Humorous Thriller

Cas Russell is good at math. Scary good. The vector calculus blazing through her head lets her smash through armed men twice her size and dodge every bullet in a gunfight, and she'll take any job for the right price. As far as Cas knows, she’s the only person around with a superpower...until she discovers someone with a power even more dangerous than her own. Someone who can reach directly into people’s minds and twist their brains into Moebius strips. Someone intent on becoming the world’s puppet master. Cas should run, like she usually does, but for once she's involved.

Dark Reading Matter is the 8th and final novel in the New York Times bestselling Thursday Next series, following 2012’s The Woman Who Died a Lot.

As a Salem, Massachusetts, native, WICH-TV field reporter, and amateur sleuth Lee Barrett is well versed in the region's lore. So when the murder of revered local professor Samuel Bond resembles a killing from almost two centuries ago, everyone is on edge....

Thirteen-year-old David Eliot was a disappointment to his parents. But to be sent to Groosham Grange? Hidden away on a lonely island, Groosham Grange is a school that is unknown to the outside world. Pupils are forced to sign their names in blood. An English teacher is held together entirely with bandages. A soccer ball is made of ... well, you'd rather not know. What is the chilling secret hidden behind the headmaster's door? And why are students disappearing in the middle of the night?

Emelda made a mistake she'll regret for the rest of her life—and it's put Kane in danger. Now, she has to right that wrong, and time is running out. She'll have to face unholy monsters, killer spy drones, and not one but two shadowy global organizations that want her dead. Or worse. To save Kane, she'll have to become something she'd never thought she had in her. Their pack of two is broken, and to save Kane, she will have to be clever. Fearless. Dangerous. Emelda Thorne will now be a lone wolf.

It's Mardi Gras season on the bayou, which means parades, pageantry, and gumbo galore. But when a flood upends life in the tiny town of Pelican, Louisiana - and deposits a body of a stranger behind the Crozat Plantation B&B - the celebration takes a decidedly dark turn. The citizens of Pelican are ready to laissez les bon temps rouler - but there's beaucoup bad blood on hand this Mardi Gras. Maggie Crozat is determined to give the stranger a name and find out why he was murdered.

Twenty years ago, I stole something that could win the war between Heaven and Hell. Don't get me wrong, I'm no do-gooder. I wanted to rule everything with the King of Hell. However, I have serious qualms with killing eight billion people in order to get what I want. He didn't. Irreconcilable differences, right? So, I did what any witch would do. I faked my death and hid out in the Seattle suburbs, living as a mundane. Stay at home moms are practically invisible here!

Three ancient gods are freed from their prison with only one desire: to destroy the planet and everyone on it. To save us all, Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain must go undercover in a Dublin school. Skulduggery has to blend in with the teaching staff, while Valkyrie has to pass for an ordinary schoolgirl. Above all else, no matter what happens, they both must act completely and utterly normal. We are so dead.

There's a murderer on the loose - but that doesn't stop the girls of St. Etheldreda's from attempting to hide the death of their headmistress in this rollicking farce. The students of St. Etheldreda's School for Girls face a bothersome dilemma. Their irascible headmistress, Mrs. Plackett, and her surly brother, Mr. Godding, have been most inconveniently poisoned at Sunday dinner.

The famous duo has been split! Watson has been banished from Holmes' company. Despite the interference of his horrible wife, Mary, Watson tirelessly insinuates himself into every magical adventure he can. Together, he and Holmes face a man with a twisted...everything, some very questionable juice-drinking Germans, Garrideb the Devourer, and the estimable Irene Adler. Yet, nothing can prepare them for Moriarty's new form and the terrible moment they must face their Finality Problem at the edge of the Reichenbach Falls.

The trial of the century has come to Tupelo Landing, North Carolina. Mo and Dale, aka the Desperado Detectives, head to court as star witnesses against Dale's daddy - confessed kidnapper Macon Johnson. Dale's nerves are jangled, but Mo, who doesn't mind getting even with Mr. Macon for hurting her loved ones, looks forward to a slam dunk conviction - if everything goes as expected. Of course nothing goes as expected.

When 15-year-old Beck Phillips travels by train to the secluded village of Kingsplot to live with his wealthy but estranged uncle, Beck discovers some dark family secrets. A buried basement, a forbidden wall, an old book of family history with odd references to...dragons? Beck's life is about to be changed forever in this suspenseful tale about the destructive nature of greed and the courage to make things right.

In this 15th book about the irrepressible Sammy Keyes, she deals with the zaniest character to come out of her town yet - Justice Jack, Santa Martina's very own superhero. Dressed in spandex and a mask, he drives around on a dirt bike hoping to fight crime. Though everyone else seems taken with Jack, Sammy's not so sure and now that she has a real mystery to solve her detective skills are pushed to the limits by Jack's antics.

In her latest mystery, Sammy Keyes feels responsible for the death of an old man whom she discovers on the fire escape and who, with his dying breath, begs her to take his wads of cash and throw them away!

When a crewmember takes his own life but hands Patricia a cryptic note and a request to save Anna just before he jumps, she feels she has no choice but to honour his dying wish. Who is Anna though? The note leads her to investigate the odd-looking and mysterious couple staying in cabin 2124 and so begins an adventure that leads Patricia and her friends through the streets and underbelly of Tokyo, Japan. Why did he kill himself? And what are the couple in 2124 up to?

Something’s rotten in Apple country! Hildy Biddle is a high school reporter eager to stand up for the truth. She’s just waiting for a chance to prove herself as a journalist, and yearning for a big story. The trouble is, the town’s biggest story stars...a ghost. Not a very easy interview! This ghost has the town in a tizzy, and the local paper is playing up people’s fears with shocking headlines of eerie happenings and ghostly sightings. Hildy’s determined to discover what’s really going on, but her desire to uncover the truth is making some people awfully nervous.

While staking out a cheating husband, Kate can't help but to indulge the cravings from her newest pregnancy. Little does she know the owner of the bakery has her eyes on Jim, Kate's beloved husband. Things turn deadly as Kate's cravings take over. It's up to Kate to keep her Family Life on track while solving another deadly whodunit!

Twelve-year-old Boone and his sister Heather love animals of every kind. That's why they wanted to come to Camp Hither. The wild legends of man-eating snakes and disappearing campers are hisss-terical! But Camp Hither has a cold-blooded secret: Somebody has unleashed a hungry horde of slithery snakes!

Someone has changed the environment from survival to hardcore. Now if you get destroyed, you can't respawn. Noah and Violet must find a way to get the world back to survival while fighting off another griefer war staged by the evil Daniel and his band of Rainbow Griefers. There's no room for error in this battle against time. With Creepers lurking in the dark and teleporting Endermen appearing out of nowhere, the duo have a lot more on their hands than only Griefers.

This is Slappy's world-- you only scream in it! But where did he come from? And can he ever be destroyed? Slappy the ventriloquist's dummy has only one mission in his tiny, deranged mind: do evil every day, all day. His creator, powerful sorcerer Darkwell the Magician, has warned him that should he fail to cause chaos before the sun sets each day, he will sleep FOREVER.