Science Thriller

It is 1890, and in the days before Christmas, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson are visited at Baker Street by a new client. Eve Allerthorpe, eldest daughter of a grand but somewhat eccentric Yorkshire-based dynasty, is greatly distressed, as she believes she is being haunted by a demonic Christmas spirit. Her late mother told her terrifying tales of the sinister Black Thurrick, and Eve is sure that she has seen the creature from her bedroom window. What is more, she has begun to receive mysterious parcels of birch twigs, the Black Thurrick’s calling card.

Possessed of an extraordinary telekinetic gift - she can make objects burst into flames - Dahlia Le Blanc has spent her life isolated from other people. But just when she thinks she's finally achieved some peace, her world comes crashing down. For a reason she cannot guess, she has become the target of deadly assassins. Suddenly, no place is safe - not even the secret refuge she established long ago. Now she must rely on Nicolas Trevane, a dangerous warrior sent to track her down and protect her.

Darren is going back to where it all started, back to where he was reborn as a child of the night. But like Darren, the town has changed a lot over the years. Back home, old enemies await. Scores must be settled. Destiny looks certain to destroy him, and the world is doomed to fall to the Ruler of the Night. Travel home with Darren in this, the penultimate book in the saga.

Morgan is not who she thought she was. She is not a regular 16-year-old girl. She is a witch. A real, ancestral witch. Her parents are not her biological parents, and she and her sister share no blood. Even in the coven, she is too powerful now, too different to belong. She is alone except for Cal, who is now her boyfriend. Cal tells her he loves her, and she needs to believe him. He helps Morgan accept the truth: Wicca is in her blood.

Ever since my parents died in the demon war, I've paid my way through life by using magic to con people. It's not right, but a girl's gotta do what she can to survive. Unfortunately, my latest con has left me smack dab in the middle of a murder scene. Now, a coven of angry mages thinks I'm the killer. In order to clear my name, I have to team up with an infuriatingly sexy warlock whose powers are far darker than he admits. Throw in a string of related murders and a vexed vampire clan, and I'm up to my eyeballs in danger.

This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death. And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides - or are chosen.

Despite the death of a traitor and key conspirator, the plot to use the GhostWalker experiments to undermine the security of the US by foreign interests still exists. The GhostWalkers themselves must race against the clock to neutralize the danger.

When I went to my neighbor's apartment to investigate strange sounds, I never expected to fall through a portal into another world. Yet here I am, a stranger in an even stranger land...and I'm stranded. In this world, might makes right, men carry swords, and gods walk the earth. Within minutes of arriving, I'm enslaved. The one person that might be able to help me is also the one person I want to throttle most. Aron, Lord of Storms, Butcher God of Battle, is my new companion. Or rather, I'm his.

East Antarctica: the coldest, most desolate location on earth. Two-and-a-half miles below the ice cap is Vostok, a 6,000 square mile liquid lake, over 1,000 feet deep, left untouched for more than 15 million years. Now, marine biologist Zachary Wallace and two other scientists aboard a submersible tethered to a laser will journey 13,000 feet beneath the ice into this unexplored realm to discover Mesozoic life-forms long believed extinct - and an object of immense power responsible for the evolution of modern man.

Victoria can't wait to start college, but there's a hitch - she can't remember anything before arriving on campus. Her memories finally spark when she sees her ruggedly handsome math professor, but she senses something terrible happened. The shock on his face affirms her fears. Toby is an alpha wolf who never thought he'd see his true love again - not after she died in his arms. Nothing could have prepared him for her walking into his class. But to his dismay, not only has she forgotten the past, she doesn't even know who she is.

From a remote corner of the galaxy, a message is being sent. The continuous beats of a pulsar have become odd, irregular, and artificial. It can only be a code. Frantically, a research team struggles to decipher the alien communication. And what the scientists discover is destined to shake the foundations of empires around this world - from Wall Street to the Vatican.

Sherlock Holmes is an unparalleled genius. Warlock Holmes is an idiot. A font of arcane power, certainly. But he’s brilliantly dim. Frankly, he couldn’t deduce his way out of a paper bag. The only thing he has really got going for him are the might of a thousand demons and his stalwart companion. Thankfully, Dr. Watson is always there to aid him through the treacherous shoals of Victorian propriety...and save him from a gruesome death every now and again.

February 1816: A race through the icy, twisting cobblestone streets of London ends inside an abandoned church - and a horrific discovery. Bow Street Runner Sam Kelly is called to investigate the grisly murder of Sir Giles Holbrooke, who was left naked and garroted, with his tongue cut out. Yet it becomes even stranger when symbols that resemble crosses mysteriously begin to appear across the dead man's flesh during autopsy. Sam turns to the one person in the kingdom who he believes can solve the bizarre murder - the Duke of Aldridge's odd but brilliant ward, Kendra Donovan.

When children go missing, and the Humans have no leads, I’m the one they call. I am their last hope in bringing home the lost ones. I salvage what they cannot. Underestimating demons is a bad idea, and it’s a mistake that may cost me not only my own life but the life of a missing child. If I can swallow my pride, and allow Agent O’Shea to help me find a way to deal with the demon, we might be able to save the child.

The dead have risen, and they are hungry. Slow and plodding, they are legion. The undead hunt the living. Stop and they will catch you. Hide and they will find you. If you have a heartbeat, you do the only thing you can: You run. Survivors escape to an island stronghold: a cop and his daughter, a computer nerd, a garbage man with a piece of rebar, and an escapee from a mental hospital with a lifesaving secret. After reaching Alcatraz, the ever-expanding group of survivors realize that the infected are not the only threat.

Something terrible has finally happened. A nuclear holocaust has destroyed civilization. For one whole year, 16-year-old Ann Burden has lived alone on her family’s farm, somehow sheltered from the radiation in the valley. As she hears the final radio station going off the air, she believes she is the only person left alive. But when Ann sees smoke from a faraway campfire, she knows there is at least one other survivor....

In the six months since the first case of a terrifying new epidemic - when a healthy baby wouldn’t take a breath at birth - the country has been thrown into turmoil. The government has passed sweeping new laws to monitor all citizens. And several young pregnant women have vanished without trace. As a midwife, Lainey’s mum, Emma, is determined to be there for those who need her. But when 17-year-old Lainey finds herself in trouble, this dangerous new world becomes very real.

Halloween - with its tricks and treats - is a dust bunny's dream come true. Just ask Lyle, Sedona Snow's faithful sidekick. But for Sedona, it's a nightmare. Though her new job managing a small hotel and tavern on Rainshadow is helping her move on from her tragic past, a bizarre disaster down in the catacombs has brought a pack of rowdy ghost hunters to her inn. And now, Sedona's ex has arrived on the island, claiming he wants to get back together, just as a newcomer appears to have a strong interest in her.

Gathering four stories from four best-selling author friends, Invitation is the first collection in the ongoing Harbingers series. In "The Call" by Bill Myers, four strangers are drawn together to help a student at the mysterious Institute for Advanced Psychic Studies. His gifts are supposedly being honed to assist world leaders...but there are some very disturbing strings attached.

Morgan Rowlands loves Cal Blaire. He taught her about Wicca and helped her find out who she is. But now they share a secret. A terrible, dark secret that binds them together, even as it tears them apart.