Mystery Game

Charles Stross builds a new series with Empire Games. Expanding on the world he created in the Family Trade series, a new generation of paratime travelers walk between parallel universes. The year is 2020. It's 17 years since the Revolution overthrew the last king of the New British Empire, and the newly reconstituted North American Commonwealth is developing rapidly, on course to defeat the French and bring democracy to a troubled world.

Though the cat-and-mouse chase between these two lethal adversaries has seemingly ended, the sophisticated, deadly thrill of Eve and Villanelle's relationship is far from over.

Jessica is on the Hawaiian island of Maui, giving a lecture at Maui College on community involvement in police investigations - a subject she knows well. Her co-lecturer is legendary retired detective Mike Kane, a behemoth of a man who shares his love of Hawaiian lore, legends, and culture with Jessica.

Inside North Korea, veteran Fourth Echelon agent Sam Fisher finds himself on the run when a top-secret covert mission goes fatally wrong. Betrayed by his allies, hunted by his adversaries, and disavowed by his own agency, Sam is stranded deep inside hostile territory–and his only chance of survival is to uncover a murderous plot that reaches into the heart of the hermit state, and beyond.

Beatrice Fletcher is obsessed with unsolved murders in her small town of Cabot Cove, Maine like her great-aunt Jessica, the famous mystery writer. But when her best friend Jackson goes missing, this time the mystery is personal. Then Jackson fails to show up for a late night meet-up, and instead, Bea stumbles upon three students from the elite Broadmoor Academy: overly-friendly and slightly vicious Leisl, her aloof twin brother, Leif, and Carlos, who knows more about, well, everything than he's letting on.

Harry Flashman: the unrepentant bully of Tom Brown's schooldays, now with a Victoria Cross, has three main talents - horsemanship, facility with foreign languages and fornication. A reluctant military hero, Flashman plays a key part in most of the defining military campaigns of the 19th century, despite trying his utmost to escape them all. What caused the Indian Mutiny?

Former Orlando detective Michael Garrity doesn't have a good track record when it comes to women. With two ex-wives and a teenage daughter he rarely sees, the most significant relationship in his life right now is with the tumor in his head. Terminal cancer is no joke, but Mike is determined to make the best of it. He's even named the tumor Bob. With Bob literally on his mind at all times, Mike needs a distraction. And he gets one when the most popular member of a platinum-selling boy band goes missing.

The Neptune Grand has always been the seaside town's ritziest hotel, despite the shady dealings and high-profile scandals that seem to follow its elite guests. When a woman claims that she was brutally assaulted in one of its rooms and left for dead by a staff member, the owners know that they have a potential powder keg on their hands. They turn to Veronica to disprove - or prove - the woman's story.

Jessica's in Washington, D.C., to support a senator's new literacy initiative. The week-long literacy event includes a visit to the White House to meet the president and a lavish party or two. But during one affair at the senator's home in Virginia, Jessica discovers the dark side of politics. At the foot of a rickety staircase, she finds the body of the senator's chief of staff - and he has taken a permanent recess.

Bobbi Brooks has enough trouble keeping her cafe from burning down on the best of days. Learning she has fire-magic? It's bound to go up in flames. Bobbi, who can't step on a cockroach without squealing, is supposed to be a demon-slaying witch? No way. This is just another one of her crazy grandmother’s delusions. But when Bobbi stumbles over a body that's unfortunately very real, and very dead, her life gets even more complicated. This collection contains All Work and No Slay, Slaying with Fire, and Two Can Slay at This Game.

Luigi has a knack for games and puzzles. But sometimes it feels like the cards are stacked against him. UNTIL a carnival arrives in town and Luigi gets the CHANCE OF A LIFETIME—the opportunity to work for the world-famous Professor Marvelmous—a dazzling, banana-hat-wearing barker who puts the SHOW in SHOWMAN! When the carnival closes, Professor Marvelmous leaves behind a mysterious puzzle box, along with a clue. A clue that will lead Luigi and his friends on a fantastical treasure hunt to a prize beyond anything they could imagine—if they can find it!

It's been two months since Will Darling saw Kim Secretan, and he doesn't expect to see him again. What do a rough and ready soldier-turned-bookseller and a disgraced, shady aristocrat have to do with each other anyway? But when Will encounters a face from the past in a disreputable nightclub, Kim turns up, as shifty, unreliable, and irresistible as ever. And before Will knows it, he's been dragged back into Kim's shadowy world of secrets, criminal conspiracies, and underhand dealings.

New York City, 1972: A dabbler in mathematics and chess, Catherine Velis is also a computer expert for a Big Eight accounting firm. Before heading off to a new assignment in Algeria, Cat has her palm read by a fortune-teller. The woman warns Cat of danger. Then an antiques dealer approaches Cat with a mysterious offer: He has an anonymous client who is trying to collect the pieces of an ancient chess service, purported to be in Algeria. If Cat can bring the pieces back, there will be a generous reward.

With her knack for being in trouble's way, Sookie witnesses the firebombing of Merlotte's, the bar where she works. Since Sam Merlotte is now known to be two-natured, suspicion falls immediately on the anti-shifters in the area. Sookie suspects otherwise, but her attention is divided when she realizes that her lover, Eric Northman, and his "child", Pam, are plotting to kill the vampire who is now their master. Gradually, Sookie is drawn into the plot - which is much more complicated than she knows.

While her parents are just yards away, thirteen-month-old Lily Hamilton is abducted from Ayr beach in Scotland. Three days later, her distraught father turns up at private investigator Charlie Cameron's office. Mark Hamilton believes he knows who has taken his daughter. And why. Against his better judgment, Charlie takes the case—and when bodies are discovered, he suspects this may not be an isolated crime. Is there a serial killer whose work has gone undetected for decades? Is baby Lily his latest victim?

Grey never expected his best friend, Finn, to end up trapped in Battle Royale as well, but now they both have to fight to get out. And there are only a few more weeks to do it. If Ben and Tristan hadn't left Grey's squad, he would have been a lot closer to the top five. But with the help of his new squad members, Grey is determined to climb back to the top. It won't be easy when Grey's old squad mates use his own tactics against him. He must use his creativity to find new ways to lead his squad back to the top 20.

Sam is afraid of just about anything and everything that's unhealthy ever since his father died . . . Something about the Springtrap costume in the roleplaying area of Freddy Fazbears Mega Pizzaplex chills Luca to the core . . . And Grady's fear of being trapped in small spaces makes working as a Pizzaplex technician extremely challenging. But in the world of Five Nights at Freddy's, our deepest fears have a way of chasing us . . .

Ten excited guests arrive at the Westlake Estate, expecting a lavish retreat. They are the winners of a sweepstakes to "Live Like a Billionaire for a Week." But what was supposed to be a promising escape soon turns into a horrific nightmare. Within hours of arrival, the guests sit down for an extravagant dinner. When they pull their party poppers as instructed, a loud chorus of bangs resounds, followed by earsplitting screams as the guest seated at the head of the table bursts into flames and slumps to the floor.

A woman, Elsa, is brutally murdered in her Amsterdam apartment. Her ex-lover, Martin, is seen outside the building around the time of the crime. The witness who saw him? A policeman. It looks like a straightforward case - but Police Inspector Van der Valk is not convinced. Despite all the evidence - and the fact that Martin originally denied he was at the apartment - he believes Martin is not guilty of murder. Instead of charging him, Van der Valk takes him on a tour: a tour of the investigation, a tour of Martin’s own past, and a tour into the darkly obsessive world of Elsa....

Nicky Roth has always been a lonely kid. But that all changes when he and his family move to Raven Brooks and meet their eccentric neighbors, the Petersons. Nicky befriends the Petersons' son, Aaron, bonding over their talents for tinkering. Soon the boys are inseparable and using their skills to pull pranks on the townspeople. But something about Aaron bothers Nicky - people seem almost afraid of him and his family.