Dark Occult

On the night of his 60th birthday, Sheriff John Mucklow’s wife dies in a car accident. He thought her death was the worst thing to ever happen to him. He was wrong. Seeking a diversion from his grief, John throws himself into investigating the recent disappearance of a local teenager. After discovering a video depicting a bizarre murder with occult undertones, John becomes obsessed with catching the killer.

From astronauts in deep space to the ghosts of the Civil War, New York Times best-selling author Alethea Kontis creates worlds of wonder and delight, of weirdness and despair, of whimsy and darkness. Here are 20 stories and poems that will transport you to the magical dangerous worlds you've always known should exist, but have never quite been able to find.

Her name was Crimson...and she was a legend. A beautiful pirate queen who plundered the 16th Century Caribbean sea by day and confronted voodoo and vampires during the steaming tropical nights.

What the Dark Brings is a collection of 19 short stories, beginning with "Literary Sweets," a tender jaunt into Christmastime that proves all is not lost for one jaded gentleman. But by the time you reach the final tale, "Come to Jesus Meeting," the darkness is all encompassing.

A young orphan seeks vengeance against the Yakuza man who killed her parents…. A jaded Ronin seeks out an old colleague before enacting a last ritual…. And an ancient demon taunts a former Knight of a holy order from the blade of her ancient samurai sword.

I've survived the quest that saw my women and I exploring the ancient planetoid where an Outer God took over the body of our friend. I navigated the treacherous terrain of having one of your girlfriends make a ghost out of another. I've been to hell and back—literally, and I had the scars to show for it.

Follow Jane as she tries to lead a normal life in a small town that holds a grudge against her for being a witch. After years of being bullied for who she is, she decides to take matters into her own hands.

A series of ritualistic murders are discovered six months after Max Elliot turned in his badge. Victims of the media-dubbed “Chinatown Surgeon” are little more than piles of flayed skin. The bones of each body were stolen. This torturous method of execution had only been seen once before and that case remained unsolved.

Otherworldly killings surround an aging role-playing gamer, and a clever detective must decide how far she is willing to go to stop the inhuman violence.

The wild storms are getting worse, pounding San Francisco and changing everyone in their path. For Val Keri, the friend she has today may be tomorrow's enemy. Or worse....

There are places on earth that carry an air of the ethereal—an aura of malevolence that can only be felt in the breathless whisper of a passing breeze. One of these places is found along the rugged mystical coastline of Maine’s northern shores—Juneberg. Since its inception the morbid mishaps of the city were carried on the murmurs of sailors and visitors who have seen the peculiarities up close. From people vanishing in the dead of night, as though they had been carried out to sea.

Sometimes hope is the most dangerous thing of all. When their brother dies, sisters Freya and Tamsin lose the one thing that connected them. But when Tamsin goes missing a year later, Freya is determined to find her. Guided by a trail of diary entries, revelations are unveiled about the grief that drove Tamsin to the edge of a cliff - and into the arms of a mysterious stranger... A man who promised hope but demanded sacrifice.

While traveling back home from a job interview in California, Mark and Ally Thurston suffer a car accident in Middle of Nowhere Kansas. After walking for miles to the nearest convenience store, they are greeted by Hap, the store owner, who invites them to stay the night at his home.

The land of Ursurla moved around her as the wind struck a chord with the moonlight playing on the reddened grass before her. The night cracked and sparked as a sudden storm dissolved the stars and unleashed its force upon the moon, hiding it beneath thick clouds, layers, and darkness.

A quiet little mountain town is hiding a big problem. When the townsfolk of Raven's Peak start acting crazy, Abigail Dressler is called upon to find out what is happening. She uncovers a demonic threat unlike any she's ever faced and finds herself in a fight just to stay alive. She rescues Haatim Arison from a terrifying fate and discovers that he has a family legacy in the supernatural that he knows nothing about. Now she's forced to protect him, which is easy, and also trust him if she wants to save the townsfolk of Raven's Peak.

Jebediah Skayne has been hunting husks his entire adult life, but there's something different about the trail leading to the fishing town of Portis on the shores of the Chalice Sea: no spoor, no footprints; nothing save the unmistakable feeling of wrongness. Finding a husk in Portis would be near impossible for someone who didn't have the sixth sense, but the instant Jeb arrives, all trace of the incursion vanishes.

When two cannibalistic, gravely wounded men stagger into the town of Gehenna, all hell breaks loose. Infamous outlaw Mad Dog McCall, stuck in the city jail, must fight for his life to escape. The lonely, intelligent, and snarky Karen must make horrific sacrifices to survive the night against the growing army of the dead. Together, they set upon a journey of biblical proportions, fighting against the living and the infected, hoping against hope to find a safe haven in the middle of Hell.

I grew up in a world of magic. By the time I was ten I understood nature, talked to the trees, and listened to the wind. When the kingdom of men conquered my town, I was murdered by one of my own - the betrayer of my kind. But I didn't stay dead. I woke to find myself in a strange new world called Los Angeles. The only keys to the life I remembered were my father's ring, my unique abilities, and the onslaught of demons that seemed hell-bent on finding me. Now I must learn who I really am, protect my friends, get the girl, and find my way back to my beloved hometown of Orenda.

Darkest of Storms is an epic dark fantasy series that begins in Sclavonia in the 1400s. If you were looking for vampires, demons, magic, dragons, a struggle between light and dark, a great evil that has returned from the past, and more...then you have come to the right place. Throw in suspense, drama, romance, horror, mystery...this book has it all!

"Il Maestro e Margherita" è il romanzo più conosciuto di Michail Bulgakov e capolavoro della letteratura del XX secolo. Dopo svariate stesure viene ultimato dalla moglie dello scrittore un anno dopo la sua prematura morte. Oggetto di censura da parte dell'autorità dell'Unione Sovietica, vede la pubblicazione nella sua integrità solo venti anni più tardi. A rendere il romanzo tanto scabroso è l'impietoso e satirico ritratto della Russia stalinista che l'autore fa emergere attraverso le caratterizzazioni dei numerosi personaggi che prendono parte alla storia: individui meschini e gretti, la cui infima statura morale viene svelata dall'arrivo, inatteso e incredibile, di Satana in persona, incarnato nell'esperto di magia nera Woland, e del suo losco e bizzarro entourage.