Twisted Thrillers

Deputy US Marshal Miro Jones finally has everything he ever wanted. He's head-over-heels in love and married to the man of his dreams, his partner Ian Doyle, he's doing well at work, and all his friends are in good places as well. Things are all tied up nicely, until they're not. Change has never been easy for Miro, and when situations at work force the team he's come to depend on to break apart, and worst of all, his and Ian's individual strengths put them on two separate paths, he's pretty certain everything just went up in smoke.

Dr. Christopher Kellan spends his days at Loveland Psychiatric Hospital, overseeing a unit known as Alpha Twelve, home to the most deranged and psychotic killers imaginable. His newest patient, Donny Ray Smith, is accused of murdering ten young girls and making their bodies disappear. But during his first encounter with Donny, Christopher finds something else unsettling: the man looks familiar.

If Avery Chambers can’t fix you in 10 sessions, she won’t take you on as a client. Her successes are phenomenal—she helps people overcome everything from domineering parents to assault—and almost absorbs the emptiness she sometimes feels since her husband’s death. Marissa and Mathew Bishop seem like the golden couple—until Marissa cheats. She wants to repair things, both because she loves her husband and for the sake of their eight-year-old son. After a friend forwards an article about Avery, Marissa takes a chance on this maverick therapist.

What do the queen bee, star athlete, valedictorian, stoner, loner, and music geek all have in common? They were all invited to a scholarship dinner, only to discover it’s a trap. Someone has locked them into a room with a bomb, a syringe filled with poison, and a note saying they have an hour to pick someone to kill...or else everyone dies.

Everyone thinks Luther and Dominic are happily married, that is, until Luther is convicted of his husband's murder. Four years after Luther is sent to prison, his brother contacts Ray Lawless, the defense attorney on the case, with evidence of a wrongful conviction. As he faces reopening the case, Ray pulls in his daughter, Jane, to help attain justice for a grieving widower and find the real killer.

When Detective Seth Harding responds to shots being fired, he faces a familiar sight: a double homicide. However, he is shocked to find a young boy chained in the basement. The terrified child refuses to speak, but Seth knows he is the key to something sinister. Reluctantly, Seth calls the only social worker he trusts with the traumatized boy - his wife. Carly is recovering from her own trauma suffered on the job, but she can't turn away from this case, not from another child in trouble.

After surviving a life-threatening injury in the line of duty, former FBI Special Agent Sloane Burbank now uses her specialized skills as an independent consultant. But when a childhood friends mysteriously disappears, Sloane takes the case—even though her ex-lover Derek Parker is the FBI agent in charge.

Detective Ryan Boone thought the simple jewelry heist was an open-and-shut case. That is until he discovers an unknown drug, and this minor crime he was investigating may be tied to a string of seemingly unconnected murders. Meanwhile, Mel Parker, unscrupulous leader of a less-than-legal high-end escort service, stumbles across the same pills. On top of protecting her “investment,” she has her own reasons for attempting to unravel the mystery behind the medication.

This was supposed to be simple. Make a nice dinner for the Chemist, a ghoul with a penchant for stand-up and utterly obsessed with all things alchemical, and fulfill my promise. But it hasn't gone according to plan, and now corpses are littering the streets - although they're getting eaten pretty rapidly too. I'm not exactly in anyone's good graces either, as it's partly my fault, and my whole life is being turned upside down and inside out.

Now twenty-four, Hanna is living an outwardly normal life of domestic content. Married to real estate agent Jacob, she’s also stepmother to his teenage daughter Joelle. They live in a beautiful home, and Hanna loves her career as a phlebotomist—a job perfectly suited to her occasional need to hurt people. But when Joelle begins to change in ways that don’t suit Hanna’s purposes, her carefully planned existence threatens to come apart.

Former detective Lacey Flint quit the force for a safer, quieter life. Or that’s what she thought. Now living alone on her houseboat, she is trying to get over the man she loves, undercover detective Mark Joesbury. But Mark is missing in action and impossible to forget. And danger won’t leave Lacey alone. When she finds a body floating in the river near her home, wrapped in burial cloths, she can’t resist asking questions. Who is this woman, and why was she hidden in the fast-flowing depths? And who has been delivering unwanted gifts to Lacey?

Bex has always been her daddy's little girl. After her mother left, it was just the two of them. Sure, he spoiled her with clothes and jewelry, but what father doesn't dote on his daughter? Except Bex's dad is alleged to be a notorious serial killer. Dubbed the Wife Collector by the press, her father disappeared before he could stand trial, and Bex was left to deal with the taunts and rumors. Foster care is her one chance at starting over, starting fresh. But Bex's old life isn't ready to let her go.

Diverse, provocative, eerie, and inspired, this collection of Jeffery Deaver's best stories exhibits the amazing range and signature plot twists that have earned him the title "master of ticking-bomb suspense" by People. With nods to O. Henry and Edgar Allan Poe, these beautifully crafted pieces pulse with subtle intrigue and Deaver's incomparable imagination.

Marisa Vega's life as an adoptive mom in a tiny Mexican village isn't what she'd dreamed of while growing up in New York, but, as the target of a man who's convinced she stole millions of dollars from his financial firm, Marisa believes hiding is her only way to stay alive. When her daughter is snatched and held for ransom, Marisa, along with Nate Boyle, must discover who really stole the money in order to rescue her.

Kester and Ribero’s team of inept supernatural investigators are back again. But this time, the stakes have been raised. Hrschni, a powerful daemon, together with the rest of the Thelemites, are hell-bent on bringing spirits back to the world of the humans...at any cost. Kester needs to gain control of his unique abilities while coming to terms with the fact that his mother had more secrets than he realized. He must also decide where his allegiances really lie. As the twisted truths keep coming out, he finds it increasingly hard to know who to trust.

If he loses this case, the consequence is death.... Ever since his father’s wrongful incarceration, defense lawyer Daniel Pike has defended the innocent at any cost. But he’s stunned when his archrival DA is found shot dead and brutally crucified. And after Pike himself lands in jail for the crime, he smells a terrifying setup. Fearing he’ll suffer the same fate as his parent, the determined attorney uncovers evidence that the DA was involved with a sinister sex-trafficking ring.

Diverse, provocative, eerie, and twisted, this collection of Jeffery Deaver's best crime stories exhibits amazing range and the signature plot twists that have made him a perennial best seller. With nods to O. Henry and Edgar Allen Poe, these beautifully crafted pieces are suspenseful spoonfuls of Deaver at his best. Listeners will be surprised by the subtlety of some of these stories and, as always, by the plot surprises.

It happens more than you might think. One second someone’s life is totally typical, the next it’s terribly tragic. Everything they had, everything they planned, everything they were, all of it vanishes in a flash. Shock and sorrow leave the victim staring into tomorrow’s void, wondering: How did it happen? Who did it? And why?

Hank Patterson refuses to let his buddy Jake slowly kill himself with alcohol. Hank’s plan to expand the Brotherhood Protectors into Colorado will only work if he can hire the best men for the job. He wants Jake, and sends fellow Coloradan, Kujo, to pull Jake out of an alcohol-induced haze to work for the team. Hank’s contact has a place they can set up operations while flying under the radar—a flailing dude ranch, run by a former Marine Gunnery sergeant and his feisty daughter.

Tea maven Theodosia Browning and her tea sommelier, Drayton Conneley, are catering a Victorian Christmas party at a swanky mansion in downtown Charleston. Drucilla Heyward, the hostess, is one of the wealthiest women in town. As the champagne flows and the tea steeps, Drucilla is so pleased with the reception by her partygoers that she reveals her secret plan to Theodosia. However, before she can make the announcement, Theodosia finds her crumpled unconscious in the hallway.