Urban Mystery Thrillers

A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible. In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth - from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds - collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground. The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot.

Life's a struggle for Rosemary Thorn and her teen daughter, Athena. But their regular troubles are turned upside down after Granny Thorn's mysterious death. Despite her cousin's sinister maneuverings, Rosemary returns to Myrtlewood and the sprawling, dilapidated Thorn Manor. There's more to the old house than meets the eye, as Rosemary and Athena soon find out—in a whirlwind of magic, adventure, mystical creatures, and endless cups of tea.

Alone since her father's murder, Aurora has spent years hunting his killers. Battle-weary she's ready to start over where no one knows who or what she is, she just has one last mission to complete. Everything is going to plan until she discovers the beautiful winged girl caged underground. Her decision to rescue Evie and to help her get home safely, despite avians being infamous for selling out shapeshifters like Aurora to cutters and black-market flesh dealers, will put her on a perilous path.

When the body of a young woman is exhumed from unconsecrated ground—her remains marked by signs of a deviant burial—Jason and Daniel are drawn into a case steeped in fear and folklore. Whispers of the occult and tales of vampires, which had recently gripped London society, force them to confront the strange and the supernatural. But the more they uncover about the victim, the more the bizarre precautions taken with her body seem misplaced. Was she truly a vampire, a witch, or merely a tragic figure whose brutal death and macabre burial were meant to stoke fear—or silence the curious?

Lucas Rurik used to be part of the Raven Guild. That is, until someone murdered all of its members—except for him. That was seven years ago. Now, Lucas keeps to himself, avoiding getting too close to anyone lest they become targets themselves. But when one of his oldest friends at the Rift-Crime Unit calls upon him for help with a case that’s already taken down people who mean a lot to him, Lucas can’t resist stepping back into the fray. Something is killing FBI and RCU agents alike—something unlike anything Lucas has ever seen before, on Earth or in the Rift.

Renée Ballard is working the night beat again and returns to Hollywood Station in the early hours only to find a stranger rifling through old file cabinets. The intruder is retired detective Harry Bosch, working a cold case that has gotten under his skin. Ballard kicks him out but then checks into the case herself, and it brings a deep tug of empathy and anger. Bosch is investigating the death of 15-year-old Daisy Clayton, a runaway on the streets of Hollywood who was brutally murdered and her body left in a dumpster like so much trash. Now, Ballard joins forces with Bosch.

The Movie Town Theater is holding its first ever Film Noir Festival, with Pen handling book sales for the guest speakers, including screen actress Hedda Geist. The legendary femme fatale has been out of the spotlight for decades. Unfortunately, the moment she steps back into it, she's nearly killed. Then other guests start to die, and Penelope wants to know why her little town's Film Noir weekend has taken a truly dark turn.

Ishmael Jones and his partner Penny are attending the re-opening of Tyrone’s Castle, an ancient Cornish inn originally built by smugglers. Over dinner that night, the guests entertain one another with ghost stories inspired by local legends and superstitions. But it would appear that the curse of Tyrone’s Castle has struck for real when one of their number disappears into thin air. And then another....

The earth’s oldest and darkest magic has been stirred, and from it the berserkers have risen once more. The last time they walked the earth, it trembled under their weight and the blood that flowed from their rampage nearly drowned the world. Alex has offered Doc a choice: Doc's life in exchange for the world. But even if Doc sacrifices himself, will that actually be enough to sate the blood lust of the berserkers? Has Doc finally met an opponent he can't beat?

The dead do not rest till they get what they want. You have arrived in the hills. In here, you are surrounded by dense, menacing forests, enveloped in a deadly silence... You never know what lurks here in the cold, dark night. Do not walk alone after sunset in the hills. A beautiful woman in white haunts the Lonely pathways, looking to enchant and ensnare men... All the people who died in accidents here... They say you hear their screams at night. And the deserted lodges sitting amidst lush greenery and calm streams...

On a brisk autumn day, a 13-year-old boy stands on the shores of the gray Atlantic, near a silent amusement park and a fading ocean resort called the Alhambra. The past has driven Jack Sawyer here: His father is gone, his mother is dying, and the world no longer makes sense. But for Jack everything is about to change. For he has been chosen to make a journey back across America - and into another realm. One of the most influential and heralded works of fantasy ever written, The Talisman is an extraordinary novel of loyalty, awakening, terror, and mystery.

When a teenager disappears from a posh ski resort, her millionaire father, Nikolaus Winter, hires Carolina McKay to bring his daughter home safe and in one piece. A promise that may be impossible to keep. Overwhelmed with suspects, Carolina enters a world of money, control, and jealousy as she tries to unearth what happened to Maurah Winter. All signs point to her running away, until a much darker threat emerges. One that involves those closest to her.

Ishmael Jones and his partner Penny have been despatched to assist a group of scientists who are investigating a mysterious black hole which has appeared on a Somerset hillside. Could it really be a doorway to another dimension, an opening into another world? When one of the scientists disappears into the hole - with fatal consequences - Ishmael must prove whether it was an accident - or murder. But with no clues, no witnesses, and no apparent motive, he has little to go on. Is there an alien predator at large, or is an all-too-human killer responsible?

Vincent Pike always had an aversion to sunlight, one that required him to take pills so he could live a normal life in New York City. But when a date goes horribly wrong, he soon discovers that this sickness is because of his vampire heritage. In a matter of hours, Vince finds himself befriended by a woman who calls herself a Nightweaver, a special kind of vampire with lethal powers. This woman claims that Vince is not only a vampire, but a powerful one known as a Blood Lord.

The Grand Hotel is a horror novel by esteemed best-selling author Scott Kenemore ( Zombie, Ohio) that takes the reader on a thrilling ride through an interconnected series of stories narrated by the desk clerk and the residents of the hotel itself. And while it is not known whether or not the desk clerk is actually the devil incarnate, it is strange that so many visitors who come for a tour of the hotel have a way of never leaving.

A series of grisly murders rocks London. At each location, only a jumble of bones remains of the deceased, along with a bizarre sphere covered in strange symbols. The son of the latest victim seeks the help of Sherlock Holmes and his former partner, Dr. John Watson. They discover the common thread tying together the murders. Bizarre geometries, based on ancient schematics, enable otherworldly creatures to enter our dimension, seeking to wreak havoc and destruction.

A call from a distraught wife, and another from Lt. Murphy of the Chicago PD Special Investigation Unit makes Harry believe things are looking up, but they are about to get worse, much worse. Someone is harnessing immense supernatural forces to commit a series of grisly murders. Someone has violated the first law of magic: Thou Shalt Not Kill. Tracking that someone takes Harry into the dangerous underbelly of Chicago, from mobsters to vampires....

The Alaskan wilderness is a harsh landscape in the best of conditions, but with a pack of rogue werewolves on the loose, it's downright deadly. Elena Michaels, the Pack's chief enforcer, knows all too well the havoc "mutts" can wreak. When they hear of a series of gruesome maulings and murders outside Anchorage, she and her husband, Clay, journey to Alaska in the dead of winter in order to hunt down the dangerous werewolves.

Darcy Ingram's time in supernaturally-tinged Brookhaven has been anything but idyllic. She solved one murder, but now a friend is begging for help finding his missing sister. A day cruise with her co-workers sounds like just the break she needs. But when a passenger dies under unusual circumstances, she finds herself tangled up in another mystery.

Will her first case be her last? Lillian Knudsen, a war vet, amputee, and local shooting range owner, has someone out to kill her, but she's clueless as to who. Thankfully, she isn't clueless about where to turn for help. Werewolf Sara Flores got her P.I. license for one reason — to give cops an excuse why they might find her near dead bodies — lots of dead bodies. It turns out evildoers who attack innocents aren’t interested in giving them up. Not without a fight.