Short Stories

Three offbeat stories of crime and conundrum, set in the present moment, from the New York Times best-selling, Edgar Award-winning author of Underground Airlines and The Last Policeman.

Andre Monroe is ready to move on from heartbreak, and the first step is bringing home his rescue pup. He’d bonded instantly with the playful Zeus and was already planning their first adventures. But one thing he definitely hadn’t daydreamed about was Zeus accidentally being promised to someone else - or that he might go home empty-handed and brokenhearted all over again.

Meet John Milton. He considers himself an artisan. A craftsman. His trade is murder. Milton is the man the government sends after you when everything else has failed. Ruthless. Brilliant. Anonymous. Lethal. You wouldn't pick him out of a crowd but you wouldn't want to be on his list. In this second dip into his case files (see 1000 Yards for a further novella), Milton is sent to Italy to investigate the death of a colleague from Group 15.

Years ago, a fight for supremacy took place between the two most powerful families in New Orleans. The battle was set in the metaphoric octagon, with the spotlight blazing. The city sat in paralyzed fear, awaiting word of a victor. Abraham Rames versus Isaiah Boudreau. One man would emerge victorious and rule the city of sin. Neither understood that the devil was in the details. Neither lived to see the rising sun. I’m Everett Rames, son of Abraham, and I am the devil. I took my rightful place as king of New Orleans.

In 1904 the Scottish town of Selkirk held a three-day event to raise funds to replace a wooden bridge destroyed in a flood two years earlier. As part of the event, the organizers sold a story collection called The Book o' the Brig. Most of the stories were written by locals - but one stood out because it starred Holmes and Watson.

Do you like scary stories? All five volumes of the international best-selling series Fragments of Fright bundled into one gigantic, convenient collection! More than 115 tales of terror told in a true story style that will curdle your blood and send shivers down your spine!

A treasure-chest of the written and spoken word, this collection is read by brilliant actors who make this audio anthology a genuine treat for the listener.

New Yorkers Paul and Darren have planned a winter holiday in Venice. But when their five-year marriage suddenly unravels, Paul endeavors to make the trip alone, despite his heartbreak and anxiety. Far outside his comfort zone, Paul has a mission: to see if he can be adventurous, fearless, free. In short, to become someone new. Soon after arriving in Italy, he notices a small, scruffy, self-assured dog trotting alongside a canal with the confidence he so desperately wants for himself. This street dog and his instincts for survival lend Paul’s trip a singular purpose.

In the Haunts of Goblin Men is a standalone installment in A Horde of Dead Poets collection featuring seven authors and their stories inspired by famous literary poems. If you find yourself steering toward a dark, mysterious, isolated location, or family curses haunt you and unreliable narrators keep you in suspense, you won’t want to miss a single volume in this gripping collection.

Ce livre réunit une série de courtes histoires pensées pour être racontées à voix haute à des enfants, notamment au moment du coucher. Chaque récit met en scène un personnage simple — un animal, un élément naturel, un objet du quotidien ou un phénomène — qui traverse une petite difficulté ou fait une découverte. Les situations servent à explorer des thèmes comme la patience, la persévérance, la curiosité, la différence, la peur du changement, la coopération et la confiance en soi. Le ton reste calme, rassurant et idéal pour accompagner un moment de détente ou la transition vers le sommeil.

Four Books, One Unifying Vision: Spanish Mastery...Each story is not just a lesson in language but a closer step towards fluency, making learning both effective and deeply enjoyable.

2057. Humanity has raised exploiting the solar system to an art form. Bella Lind and the crew of her nuclear-powered ship, the Rockhopper, push ice. They mine comets. And they're good at it. The Rockhopper is nearing the end of its current mission cycle, and everyone is desperate for some much-needed R & R, when startling news arrives from Saturn: Janus, one of Saturn's ice moons, has inexplicably left its natural orbit and is now heading out of the solar system at high speed.

A robopsychologist must outwit a machine determined to stay hidden in "Little Lost Robot"; a woman’s talent for "Light Verse" overshadows her true accomplishments with her robot servants; "The Last Question" presented to computer after computer over a hundred billion years may remain forever unanswered … and seventeen more future visions from the grand master of science fiction.

'Tis the Season is a collection of stories inspired by the beloved characters of Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice.

On a brisk fall day, a six-year-old boy and his nanny vanish without a trace during a trip to the London Tower. When the boy’s father, Lord Rollings, is summoned to the Tower to receive ransom instructions, he immediately puts Sherlock and Lucy on the case. The clues are scant and the tension is high - every moment that passes could bring the boy closer to danger.

This exciting collection presents two previously unpublished stories by SF legend Octavia E. Butler. A Necessary Being precedes the events of Survivor, Butler's third (famously disowned) installment in her Patternist series, and includes characters from it, focusing exclusively on the Kohn, aliens who build their social hierarchies on the blueness of their fur. In Childfinder, a black woman with the gift of identifying children with latent psychic ability refuses to share her skill with an organization of white telepaths.

"Christmas Delays": A doctor, called up for duty in the army, spends one more Christmas with his wife in an unexpected way after God's Christmas delays strand them in a small house with another family. "Peter's Christmas": Very mild weather might not feel like Christmas, but young, orphaned Peter and his older sister find the peace and love of the season with the Hampton family in spite of the sadness of war.

Atticus Coven is lucky to have a job at all, let alone one with the Corporation. But the work is numbing and repetitive, and the pace is relentless on the brutally efficient AI-controlled factory floor. Every day is a trial—until her.

Mysterious, funny, insightful, and heartbreaking, these are tales of expatriates and exiles, wise children and straying saints. They compose a secret history, both intimate and panoramic, of modern times, and offer a kaleidoscopic impression of the world within a world that is Paris.

Pa and the boys run into an unforeseen situation. The decisions of one man are creating ripple effects in the lives of others, with two young girls caught in the middle. Can they just wash their hands of it and go about their lives?