Urban Thriller

Trisk and her hated rival, Kal, have the same goal: save their species from extinction. But death comes in the guise of hope when a genetically modified tomato created to feed the world combines with the government's new tactical virus, giving it an unexpected host and a mode of transport. Plague rises, giving the paranormal species the choice to stay hidden and allow humanity to die or to show themselves in a bid to save them.

Perhaps best known for his No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, #1 New York Times best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith delights fans around the world with his warmhearted 44 Scotland Street novels. In the series’ sixth entry, the residents of 44 Scotland Street grapple with problems both trivial and severe, but none so great as when six-year-old Bertie Pollock - who longs to be seven - mislays his mum and learns a valuable lesson about wish fulfillment.

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.

When I arrive in Oakleaf Glade to claim an inheritance, I imagine it'll run to a few hundred in a savings account. Instead, I receive an entire house! I'd thank my lucky stars except for the experiences that come part and parcel with the arrangement. Things like my hair turning bright pink and trending skywards, or a kitten who I swear can understand me when I talk. But when a ghost shrieks me awake at night, warning that if I stay I'll die just like my great aunt Esmerelda, I'm ready to put my boots on.

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.

Hannah Miles navigates the etiquette of monster hunting through the parlours of a magical Regency England. This collection contains: Manners and Monsters, Galvanism and Ghouls, and Gossip and Gorgons.

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.

Rosemary and Athena are just settling into their new life in the unapologetically magical village of Myrtlewood. After so many years in financial turmoil, things are looking up. Rosemary even nabs the perfect part-time job while waiting on a certain handsome vampire lawyer to process her inheritance. Life is surprisingly peaceful until strange disappearances throw everything into chaos leading up to the Spring Equinox.

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.

Into Anita Blake's world - a world already overflowing with power - come creatures so feared that centuries-old vampires refuse to mention their names.

The Beechwood Inn for paranormal beings is opening its doors once again, and the first event following the hiatus is a fairy godmother conference. When the godmothers arrive, I expect them to bust out their knitting projects and sip tea, while they swap recipes and sweet stories of their cherubic charges. So, when the sitting room turns into a defensive magic combat zone and a boot camp style obstacle course is erected in the manor's backyard, I'm more than a little thrown off. Then the curse gets unleashed.

"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. O’Shea is AWOL, and Tracking him is proving to be harder than I expected. Not to mention the small fact that I have the Beast of Bodmin Moor chasing me across Europe, in a race against the odds, and my life as the prize. But those things are minor compared to the secrets that finally come to light. Secrets I wish had stayed hidden in the darkness....

Raven loves the night life, chasing women and her next high. Men and women fall under her spell at first sight, but she only has eyes for women. She accepts all shapes, sizes, and forms, for they are mere pawns in the quest to feed her cravings. She has a little secret, though - one that could have catastrophic results for anyone who encounters her, one that could lead Raven into a sticky situation - but her cravings are too powerful for her to resist. Will her little secret come back with a vengeance?

I've always wanted to meet a mermaid, but when I finally get my chance on New Year's Eve, the circumstances are far darker than I'd imagined. One of the mermaids isn't what she appears to be, and if I don't find a way to break the spell, she will never be herself again. With strange magic in the air and a dangerous force lurking in the shadows, I have to find the truth and keep myself from being the next one to wind up caught in the sorcerer's web.

Helen Lambert has lived several lives-a young piano virtuoso in 1890s Paris, an actress in 1930s Hollywood, a rock star in 1970s Los Angeles - only she doesn't know it. Until she meets a strange man who claims he's watched over her for centuries, bound to her from the beginning. At first, Helen doesn't believe him. Her life is as normal as any other modern career woman's. Then she begins having vivid dreams about ill-fated love and lives cut short. Caught in a curse, Helen will be forced to relive the same tragic events that ruined her previous lives.

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.

As he struggles to control his drug empire and keep his cutthroat girlfriend in check, Kiley Jacoby Abrams has the next several months cut out for him. If that's not enough, he's got more setbacks than one man can handle: an arrogant and troublesome brother, a sneaky playa-hating friend, another friend who turns to him for everything, and a woman who only claims to have his back. Kiley's life is full of secrets from the past. Moving from Los Angeles to St. Louis doesn't allow him the change his heart desires....

First setting: an all-male prep school in Arizona, where two sensitive freshmen form a bond based on their interest in magic tricks. Second setting: the labyrinthine house of a weird magician uncle in New England, where the two boys spend a memorable summer being trained in the art of illusion. Or is it real magic? Third setting: an alternate world where dark forces are at play - forces that first show up at the school, but intensify their power the summer.

Cormac Bennett, ex-con and former bounty hunter, is a paranormal investigator with an edge: His partner is the disembodied spirit of a Victorian wizard, Amelia Parker. Together, they solve problems no one else can. They're asked to investigate a mysterious death in the Sierra Nevadas: a man died of hunger -in a cabin that was fully stocked with provisions. The kicker? The cabin is located near Donner Pass, the site of the gruesomely ill-fated Donner Party, where 40 men, women, and children died of exposure and starvation.