Real Mysteries

From the hit podcast Unexplained comes a volume perfectly crafted for the curious, the cynical, and the not-easily frightened. Richard MacLean Smith is the expert in the unknown and humbly offers up 10 tales of real-life events that continue to evade explanation. With these chilling stories comes the missing key: a connection to our own beliefs in science, superstition, and perception.

London: Slough House is the MI5 branch where disgraced operatives are reassigned after they’ve messed up too badly to be trusted with real intelligence work. The “Slow Horses,” as the failed spies of Slough House are called, are doomed to spend the rest of their careers pushing paper, but they all want back in on the action. When one of their own is kidnapped and held for ransom, the agents of Slough House must defeat the odds, overturning all expectations of their competence, to breach the top-notch security of MI5’s intelligence headquarters, Regent’s Park, and steal valuable intel.

Though a small town at heart, Lawrenceton, Georgia, has its dark side - and its crime buffs. One of them is librarian Aurora "Roe" Teagarden, a member of the Real Murders Club, which meets once a month to analyze famous cases. It's a harmless pastime - until the night she finds a member killed in a manner that eerily resembles the crime the club was about to discuss.

During an early morning feeding for her four-month-old twins, Meg Langslow hears an odd noise and goes downstairs to find her living room filled with dozens of animals. She soon learns that financial woes have caused the local animal shelter to repeal its no-kill policy. Her kind-hearted father, her zoologist grandfather, and other like-minded citizens have stolen all the shelter animals, both as a gesture of protest and to protect them until the hated policy can be repealed. But the volunteer who was transporting animals to new homes has been murdered.

The Cook, the Crook, and the Real Estate Tycoon, by prize-winning Chinese novelist Liu Zhenyun, is a novel of Beijing that paints a microcosm of contemporary China, dealing with classes at the two extremes: the super rich and the migrant workers who make them rich through deceit and corruption. The protagonist, Liu Yuejin, is a worksite cook and small-time thief whose bag is stolen. In searching for it, he stumbles upon another bag, which contains a flash disk that chronicles high-level corruption.

A sweltering summer day on the Hobfield housing estate. New tenant Lisa Woodley is horrified when her cat comes home with a human foot in its mouth. The foot belongs to 16-year-old Noah Crosby, whose decomposing remains are found in a rubbish-strewn alleyway. It’s not a robbery, as the teen has an expensive gold watch, high-end trainers and a top-of-the-range mobile phone on him. Where did he get such expensive gear? A letter X is carved into Noah’s flesh. Twenty years ago this was the hallmark of a serial killer who was never caught.

An FBI agent hunts a new kind of terrorist through a Washington, DC, of the future in this ground-breaking book - at once a gripping techno-thriller and a fact-based tour of tomorrow. America is on the brink of a revolution, one both technological and political. The science fiction of AI and robotics has finally come true, but millions are angry and fearful that the future has left them behind. After narrowly stopping a bombing at Washington’s Union Station, FBI Special Agent Lara Keegan receives a new assignment: To field-test an advanced police robot.

The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, the first novel Nabokov wrote in English, is a tantalizing literary mystery in which a writer’s half brother searches to unravel the enigma of the life of the famous author of Albinos in Black, The Back of the Moon, and Doubtful Asphodel. A characteristically cunning play on identity and deception, the novel concludes “ I am Sebastian, or Sebastian is I, or perhaps we both are someone whom neither of us knows.”

Masterfully blending elements of psychological suspense and true crime, Jessica Knoll—bestselling author of Luckiest Girl Alive and the writer behind the Netflix adaptation starring Mila Kunis—delivers an “unflinching and evocative” (Laura Dave, New York Times bestselling author) thriller in Bright Young Women. The book opens on a Saturday night in 1978, hours before a soon-to-be-infamous murderer descends upon a Florida sorority house with deadly results. The lives of those who survive, including a sorority president and key witness, Pamela Schumacher, are forever changed.

World War II London: When Victoire “Paddy” Bennett first walks into the Admiralty’s Room 39, home to the Intelligence Division, all the bright and lively young woman expects is a secretarial position to the charismatic Commander Ian Fleming. But soon her job is so much more, and when Fleming proposes a daring plot to deceive the Germans about Allied invasion plans he requests the newlywed Paddy's help. She jumps at the chance to work as an agent in the field, even after the operation begins to affect her marriage. But could doing her duty for King and country come at too great a cost?

If you’re like most Americans, you’ve spent your entire adult life paying the banks, your creditors, and your expenses. At the same time, you’ve watched your retirement funds and legacy drastically fluctuate or evaporate in the markets. In Mapping Out the Millionaire Mystery, Money Multiplier’s founder Brent Kesler and America’s number-one money mentor Chris Naugle expand upon the 200-year-old strategy used by the wealthy to eliminate debt, grow their wealth, minimize taxation, and leave a legacy.

Halloween has arrived in Olmeda, and someone's celebrating by leaving bloody pentagrams all over the city. As the resident official witch, it's my job to figure out what the pentagrams mean and if they're more of a threat than a prank. Extra points if I find out who did it before they ruin the best holiday of the year, one I plan on spending with Ian. But finding the culprit is harder than expected—nobody saw anything and there's no shortage of suspicious paranormals. In the words of my new personal motto: everyone is a suspect.

Cryptozoologist Richard Freeman has spent years researching and tracking down mythical monsters. In this book, he recounts riveting monster hunt stories, globetrotting adventures from the dense forests of Sumatra on the trail of a mystery ape known as the orang-pendek, to Tasmania in search of the thylacine or Tasmanian wolf. Every corner of Earth has its own monster—even the traceless Gobi Desert as he searches for the Mongolian death worm. The author provides excellent advice on how to carry out your own cryptozoological expeditions. Join the hunt for mythical animals!

For decades, Adam Gopnik has been one of our most beloved writers, a brilliantly perceptive critic of art, food, France, and more. But recently, he became obsessed by a fundamental matter: How did the people he was writing about learn their outlandish skill, whether it was drawing a nude or baking a sourdough loaf? In The Real Work, Gopnik apprentices himself to an artist, a dancer, a boxer, and even a driving instructor (from the DMV), among others, trying his late-middle-age hand at things he assumed were beyond him.

Otherworldly entities invade millions of lives every day, maybe even yours. In this audiobook, Tony and Jenny Brueski from Real Ghost Stories Online take the most haunting accounts from their podcast and share them here.

Before Alex Marzano-Lesnevich begins a summer job at a law firm in Louisiana, working to help defend men accused of murder, they think their position is clear. The child of two lawyers, Alex is staunchly anti-death penalty. But the moment convicted murderer Ricky Langley’s face flashes on the screen as Alex reviews old tapes—the moment they hear him speak of his crimes—they are overcome with the feeling of wanting him to die. Shocked by their reaction, Alex digs deeper and deeper into the case.

It’s 1999, and Samantha has danced for years at the Lovely Lady strip club. She’s not used to taking anyone under her wing - after all, between her disapproving boyfriend and his daughter, who may as well be her own child, she has enough to worry about. But when Samantha overrides her better judgment to drive a new dancer home, they are run off the road. The police arrive at the scene of the accident - but find only one body.

Her name’s Moxie. Moxie McCoy. Bold, opinionated, and haplessly self-confident, the world’s greatest fourth-grade detective faces her biggest challenge! When someone kidnaps beloved school mascot Eddie the Owl, Moxie is on the case—but she’s forced to fly solo now that her best friend (and crime-solving partner) has moved away.

Tower of Secrets is a thriller, filled with spycraft and intelligence techniques never before revealed, a true story that is more spellbinding than any work of fiction could ever be. Head of security for cipher communications worldwide, Sheymov has rare knowledge of the entire system. Enter the riveting world of real intelligence where every life-or-death move on the chessboard affects the fate of nations. This is a tale more thrilling than fiction, told by a consummate master of the game.

Who needs sleep when you can listen to true ghost stories? With terrifying true tales from all around the world, these ghost stories will make you jump at every little sound. We caution you not to listen to these stories if you value good sleep, because these spooky stories will have you sleeping with one eye open! From those bumps in the night, to the sudden chill that wraps around you like a wet blanket, to that shadow you notice out of the corner of your eye that vanishes when you look at it, these creepy, chilling stories will leave you on edge and terrified.