Short Thrillers

Sometimes the only way to do the right thing is to break the rules. Love, Lies, and Murder is a collection of 19 short stories that explore the extremes of human emotion and the conflicts that result. Every story will leave you tense and breathless as the characters race to a conclusion that is as unexpected as it is satisfying. Intense and gripping, each story features a hero that seeks justice and the triumph of good over evil by whatever means necessary - regardless of what society’s rules find acceptable.

A collection of horror/thriller stories with surprise endings to chill you and thrill you to the bone on Halloween. Selections are from previously published anthologies, Black As Night, Shivers & Other Nightmares, Don't Look Behind You, Scary Stories-Vols. 1-5, Scare Factory, Midnight Snacks, & Creepers- Vols 4. The nightmares include: SOMETHING IN THE ATTIC: Norma went to the attic to get her costume for Halloween. After reading from an old book that belonged to a grandma who was burned at the stake during the Salem witch trials, she lapsed into unconsciousness. Scary Stories 1 THE PARTY: ...

Zinnia, Mississippi, rolls out the red carpet for controversial food activist Priya Karsan. When the event turns bizarre - and downright deadly - PI partners Sarah Booth and Tinkie are on the case. But it's the detective agency's four-legged gumshoes, Sweetie Pie, Chablis, and Pluto, who save the day.

In three beautifully crafted, dramatic acts, James's little-known novel unravels the painfully complicated emotional bonds which exist within a group of friends and lovers connected by two neighboring homes as they fight publicly for preferment, reciprocation, and successful marriage....

Ten years ago, Craig Johnson wrote his first short story, the Hillerman Award-winning "Old Indian Trick". This was one of the earliest appearances of the sheriff who would go on to star in Johnson’s best-selling, award-winning novels and the A&E hit series Longmire. Each Christmas Eve thereafter, fans rejoiced when Johnson sent out a new short story featuring an episode in Walt’s life that doesn’t appear in the novels; over the years, many have asked why they can’t buy the stories in book form.

In this unflinching psychological portrait, The Gray Hours unfolds through the fragmented journal of Nora Holt—a sharp-witted, self-aware woman quietly unraveling beneath the surface of an ordinary life. Written in raw, intimate entries, Nora chronicles the slow descent into a place where even the air feels heavy and the mirror reflects a stranger. With biting dark humor and startling honesty, this book doesn’t promise healing—it documents the fight to even believe healing is possible. What begins as numbness becomes an interrogation of self, memory, and survival. For readers of ...

Grace had never been more terrified...the pain was relentless. Nothing in her life prepared her for this. She desperately needed somewhere safe...someplace she could hide. Someone she could trust with her life. It was dark...and getting darker. Ronan Hendricks didn’t recognize her voice. Not family...not friends. Probably not an enemy. But he didn’t need the years he’d spent as a detective to recognize what he did hear... Fear. In a desperate moment of hope, a single number saved her life. Then a complete stranger opened his home offering safety yet Grace knew danger surrounded them.....

In the heart of the Staffordshire Peak District, a sinister secret lurks beneath the tranquil surface… When nineteen-year-old Tilley McCleave disappears without a trace, the historic market town of Leek is in shock. Detective Jessica Ryan is assigned the case, but things take a chilling turn when she discovers a horrifying connection to five women who were abducted. Four remain lost, their fates unknown, while one survivor’s harrowing tale is etched into her traumatised soul. Haunted by her ordeal, lone escapee Heidi Dawson has spent years confined to a psychiatric hospital. Could her ...

The war wasn’t the only thing hunting them. 1969 - Deep in the Vietnamese jungle, a U.S. recon squad is sent to investigate a series of patrols that never returned. Cut off from command and surrounded by hostile terrain, they expect enemy fire. What they find is something else. A towering, brutal creature—covered in hair, walking upright, and more intelligent than anything they’ve faced—is stalking them through the green hell of the jungle. Locals call it Nguoi Rung. The men call it Bigfoot. Bigfoot – Vietnam is a gritty war-horror novella blending cryptid terror with the ...

Even if you think you don't know him, you know him. Few in the Hollywood orbit have had greater influence; few have experienced more humiliating failure in their lifetime. Thanks in part to the biopic directed by Tim Burton, starring Johnny Depp, and bearing his name, Ed Wood has become an icon of Americana. Perhaps the purest expression of Wood's théma - pink angora sweaters, over-the-top violence, and the fraught relationships between the sexes - can be found in his unadulterated short stories.

Sarah Booth just wants the perfect Christmas holiday. Even with the dissolution of her engagement, she refuses to lose her Christmas spirit. But when Theodora Prince - an ex classmate and current Pastor's wife - comes calling with a year-old case and cash upfront, Sarah Booth must find the truth about the boys who ruined last year's Christmas pageant in time to stop them from doing it again.

Relentless phone calls interrupt the peace of a warm August morning in Three Pines. Though the tiny Québec village is impossible to find on any map, someone has managed to track down Armand Gamache, head of homicide at the Sûreté, as he sits with his wife in their back garden. Reine-Marie watches with increasing unease as her husband refuses to pick up, though he clearly knows who is on the other end. When he finally answers, his rage shatters the calm of their quiet Sunday morning.

Some secrets are better left buried. When forensic science senior Addison Lane joins a classmate for a peaceful weekend mushroom hunt, she stumbles upon a shallow grave—uncovering not just a body, but a chilling chain of murders stretching back into her own forgotten past. Now, someone is watching her. Someone who knows what she survived. Someone who’s ready to finish what they started. As Addison digs into a web of academic cover-ups, sealed juvenile records, and a killer obsessed with psychological control, she must face the most terrifying truth of all: She was never just a survivor....

Christmas in Paris… What could possibly go wrong? Ava Sext, an amateur sleuth and transplanted Londoner who sells books from an outdoor stand that overlooks the Seine, has vowed that this Christmas will be the best Christmas ever. It has to be! It's her first Christmas in Paris as a Parisian. But when someone pushes a book dealer in the Seine at a Christmas Fair leaving him between life and death, Ava, with the help of her fellow bookseller, Henri DeAth, a former notary in a country where notaries are a powerful caste, sets out to solve the crime before someone else dies. A little Paris ...

Ella's life takes a horrifying turn when she encounters a crazed man in a dark cave. As she fights for her survival, she discovers a shocking truth about her own past. Can she escape the clutches of her own twisted memories? Prepare for heart-pounding suspense and mind-bending twists as you delve into the depths of Ella's fractured psyche. Beware, for not everything is as it seems. Will you dare to uncover the secrets hidden within the "Cave of Terror"?

Slithering Secrets, Scaly Suspects, and a Killer on the Loose! London, 1898: Chaos strikes the London Zoo when a giant cobra escapes its cage, killing a rhesus monkey and throwing the staff into a frenzy. Dr. Watson’s old schoolmate—a trailblazing anti-venom researcher—is thrust into the scandal. With his reputation on the line and suspicions mounting, Sherlock Holmes and Lucy James are called in to untangle the mystery. But the case takes a deadly twist when Lucy discovers the escaped cobra lurking in the researcher’s office—next to the lifeless body of the man who reported the ...

Murder, Masquerades, and a Midnight Rescue! London, 1898: Flynn’s no stranger to danger, but crashing a duchess’s glittering costume ball might be his boldest gamble yet. Determined to help a young friend in trouble, he ignores Becky’s warnings and dives headfirst into the high-society soirée. But when their mission turns deadly and Flynn’s friend is found murdered, the stakes skyrocket. Vowing to finish what they started, Flynn insists Becky stay out of harm’s way. But when he vanishes inside the duchess’s sprawling estate, Becky’s worst fears come true. Trapped in the maze-...

A struggling young Persian artist sends Flynn, one of Sherlock Holmes’ Baker Street Irregulars, out to buy provisions for a celebratory dinner. But when he brings the requested groceries to the artist’s wife, her joy quickly turns to fear. Then Flynn returns to the artist’s studio, only to find that disaster has struck. Meanwhile, the National Portrait Gallery enlists the help of Sherlock Homes to investigate the mysterious theft of The Pink Lady. As Holmes sets out to recover the precious painting, he uncovers a dark web of deceit far more complex than he imagined.

An outlaw private eye meets a woman who has a horribly-blackened eye and offers to do something about it. Unlicensed outlaw private eye Joe Beck stops off at bar in Trinidad, Colorado. Inside, he meets a woman named Brandi, a brunette bombshell who's working behind the bar. She's slim, tanned and attractive. She has it all. Except, her left eye is horribly blackened, something she admits to having been caused by the hand of an abusive ex-boyfriend. Beck offers to deal with the guy, no questions asked in a move that sees him sucked into the dealings of a couple of crooked cops and a local ...

She's a desperate woman on the run, he's a hulking recluse who came to the mountains to forget his past. After he saves her life, they find themselves bound by more than just circumstance. Clarabelle I'm on the run from hitmen hired by stepfather. I don't have time to fall in love with this mysterious mountain man, even if he did save my life. But how can I help myself? He's tall, dreamy, and as big as the mountain I found him on. And for once I actually feel safe. Nolan Clarabelle is sweet, gorgeous and just my type of curvy. The only problem is, she's better than I deserve. Because those ...