Dark Thriller

Dark State ups the ante on the already volatile situations laid out in the sleek techno-thriller Empire Games, the start to Stross' new story-line and a perfect entry point for new listeners, in The Merchant Princes series . In the near-future, the collision of two nuclear superpowers across timelines, one in the midst of a technological revolution and the other a hyper-police state, is imminent. In Commissioner Miriam Burgeson's timeline, her top level agents run a high risk extraction of a major political player.

Felicia, Lizbeth Rose’s younger half-sister and student at the Grigori school within the capital of the New Holy Russian Empire in San Diego, is caught between secrets and powerful family struggles. As a distant relative to the Tsar, she provides an essential service to him by providing blood transfusions for his hemophilia, and she is thus given rare access and dismissed as if cattle. At the Grigori school she is seen as a charity case, a poor orphan with no prospects and no sign of magical prowess—the latter which Felicia keeps purposefully hidden.

In I Am Not a Serial Killer, John Wayne Cleaver saved his town from a murderer even more appalling than the serial killers he obsessively studies, using his own repressed homicidal proclivities to even the odds. But it turns out even demons have friends, and the disappearance of one has brought another to Clayton County. Soon there are new victims for John to work on at the mortuary, and a new mystery to solve. But this time something's different. John has tasted death, and the dark nature he used as a weapon might now be using him.

The Ashleys are determined to build a future detached from the issues of their pasts, and it seems to be working: they’re happily married, in love, established in their dream careers, and closer than ever to being debt-free. But when a mysterious opportunity arrives with an offer they can’t refuse, everything changes. Soon, they meet her: she’s rich, powerful, single-minded in her goals, and not used to being told no. Worst of all, she knows about the dirty deeds they’ve done in the dark… If they don’t do exactly what she wants, the ramifications of their secrets being exposed are endless.

All Bunny McGarry wants is a spot of breakfast and a decent cup of tea. So imagine how annoyed he gets when two masked men attempt to rob the New York diner he is in. Unfortunately, dealing with that problem just leads to a whole lot more. One of the diner’s other customers isn’t who she appears to be, and the odds aren’t great that she is going to live to see another breakfast.

It’s my first day back at work, the grief I’m carrying is still with me, but I file it away and put on my professional face to greet my new patient. As a successful psychiatrist and criminologist, I’m used to working with damaged minds. But I’m not prepared for Trent Davis. Sitting across the table from me, his warm brown eyes shine. He laughs easily and part of me can't help but like him, despite what his file says he’s capable of. Then a package arrives for Trent, with my home as the return address. And everything falls apart…

May, 1941. At four in the morning, a rust-streaked tramp freighter streams up the Tagus River to dock at the port of Lisbon. She is the Santa Rosa; she flies the flag of neutral Spain and is in Lisbon to load cork oak, tinned sardines, and drums of cooking oil bound for the Baltic port of Malmo.

Vampire trafficking is a sinister business, and nobody knows that better than Keystone. After Raven discovers hidden clues in a cold case, the group sets a trap in hopes of catching an elusive criminal. But when the plan backfires, Raven's world is thrown into chaos, and Christian's loyalty is put to the ultimate test. Buried secrets come to light, and the only thing keeping Raven grounded is her insatiable thirst for vengeance. The stakes are high as they travel to a place where the landscapes are as treacherous as the immortals who live there. This time, there's no room for mistakes.

As an intelligent, beautiful woman raised in a small mountain village, Gini never would have imagined a place like The Mansion exists. Stolen by Darius into a dark underworld where the famed Mullah Omar arranges pleasure marriages to the highest bidder, Gini fights for survival. At first frightened by the dangerous man who keeps her prisoner, Darius slowly becomes the one light in her dark world.

She thought her life had changed in the blink of an eye the moment she came home to see her father strapped to a chair, a gun being held to his head. It was my life that changed that day, not hers. The blood of my enemy ran through her veins, and no matter how much she wanted to save me, she never would have. I am a monster. I can't be saved. I would consume the world in a blaze of fire before my need for vengeance was ever fulfilled.

Harry Grimm views change with a wary eye. But as the usually steadfast boss struggles with upheavals among his team, he answers a call about a suspiciously abandoned camper. And he soon discovers its owners are a newlywed couple whose lottery winnings have earned them an obsessive stalker.

On Halloween, a group of teenage students meet in the woods near Sally in the Wood, a road steeped in local lore and rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a murdered girl. By the end of the night, one student will be dead. Rachel, the school guidance counselor, is trying to keep a handle on her increasingly distant teenaged daughter, Ellie, while students and parents panic and mourn. Her ex-husband and detective Ben, dealing with a personal crisis of his own, has concerns about his daughter’s safety as he investigates the death.

If the Knights Magica want a war, I'm willing to give them one. I damned my soul long ago. What I do from this point forward is about redemption. If I burn in Hell because of fighting for others, for shouldering their sins, so be it. The Knights are powerful, and they have taken control of the Universal Church. All across the world, the Knights find themselves in conflict with other paranormals and supernaturals. Human governments scramble to cope with the new reality of magic.

Three months after life as she knows it was decimated, Megan Wolford has only one goal: protect her daughter, Caitlin, at any cost. When a mysterious illness strikes Caitlin down, Megan is forced to forage for medical supplies at a remote lodge. The last thing she wants is help from her fellow survivors when so many in her life have let her down - but soon she'll find herself with no other option.

After solving a series of unexplained deaths several years ago, forensic pathologist Dr. Bodhi King retreated from the limelight. Now, he's called out of early retirement to help investigate a death cluster on a private island in the Florida Keys, where he lands in the middle of a simmering conflict. Members of the Golden Island Church have a furtive agenda to protect. The dying Cuban Americans have long-held secrets of their own. And everyone seems to have a reason to stop Bodhi from bringing the truth to light.

If you knew your father’s darkest secret, would you turn him in? What if his secret was connected to you? Ruby Marlowe’s always been a daddy’s girl. Her mother died when she was two, and her single father has ensured she has everything she needs. However, everyone has dark secrets, and Ruby’s father is no exception.... When she's young, she doesn’t understand the weight of her father’s killing game. However, as she ages, she realizes her obsessive tendencies aren’t the only elements that separate her from her peers.

Raven returns to her childhood home to rebuild her severed relationship with her father. After a long year of capturing violent criminals and thwarting assassination plots, she could use a vacation. But trouble is brewing on the home front. When Raven discovers her father is in financial peril, she's determined to set things right even if it means sacrificing her heart in the process. Meanwhile, her relationship with Christian is on shaky ground when a skeleton falls out of his closet. Will they be able to leave the past behind, or is the trust between them dead and buried?

Beware what lies beneath.... One fateful, starry night, three friends embark on a secret camping trip, but only two return home. Thirty years later, the body of a teenage boy rises from the depths of England's biggest reservoir and threatens to expose a killer who has lain dormant...until now. Detective Chief Inspector Ryan returns from honeymoon to face danger from all sides. In the depths of Kielder Forest, a murderer has escaped justice before and will do anything to protect the secrets of the past.

In 2012, a little Indian girl is mysteriously lured into the mansion, where she encounters the story of Richard Baxter - a story that will reveal the darker side of a man's mind. A story that shall unveil a venomous truth of the past. A story so sinister that it could alter the fate of an entire nation's future. A story of courage and cowardice, of deceit and insanity.

It’s almost Christmas and Bunny McGarry is not in the festive spirit. His mood is not improved when an old friend becomes the victim of a violent assault and, for reasons he can’t understand, the police force he is a member of has decided not to investigate. Getting to the bottom of the case ends up putting him on the wrong side of some powerful people.