Ghost Thriller

It is deep winter, and the darkness is unending. A private detective named Jaycob Eklund has vanished, and Charlie Parker is assigned to track him down. Parker's employer, Edgar Ross, an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has his own reasons for wanting Eklund found. Eklund is no ordinary investigator - he is obsessively tracking a series of homicides and disappearances, each linked to reports of hauntings.

The Titan Project—an international research station off the coast of Australia—discovers a thriving zone of life in an otherwise dead sea. The area teems with a strange bioluminescent coral that defies science, yet holds great promise for the future. But the loss of a military submarine in the area triggers a brutal attack and sets in motion a geological disaster that destabilizes an entire region. Massive quakes, volcanic eruptions, and deadly tsunamis herald a greater cataclysm to come—for something is stirring miles under the ocean, a threat hidden for millennia.

The Ghost Ship floats silently on the water, all guns silenced, all voices quiet. In the hold, the bodies of men who are dead or dying, those who hid. The waters off the Barbary Coast are home to more privateers than any other, and now, this ship’s hull is splintered, the sails tattered and, burnt, its gold coins and bullion seized as the spoils of war. On board is the Huguenot leader of the Siege of St Rochelle, forced to flee the city in 1628, and the legendary and feared commander of the ship, kidnapped as a child from the island of Tenerife.

Practical Melanie Middleton hates to admit she can see ghosts. But she's going to have to accept it. An old man she recently met has died, leaving her his historic Tradd Street home, complete with housekeeper, dog - and a family of ghosts anxious to tell her their secrets. Enter Jack Trenholm, a gorgeous writer obsessed with unsolved mysteries. He has reason to believe that diamonds from the Confederate Treasury are hidden in the house. So he turns the charm on with Melanie, only to discover he's the smitten one....

With unprecedented scope and consummate skill, Norman Mailer unfolds a rich and riveting epic of an American spy. Harry Hubbard is the son and godson of CIA legends. His journey to learn the secrets of his society - and his own past - takes him through the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the "momentous catastrophe" of the Kennedy assassination. All the while, Hubbard is haunted by women who were loved by both his godfather and President Kennedy.

Vampire hunter and zombie animator Anita Blake is an expert at sniffing out the bad from the good. But in The Lunatic Cafe - now in trade paperback for the first time - she's about to learn that nothing is ever as it seems, especially in matters of the not-so-human heart. Dating a werewolf with self-esteem issues is stressing Anita out. Especially when something - or someone - starts taking out the city's shapeshifters.

Ellie Jordan's job is to catch and remove unwanted ghosts. Part detective, part paranormal exterminator, Ellie operates out of Savannah, Georgia - the most haunted city in the United States. When a family contacts her to deal with a disturbing presence in the old mansion they've recently purchased, Ellie first believes it to be a typical, by-the-book specter, a residual haunting by a restless spirit. Instead she finds herself confronting an evil that is older and more powerful than she'd ever expected.

Hollywood descends on Marlow House in preproduction for the movie adaptation of Walt's best-selling novel, Moon Runners. Hoping for inspiration, they found death instead. There's a murderer loose, and as the body count increases, secrets are revealed - and it starts to get a little crowded with all these new ghosts hanging around.

Tom Wallace lived an ordinary life, until a chance event awakened psychic abilities he never knew he possessed. Now, he's hearing the private thoughts of the people around him - and learning shocking secrets he never wanted to know. But as Tom's existence becomes a waking nightmare, even greater jolts are in store, as he becomes the unwilling recipient of a compelling message from beyond the grave.

While attempting to solve the mystery of a stolen jewel, Seikei, a merchant's son who longs to be a samurai, joins a group of kabuki actors in 18th-century Japan.

Bruised, stoned, and still adjusting to her latest wear implants, apprentice enforcer Taya Mint plunges into the darkest depths of Megastructure Seven Zero Three, challenging everything she thought she knew about life within the walls she has never stepped beyond. With only one assignment left to earn her full license, Taya finally stands a chance to rebuild a life wounded by grief. But she quickly discovers that the kidnapping she's investigating is just one piece of a puzzle—one that leads to grisly death and the greedy heart of power within the structure.

During the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz’s father was executed and her home destroyed. When handsome Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding his first wife’s sudden demise, choosing instead to seize the security that his estate in the countryside provides. She will have her own home again, no matter the cost. But Hacienda San Isidro is not the sanctuary she imagined. Something is wrong with the hacienda. And no one there will save her. Far from a refuge, San Isidro may be Beatriz’s doom.

Jadyn St. James hopes that the two-week quiet period in Mudbug means things in the small bayou town are back to normal - whatever that is. But when a fisherman finds a sunken shrimp boat, and the boat captain is missing, Jadyn wonders if the damage to the boat was caused by a storm, or if something far more nefarious happened. Colt Bertrand has been fighting his attraction to the sexy game warden since he first laid eyes on her.

It’s an offer Grace Logan can’t refuse: ghostwrite the memoir of Claudia Blackwood, a successful novelist once accused of a ghastly triple murder. Did she really do it? In self-imposed exile in her island mansion, the frail Claudia is finally bringing her notorious past to a close. But for Grace, the end of Claudia’s story may be more than a sinister reveal…

When the USS Boise disappears, Lieutenant Danny Jabo and the crew of the USS Louisville are ordered to find her.

Despite coming from different ends of the world, John, Slack, Akane, and Salome, age 12, have plenty in common. They love computers, coding, hacking, gaming—it literally flows through their veins. One more thing: they are all technically dead. The group comes together at the Wolf's Den in deepest Alaska, one of several top-secret schools for technological excellence around the globe. The place seems like a coder's dream come true at first, but things take a dark turn when the group realizes they are not like the other kids there.

Playing the victim of a vampire king on an island off New Orleans is actress Avalon Morgan's creepiest role to date. It's also scary good fun—until the victim of a real killer is discovered on set, laid out for all to see. With production shut down, Avalon can't stop thinking about the chilling crime scene, or Grayson Avery, the investigator working the case. With a rising body count and zero leads, Gray can't help but be impressed by Avalon's amateur sleuthing, which takes her to the darkest corners of the internet, where killers confess their crimes.

Who killed Helena Henry? The shorter list may be who didn’t want her dead. Psychic Raissa Bordeaux thought she’d left her former life behind, hidden away in her eclectic shop in the French Quarter. But when a child is kidnapped and Helena Henry appears, Raissa risks her true identity by offering the police help with the case. New Orleans Detective Zach Blanchard doesn’t believe in psychic hooey and is certain Raissa didn’t get her facts about the case from a crystal ball.

Vitus Adamson is falling apart. As a pre-deceased private investigator, he takes the prescription Atroxipine hourly to keep his undead body upright and functioning. Whenever he is injured, he seeks Niko, a bombshell mortician with bedroom eyes and a way with corpses, to piece him back together. Decomposition, however, is the least of his worries when two clients posing his most dangerous job yet appear at his door looking for their lost son.

For more than 30 years, Ellen Datlow has been at the center of horror. Bringing you the most frightening and terrifying stories, Datlow always has her finger on the pulse of what horror fans crave. Now, with the 11th volume of the series, Daltow's back again to bring you the stories that will keep you up at night. With each passing year, science, technology, and the march of time shine light into the craggy corners of the universe, making the fears of an earlier generation seem quaint. This light creates its own shadows. The Best Horror of the Year chronicles these shifting shadows.