Supernatural Crime Mystery

This collection includes four book-centered mystery novellas from four masters of the craft: The Scroll, Reconciliation Day, The Compendium of Srem, and The Mysterious Disappearance of the Reluctant Book Fairy.

Almena Guillory, better known as the Grizzly Queen of the West, has plenty to recommend her for the noose, but US Marshal Apostle Richardson enforces the law, he doesn't decide it. When a posse tries to lynch Almena ahead of her trial, Apostle refuses their form of expedited justice - and receives a bullet for his trouble. Before escaping, however, Almena unexpectedly saves his life by absorbing his wound through the use of dangerous flesh magic.

A series of suspicious deaths in a retirement home draws Nameless into the confidence of a terrified former resident - and into the dark heart of a shocking conspiracy. In part five of the Nameless series, it’s time to hunt. Oakshore Park is Michigan’s most exclusive assisted-living community. Presided over by two killer angels of mercy, it’s also THE go-to facility in assisted dying. For a cut, they make impatient heirs happy. Nameless must concoct a scheme just as cunning.

When Rudd, a troubled teenager, embarks on a school research project, he runs across the secret Mormon ritual of blood sacrifice and its role in a 1902 murder committed by the grandson of Brigham Young. Along with his newly discovered half brother, Rudd becomes swept up in the psychological and atavistic effects of this violent, antique ritual. As the past and the present become an increasingly tangled knot, Rudd is found—with minor injuries and few memories—at the scene of a multiple murder on a remote campsite.

Whidbey Island, a place of secrets and mystery, is home now for Becca King, still in hiding from her criminal stepfather. But Becca and her friends have new worries, as a series of fires are being set, the latest causing a fatality. Is one of the newcomers to blame? Perhaps it's Isis Martin's brother, just back from a school for troubled kids, or Parker, a musician fired by his bandmates. Meanwhile, Becca herself continues to slowly explore her own paranormal abilities under the tutelage of Diana Kinsale.

"Who am I? Why, I'm you. Or parts of you. The best parts. I'm the touch of Richard Speck, Ed Gein, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, and Bin Laden in all of you. I am the thousand tiny angers and fleeting rages of your day - at the car that cuts you off on the freeway, at the kid who sneaks ahead of you in line at the movies, at the old fart with the full basket in the eight-items-only express checkout at the supermarket. I'm the nasty glee in the name-callers and the long-suffering pain, the self-loathing, the smoldering resentment, the suppressed rage, and the never-to-be-fulfilled promises of revenge in their targets.

No stranger to fear since meeting the unhuman Inspector Hobbes, Andy Caplet fears getting fired from his reporting job (again). His main concern, though, is a shady property developer who has designs on Sorenchester Common, and more annoyingly on his wife. Perhaps a trip to the mountains will help him relax, but this proves even more perilous with foul weather, inedible food, brigands, and a terrifying cruise. Fortunately, mountain leopards, Yetis and Flossy, the yak, take a shine to Andy.

I've had to move out of the city and into the house I inherited here, in the idyllic fishing village of Porthcove, but only for as long as it takes to sell it. You see, I need the money, so I've started seeing some of the locals, you know, as patients, but I tell you, there's something really disturbing about charming neighbors sharing chilling secrets. And it isn't just that. It's the other things. Strange, inexplicable things. It started with odd smells, creepy sounds, and then the intruders...oh God, the intruders.

Three hundred years ago, the settlers on the small Maine island of Sanctuary were betrayed to their enemies and slaughtered. Since then, the island has known peace. Until now. A gang of four men are descending on Sanctuary, intent on committing a brutal and relentless massacre. All that stands in their way are rookie police officer Sharon Macie and the strange, troubled officer Joe Dupree. But Joe is no ordinary policeman. He knows the island has been steeped in blood once and that it will never again tolerate the shedding of innocent blood. On Sanctuary, all hell is about to break loose....

One hot summer night, Aix-en-Provence is aflutter with news that controversial author Valere Barbier, who once shared dinners with French presidents and all-night drinking bouts with rock stars, has moved into La Bastide Blanche, a grand house left empty for decades. But Valere's ideas of a peaceful retirement are quickly dashed. Rambunctious neighborhood children, a fast-talking gossip of a housekeeper, and a rival novelist filter through the home at all hours of the day - and by night there are unseen visitors with more sinister intentions.

Seth Darrow is a straightforward guy, and he likes life to be simple. Lately, it's been anything but. Since his beloved grandfather's stroke, Seth has been focused on getting Grand home again, before his aunt can take advantage of the situation to get her hands on Grand's valuable real estate. Seth would also like to get his relationship with Prynne on solid ground. He loves her, but can he believe she has her drug use under control?

Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the 16-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the world . . . and the imprints that attach to their killers.

What strange science made Nameless who he is? What catastrophes have been erased from his memories? In the stunning conclusion of this series, the dark past comes flooding back, and Nameless must decide how much he really wants to know. In Indiana, a murderous psycho has kidnapped his own six-year-old stepson, Jamie, and secreted him away in a subterranean cave. It’s become their bunker. For Nameless, the case is breaking down his defenses, and it may force him to face his memories.

For two years, Justice Turnbull has paced his room at Halo Valley Security Hospital, planning to escape. Justice has a mission - one that began with a vicious murder two decades ago. And there are so many others who must be sent back to the hell that spawned them. Laura Adderley didn’t plan to get pregnant by her soon-to-be ex-husband, though she’ll do anything to protect her baby. But now reporter Harrison Frost is asking questions about the mysterious group of women who live at Siren Song lodge. Harrison hasn’t figured out Laura’s connection to the story yet.

Brian and Iggy are suddenly living the urban legends and ghost stories they love as they witness a jet-black car cruising across the fog-laced, moonlit surface of Gray Lake. At the same moment, in the marshes to the north, the battle for dominance over a troubled gang of small-town meth dealers begins. For Scott Ignatowski, the demonic car's arrival heralds a downward spiral as he dreams of its sometimes lovely, sometimes ghastly occupants chauffeuring him into murky depths.

For Cain Casey, nothing is more important than family, and having hers close - Emma, Hayden, Hannah, and the new baby - is as near as she’ll get to true happiness. But enemies who lurk in the shadows threaten more than just her business, forcing her to question whether the biggest threat comes from having it all. As Cain continues to search for lingering adversaries like agent-turned-drug dealer Anthony Curtis, the FBI is hot on her tail and will stop at nothing to lock her away. Add the Russian mob into the mix, and it might be too much to handle.

In a world where magic is illegal, Cassel Sharpe has the most deadly ability of all: With one touch, he can transform any object - including a person - into something else entirely. And that makes him a wanted man. The Feds are willing to forgive all his past crimes if he’ll only leave his con-artist family behind and go straight. But why does going straight feel so crooked? For one thing, it means being on the opposite side of the law from Lila, the girl he loves.

Don’t look down.... Because you’re trapped on the 40th floor of a deserted office building by a psychopath called "The Butcher". Don’t look down.… Because you’re an ex-mountain climber and a fall from Everest left you with a bad leg and a paralyzing fear of heights. Don’t look down.… Because The Butcher hasslaughtered the guards an.d short-circuited the elevators - the stairways are blocked, and for you and the beautiful woman with you, there’s only one escape route. Don’t look down.… Because 600 feet of empty space are looking back at you.

Harmony Black is much more than your average FBI special agent. In addition to being a practicing witch, she's also an operative for Vigilant Lock, an off-the-books program created to battle occult threats - by any means necessary. Despite her dedication to fighting the monsters threatening society, Harmony has become deeply conflicted about her job. Her last investigation resulted in a pile of dead bodies, and she suspects the wrong people are being punished for it.

In turn-of-the century New York City, the police have an off-the-books spiritual go-to when it comes to solving puzzling corporeal crimes.... Her name is Eve Whitby, gifted medium and spearhead of the Ghost Precinct. As accustomed as Eve is to ghastly crimes and all matters of the uncanny, even she is unsettled by her department's latest mystery. Her ghostly conduits are starting to disappear one by one as though snatched away by some evil force determined to upset the balance between two realms and most important - destroy the Ghost Precinct forever.