Urban Mystery Thrillers

Vitus Adamson has a second chance at life now that he's no longer a zombie. But after killing his brother, Jamie, Vitus lands in prison on murder charges. Jamie's death exposes secret government projects so deep in the black they cannot be seen - without Vitus, that is. Sprung from jail, the government hires Vitus to clean up Jamie's messes, but tracking down his brother's homemade monsters gone rogue is easier said than done. The first of them is a convicted killer assumed to be safely behind bars.

It is the spring of 1895, and more than a decade of combating eldritch entities has cost Dr. John Watson his beloved wife Mary, and has nearly broken the health of Sherlock Holmes. Yet the companions do not hesitate when they are called to the infamous Bedlam lunatic asylum, where they find an inmate speaking in R’lyehian, the language of the Old Ones. Moreover, the man is horribly scarred and has no memory of who he is. The detectives discover that he was once a scientist, a student of Miskatonic University, and one of two survivors of a doomed voyage down the Miskatonic River.

Life on magical parole can be a real witch… I’ve got a final shot at freedom, but when my strongest ally is found murdered, everything is on the line—including my own life. With my rag-tag band of supernatural friends in tow, I have to launch my biggest—and most dangerous—investigation yet. I’ve got to stop the killer without setting off the SPA’s alarms or else I can kiss my last chance goodbye.

A family secret catapults Rory into a magical library - and a new life she never knew she wanted. Bookshop assistant Aurora "Rory" Hawthorn thinks reality will never be as interesting as fiction. Content to spend her time escaping into a good book to escape her micromanaging boss, the very last thing she expects is to be cornered by a group of terrifying strangers hunting down a journal that belonged to her late father.

On a quest to find her sister's killer, Mac is a major player in a deadly game, but with one great advantage: she knows how to find the Sinsar Dubh, an ancient book of magic so dark it corrupts anyone who touches it. What Mac soon discovers is worse than she had imagined. Surrounded by treachery, her enemies indistinguishable from her allies, she can be certain of only one thing: as All Hallows' Eve approaches, her time is running out.

Pagan revelry and morris dancing in the middle of a very cold winter set the scene for one of Ngaio Marsh’s most fascinating murder mysteries. When the pesky Anna Bünz arrives at Mardian to investigate the rare survival of folk dancing still practised there, she quickly antagonizes the villagers. But Mrs Bünz is not the only source of friction - two of the other enthusiasts are also spoiling for a fight.

Anthony Award-winning author Charlaine Harris has earned a devoted fan base with her USA Today and New York Times best-selling Sookie Stackhouse mystery series. All Together Dead features more dark but frequently hilarious adventures of buxom, blonde, beautiful, and telepathic cocktail waitress Sookie, who prefers the company of vampires to that of the living.

I’m Val Thorvald, assassin of magical bad guys and tenuous ally to the dragon lord Zav. He still calls me a mongrel and thinks I’m a criminal, but he healed my wounds after we fought those dark elves together. That’s progress, right? Maybe one day, he’ll deign to use my name. Not that this is my primary concern. I’m busy with a new assignment. Nin, the awesome lady who makes my magical weapons, has a werewolf problem. Specifically, sleazy loser werewolf competitors who want to drive her out of business. Or worse.

In The Killing Dance, vampire hunter Anita Blake finds herself the victim when a $500,000 price is put on her head, and the two men in her life-a vampire and a werewolf-aren't helping the situation.

Welcome to Starry Hollow, where spells were made to be broken.

James Stark, a.k.a. Sandman Slim, crawled out of Hell, took bloody revenge for his girlfriend’s murder, and saved the world along the way. After that, what do you do for an encore? You take a lousy job tracking down monsters for money. It’s a depressing gig, but it pays for your beer and cigarettes. But in L.A., things can always get worse. Like when Lucifer comes to town to supervise his movie biography and drafts Stark as his bodyguard.

With her knack for being in trouble's way, Sookie witnesses the firebombing of Merlotte's, the bar where she works. Since Sam Merlotte is now known to be two-natured, suspicion falls immediately on the anti-shifters in the area. Sookie suspects otherwise, but her attention is divided when she realizes that her lover, Eric Northman, and his "child", Pam, are plotting to kill the vampire who is now their master. Gradually, Sookie is drawn into the plot - which is much more complicated than she knows.

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.

Tracking down Aunt Lavender's kidnapper is proving to be more difficult than running through a swimming pool filled with peanut butter. Every lead we uncover ends with more questions than answers.

In a poisonous cloud of spray, the curtain falls on a drama queen. Little did beloved British actress Mary Bellamy know that she would be done in at her own birthday party - choked by toxic mist from the bottle of Slaypest, a deadly insecticide. Basking in the glow of her most adoring fans - who all happened to be her most duplicitous enemies - Mary would make her final performance.

Eugenie Markham is a shaman for hire, paid to bind and banish creatures from the Otherworld. But after her last battle, she's also become queen of the Thorn Land. It may sound nice, but her kingdom is in tatters, her love life is in chaos, and Eugenie is eager to avoid a prophecy about her firstborn destroying mankind. Now young girls are disappearing from the Otherworld, and no one - except Eugenie - is willing to find out why.

In this genre-twisting novel, infamous necromancer Johannes Cabal, after beating the Devil and being reunited with his soul, leads us on another raucous journey in a little-known corner of the world. This time he’s on the run from the local government.

Magic & Malice: When Ember Rose is tasked with covering the birthday party of a wealthy 200-year-old matriarch for the local paper's society section, she doesn't bank on the guest of honor dying before the cake is served. Magic & Mythos: A murder in Starry Hollow forces Ember to team up with her law enforcement nemesis—leprechaun Deputy Bolan. Magic & Mishaps: Ember Rose is working hard to smooth the path for her relationship with the stoic vampire Alec Hale. She hits a massive bump, however, when a body is discovered drained of blood and Alec is one of the key suspects.

Three months after saving the world, Ezri is still finding the balance between being the savior and being a cop. When young girls in the magical community go missing, she doesn’t hesitate to take the case. Not when one of the victims is her partner’s niece. The investigation leads her back into the orbit of her greatest enemy. With leads drying up, Ezri needs all the allies she can get. Will the rapidly shrinking window to bring the girls home alive close before Ezri can summon enough power to counteract the dark magic at play?

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.