the crew has to survive the menace.

Grey never expected his best friend, Finn, to end up trapped in Battle Royale as well, but now they both have to fight to get out. And there are only a few more weeks to do it. If Ben and Tristan hadn't left Grey's squad, he would have been a lot closer to the top five. But with the help of his new squad members, Grey is determined to climb back to the top. It won't be easy when Grey's old squad mates use his own tactics against him. He must use his creativity to find new ways to lead his squad back to the top 20.

Steve and his friends are back at the wheat farm, trying to find a way to secure their crops from hostile mobs, when their old friend, Georgia, comes to them for help. Georgia's village is in the middle of a serious skeleton attack. The skeletons appear at dawn, and nobody can go to bed without risking death. Steve and the gang agree to help, but the journey to Georgia's village isn't easy, especially with a new batch of rainbow griefers on their trail.

On his thirty-sixth birthday, Travis Cornell hikes into the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains. But his path is soon blocked by a bedraggled Golden Retriever who will let him go no further into the dark woods. That morning, Travis had been desperate to find some happiness in his lonely, seemingly cursed life. What he finds is a dog of alarming intelligence that soon leads him into a relentless storm of mankind’s darkest creation....

An epic tale of evil and rescue, betrayal and love, and a terrorist threat unlike anything the human race has ever known.

"Investigation, Mediation, Vindication." That's how the Yellow Pages ad starts, and if it sounds like the sort of thing a drunk teenager might come up with . . . well, you'd only be wrong about the teenager part. John Smith owns San Diego's smallest private investigation firm, but he doesn't know the first thing about mediation. Or vindication.

In the icy darkness of the Arctic Ocean, a violent showdown between ruthless whale hunters and fervent environmentalists ends in explosive catastrophe: both ships sinking into the frigid abyss. Marooned on a desolate island, the survivors, now bitter enemies, are forced into an uneasy truce to withstand the merciless cold. Enter Jane Harper: undercover agent, razor-sharp and unflinching, wielding her wit as deftly as her fists. As she rallies the fractured group, they stumble upon ancient Viking ruins and awaken something primal and terrifying.

Bianca Forrester may be a mind-reading alien from Alpha-Prime, but she’s an Arkansas girl at heart who leaps at the chance to work as a psychic in Nocturne Falls. The Halloween-themed Georgia town is the perfect cover for werewolves, gargoyles and, lately, aliens looking to stay under the human radar. Not only will it be an adventure, it’s the perfect place to dodge her mother’s matrimony mania. Half-human, half-dragon shifter Warrick Hart has never forgotten the fear and loathing he faced as a child, until they landed in the haven that is Nocturne Falls.

Librarian Sylvia Ashe knows nothing about her past, having grown up without a father and a mother who refused to discuss him. When she stumbles upon a diary that suggests she's descended from magicians, she's skeptical. After all, magicians are special, and she's just an ordinary woman who loves books. She seeks answers from a member of the most prominent family of magicians, but she quickly learns that finding the truth won't be easy, especially when he turns out to be as artless as her, and more compelling and dangerous than books.

A junior intelligence officer in the Martian Combined Fleet, Radrick Siegn supplements his meager pay by smuggling contraband from Saturn to Mars. Someday, he’ll buy his own ship and escape the Fleet forever. But his captain has other plans for him. A tanker pilot has been murdered on Saturn Station. It’s up to Siegn to salvage the honor of the Fleet by finding the killer … before they kill again. The investigation plunges Siegn into the seedy underworld of Saturn Station, where he learns this was no ordinary killing.

I've always had a weak spot for strange ladies. One very beautiful girl had even warned me that she was, get this, a vampire. But did I listen? No.

A collection of Smith's apace adventure stories featuring Captain Volmar, including the never before published novella, "Red World of Polaris."