Brilliant biochemist Emma Caldridge is back, except this time there's nowhere to run. . . . Emma Caldridge is on mile thirty-six in an ultramarathon in South Africa when a roadside car bomb explodes. She wakes from the blast to find that a man has injected her with an unknown substance. Shaken by the event, she calls Edward Banner of the security company Darkview for help, but Banner currently has his hands full with another emergency: Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden have attacked a cruise ship, and Darkview has been hired to assist with the rescue. According to intelligence sources, the ship could be carrying a new weapon of unknown origin. Suspecting that it may be chemical in nature, Banner asks Emma to infiltrate the ship and use her professional expertise to identify it. Emma knows it's a risky job and one that she might not survive. But when she learns that special agent Cameron Sumner is among the hostages, nothing will stop her from getting on board, no matter what the cost.

Third in the entertaining adventures of Shakespearean actor and sleuth, Nick Revill It is midsummer in the year 1601. Nick Revill and his fellow actors of the company known as the Chamberlain's Men are journeying across the Wiltshire Downs for a country-house presentation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It should be a pleasant well-paid jaunt to celebrate a noble marriage, but instead the players find themselves in the midst of a tense family atmosphere, somehow linked to the presence of the household's sinister steward. Very soon Nick finds that the Dream has turned into a nightmare, where murder appears commonplace, and before too long he must fight to save his own life against the ancient backdrop of Stonehenge...

Winner of the 1997 Whiting Writers' Award:Taut, persistent, and brilliantly cadenced, First, Body is a testament to the breathtaking virtuosity of Granta-acclaimed author Melanie Rae Thon Through nine searing works of fiction, Melanie Rae Thon looks to the people who live in the borderlands, turning a keen and compassionate eye to those marginalized by circumstance and transgression. Taking us from the cobblestone streets of Boston to a deserted Montana road, from dance halls to hospital morgues, these urgent tales careen between the faults of the body and those of the mind, exploring the irruption of the past through the present, the sudden accidents and misguided passions that make it impossible to return to the safe territory of a former life.

An anomalous kiss. A white turtle ferrying the dreams of the dead. A working siesta in a five-star hotel. A woman’s twelve-metre hair trawling corpses from a river. Or a queue of longings in Darlinghurst. These enigmatic tales are stories of chance and hope. Alternately mythic

From the New York Times bestselling author of Hounded—"a superb urban fantasy debut" (Publishers Weekly, starred review)—comes an Iron Druid Chronicles short story in the captivating Carniepunk anthology.The ancient Druid Atticus O'Sullivan gets more than greasy corn dogs and flat soda when he visits a carnival in Kansas to which his apprentice, Granuaile, drags him. He runs across a barker with a strange power over the crowd: attractive women leave their men and disappear into an unmarked tent, never to be seen again, and the men wander away, forgetting that they ever had girlfriends or wives. When Granuaile falls under the barker's influence and enters the tent, Atticus isn't about to forget it and move on. He and his Irish wolfhound, Oberon, pursue her and discover the horrifying secret to the carnival's success.

Lady Bounty had her heart broken by the libertine Marquess of Woodvale ten years ago. When he comes wooing her, she will have none of it, instead spending her energies on helping a friend break an unwanted betrothal. Nicholas, too, was trying to help a cousin avoid an unsuitable marriage. All their matchmaking schemes become a tangled web, and who’s to sort it out? Regency Romance by Allison Lane; originally published by Signet

One woman's struggle for voting rights places her in danger... and may cost her the love of her life. In 1916, eighteen-year-old Sarah Whittaker is struggling to care for her dying mother when she discovers that the executor of her father's estate is stealing her inheritance. Young lawyer Alex Taylor defends her cause, and in the process, he wins her heart. But his employer opposes the romance, claiming that Sarah's budding political beliefs will threaten Alex's career. Heartbroken yet determined to fight for women's rights, Sarah travels to Washington, DC, where she begins a journey that will lead from the White House gates to the "Night of Terror" in Occoquan Workhouse. Alex rushes to the nation's capital to secure Sarah's freedom, but will he arrive too late?

For all fans of historical fiction and especially readers of Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth Based on a true story, this tale of passion and revenge brings the past vividly to life.  Normandy in 1118 is a hotbed of malcontent barons kept in fragile order by their duke, Henry I, King of England. Fresh from early years in a monastery, Bertold - the bastard son of one of these barons - meets Juliana, a countess and daughter of the King. He falls in love, or lust (he isn't sure), but sees that his chance could come with work in her small court. Soon, though, he finds himself caught up in a ruthless feud between Juliana and her father. Juliana's daughters are offered as hostages for a strategic castle, and even love is not enough to allay a tragedy that will change the course of history.   

"What follows is the transcript from a series of screenshots emailed to the Columbus City Police on June 7th, 2011, and subsequently distributed to the media." Everyone has a page… In the last few years, social networking has exploded as one of the best and easiest means of keeping in touch with people. It increases your visibility, allows the creation of a profile that shows you to the world and lets them know everything about you. Allows anyone to find you. Written mostly as a series of Facebook instant messages and presented as a true-crime case, this short story by Bram Stoker Award-winning author Kealan Patrick Burke illustrates the ease with which innocent associations on the Internet can lead to tragedy…OFFLINE.

Everybody knows there’s no love lost between paranormal investigators Amanda LaGrange and sexy Jacob Caine. They can’t even stand being in the same room together…. Well, unless it’s an enchanted bedroom. And they’re trapped there, at midnight. And the sexual tension suddenly becomes too powerful to resist… Then that bedroom gets really hot, really fast! But come morning, they still can’t keep their hands off each other. Are they cursed forever? If so, neither one’s complaining?. #hotspell_cover.jpg