Detective Science

What if finding her means losing himself? Seventeen-year-old Bo has always had delusions that he could travel through time. When he was 10, Bo claimed to have witnessed the Titanic hit an iceberg, and at 15, he found himself on a Civil War battlefield, horrified by the bodies surrounding him. So when his concerned parents send him to a school for troubled youth, Bo assumes he knows the truth: that he's actually attending Berkshire Academy, a school for kids who, like Bo, have "superpowers".

Enter a world where Apocalypse Kings and ancient monsters stalk beside the killers, the misfits, the oddballs and the weirdos. Enter the world of Skulduggery Pleasant. This definitive story collection has been updated with seven new twisted tales of darkness and light, of heroes and villains and everything in-between. It will drag you, screaming, further than you have ever dared venture.

Moira Alexander has always been fascinated by the deadly sirens who lurk along the shores of her island town. Even though their haunting songs can lure anyone to a swift and watery grave, she gets as close to them as she can, playing her violin on the edge of the enchanted sea. When a young boy is found dead on the beach, the islanders assume that he's one of the sirens' victims. Moira isn't so sure. Certain that someone has framed the boy's death as a siren attack, Moira convinces her childhood friend, the lighthouse keeper Jude Osric, to help her find the real killer.

On August 11, 2008, 18-year-old Marie reported that a masked man broke into her apartment near Seattle and raped her. Within days, the police swiftly pivoted and began investigating Marie. Confronted with inconsistencies in her story and the doubts of others, Marie broke down and said her story was a lie - a bid for attention. More than two years later, Colorado detectives pursued a serial rapist who photographed his victims, threatening to release the images online, and whose calculated steps to erase all physical evidence suggested he might be a soldier or a cop.

Since her release from Liberty Children's Facility, Anya Balanchine is determined to follow the straight and narrow. Unfortunately, her criminal record is making it hard for her to do that. No high school wants her with a gun possession charge on her rap sheet. Plus, all the people in her life have moved on: Natty has skipped two grades at Holy Trinity, Scarlet and Gable seem closer than ever, and even Win is in a new relationship. But when old friends return demanding that certain debts be paid, Anya is thrown right back into the criminal world that she had been determined to escape.

The day Louisiana teenager Rory Deveaux arrives in London marks a memorable occasion. For Rory, it’s the start of a new life at a London boarding school. But for many, this will be remembered as the day a series of brutal murders broke out across the city - gruesome crimes mimicking the horrific work of Jack the Ripper in the autumn of 1888. Soon “Rippermania” takes hold of modern-day London, and the police are left with few leads and no witnesses. Except one. Rory spotted the man police believe to be the prime suspect.

Cole Harper is struggling to settle into life in Wounded Sky First Nation. He may have stopped a serial killer, but the trouble is far from over. A creature lurks in the shadows of Blackwood Forest, the health clinic is on lockdown by a mysterious organization, and long-held secrets threaten to bubble to the surface. Can Cole learn the truth about his father's death? Why won't Choch give him a straight answer? Where the heck is Jayne? Oh, and high school sucks.

18-year-old rebellious prodigy Eve is the youngest member of the Monarch City police squad. When she and her buttoned-up partner Bella are assigned their first case, finding missing teenager Molly F. Saint, they discover the dark, gritty underbelly of a city in turmoil, where a shadowy organization is magically experimenting on kidnapped girls — and turning them into monsters.

The name's Burnside, and I always get the weird cases. I built my detective career taking down the strangest bad guys in Earth Sector. No matter how crazy the case, I always managed to get it off the books. After 20 years of pounding my beat, I was ready to pack it in, and I'd called it a day. Then these killings started, weird to the point of freaked-out PD Chiefs, and only one person who fit the case. So much for retirement. The story I'm going to tell you covers two years of my life, and took me from one end of human space to the other.

Immerse yourself in the heart-pounding narratives of high-profile cases, including the intensity of the Broadwater Farm riots, the relentless pursuit of serial murderers, the cloak-and-dagger world of undercover operations, and the delicate art of negotiations during harrowing kidnappings. With a detective's keen eye for detail, O'Leary deftly weaves together the intricate threads of investigations, offering listeners a front-row seat to the pulse-quickening realities of policing.

In 1695, Isaac Newton already renowned as the greatest mind of his agemade a surprising career change. He left quiet Cambridge, where he had lived for 30 years and made his earth-shattering discoveries, and moved to London to take up the post of Warden of His Majestys Mint. Newton was preceded to the city by a genius of another kind, the budding criminal William Chaloner.

Shane works with her mother and their ghost dogs, tracking down missing persons even when their families can’t afford to pay. Their own family was displaced from their traditional home years ago following a devastating flood—and the loss of Shane’s father and her grandparents. They don’t think they’ll ever get their home back.

When Detective Dirk Dilly gets a call from Holly, a young girl whose pet cat has gone missing, the dragon ends up with not only a new case to solve, but also a self-appointed partner-in-solving-crime. And it turns out that Holly's cat is just the beginning! As the pair hunts for clues, Dirk spots other dragons flying over the city - and not the good kind. Dirk has a hunch they might just be involved, but will he and Holly be able prevent further cat-astrophe before it's too late?

When Little Red returns to Grannie’s house, she senses things aren’t right. Little Red must use her newfound detective skills to determine if Grannie is who she says she is. When Red learns that Grannie really is in danger, Red comes up with a plan to help save the day - all with a little help from science.

Working homicides in New York City, there will always be disquieting cases, but this one has me in a cold sweat. When Bishop and I discover a high-ranking wizard has been tied down and tortured as part of some unhinged ritual, we know all hell is about to break lose. What’s worse, our lead suspect is a member of the Arcane Council, and when you cross the Council, you tend to disappear without a trace. Victims deserve justice—it’s my job—but one wrong move will see me share their fate. Curl up with One Foot in the Grave and discover the motive behind this unusual case.

The gods are dead. Decades ago, they turned on one another and tore each other apart. Nobody knows why. But are they really gone forever? When 15-year-old Hark finds the still-beating heart of a terrifying deity, he risks everything to keep it out of the hands of smugglers, military scientists, and a secret fanatical cult so that he can use it to save the life of his best friend, Jelt. But with the heart, Jelt gradually and eerily transforms. How long should Hark stay loyal to a friend who’s becoming a monster - and what is Hark willing to sacrifice to save him?

Everyone on campus hates Doctor Stark, the severe woman who seems to take sadistic pleasure from doling out D’s and F’s on her infamous chemistry exams. Never before has Shea had so much trouble in school, and never before has she considered something so awful as cheating, but this time she has no choice. Her scholarship is riding on the class, and losing the scholarship would ruin her. Shea sneaks into Stark’s classroom and, terrified, makes a copy of tomorrow’s exam.

Curses are falling on this town like rain in London. Just when I think I’ve found a link between the hexed victims, someone else shows up who’s been jinxed. It feels like the devil is playing darts with my paranormal town and if the dart hits you, you get whammed with a curse. To be honest, I haven’t a clue how to find the perpetrator. My sole lead is pointing at the travelling black market that has just arrived in Portlock. That would be all fine and dandy — if I could find it. Weirdly, no one is willing to direct the cops to a highly illegal market.

"When I was alive, my family seemed picture-perfect. My adoptive parents adored me, and my little sister, Laurel, copied my every move. But now that my long-lost twin, Emma, has taken my place to solve my murder, we're both learning just how flawed my family really is. Laurel is shooting Emma nasty looks and sneaking around with my ex-boyfriend. And it turns out my parents are keeping a huge secret - could it be the reason I'm dead?"

From Dan Wells, author of the New York Times best-selling Partials Sequence, comes the first book in a new sci-fi-noir series. Los Angeles in 2050 is a city of open doors, as long as you have the right connections. That connection is a djinni - a smart device implanted right in a person's head. In a world where virtually everyone is online 24 hours a day, this connection is like oxygen - and a world like that presents plenty of opportunities for someone who knows how to manipulate it.