Family Suspense

Some people join chess club, some people play football. Jack Shannon runs a secret blackjack ring in his private school’s basement. What else is the son of a Las Vegas casino mogul supposed to do? Everything starts falling apart when Jack’s mom is arrested for their family’s ties to organized crime. His sister Beth thinks this is the Shannon family’s chance to finally go straight, but Jack knows that something’s not right. His mom was sold out, and he knows by who. Peter Carlevaro: rival casino owner and jilted lover.

When I think about what I actually did, I feel somewhat sad that nobody will ever know about the complex operation that I undertook. Getting away with it is highly preferable, of course, but perhaps when I’m long gone, someone will open an old safe and find this confession. The public would reel. After all, almost nobody else in the world can possibly understand how someone, by the tender age of twenty-eight, can have calmly killed six members of her family. And then happily got on with the rest of her life, never to regret a thing.

The Summons: Once Judge Atlee was a powerful figure in Clanton, Mississippi. Now the judge is a sick, lonely old man who has withdrawn to his sprawling ancestral home. Knowing the end is near, Judge Atlee has issued a summons for his two sons to return to Clanton to discuss his estate. The Brethren: They call themselves the Brethren: three disgraced former judges doing time in a Florida federal prison. In prison these judges-turned-felons can reminisce about old court cases, dispense a little jailhouse justice, and contemplate where their lives went wrong. Or they can use their time in prison to get very rich, very fast.

It was a typical evening at a mall outside Portland, Maine. Three teenage friends waited for the movie to start. A boy flirted with the girl selling sunglasses. Mothers and children shopped together, and the manager at the video game store tended to customers. Then the shooters arrived. The chaos and carnage lasted only eight minutes before the killers were taken down. But for those who lived through it, the effects would last forever.

When shy and reserved Maggie Ferringer is called for jury duty, she never expects to be kidnapped by an escaped convict. But when Cain Cannon, disguised as a prison guard, pulls a gun, she has no choice but to be taken hostage. Cain claims that he’s innocent of killing his girlfriend six years ago, and now he wants revenge on the people who put him behind bars. Soon Maggie becomes more than just a hostage to Cain. As they slowly begin to share the secrets of their respective pasts, Maggie discovers that she wants to fight for Cain’s freedom - because he just might be the kind of man she can love.

The branding iron glows in the moonlight as he presses the searing metal into his victim's flesh. She must wear the devil's sign, just like the others. He knows the curse that afflicts them - and he'll make sure they carry it to their graves....

After leaving her cheating fiancé at the altar, all Gabrielle wants is a day alone to reflect on the mistakes she’s made. But when her car breaks down in the small town of Baldwin’s Shore, a day turns into a week, and perhaps—if the goddesses of fate smile kindly—a little longer. But someone from her past has a different plan. Sheriff’s deputy Colt Haines isn’t looking for love, and he definitely isn’t looking for a flighty blonde to move into his spare room and complicate his life. But his young daughter has other ideas.

Reformed cat burglar Clea Rice has witnessed enough crime to put her on the straight and narrow. But little does she suspect that her search for justice will land her in the arms of a wealthy English gentleman.

Ruthie Flores is running out of time. Assembling a team who can discreetly breach the walls is a last-ditch effort to find out if her estranged daughter is in danger and to make up for what she’s done before it’s too late—literally. The old woman is in hospice care and she isn’t expected to live long enough to see the seasons change. Meredith Flores Montgomery keeps a safe distance from her mother. The pair hasn’t spoken in years, and Meredith has no plans for that to change. She isn't sure she can forgive Ruthie for the careless decisions that altered the trajectory of their ...

Stephen Aston is getting married again. The only problem is, he's still married to his first wife, even though she is in a care facility for dementia. But he'll take care of that easily, by divorcing her—even if his adult daughters protest. Tully and Rachel Aston look upon Heather as nothing but an interloper. Heather is the same age as Rachel and even younger than Tully. Clearly she's a gold digger and after their father's money. Heather has secrets that she's keeping close, and reasons of her own for wanting to marry Stephen.

Holly Kendrick’s husband is dead. Holly saw it all. In one violent moment, a hit-and-run accident turns Holly’s life upside down. Then a fixer for the high-powered guilty party approaches Holly with an offer she is in no position to refuse. Holly and her daughter, Savannah, will want for nothing, beginning with a luxury dream house - all for the price of their silence. But when their sudden appearance in privileged Calabasas, California, piques the curiosity of neighbors, the price becomes greater than they imagined.

The Voss family is anything but normal. They live in a repurposed church, newly baptized Dollar Voss. The once cancer-stricken mother lives in the basement, the father is married to the mother’s former nurse, the little half-brother isn’t allowed to do or eat anything fun, and the eldest siblings are irritatingly perfect. Then, there’s Merit. Merit Voss collects trophies she hasn’t earned and secrets her family forces her to keep. While browsing the local antiques shop for her next trophy, she finds Sagan.

A lonely reclusive heiress, a friendly veterinarian, an act of desperation… Can people so different fill the empty parts of each other’s lives? Poor rich girl Kennedy Crawford still blames herself for her cousin disappearing when they were children. When her loving uncle who practically raised her wants to see her married in his lifetime, she turns to Austin Lawrence, the trustworthy, reliable, town veterinarian with a golden retriever personality (and a brand new puppy to match), offering a fake engagement. But a long-hidden secret between their parents’ could tear them apart. ...

For Victoria, image is everything, and on the surface, she has it all: a big house, a successful husband, and two beautiful children. But behind the scenes, things are very different. Victoria and her husband have a dark secret, and she lives in terror of it being discovered—of her perfect façade being shattered forever. Under massive stress, but still desperately trying to keep up appearances, her family is falling apart. Victoria has to ask herself how far she's willing to go and how much she's willing to do to preserve her perfect family.

They insist they are just a group of friends, yet they funnel millions of dollars through tax-free corporations. They claim to disdain politics, but congressmen of both parties describe them as the most influential religious organization in Washington. They say they are not Christians, but simply believers. Behind the scenes at every National Prayer Breakfast since 1953 has been the Family, an elite network dedicated to a religion of power for the powerful.

He's a billionaire in need of a wife. And I'm his ex who can't say no to him. Ten years ago Carson Knight was my one great love, but he abandoned me without a trace. Now he's a billionaire single-dad in need of a temporary wife. And he's at my house on one knee with a proposal Marry him, so he's more likely to win full custody of his daughter, keeping her safe from her unstable mother.

I had it all: a fantastic husband, two great kids, an exciting career. And then, at the age of forty-three, I found out I would be dead before my next birthday. My mother also died young. I was seventeen, and she warned me that women would flock to my suddenly single father like stray cats to an overturned milk truck. They did. And one absolutely evil woman practically destroyed his life, mine, and my sister’s. I am not letting that happen to my family. I have three months, and I plan to spend every waking minute searching for the perfect woman to take my place as Alex’s wife.

In his three novellas, In Short Measures, Strong Conspirators, and Sally Forth, Michael Ruhlman delves deeply into the nuanced complexity of romantic and sexual love - and the inevitable evolution of the heart over the span of years and decades. Each novella asks questions about the nature of love in terms of loyalty and fidelity - what are one's obligations toward one's spouse, one's family, and one's heart?

Something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from.Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remain, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, Malorie has long dreamed of fleeing to a place where her family might be safe. But the journey ahead will be terrifying: 20 miles downriver in a rowboat blindfolded with nothing to rely on but Malorie's wits and the children's trained ears. One wrong choice and they will die. And something is following them....

Olivia Hamilton is married to the love of her life, Dean, a charismatic pilot who flies private jets for the rich and famous. But when he vanishes over the Bermuda Triangle, Olivia’s idyllic existence unravels. After years of waiting, Olivia must eventually let go of the fragile hope that her beloved husband might still be alive.