Late January of 1978. Football season is over; the lights from all of the Christmas trees are out. Full-time cabdriver, sometime card shark Keith Waverly is feeling good driving two exotic dancers to work. But his mood turns sour when he witnesses the violent abduction of a local street hustler. Later, when the man is found with his head ventilated by bullet holes, Waverly is dragged into a world of high-rolling gamblers, crooked politicians, sex, drugs, violence and really bad weather, with only his wits and his new girlfriend to pull him out.

Michael Vyner recalls a terrible story, one that happened to him. One that would be unbelievable if it weren't true! Michael's parents are dead and he imagines that he will stay with the kindly lawyer, executor of his parents' will . . . Until he is invited to spend Christmas with his guardian in a large and desolate country house. His arrival on the first night suggests something is not quite right when he sees a woman out in the frozen mists, standing alone in the marshes. But little can prepare him for the solitude of the house itself as he is kept from his guardian and finds himself spending the Christmas holiday wandering the silent corridors of the house seeking distraction. But lonely doesn't mean alone, as Michael soon realises that the house and its grounds harbour many secrets, dead and alive, and Michael is set the task of unravelling some of the darkest secrets of all. A nail-biting story of hauntings and terror by the master of the genre, Chris Priestley.

Winter isn’t coming…it’s already here, and with it comes a horror no door can keep out. It’s there in the yard, in the faces of the snowmen a young boy doesn’t remember building. It’s in the oddly empty streets below Santa Claus’s crumbling sleigh. It’s in the unnatural movement of the snow that suffocates a widower’s town, and in the cold eyes of a lonely man’s estranged children. Here, there is no holiday cheer, only spine-chilling fear, in the DEAD OF WINTER. Featuring seven stories, an introduction by the author, and a list of recommended books for the winter season.

Edgar Award Finalist for Best First Mystery: “Eerie . . . A book you will gulp down” (The New York Times). Lyons, Basche, and Tyler—three ordinary guys—find their fourth poker night partner, Reece, fatally beaten on the floor of his apartment. Reece was a quiet, unassuming fellow but he had one outstanding trait: his fabulous memory. On Friday nights he could recall every card that was played. Yet his final slurred words were: “I don’t remember.” His three remaining friends, shocked by the indifference of the police, form their own tribunal of retribution: to find the people who had used Reece so ruthlessly and who had disposed of him in the same way; to deal with the assassins with a like kind of justice; and to ferret out the “lost” information that cost Reece his life. Their motivation and their mission culminate in an unforgettable tale of vengeance and its consequences. “Breathtaking and tough.” —Library Journal

Like the thousands of others who visit Winters Farm and Orchard each year, four young friends eagerly anticipate picking apples and pumpkins and taking the challenge of the Giant Corn Maze together. Its the last day of PumpkinFest season, and the weather and farm are picture perfect. They discover they picked the wrong weekend to stay at the farms Bed and Breakfast for their reunion, however, as after a frantic twenty-four hours of deception and mayhem, they find themselves unwilling participants in a horrific family tradition. -- Amazon.com.

"[Rennie Airth's] meticulously detailed procedural mysteries are beautifully written . . . well worth reading, and rereading."—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review Rennie Airth's The Decent Inn of Death is forthcoming. On a freezing London night in 1944, Rosa Novak is brutally murdered during a blackout. Scotland Yard suspects the young Polish refugee was the victim of a random act of violence and might have dropped the case if former police investigator John Madden hadn't been her employer. Madden feels he owes it to Rosa to find her killer and pushes the investigation, uncovering her connection to a murdered Parisian furrier, a member of the Resistance, and a stolen cache of diamonds. Delivering the atmospheric writing and compelling characters that have already established Rennie Airth as a master of suspense as well as style, this long-awaited third installment in the John Madden series is historical crime writing at its best.

When a student turns up murdered at the City of Liverpool University, Detectives David Murphy and Laura Rossi are charged with finding the culprit. Attached to the deceased body is a letter from her killer, which details a famous unethical psychological experiment; it is that experiment that was used on this victim, resulting in her death. Thinking the letter is just an attempt to throw them off course, Murphy and Rossi initially dismiss it. But then more bodies are found, each with connections to the university—and each with their own letter accompanying the body.Murphy and Rossi quickly realize they’re chasing a killer unlike any they’ve hunted before: One who sees himself as a valuable researcher of human behavior—a killer who doesn’t just want his victims’ bodies, but their minds as well. As they delve into the darkest pockets of psychological research, Murphy and Rossi struggle to understand the motives of the madman, trying to find the killer before his gruesome experiments claim their next victim.

When the driver of the aging conversion van he just pulled over rabbits off into the brush, Texas State Trooper Dan Henning knows there must be something of value hidden in the vehicle. A quick search turns up a mountain of cash poorly hidden behind the wall paneling. But someone's found money is someone else's lost money, and before long, an odd pair of alleged awning salesmen pays Henning's wife a visit. Now the trooper finds himself back in a Gulf War state of mind and liking it. Meanwhile, the van's driver, former high school basketball start Jimmy Ireno, has stolen a pickup truck and made his way to Corpus Christi, where he enlists the aid of some locals in implementing a bizarre and desperate plan to recover the cash and save his own hide, all the while dodging three organized crime dudes, the cops and his own proclivities. South Texas Tangle follows the tradition of Elmore Leonard and Donald Westlake.