Urban Fantasy Thriller

Penniless graduate Blair Wilkes has always felt one step behind everyone else. Unemployed and out of luck, with the uncanny ability to cause havoc wherever she treads, when she receives a job offer from a strange town called Fairy Falls, she's certain it's too good to be true. It turns out Fairy Falls isn't just eccentric: it's magical...and so is Blair.

When 17-year-old Laurel Harper decides to go live with her estranged father and step-family, she's unaware of the fact that her fate was already sealed the day she was born. She is now exactly where some higher power wants her to be. But it's not until she meets the proud and mysterious Sam Laurens that she feels something strange is going on. And when she learns the dark truth about her own future, a sinister secret that will change everything as soon as she turns 19, she wants to run and hide, but soon realizes that there is no hiding from fate.

Occult investigator Quincey Morris and his "consultant", white witch Libby Chastain, are hired to free a family from a deadly curse that appears to date back to the Salem witch trials. Fraught with danger, the trail finds them stalking the mysterious occult underworlds of Boston, San Francisco, New Orleans, and New York, searching out the root of the curse. After surviving a series of terrifying attempts on their lives, the two find themselves drawn inexorably towards Salem itself - and the very heart of darkness.

My name's Devon Jinx, and, yes, I'm half warlock, half witch. But I couldn't care less about which kind of magic is better. All I want to do is keep my head down and get on with my new job as an investigator at the Hunted Witch Agency. A recent, shall we say, mistake has put me in place to inherit the leadership of the warlocks. Which means only one thing. I have a choice to make: leave behind my life of witchery to become a warlock, or lose my warlock magic forever. Complicating my choice is the fact that someone is trying to destroy the warlock coven.

When Ishmael Jones and his partner Penny are asked to escort a VIP on the late-night train to Bath, it would appear to be a routine case. The Organisation has acquired intelligence that an attempt is to be made on Sir Dennis Gregson’s life as he travels to Bath to take up his new position as Head of the British Psychic Weapons Division. Ishmael’s mission is to ensure that Sir Dennis arrives safely. How could anyone orchestrate a murder in a crowded railway carriage without being noticed and with no obvious means of escape?

I'm not Goth to hide my Drow heritage, I'm Goth because I'm not a quitter. My name is Cheyenne Summerlin, remember that name. Somebody should. The world can't know I'm a Drow halfling. Not yet. I barely have these powers under my control, but time's up. I'm about to take magic for a test drive. Want to come along? The black ops government group believe they can run my life... But I have plans of my own. Watch out magical evil doers - I'm about to crash your party. But will my training be enough?

I'm a mage. Problem is, it might kill me. In London, I have my dream job: stacking books in a university library. Even though I'm a mage, I have a quiet life these days. At least, until Levi shows up. Immediately, I know he's trouble. He's too sexy, and I can tell he's dangerous. Worse, he wants a forbidden book in my library. No way in hell am I going to give it to him. It's my job to protect it. But now, Levi won't let it go. And it turns out, he's not the only person who wants the book. All of a sudden, enemies are closing in on me, trying to get the book.

The Organization has dispatched Ishmael and his partner Penny to Coronach House on the shores of Loch Ness, where the secretive but highly influential Baphamet Group are holding their annual meeting. The Organization believes an imposter has infiltrated the Group, and they have instructed Ishmael to root him - or her - out. It's not Ishmael's only mission. The first agent sent by the Organization has been found dead in her room, murdered in a horribly gruesome manner. Ishmael must also discover who killed Jennifer Rifkin, his fellow agent - and why.

In the last few months, I've faced more danger with the five men I'm not supposed to love than most people encounter in a lifetime. And it's not over yet. Our enemies have unleashed a threat greater than anyone in witching society could have believed possible. How do I fight back when we're up against forces that could destroy our entire world? I wasn't prepared for this. But the monsters we're taking on are about to find out that Rose Hallowell doesn't give up. Even if it means asking more of my consorts than I hoped I'd ever need to.

Hugo Award-winning author Charles Stross is renowned for his cutting-edge science fiction. This third entry in his “edgy … spoof of Cold War spy thrillers” ( Booklist) finds covert agent Bob Howard learning about a top-secret dossier that vanishes with his boss. Determined to discover the contents of this memorandum, Howard runs afoul of Russian spies, ancient demons, and apostles of a hideous cult planning to raise the Eater of Souls from the undead.

After being murdered by a mystery assailant, navigating his way through the realm between life and death, and being brought back to the mortal world, Harry realizes that maybe death wasn’t all that bad - because he is no longer Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard. He is now Harry Dresden, Winter Knight to Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness. After Harry had no choice but to swear his fealty, Mab wasn’t about to let something as petty as death steal away the prize she had sought for so long.

The paranormal world just can't seem to cut Ren a break. Just when she thought she could finally settle into normal - well, relatively normal - life as the last of the dragon shifters with her four alpha mates, she finds her people on the brink of a supernatural war. The vampires have decided all shifter kind must be exterminated, and they've got the firepower to make good on that goal. Ren's got plenty of fire of her own, of course. But she's only one dragon, and there are a whole lot of vampires.

Reyna Carpenter was promised paradise. She was delivered into hell. Giving up her body for money was supposed to be the hardest part of becoming a blood escort. She never expected to lose her heart to her dark, enigmatic boss, Beckham Anderson. After being taken by a depraved captor who plans to rule the world, Reyna will do anything to return to Beckham. She just has to find the will to survive this game.

The Drood Matriarch has been murdered, exposing the family to powerful, evil factions and throwing the world into turmoil. A Satanic presence is growing, and although Edwin has always been something of an outsider, he’ll have to rise to the occasion to help thwart the menace and save his people.

Waking up in a tacky coffin and wearing off-brand shoes, Betsy Taylor can't believe the horrible turn her life has taken; then she discovers she's a vampire. Soon, Betsy becomes a participant in a power struggle between the forces of darkness. With only her friend Jessica and the hunky vampire Sinclair to help her, this new "Queen of Vampires" will have a tough time getting her afterlife straight.

Life as Aileen knew it ended when she woke up in a morgue sporting a new set of fangs after a wild night out. Now, as a courier for the supernatural world, she balances figuring out this whole vampire thing with making enough to support her ice cream habit. When a job goes disastrously awry and ends with a body on the ground, Aileen finds herself in over her head as she draws the attention of a powerful creature intent on her death.

All the creatures of the night gather in "the Hollows" of Cincinnati, to hide, to prowl, to party...and to feed. Vampires rule the darkness in a predator-eat-predator world rife with dangers beyond imagining - and it’s Rachel Morgan’s job to keep that world civilized. A bounty hunter and a witch with serious sex appeal and an attitude, she’ll bring ’em back alive, dead...or undead.

The fight at the cemetery was hard-won. But from the enemy's perspective, the cemetery was just a minor outpost. Blackmoon Bay is ground zero for their entire operation, and it's no longer simply the home we're desperate to reclaim. It's the spark that will eventually set the whole world on fire. If we fail, we will all die. Witches, shifters, vampires, demons, fae, and humankind. None will be left standing. Not one soul but the few who've masterminded the entire collapse.

Who would suspect that the same mind that created the most famous literary detective of all time also took on the eternally popular genre of vampires? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a contemporary of Bram Stoker, gave us some fascinating works of vampire fiction. From the bloodsucking plant in "The American's Tale" to the bloodsucking wife in "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire," he reveled in the horror created by creatures who survived on the blood of men and women.

It's hard being the youngest in a family of witches known for their power. It's even harder when that magical power has all but passed you by. Still, I was doing okay for myself. I like to think I was proving to the rest of my family that magic wasn't a requirement to living. Then Aunt Opal became the prime suspect in a murder investigation. Wouldn't you know it would happen right when everyone else in the family but me was out of town. Now it's up to me to prove her innocence, and a little magic could go a long way in helping me do that.