Contemporary Dark Mystery

Cops sometimes rely on hunches to guide them, but Detective Maddy Wimsey takes it a step further: Magic. August opens with the bad omen of a suicide that she suspects is more than it appears. However, before she can even start to find evidence that won't get her a date with a shrink, an even worse case walks in the door. A local nurse claims she suspects one of her co-workers of murdering patients. Unfortunately, the woman has even less evidence than Maddy's belief that a spirit is throwing people off tall buildings. However, something about the story rings too true to brush aside.

Forensic psychologist Claire Markwood has experienced her share of disaster. But nothing could prepare her for her sister, Darcy, going missing. Claire rushes to the butterfly sanctuary where Darcy has been working, prepared to do what she does best - work the clues. But her sister, along with her car and some of the sanctuary’s rarest species of butterflies, has seemingly vanished without a trace.

In war-torn Syria, a massacre survivor is pulled from beneath a pile of bodies. She is given one instruction: 'find Jed Walker'. Walker is ex-CIA - a man who thought he was long out of the game. Discovering a terror outfit is running people-smuggling from the Middle East and into the United States, he is drawn back in to fight their evil trade. At first Walker thinks these human traffickers are driven purely by profit and greed. But it is much worse than that - and it has ties to the highest levels of power.

Everyone always says love will find you when you’re not looking. Well, they’re not wrong. Except, the man my heart stupidly fell for was more interested in playing his own twisted game of catch and release. Claiming me for himself, then pushing me away when I got too close, but there was an aura of darkness clouded around him. A darkness that beckoned to me. A darkness I was grateful for when those he thought he could trust ripped me away in the middle of the night to be a pawn in their own sick, twisted game.

I'm known as the Black Widow because the desires I hide inside are pure poison. I was a different person once. Faith, a young wife, hoping to become a mother. My life was pleasant. Stable. It was hell. Until Killian Knight opened my eyes to a world of espionage and intrigue. He saw something in me, something I was too afraid to acknowledge. I didn't want to be excited by the danger. Didn't want to crave the wicked passion only he could provide. But I did want, so now I run. And I pay.

In her pursuit of wedding plans and a beautiful future, she finds herself at the mercy of the kelpies, a group of kelpie hunters called the Comhlan, and a stunningly handsome, too-good-to-be-true entrepreneur named Riley Slade. Will Vivienne escape the wrath of the water horses? Will she find a way to end the curse? Or will she fall prey to the hunger of the kelpies?

At last, in the novel every Kelley Armstrong fan will need to own, all the major heroines and heroes of Otherworld are united. It's been 10 years since Bitten, the first novel in Kelley Armstrong's New York Times best-selling Otherworld series. In that time hundreds of thousands of fans have ravenously devoured the adventures of Armstrong's witches, demons, and werewolves. Now, in Spell Bound, she brings them all together for her most sweeping tale yet.

What do you do if you witness a murder...but no one believes you? When Kate sees a horrific murder streamed live on her laptop, she calls the police in a state of shock. But when they arrive, the video has disappeared - and she can't prove anything. Desperate to be believed, Kate tries to find out who the girl in the video could be - and who her killer is.

Another work day, another case for the Bloodhound Files. But this time, Jace is truly stumped: How is she, a mere human, supposed to penetrate the dark heart of a child-trafficking ring of pire orphans - one that turns out to be part of a blood-farm operation, in the crime-ridden border city of Vancouver, British Columbia? Jace is in over her head. But with the help of her former lover, Tanaka, - whose family is one of the last samurai clans left in Japan - she stands a chance at seeking justice for the condemned children.... Until the Yakuza tries to put an end to Jace's investigation.

Because of my abilities, they’ve made me one of them. Five men and one woman - secret agents working against corruption. The locations of the six training bases have been revealed, and now it’s down to us to make sure the people there stay alive. Special Agent Hollan, the man who killed my father, always seems to be one step ahead in this deadly game of chess. Will we reach the other bases in time to warn them of an imminent attack? I have my five guys by my side as we travel, and stolen glances and secret kisses hold promises for our future...assuming we all live long enough.

Ten years ago, Stacy Buchanan's mother—the mayor—was found dead in Coldwater Cove, Maine. Her death was ruled an accident, but Stacy never got over the feeling that something was off. Her father's health takes a turn for the worse, and she is forced to pass up a dream job to return to the cove. After Stacy finds a key piece of evidence that proves her mother's death was no accident, the case gets reopened. She can't move on with her life or find closure until justice is served, but a desperate killer is still out there and will do anything to keep the truth buried in the past.

Chon Ko Gonin, Captain of the Green Jinn, ventured into unexplored territory in search of a wanted interplanetary criminal with the best of intentions. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Right from the start, the Green Jinn found itself dragged into battle to save an ancient people from Merc invaders. Ancient forces of good, and evil fought for control of Sibyl's Orb and dragged Chon ko Gonin into the middle of it.

A fast-paced thriller set on the streets of a London rife with undercover magic. Abras, as they are known, can harness these illegal powers, but for con artist Amanda Coleman - whose father was a powerful and abusive practitioner - magic is anathema. When her criminal crew decide to hire an Abra to help with their heists, they don’t expect to raise a demon, or to quickly lose control of it. Now Coleman and her crew must travel across Siberia to a remote stone circle in order to kill this murderous creature, who has destroyed everything they hold dear.

When Jared refuses to kill for his gang, they beat him nearly to death. Comatose, his world splits in two. In one, Jared battles to wake from unconsciousness. In the other, he becomes a ruthless gang member known as J-Rock. After three years in darkness, Jared finally opens his eyes and is bombarded by visions of the horrible crimes J-Rock is committing in a parallel world. As Jared struggles to wake, he realizes his soul has been switching places with his criminal counterpart. Jared must find a way to eliminate J-Rock before the next switch.

Evil men conspired to have a starship destroyed to hide the evil they had done. They intended for its crew to disappear forever without a trace. They flew an unmarked ship into space docks and marked it for destruction. They thought that was the end of it, but in all of that chaos, the anoza found me. They chose me to save the Five Moons. I didn’t know any of that when I bought a ship that was never meant for sale. I didn’t know any of that when I first stepped foot upon its decks and changed everything.... But I know it now. And save the Five Moons? Damned straight I will. I am Dallas Blake, outworlder to the nines.

My name is Mike Raven. I hunt nightmares. Demons murdered my parents when I was eight. Turns out my folks were paranormal investigators, and hell always settles its scores. Naturally I decided to join the family business. For two decades, I've studied the occult and traveled the world fighting monsters. But my biggest challenge lay ahead. From the moment Celeste stepped into my office, I knew she was in trouble. Her father had promised her soul to a powerful demon on the day she was born. Now, 21 years later, the forces of darkness were gathering to collect their long-awaited prize.

By the end of the Corporate War, Dallas Blake had lost everything: his wife, his daughter, his whole family. He was a man in need of far more than just a new beginning. What Dallas needed was a resurrection. Dallas went to the Union Fleet space docks to buy a war-surplus scout-class ship. Instead, he unknowingly buys the Tesseract, a ship with many secrets. It does not take Dallas long to find out that its crew of artificials seems way more human than they should be and every bit as much in need of a resurrection as Dallas.

Despite her amazing abilities, all Sun Song Shia ever wanted was to be loved. But it's hard to find love when you don't even know who you really are. Little Bird is an expansion of In Her Eyes, originally published in F&SF, a nominee for the Sturgeon award, an honoree for the James Tiptree award, and included in the 2015 Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Novellas (edited by Paula Guran).

When Michael "Blue" Whitley -- a former party boy turned up-and-coming Brooklyn chef -- returns with three friends to the remote Canadian commune of his birth, he discovers that his entire life has been a carefully orchestrated lie. He is in fact someone else altogether, a replacement for a local child who disappeared twenty-five years earlier. He is something not quite human.

The man couldn't help himself. His captor was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her powerful eyes held his attention and made him forget that she had him confined in a basement, his hands and feet bound with duct tape. She fed him when he was hungry and kept him alive for the telling of her horrific tale. After getting past the terror and discomfort, he reasoned that there was nothing to worry about for the moment.