From the author of Shetland and VeraWhen fifteen-year-old Marilyn Howe turns up alone and frightened on Inspector Ramsay’s doorstep he has little choice but to invite her in. Marilyn and her mother, Kathleen, are a familiar sight around Heppleburn, a strangely inseparable couple. But Kathleen has unaccountably failed to return home that evening, and Marilyn is fearful for her mother’s safety.Ramsay takes the young girl home, to the isolated coastal community known as the Headland. And in the Howes’ dark and cluttered kitchen they find Kathleen safe and apparently well, though acting rather mysteriously. Six months later, Ramsay has more or less forgotten the strange incident, busy as he is on the trail of a local child abductor. Until he receives news that Mrs Howe has disappeared once more. And for the second time he is drawn into the strange relationships of the families living on the lonely Headland. Then a woman’s body is washed up on the beach . . .About the AuthorAnn Cleeves is the author behind ITV's VERA and BBC One's SHETLAND. She has written over twenty-five novels, and is the creator of detectives Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez -- characters loved both on screen and in print. Her books have now sold over 1 million copies worldwide. Ann worked as a probation officer, bird observatory cook and auxiliary coastguard before she started writing. She is a member of 'Murder Squad', working with other British northern writers to promote crime fiction. In 2006 Ann was awarded the Duncan Lawrie Dagger (CWA Gold Dagger) for Best Crime Novel, for Raven Black, the first book in her Shetland series. In 2012 she was inducted into the CWA Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame. Ann lives in North Tyneside.

A frozen corpse means a big headache for Detective Michael McCabeLainie Goff thinks she has it all. A glamorous young Portland attorney with the brains and looks to match her ambitions, she's on the fast-track to a partnership. Until one cold winter night she discovers that her belief in her ability to handle any situation was misplaced. Now she's just a frozen corpse in the boot of a car at the end of Portland Fish Pier.And a problem for homicide detective Michael McCabe. Luckily for McCabe, there's a witness. A mentally disturbed young woman named Abby Quinn saw what happened to Lainie. Unfortunately, Abby mysteriously goes missing the very same night. With a victim who'd known more than her share of bad guys, a list of suspects that seems to get longer and longer and his only witness missing, McCabe has got his work cut out.But it's only a matter of time before the killer strikes again . . .From Publishers WeeklyPortland, Maine, Det. Sgt. Michael McCabe, introduced in The Cutting, has to deal with a frozen corpse, a missing witness, and a sadistic killer in Hayman's satisfying second novel of suspense. One winter day, a cop finds the naked body of Lainie Goff, a beautiful and ambitious young lawyer in Portland's largest law firm, stuffed into the trunk of her BMW convertible at the end of a fishing pier. Lainie's past, present, and what might have been her future all hold possible clues: she was an abused child; she worked with abused teen girls at Sanctuary House; and she had plans for making partner at Palmer Milliken. A possible witness is Abby Quinn, a schizophrenic teen who hears voices and has disappeared. The police need to find Abby before the cold weather or the killer gets her. McCabe, with an eidetic memory and a passion for avenging victims, is a formidable detective tested to the limit in Hayman's atmospheric puzzler. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistFinding the frozen, nude body of lawyer Lainie Goff in the trunk of her new Mercedes is a particular shock for Detective Sergeant Mike McCabe, because the corpse is a dead ringer for his remarried ex-wife, Sandy, with whom he still has a love-hate (mostly hate) relationship. So he has personal issues to deal with while he and partner Maggie Savage probe into the victim's past and search for the only witness to the crime, schizophrenic Abby Quinn. The bitter cold of a Portland, Maine, winter complicates the case, both in delaying forensic work on the body and in endangering some of the principals, especially Quinn, who's on the run. McCabe is a stickler for getting after the truth, whether examining his own emotions or closing cases. His second outing (after The Cutting, 2009) features a strong sense of place (the action seesaws between the mainland and nearby Harts Island), well-rounded characters, and a twisting, action-filled plot. This one puts Portland, Maine, firmly on the crime-fiction map. --Michele Leber

Years of martial arts training never prepared nineteen-year-old Alysia Knight for the battle she has to face. War is raging in the streets of New Jersey, and surviving the apocalypse means staying clear of monsters preying on the citizens. But all this will be the least of her worries when her parents become targets.Death is inevitable, unless Alysia can muster up the courage and hone her abilities to defeat all that stands in her way. If not, she may end up losing more than her parents.

SUMMARY: Spring, 1802. The Peace Treaty of Amiens, signed only a few weeks earlier, is showing signs of collapse. Britain and France wrangle over the return of colonial possessions won and lost during the war.

Hardboiled noir meets academic satire in Academy Gothic. Tate Cowlishaw is late for another faculty meeting when he discovers the body of Scoot Simkins, dean of Parshall College. Cowlishaw might be legally blind but sees that a man with three bullets in his head didn't put them there himself. The police disagree. When Cowlishaw investigates, he is told his teaching contract won't be renewed. Suspects aren't hard to come by at the college annually ranked Worst Value by U.S. News & World Report. While the faculty brace for a visit from the accreditation board, Cowlishaw's investigation leads him to another colleague on eternal sabbatical. Before long, his efforts to save his job become efforts to stay alive. A farcical tale of incompetence and corruption, Academy Gothic scathingly redefines higher education as it chronicles the last days of a dying college"Tate Cowlishaw, the droll narrator of Hill's fine first novel, may be legally blind, but he's clever enough to realize that the...

Introduction by Paul Tremblay, Publishers Weekly top ten list for most anticipated horror/SciFi Fall 2016 releases.Laird Barron's fourth collection gathers a dozen stories set against the backdrops of the Alaskan wilderness, far-future dystopias, and giallo-fueled nightmare vistas. All hell breaks loose in a massive apartment complex when a modern day Jack the Ripper strikes under cover of a blizzard; a woman, famous for surviving a massacre, hits the road to flee the limelight and finds her misadventures have only begun; while tracking a missing B-movie actor, a team of man hunters crashes in the Yukon Delta and soon realize the Arctic is another name for hell; an atomic-powered cyborg war dog loyally assists his master in the overthrow of a far-future dystopian empire; following an occult initiation ritual, a man is stalked by a psychopathic sorority girl and her team of horrifically disfigured henchmen...

Evie's shattered ribs have been a secret for the last four years. Now she has found the strength to tell her adoptive parents, and the physical traces of her past are fixed - the only remaining signs a scar on her side and a fragment of bone taken home from the hospital, which her uncle Ben helps her to carve into a dragon as a sign of her strength.Soon this ivory talisman begins to come to life at night, offering wisdom and encouragement in roaming dreams of smoke and moonlight that come to feel ever more real.As Evie grows stronger there remains one problem her new parents can't fix for her: a revenge that must be taken. And it seems that the Dragon is the one to take it.This subtly unsettling novel is told from the viewpoint of a fourteen-year-old girl damaged by a past she can't talk about, in a hypnotic narrative that, while giving increasing insight, also becomes increasingly unreliable.A blend of psychological thriller and fairytale,The Bone Dragon explores the fragile boundaries between real life and fantasy, and the darkest corners of the human mind.Review'In a beautifully crafted narrative that constantly confounds expectation - her friends are kind, her foster parents are saintly - the final act is anything but comforting. Sometimes anger and vengeance aren't just understandable but essential tools for survivial' -- Suzi Feay Financial Times 20130520 Casale has shown that she is a talented writer who can pack such an emotional punch in her prose.The Bone Dragonleft me wanting more, I couldn't believe when it ended, I wanted the novel to continue so I could learn so much more about Evie. It's an emotional ride that's mixed with mystic and magic.' Read Write and Read Some More Blog 20130520 This book is the debut of an exciting and mature young writer who shows real skill in writing about the little details of life, bringing a realness to her characters and making the situations she writes about so very believable ... Intriguing, compulsive and wholly absorbing, Evie's tale is beautifully told and is ultimately warm and uplifting. Written by a young writer who has struggled with dyslexia it is also extremely inspiring, and a rewarding read for both young and older adults. We Love This Book 20130520 About the AuthorA British-American citizen of Italian heritage, Alexia is an editor, teacher and writing consultant. After studying psychology then educational technology at Cambridge, she moved to New York to work on a Tony-award-winning Broadway show before completing a PhD and teaching qualification. In between, she worked as a West End script-critic, box-office manager for a music festival and executive editor of a human rights journal. Alexia has always wanted a Dragon; luckily, she has her very own rib in a pot...

From the author of Shetland and VeraThe honeymoon was over . . . and Jim and his English bride, Sarah, had come home to Kinness to settle down. But first there was to be one huge celebration for the newlyweds, with the whole island present. And before the party was over, there would be a shockingly unexpected death. Somehow, in the dark of the night, Jim’s young sister, Mary, slipped off Ellie’s Head to the rocks below. A terrible end to a boisterously cheerful evening. But did Mary fall, or was she pushed? George Palmer-Jones, retired birdwatcher and amateur detective, suspected the latter, but proving it would be difficult: no one wanted to upset the balance of the island’s ancient relationships. Yet those with something to hide inevitably try to hide it, and George, helped by Sarah, began to piece together a tragic story he wished he had never heard. Kinness was a paradise lost.About the AuthorAnn Cleeves is the author behind ITV's VERA and BBC One's SHETLAND. She has written over twenty-five novels, and is the creator of detectives Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez -- characters loved both on screen and in print. Her books have now sold over 1 million copies worldwide. Ann worked as a probation officer, bird observatory cook and auxiliary coastguard before she started writing. She is a member of 'Murder Squad', working with other British northern writers to promote crime fiction. In 2006 Ann was awarded the Duncan Lawrie Dagger (CWA Gold Dagger) for Best Crime Novel, for Raven Black, the first book in her Shetland series. In 2012 she was inducted into the CWA Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame. Ann lives in North Tyneside. www.anncleeves.com