Urban Thriller

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.

Je suis de mauvaise humeur, c'est peu dire. Mon père est enfermé derrière des protections magiques infranchissables, Ezra n'a toujours pas pointé le bout de son nez et les elfes ont entamé une guerre civile pour savoir si je serai leur reine ou si je devais mourir d'un carreau d'arbalète dans le cœur. Pour l'instant, je constate que la deuxième hypothèse est la mieux partie, vu le nombre de tentatives d'assassinat dont je suis la cible.

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.

"My name is Rylee, and I am a Tracker." When children go missing, and the Humans have no leads, I'm the one they call. I am their last hope in bringing home the lost ones. I salvage what they cannot. Bringing my allies together as war approaches is my number one concern. But that means I have to play nice with a vampire who is blackmailing me. If I don’t, I’m screwed and my family is dead. But I don't play nice. And I have a backup plan. Kinda.

After what was supposed to be a simple job, Raven and Christian uncover a sinister plot against the higher authority, and the stakes are as high as the body count. The assassins are merciless, with anyone who stands in their way becoming collateral damage. Meanwhile, Raven is still struggling to make sense of her feelings for Christian following a memory wipe. During a blackout, the city erupts into chaos. With Breed on the brink of war, Keystone has only 24 hours to complete a secret mission. Raven seeks help from the most unlikely of places, but at what cost?

In this delightful 15th installment, Mma Ramotswe has her hands full both at home and in the office. To add to her current challenges, her devoted partner, Grace Makutsi, has decided to branch out on her own and open The Handsome Man's Deluxe Cafe. But even “Miss 97 Per Cent” can't quite meet all the demands of running a business - not to mention those that a lightning strike makes on her building.

Scarlet Sanderson isn't a paranormal being per se, but she's no stranger to things that go bump in the night. She's had the ability to see and speak with ghosts since she was eight years old. Whether it's a gift or a curse is still up for debate. She moved to the picturesque town of Beechwood Harbor to open a flower shop and start a new life after years of being a nomad. What she didn't expect to find was a town filled with witches, vampires, shape-shifters, and ghosts. So, so many ghosts.

Paranormal private eye. Grim reaper extraordinaire. Whatever. Charley Davidson is back in Darynda Jones' Third Grave Dead Ahead! And she’s drinking copious amounts of caffeine to stay awake because, every time she closes her eyes, she sees him: Reyes Farrow, the parthuman, part-supermodel son of Satan. Yes, she did imprison him for all eternity, but come on.

Vampire hunter and zombie animator Anita Blake is an expert at sniffing out the bad from the good. But in The Lunatic Cafe - now in trade paperback for the first time - she's about to learn that nothing is ever as it seems, especially in matters of the not-so-human heart. Dating a werewolf with self-esteem issues is stressing Anita out. Especially when something - or someone - starts taking out the city's shapeshifters.

The ghosts of Myrtle Beach are restless, trapped by love, secrets, scandals, and spells, keeping Simon busy protecting the living from the unhappy dead. Someone from Vic's past is out to destroy him and everyone he holds dear, and the high-profile trial of the first case Simon and Vic worked together puts them in the spotlight - and put a target on their backs. As a deadly trap closes around them, can Simon and Vic tie up the loose ends to stop the threat, or will they become the newest ghosts of the Grand Strand?

There's always one more grave to dig. Lately, life has been unnaturally calm for vampires Cat Crawfield and her husband, Bones. They should have known better than to relax their guard, because a shocking revelation sends them back into action to stop an all-out war…. A rogue CIA agent is involved in horrifying secret activities that threaten to raise tensions between humans and the undead to dangerous heights. Now Cat and Bones are in a race against time to save their friends from a fate worse than death…because the more secrets they unravel, the deadlier the consequences.

Betrayed, shattered, and transformed. Sick of everyone’s crap, can this snarky lone wolf find belonging, respect, and love? Lark Emerson vaguely remembers being happy. After catching her husband and her sister in the sack, the IT professional walks away from twenty-seven years of marriage and takes a job on the border of a shifter community. But after a rogue pack storms her office and attacks, to her horror she’s captured and savaged. Wounded and ill, the forty-something limps home and is shocked when her injuries rapidly heal, her eyesight sharpens, and noise hurts her ears.

Moving into a rundown Victorian house with a vampire living in the basement isn’t as bad as I thought, but things go from weird to weirder when a badly injured gnome collapses in my back yard. The surprising part? It’s my friend Nin’s long-lost grandfather. Since he’s unconscious, we can’t figure out who’s chasing him or where he’s been all these years, but if we can’t help him, he’ll die. To make matters worse, there’s a new dragon in town. A female dragon.

Je m'appelle Anna et je vis depuis 4 ans dans le village de Sona, sûrement le plus calme et tranquille du monde depuis l'ouverture des portails. Enfin, ça c'était jusqu'à ce que Vlad, un fichu chevalier - oui, je les déteste - décide de venir mourir sur mon pas de porte. Bien sûr que je n'ai pas pu le laisser rendre son dernier souffle. Mais peut être aurais-je mieux fait ? Avec lui, les ennuis ont débarqué : en plus d'avoir des mercenaires aux fesses, Ersera, la servante des dieux, ne me lâche plus.

The streets are about to explode…and Puyallup’s local paranormal investigator Jimmy Kincaid is caught right in the middle of it. The neighborhood’s criminal syndicates are on the brink of all-out war, and if they go at it, the streets will run red—literally. But Jimmy’s got more problems. Someone’s sending him a particular message by sending him severed limbs. And then there’s the hitmen coming after him. Last but not least, he’s got to broker a deal between the biggest elven street gang in Seattle and a vicious Triad gang—and not get himself killed in the bargain.

Amber Farrell, Denver PI and hybrid paranormal, is hunting a rogue Were through the secret heart of her hometown. Without the help she needs from Denver's paranormal community, she's unsure whether she can keep ahead of her own lethal problems long enough to catch the rogue.

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.

Layla Shaw is trying to pick up the pieces of her shattered life - no easy task for a 17-year-old who's pretty sure things can't get worse. Her impossibly gorgeous best friend, Zayne, is forever off-limits thanks to the mysterious powers of her soul-stealing kiss. The Warden clan that has always protected her is suddenly keeping dangerous secrets. And she can barely think about Roth, the wickedly hot demon prince who understood her in ways no one else could.

My name's Elle. Princess Arielle, for those who know about my past. Cursed by my own father, now I'm banished to Grimm. I'm a siren, killer, and one of the best damned cold-case detectives in all of the bloody realms. I don't stop until I discover the truth. My next case sends me to Wonderland, a harrowing place of madness and dark secrets. I'd rather be landlocked than step foot on that tainted soil, but I don't have a choice after discovering Alice's bloodstained ribbon and a bandicoot's claw covered in blood beside two stiffs at the Charmings' castle.

Okay, so I'm in trouble. Big trouble. I'm broke. Worse, my boyfriend of five years just dumped me. What do I do? I move in with my three eccentric aunts in their family home, Davenport House. Sounds exciting, only this massive farmhouse likes to eat men. If I were a regular human, I would have run out screaming like a banshee. As a witch - I do absolutely nothing. Hey, maybe they deserved it? I'm back in Hollow Cove, the flamboyant paranormal community, where nymphs, werewolves, trolls, shifters, witches, and other paranormals live comfortable lives away from prying human eyes.