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.

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.

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.

Twelve. Twelve of the deadliest beasts ever forged in the fires of hell have escaped onto our plane, and they want nothing more than to rip out the jugular of Charley Davidson and serve her lifeless, mangled body to Satan for dinner. So there's that. But Charley has more on her plate than a mob of testy hellhounds. For one thing, her father has disappeared, and the more she retraces his last steps, the more she learns he was conducting an investigation of his own, one that has Charley questioning everything she's ever known about him.

It’s been two years since the vampiric virus was unleashed in The Strain and the entire world now lies on the brink of annihilation. There has been a mass extermination of humans orchestrated by the Master - an ancient vampire possessed of unparalleled powers. The future of humankind lies in the hands of a ragtag band of freedom fighters - Dr. Eph Goodweather, Dr. Nora Martinez, Vasiliy Fet, and Mr. Quinlan, the half-breed offspring of the Master who is bent on revenge. It’s their job to overturn this devastating new world order.

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.

Vicki Nelson, formerly of Toronto’s homicide unit and now a private detective, witnesses the first of many vicious attacks that begin plaguing the city of Toronto. As death follows unspeakable death, Vicki, in an attempt to stop these forces of dark magic, is forced to renew her relationship with her former partner, Mike Celluci - along with another, unexpected ally…. Henry Fitzroy, the illegitimate son of King Henry VIII, has learned over the course of his life how to blend with humans; how to deny the call for blood in his veins.

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.

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.

In a small village in New York, Charley Davidson is living as Jane Doe, a girl with no memory of who she is or where she came from. So when she is working at a diner and slowly begins to realize she can see dead people, she's more than a little taken aback. Stranger still are the people entering her life. They seem to know things about her. Things they hide with lies and half truths. Soon she senses something far darker. A force that wants to cause her harm, she is sure of it.

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.

Vampire hunter Anita Blake is called on to raise the dead - while trying to suppress her ever-growing feelings for a certain wereleopard.

It is the summer of 2013, and Abigail Kamara has been left to her own devices. This might, by those who know her, be considered a mistake. While her cousin, police constable and apprentice wizard Peter Grant, is off in the sticks chasing unicorns, Abigail is chasing her own mystery. Teenagers around Hampstead Heath have been going missing, but before the police can get fully engaged, the teens return home - unharmed but vague about where they've been.

Everybody’s favorite over-the-top circus performers travel to Hemlock Cove, where they meet a group of witches they didn’t see coming, before heading to the Detroit area and visiting Poet Parker’s old stomping grounds. There, they come across a family of snarky reapers who challenge their world view...and a group of at-risk street kids who are in danger of being swallowed whole by a dark enemy. Finally, they stop at Mammoth Caves, where vampires (and something a little more sinister) seem to be taking over a small town and leaving nothing but devastation in their wake.

The Cajun dive in the middle of the godforsaken swamps wasn't exactly Trap Dawkins' idea of fun. But the GhostWalker wasn't there for a good time. He was looking for her. Cayenne. It's where she found her victims. Poor suckers. Then again, who wouldn't want to leave a place like this with a woman like her? It's not Cayenne's fault. Locked up, experimented on, and never knowing kindness, she was bred this way - with a heart of pure venom. Trap understands her.

As a part-time PI and full-time grim reaper, Charley Davidson has asked a lot of questions throughout her life: Why can I see dead people? Who is the hot supernatural entity following me? How do I get gum out of my sister's hair before she wakes up? But "how do I trap not one malevolent god but three?" was never among them. Until now. And since those gods are on earth to kill her daughter, she has little choice but to track them down, trap them, and cast them from this dimension. There's just one problem. One of the three stole her heart a very long time ago.

Mattie can't remember a time before she and William lived alone on a mountain together. She must never make him upset. But when Mattie discovers the mutilated body of a fox in the woods, she realizes that they’re not alone after all. There’s something in the woods that wasn’t there before, something that makes strange cries in the night, something with sharp teeth and claws. When three strangers appear on the mountaintop looking for the creature in the woods, Mattie knows their presence will anger William. Terrible things happen when William is angry.

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.

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.

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.