Urban Mystery Thrillers

When Shai is caught replacing the Moon Scepter with her nearly flawless forgery, she must bargain for her life. An assassin has left the Emperor Ashravan without consciousness, a circumstance concealed only by the death of his wife. If the emperor does not emerge after his hundred-day mourning period, the rule of the Heritage Faction will be forfeit and the empire will fall into chaos.

From award-winning author Walter Mosley comes the third work featuring hardened ex-con turned street philosopher Socrates Fortlow. Organizing other troubled individuals, Socrates starts the Thursday Night Thinkers' Meeting, in which members discuss "the world and what would be the right thing to do."

After learning on her sixtieth birthday that she’s one of five Crones destined to save the world, Claire Emerson has been desperately trying to acquire the lifetime of magic she missed out on. But the mages who are out to destroy everything she loves aren’t waiting, and when one of the other Crones ends up on Claire’s doorstep—wounded and unconscious—Claire knows she’s out of time. Leaving the safety of her warded house, she goes in search of the remaining Crones… only to find them under siege by the mages and their nearly indestructible monster.

A number-one New York Times best-selling author, Charlaine Harris penned the addictive Sookie Stackhouse series. In Day Shift psychic Manfred Bernardo is hounded by the press after a client drops dead during a reading. Turning to the local vampire's lover for help, Manfred hopes she can put the squeeze on the scandal before someone else is put on ice.

Zephyr, Alabama, is an idyllic hometown for eleven-year-old Cory Mackenson - a place where monsters swim the river deep and friends are forever. Then, one cold spring morning, Cory and his father witness a car plunge into a lake - and a desperate rescue attempt brings his father face-to-face with a terrible, haunting vision of death. As Cory struggles to understand his father's pain, his eyes are slowly opened to the forces of good and evil that surround him.

I survived the Obsidian Order's first series of trials. I stopped a madman from putting a massive crater in the middle of NYC. Good job, Seline, but that was only the beginning. As I take on my silver trials, friends become competition, competitors turn ruthless, and I still can't touch my magic without it nearly killing me every time I do. If I don't win these trials I'll get left behind, and I've been promised that won't be good for me. If that weren't enough, the infuriatingly sexy Draven asks me to accompany him on a mission to retrieve an item of incredible magical power.

Step Fletcher, his pregnant wife DeAnne, and their three children move to Steuben, North Carolina, with high hopes. But Step's new job with a software company turns out to be a snake pit, and 8-year-old Stevie's school is worse. As Stevie retreats into himself, focusing more and more on a mysterious computer game and a growing troop of imaginary friends, the Fletchers' concern turns to terror.

When my quirky Aunt Rose asks me, an American barista, to help open a hip espresso café near the Welsh and English border, I jumped at the chance. What better way to celebrate my 36th birthday and try to ignore the second anniversary of my boyfriend’s death? Misty Valley isn’t just your average Welsh village. This one is full of fae like pixies, orcs, and leprechauns, and now me. My special power, other than making great espresso? I can see and hear ghosts.

Myfanwy Thomas awakes in a London park surrounded by dead bodies. With her memory gone, her only hope of survival is to trust the instructions left in her pocket by her former self. She quickly learns that she is a Rook, a high-level operative in a secret agency that protects the world from supernatural threats. But there is a mole inside the organization - and this person wants her dead.

Constance Campbell learned on her 40th birthday that she comes from a long line of witches. Now, struggling to learn her magic, Constance dives deeper into her family's sordid past. Constance vows to find the truth behind her mother's disappearance. She's determined to seek out the Faction, an order of witches and warlocks vying for power in the supernatural world. But when Constance's father shows up looking a little ghostly pale and see-through, she has other problems to solve.

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.

Mary Jekyll’s life has been peaceful since she helped Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson solve the Whitechapel Murders. Beatrice Rappaccini, Catherine Moreau, Justine Frankenstein, and Mary’s sister Diana Hyde have settled into the Jekyll household in London, and although they sometimes quarrel, they can always rely on Mrs. Poole. But when Mary receives a telegram that Lucinda Van Helsing has been kidnapped, the Athena Club must travel to the Austro-Hungarian Empire to rescue yet another young woman who has been subjected to horrific experimentation.

The place, the rugged coast of Northern California. A bluff high above the Pacific. A grand mansion full of beauty and tantalizing history set against a towering redwood forest.

For his entire life, Charley Sutherland has concealed a magical ability he can't quite control: He can bring characters from books into the real world. His older brother, Rob - a young lawyer with a normal house, a normal fiancee, and an utterly normal life - hopes that this strange family secret will disappear with disuse, and he will be discharged from his life's duty of protecting Charley and the real world from each other. But then, literary characters start causing trouble in their city, making threats about destroying the world...and for once, it isn't Charley's doing.

Thanks to his relationship with the ancient Druid Atticus O'Sullivan, Oberon the Irish wolfhound knows trouble when he smells it - and furthermore, he knows he can handle it. When he discovers that a prizewinning poodle has been abducted in Eugene, Oregon, he learns that it's part of a rash of hound abductions all over the Pacific Northwest. Since the police aren't too worried about dogs they assume have run away, Oberon knows it's up to him to track down those hounds and reunite them with their humans. For justice! And gravy!

Life was a whole lot easier when the dead stayed dead. I thought I was human. Apparently, I was wrong. I didn't even know there were non-humans. Others, they're called. Fairies, vampires, even the bogeyman - they're all real. At least, that's what the werewolf told me when I saved her from the cops. Did I mention that I saved a werewolf? And those weren't just cops trying to kill her. They're a deadly cult with the sole purpose of capturing and torturing Others...especially me. Because it turns out I'm not just any Other. I can talk to the dead.

Though classified as having no magic, Neve March can hear the whispers of the wind and sometimes even control it. But it's a secret she must hold close if she wishes to continue as Nightwatch - the soldiers who guard Winterborne against those who roam the wastelands and feast on human flesh. When Neve investigates a faint SOS signal, she not only unearths a woman close to death, but a plot involving an ancient enemy long thought dead.

“Come home.” Vera’s mother called and Vera obeyed. In spite of their long estrangement, in spite of the memories — she's come back to the home of a serial killer. Back to face the love she had for her father and the bodies he buried there, beneath the house he'd built for his family.

Meet Detective Zaniel Havelock, a man with the special ability to communicate directly with angels. A former trained Angel speaker, he devoted his life to serving both the celestial beings and his fellow humans with his gift, but a terrible betrayal compelled him to leave that life behind. Now he’s a cop who is still working on the side of angels. But where there are angels, there are also demons.

Life’s always an adventure for the Athena Club...especially when one of their own has been kidnapped! After their thrilling European escapades rescuing Lucina van Helsing, Mary Jekyll, and her friends return home to discover that their friend and kitchen maid Alice has vanished - and so has their friend and employer Sherlock Holmes! As they race to find Alice and bring her home safely, they discover that Alice and Sherlock’s kidnapping are only one small part of a plot that threatens Queen Victoria, and the very future of the British Empire.