Science Mysteries

Okiku wants vengeance...and she gets it. Whenever there's a monster hurting a child - the same way she was hurt 300 years ago in Japan - her spirit is there to deliver punishment. But one American boy draws her like no other. The two are pulled into a world of eerie doll rituals and dark Shinto exorcisms that will take them from the American Midwest to the remote valleys and shrines of Aomori, Japan. The boy is not a monster, but something evil writhes beneath his skin, trapped by a series of intricate tattoos.

Many thousands of years ago, a group of extraterrestrials from another planet guided the evolution of life on Earth - determining the existence and nature of humankind as we know it today. How did the master builders from the stars construct the miracle called man? Is the DNA that is at the core of all life in the universe a "cosmic code" that links Earth to heaven and man to God?

At first, it looks like a disease. An epidemic that spreads through no known means, driving its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. But the force that’s sweeping the world is no pathogen. It’s just the first shock wave, unleashed by a stunning discovery - and what’s in jeopardy is not our minds but the very fabric of time itself. In New York City, Detective Barry Sutton is closing in on the truth - and in a remote laboratory, neuroscientist Helena Smith is unaware that she alone holds the key to this mystery...and the tools for fighting back.

In the near future, when America has become a police state, 100 boys are selected to enter an annual contest where the winner will be awarded whatever he wants for the rest of his life. Among them is 16-year-old Ray Garraty, and he knows the rules - keep a steady walking pace of four miles per hour without stopping. Three warnings and you're out - permanently.

Liam Westin has carried a secret crush on his twin sister's best friend for most of his life. When she goes missing and is presumed dead as a teen, it nearly destroys him. Now the newest and youngest CEO of the Westin Foundation, his life is finally on track, until he comes face to face with the woman he's always loved. She has a lot of secrets and isn't the same as he remembers. Can his love mend her wounds? Or are there too many obstacles between them now?

Lydia has taken over as the leader of the Crow Family and is trying to keep the criminality to the bare minimum. DCI Fleet has told her he is ‘all in’, but there have to be limits and Lydia doesn’t want to find out what they are. When the head of the Silver Family, Alejandro, drops down dead, Lydia needs to work out whether it was natural causes or murder. And fast. Lydia has made enemies of the Pearl King, Maria Silver and her own uncle.

The kids in the third grade at Bailey Elementary are so hard to handle that all of their teachers have quit. But their new teacher, Mrs. Jeepers, is different, to say the least. She's just moved from the Transylvanian Alps, and she seems to have some strange powers that help her deal with these mischief-makers. Her methods may be a little unconventional, but, then again, Mrs. Jeepers may be just what the Bailey School kids need.

In this second volume, Roland encounters three mysterious doorways on a deserted beach along the Western Sea. Each one enters into a different person's life in New York - here, he joins forces with the defiant young Eddie Dean and with the beautiful, brilliant, and brave Odetta Holmes in a savage struggle against underworld evil and otherworldly enemies. They also become the companions, forming a ka-tet, who will assist him on his quest to save the Dark Tower.

Twelve-year-old Sunny lives in Nigeria, but she was born American. Her features are African, but she has albinism. She's a terrific athlete but can't go out into the sun to play soccer. There seems to be no place where she fits in. And then she discovers something amazing - she is a "free agent" with latent mystical power.

Ishmael Jones is someone who can't afford to be noticed, someone who lives under the radar, who drives on the dark side of the road. He's employed to search out secrets, investigate mysteries and shine a light in dark places. Invited by his employer, the enigmatic Colonel, to join him and his family for Christmas, Ishmael arrives at the grand but isolated Belcourt Manor in the midst of a blizzard to find that the Colonel has mysteriously disappeared. As he questions his fellow guests, Ishmael concludes that at least one of them - not least Ishmael himself - is harboring a dangerous secret.

The history of magic is as long as time and as wide as the world. In every culture, in every age, in every place and, probably, in every heart, there is magic. Harry Potter: A History of Magic reveals some of the hidden stories behind real-world magic and explores some of J.K. Rowling's magical inventions alongside their folkloric, cultural and historical forebears.

Normally, not even drunk on a bet would Violet Parker go to Slagton, a creepy ghost town inhabited by those too stubborn - or deranged - to leave. But a certain bullheaded Deadwood detective has a problem - his informant from Slagton has gone missing. When Violet is shanghaied into taking a hunting trip to the ghost town to search for the missing snitch, she stumbles into trouble that will take more than a double-barreled shotgun to escape. Will Violet survive this new hell that haunts her, or will she end up on Slagton's growing list of those "gutted and hung"?

Rules of the quantum world seem to say that a cat can be both alive and dead at the same time and a particle can be in two places at once. And that particle is also a wave; everything in the quantum world can described in terms of waves - or entirely in terms of particles. These interpretations were all established by the end of the 1920s, by Erwin Schrödinger, Werner Heisenberg, Paul Dirac, and others. But no one has yet come up with a common sense explanation of what is going on.

After the assassination of FDR in the 1930s, the US collapses and is picked off by the UK, Canada, Mexico, and Russia. Gunnie Lizbeth Rose tries to piece out a life, running security on runs from Texoma across the border to Mexico, where work and prospects are stronger. When two Russian magicians come looking for a man named Alex Karkarov, they hire Lizbeth, but there are problems: The man they're looking for is dead, but he has a daughter they now need to find, as an ever-growing set of sorcerers and gunnies do not want them to succeed.

There are some odd things about Nate’s new apartment. Of course, he has other things on his mind. He hates his job. He has no money in the bank. No girlfriend. No plans for the future. So while his new home isn’t perfect, it’s livable. The rent is low, the property managers are friendly, and the odd little mysteries don’t nag at him too much. At least, not until he meets Mandy, his neighbor across the hall, and notices something unusual about her apartment. And Xela’s apartment. And Tim’s. And Veek’s.

A missing scientist and deep pockets pull Colonel Carl Butler out of retirement, investigating another mystery that puts him and his team - and the future of relations with alien species - in danger in Colonyside, the exciting follow-up to Planetside and Spaceside. A military hero is coming out of disgrace - straight into the line of fire...Carl Butler was once a decorated colonel. Now he’s a disgraced recluse, hoping to live out the rest of his life on a backwater planet where no one cares about his “crimes” and everyone leaves him alone.

Ancient evils lurk in the Western New York town of Oneka Falls, and they are hungry. Only three children have encountered them and lived. Psyches fractured, each child has survived as best they could - wrapped in fantasy, the comfort of amnesia, or the silence of isolation. When those evils intrude on their lives a second time, it sets a chain of events in action that can only end in destruction. But who will be destroyed, the children or the ancient evils that plague the town?

In the first book of this brilliant series, Stephen King introduces listeners to one of his most powerful creations: Roland of Gilead, The Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which frighteningly mirrors our own, Roland tracks The Man in Black, encounters an enticing woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the boy from New York named Jake.

All I want is to pay the rent and find a boyfriend. But an insane vampire thinks I hold the key to his takeover of the city, and I have a new stalker. At least for now, I've dodged the Illuminati's Hunters, but life is still a little too challenging. Rival vampire lords want to use me against each other, and the mysterious members of the Columbia Club are offering bounties for vampires and werewolves. I'm lucky that the gang at Rosie's has my back, because I'm going to need them.

A wolf shifter and a demon have both claimed me as their mate. I'm sure nothing will go wrong with that. When you hunt supernatural baddies for a living, you're used to danger. But for once, the danger I'm facing isn't my fault. Somebody killed my best friend and set me up to take the fall. Now, I've got two days to prove I'm innocent before it's open season on hunting me down. If that wasn't bad enough, I'm partnered with a royal enforcer who isn't what he seems.