Urban Mystery Thrillers

Relationships are challenging enough for most single over-30 women. For level-10 parasensitive Clare Lancaster, they're a minefield. The elite few who know her secret call her a human lie detector, and any falsehood, no matter how subtle or well hidden, sets her blood racing. Over the years, Clare has come to accept that someone with her extraordinary talents is unlikely to find a suitable mate. But a murder investigation with an unusual man may change that.

When the road forks, how do you know which path is the right one? Raven Black hunts evildoers for fun, but her vigilante justice isn't the only reason she's hiding from the law. Half vampire, half mage, she's spent years living as a rogue to stay alive. When a Russian shifter offers her a job in his covert organization hunting outlaws, dignity and a respectable career are finally within her grasp.

All Callyn thought about was surviving each day and making it through senior year. All that changed the day she met her four mates. Zeke, Graydon, Lucian, and Maximus gave her something else she desperately needed...hope. After barely surviving at the hands of her abusive father, Callyn learns something about herself. She is shifter royalty and the next Alpha Queen. With her father in jail and her aunt on her way to Camden Falls, Callyn hopes that she can lead some sort of normal life. She quickly realizes that's not going to be the case.

There are a lot of monsters in Anita Blake's life. And some of them are human. One such individual is the man she calls Edward, a bounty hunter who specializes in the preternatural. He calls her to help him hunt down the greatest evil she has ever encountered - something that kills and maims and vanishes into the night. Something Anita will have to face alone.

With the birth of their son Asher, Harper and Knox are both more powerful and more vulnerable than they've ever been before. Asher's charm has seduced even the devil himself, but Harper knows that the real villain is still out there and as desperate as ever to see the Primes fall. They're laying low, and there's no way to tell which one of their circle is really a deadly foe. When the final horseman makes their move, Harper and Knox will have to use all the considerable power at their disposal.

Twenty-something Harper Connelly has a gift. After being struck by lighting as a child, she discovered an eerie ability to locate the deceased. In Memphis, skeptical Professor Nunley wants her to demonstrate that skill at an ancient cemetery. There, Harper stands atop a grave and says there are two bodies entombed: one centuries old, but the other, a young girl named Tabitha.

Local gangster Dante (Jack Boy) knows more than anybody how dangerous and ruthless the streets can be. But against his better instincts, he allows himself to fall for a local female gangster named Alinna, considered to be somewhat of a competitor to Dante because she leads her own all female crew. Alinna, too, is very well aware of the dangers that come with letting feelings get in the way of business. But like Dante, she decides to embrace the attraction anyway. That however proves to be a mistake when she discovers Dante is two-timing her with a female gang unit officer.

When Lucy Swift's cousin Violet decides to take over as the fortune teller at Moreton-under-Wychwood's annual summer fête, Lucy thinks being her assistant will be a fun way to spend a Saturday. That is, until someone's murdered, and the locals turn on Violet, who foresaw the death. To save her, Lucy and her band of undead amateur sleuths have to find out what's really going on in this charming Cotswolds village. What better way than to offer knitting classes? No one has to know that the teacher is a vampire.

For more than 30 years, Ellen Datlow has been at the center of horror. Bringing you the most frightening and terrifying stories, Datlow always has her finger on the pulse of what horror fans crave. Now, with the 11th volume of the series, Daltow's back again to bring you the stories that will keep you up at night. With each passing year, science, technology, and the march of time shine light into the craggy corners of the universe, making the fears of an earlier generation seem quaint. This light creates its own shadows. The Best Horror of the Year chronicles these shifting shadows.

When radical terrorists take hostages in Indonesia, Captain Ezekiel Fortunes is called to lead the rescue team. Part of a classified government experiment, Zeke is a super soldier with enhanced abilities. He can see better, run faster, disappear when necessary, and hunt the enemy along any terrain. There are those in the world willing to do anything for power like that. A formidable spy genetically engineered to hide in plain sight, Bellisia rarely meets a man who doesn't want to control her or kill her. But Zeke's different.

Librarian Sherry Pinkwhistle keeps finding bodies—and solving murders. But she's concerned by just how many killers she's had to track down in her quaint village. None of her neighbors seem surprised by the rising body count...but Sherry is becoming convinced that whatever has been causing these deaths is unnatural. When someone close to Sherry ends up dead, and her cat, Lord Thomas Crowell, becomes possessed by what seems to be an ancient demon, Sherry begins to think she’s going to need to become an exorcist as well as an amateur sleuth.

This is the 1927 book that years later inspired the movie of the same name. It is a book about criminal violence, corrupt politics and police, and illicit sex. The City of New York, from the late colonial period up to the early twentieth century, was a bustling hub of commerce, industry, and immigration. For many the city was the gateway to a new life in America, and for many others it was a place to steal a buck from their fellow New Yorkers and visitors to the city with thievery, fraud, and vice—in neighborhoods such as the Five Points, the Bowery, Hells Kitchen, and the Water Front.

Athena and Rosemary must embark on a perilous journey to the Underworld. Along the way, they uncover clues about a prophecy and encounter allies and adversaries in the dream realm. As they get closer to their goal, they face unexpected challenges, and true motives are revealed. Can they unravel the mysteries of the past before it's too late? The fate of the future hangs in the balance in this magical tale of fae, gods, and ancient prophecies.

Dr. Dylan Reinhart wrote the book on criminal behavior. Literally - he's a renowned, best-selling Ivy League expert on the subject. When a copy of his book turns up at a gruesome murder scene - along with a threatening message from the killer - it looks like someone has been taking notes. Elizabeth Needham is the headstrong and brilliant NYPD Detective in charge of the case who recruits Dylan to help investigate another souvenir left at the scene - a playing card. Another murder, another card - and now Dylan suspects that the cards aren't a signature, they're a deadly hint.

Rosemary's chocolate shop is thriving with the help of Papa Jack, but it isn't long before the town is under attack by mysterious swampy monsters, and the local election reveals a dark side to the normally peaceful village. Meanwhile, despite her mother's reservations, Athena is determined to embark on a journey into the fae realm to uncover her heritage and play a role in forging a treaty between magical beings. Join Rosemary and Athena as they navigate vampire politics, pesky pixies, complicated magical family dynamics, and feisty familiars!

Vitus Adamson is falling apart. As a pre-deceased private investigator, he takes the prescription Atroxipine hourly to keep his undead body upright and functioning. Whenever he is injured, he seeks Niko, a bombshell mortician with bedroom eyes and a way with corpses, to piece him back together. Decomposition, however, is the least of his worries when two clients posing his most dangerous job yet appear at his door looking for their lost son.

With a name like Quinn Calahan, I sounded as Irish as a leprechaun dancing a jig on a four leafed clover, but the truth was, I’d never been closer to the emerald isle than drinking green beer at the St Patrick’s day street party in Boston until I messed up so badly I had to leave the US. I was offered a job in a tiny village in Ireland that no one’s ever heard of. And I think that was the point in sending me there.

There's a witch running loose in the town of Excelsior, Minnesota, and her brew is…beer. Actually, Leona Cunningham, co-owner of The Barleywine, is a practitioner of Wicca, which many mistakenly believe to be sorcery or black magic. Then, after one too many pints, local alcohol aficionado Ryan McMurphy accuses Leona of being a real witch, blaming her for the series of accidents. When Ryan ends up dead, without a mark on his body, Leona is not only the target of a witch hunt but also the prime suspect.

Nell is a rookie PsyLED agent, using the powers she can channel from deep within the earth to solve paranormal crimes. Nell is called to the Tennessee mansion of a country music star and finds a disturbing scene - dead bodies rapidly decaying before everyone's eyes. The witch on her team, T. Laine, has never seen magic that can steal life forces like this. PsyLED needs to find this lethal killer fast. But when a paranormal-hating FBI agent tries to derail the investigation and the dark magics begin to spiral out of control, they find themselves under attack from all sides.

Trick Baby tells the story of White Folks, a blue-eyed, light-haired con artist whose pale skin allows him to pass in the streets as a white man. Folks is tormented early in life, rejected by other children and branded a "trick baby," a child conceived between a hooker and her trick. Refusing to abandon his life in the ghetto and a chance at revenge, Folks is taken under the wing of an older mentor, Blue. What happens next is unbelievable.