Monster Fiction

Alex Delaware is back! And in Jonathan Kellerman's riveting and ingenious new novel, Monster, he faces one of the most grisly and baffling mysteries of his career: How can a nonfunctional psychotic locked up in a supposedly secure institution for homicidal madmen predict brutal murders in the outside world? Delaware and his friend and partner Detective Milo Sturgis must penetrate this enigma in order to stop the horrific killings.

The Morgan brothers led a vicious syndicate in the streets of Oolytau for over twenty years. It all came crashing down when a legendary cleaner put one of those brothers in the ground and gave the other a grim ultimatum. With the empire he and his brother built in shambles, weary of the outlaw life and faced with the prospect of revenge against a nightmare no one could kill, Will Morgan chose exile. Carina said goodbye to her husband, knowing she might never see him again.

Astrid is the kind of Hunter that all Hunters aspire to be: lethal, focused, ambidextrous. In contrast to her disgraced sister, Astrid has done everything right. Now, she’s coming to realize that everything she’s ever known is wrong. Soren wants to be the kind of Shade that all Shades aspire to be: brave, decisive, powerful. But his disgraced sister is determined to ruin him, and now there’s a deadly Hunter in his realm, smelling like the most delicious thing he’d ever taste. And the king wants them to work together. And the king wants them to work together.

In this striking and bleak, yet luminous debut collection, Nathan Ballingrud, winner of the inaugural Shirley Jackson Award, uses the trappings of the Gothic and the uncanny to investigate a distinctly American landscape: The loneliest and darkest corners of contemporary life. Ballingrud’s stories are love stories. They’re also monster stories. Sometimes the monsters collected here are vampires or werewolves.

Alchemist Zoe Faust is no stranger to magical mayhem, but when her boyfriend's new tea shop is vandalized and his special tea blends stolen, she plunges into a baffling mystery to save him. The clues lead Zoe and her gargoyle sidekick Dorian to an eerie mansion high in the Portland hills, filled with creeping carnivorous plants and enigmatic topiary monsters. When they stumble across a corpse in the conservatory that appears to have been killed by sinister shrubbery, an estranged member of the family is implicated in the murder.

Winnie Wednesday’s future is looking bright. Hemlock Falls is no longer hunting the werewolf, she and Erica Thursday are tentative friends, and Winnie finally knows exactly where she stands with Jay Friday. With everything finally on track, Winnie is looking forward to the Nightmare Masquerade, a week-long celebration of all things Luminary. But as Luminaries from across the world flock to the small town, uninvited guests also arrive. Winnie is confronted by a masked Diana and charged with an impossible task—one that threatens everything and everyone Winnie loves.

After slaying a leviathan of the deep, and gaining a magic he barely understands, an ordinary fisherman finds himself entangled in a magical game of the gods with the fate of his planet as the prize. Dean becomes Oakley's champion, competing in the Minotaur's Maze. He travels through a portal to Mixonia, a city of wonders, filled with magic and monster girls of all sorts. As he levels up in his noble quest to save his home world, he will earn and lose fortunes, rescue a bevy of beautiful babes, and protect the innocents of planet Oakley.

When a strange woman shows up outside our camp in the Wastes with monsters chained up to her RV, it feels like I’m the only one who actually wants to help them. That big, grey-skinned monster with the cage on his head and the chain hanging from his back—something is telling me I need to help him. I need to free him. But I have absolutely no idea how I’m supposed to do that, especially when he can’t even talk to me to tell me how. Collector Mary is finally leaving our camp to head back to her monster menagerie, so I do the only thing I can think of to help him: I go with her.

Xar and Wish are on the final leg of their journey—first stop: the Mines of Unhappiness. Here, starvation is never far away for the magical creatures who toil in its horrible depths. Xar and Wish must escape and fast; Xar needs to take control of his ever-growing Witchstain, and Wish must achieve her destiny. But the Tazzelwurm is in their way, a grotesque monster who threatens to block every entrance. Time is not on their side, but the forests are calling them. Will their combined strength be enough for the biggest quest so far, to defeat the Kingwitch once and for all?

Bulfinch's Mythology is the ultimate collection of myths and legends that have inspired countless generations. This timeless masterpiece is divided into three volumes: The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry, and Legends of Charlemagne, each of which is a must-listen for anyone who loves mythology and legends.

A fantasy/horror novella, Our Monsters Are Real takes place in the summer of a small, Midwestern town called Edlund. Daryl, the farm boy hero, is soon to graduate high school and uses an unknown source of magic against a morbid family. Teenage adolescence, desire, and rock and roll all play their part in discovering secrets that affect the lives of the Carters as they settle into their new life.

There's an honesty in the turning of the earth, in the turning of the seasons, and I've always preferred its quiet, steadfast company over that of other people. Left alone with an inherited cottage and my beloved pup Rotho to look after, my days are largely given to tending the garden, save for periodic errands in town.

After bringing on new girls and expanding our business, GGMS has finally attracted the attention of EHS, a mega-corp determined to put its rivals out of business. When they start playing dirty, it becomes a fight just for survival, forcing us into an increasingly desperate situation. I will do everything I can to ensure that Paulina’s business outlasts the competition. But I might need some help from a stunning kitsune lawyer with a very sharp tongue.

Follow Luke as he's transported to a world of magic and monsters. A mysterious goddess has tasked the Earthly game warden with protecting an all-female tribe with strange animal features. Cast off from civilization, he must help this isolated jungle people fortify their village against the rapacious Rakhasa, confound a wicked witch, and breed the next generation of monster children.

It's been 1097 days and 14 hours since I've been locked in this place. And they've come to me every night. The monsters in my dreams worship my body, and when I wake up I'm desperate for more. But they’re never there to finish me off. Dr. Adams says I can leave the asylum if I start to take my meds, but I've always hated how they made me feel...and I'm not sure that I agree with them that I'm actually crazy. Because dreams don’t make you crazy, right?

Step into a world of dark fantasy, where a dragon lays claim to a naive prince, an evil prince wrestles with his morality with the help of a phoenix, and a demon finds a pretty young thief to draw into his shadows.

“Sharks are as timid as rabbits,” says a superintendent of the Coast Guard, dismissing the possibility that a shark could be the culprit in an unprecedented fatal attack at the Jersey Shore. It’s July, and swimming in the sea is a popular new pastime, but people up and down the East Coast are shocked and mystified by the swimmer’s death. A prominent surgeon at the shore, Dr. Edwin Halsey is the one who examines the victim, and the only one who believes the perpetrator was a shark—and that it will strike again.

For the first time in her life, Moriah has an open door of possibility before her. Recently divorced, she's free to do what she's always wanted. There's only one thing holding her back—the desire to have a child. Moon Blooded Breeding Clinic offers a unique service—trigger a heat and breed with a werewolf.

They call my husband-to-be "Mob Prince," but his happily-ever-after consists of bound wrists and broken promises. Tall, dark, and handsome don’t begin to describe his level of gorgeous. Tony Costa is a dangerous man with a beautiful face. We’re arranged to marry. Start a family. Or else.

For my kind, to be without a mate is to be doomed. I know it is too late–all that awaits me is retirement and death, and I’ve embraced it. But when a suicide mission lands on my old boss’s desk, I’m the one he calls. Who better to tackle the mission in the deep, oppressive mines of my own ancestral homeland, if not an Arachnae already slated to die? And it’s not a rescue mission–he wants me to retrieve the corpse of a billionaire’s daughter kidnapped by a terrorist organization. Except our intel was wrong. She’s alive. Tortured and injured–but alive.