Anthologies

Four bestselling fantasy authors present a collection of novellas about dark nights, cruel cities, and paranormal P.I.s&;featuring Harry Dresden, John Taylor, Harper Blaine, and Remy Chandler. #1 New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher delivers a story in which Harry Dresden&;Chicago's only professional wizard&;tries to protect a friend from danger and ends up becoming a target himself... John Taylor is the best PI in the secret heart of London known as The Nightside. He can find anything. But locating the lost memory of a desperate woman may be his undoing in a thrilling noir tale from New York Times bestselling author Simon R. Green... National bestselling author Kat Richardson&;s Greywalker finds herself in too deep when a job in Mexico goes awry, and Harper Blaine is enmeshed in a tangle of dark family secrets and revenge from beyond the grave... An ancient being that lived among humanity for centuries is dead, and fallen angel-turned-Boston detective Remy Chandler has been hired to find out who&;or what&;murdered him in a whodunit by national bestselling author Thomas E. Sniegoski...

Like Unfettered before it, the contributing writers of Unbound were allowed to submit the tales they wished fans of genre to read—without the constraints of a shackling theme. The result is magical. Twenty-three all-original stories are sure to captivate you—some will move you to tears while others will keep you turning the pages long into the night. The power of Unbound lies in its variety of tales and the voices behind them. If you are a fan of discovering new writers or reading the works of beloved authors, Unbound is for you. Return to Landover with Terry Brooks. Go to trial with Harry Dresden and Jim Butcher. Enter the Citadel and become remade with Rachel Caine. Survive a plague with John Marco and his robot companion Echo. Be painted among the stars by Mary Robinette Kowal. These tales and the others that comprise the anthology are only bound by how enchanting and enthralling they are. Unbound is filled with spectacularly wonderful stories, each one as diverse as its creator. You will be changed upon finishing it. And that is the point.

The Fast Women and Neon Lights anthology is a wild romp of short stories inspired by eighties culture, crime, neo-noir movies, as well as the wacky, over-the-top eighties style and aesthetic. These eighteen crime short stories have something for all fans of 1980's nostalgia. Campy, emotional, and often hilarious, these 80's pop culture tales, written by some of today's top crime, noir, and mystery fiction authors will disturb you, make you laugh, and most of all, keep you highly entertained! Get ready for Cobra Kai, valley girls, Air Jordan heist stories, professional wrestlers brushing up with WWF greats, female wrestlers, Oingo Boingo-noir stories, cocaine cowboys, Crockett and Tubbs, and much more. The finest mystery short stories anthology to come along since the last time you did The Safety Dance. Fans of classic movies like Heat, Thief, basically anything from Michael Mann won't want to miss this. Get your fill of eighties culture and load up on all the eighties nostalgia you can handle while celebrating the inimitable 80's neo-noir style with Fast Women and Neon Lights!

Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling is an anthology of short stories, poetry, and essays edited by Monica Valentinelli and Jaym Gates. Over two dozen authors, ranging from NYT-bestsellers and award winners to debut writers, chose a tired trope or cliche to challenge and surprise readers through their work. Read stories inspired by tropes such as the Chainmaille Bikini, Love at First Sight, Damsels in Distress, Yellow Peril, The Black Man Dies First, The Villain Had a Crappy Childhood, The Singularity Will Cause the Apocalypse, and many more...then discover what these tropes mean to each author to find out what inspired them. Join Maurice Broaddus, Adam Troy-Castro, Delilah S. Dawson, Shanna Germain, Sara M. Harvey, John Hornor Jacobs, Rahul Kanakia, Alethea Kontis, Valya Dudycz Lupescu, Haralmbi Markov, Sunil Patel, Kat Richardson, Nisi Shawl, Ferrett Steinmetz, Anton Strout, Michael Underwood, Alyssa Wong, and many other authors as they take well-worn tropes and cliches and flip them upside down. CONTENTS Introduction -- Jerry Gordon SECTION I: INVERTING THE TROPES On Loving Bad Boys: A Villanelle -- Valya Dudycz Lupescu Single, Singularity -- John Hornor Jacobs Lazzrus -- Nisi Shawl Seeking Truth -- Elsa Sjunneson-Henry Thwock -- Michelle Muenzler Can You Tell Me How to Get to Paprika Place? -- Michael R. Underwood Chosen -- Anton Strout The White Dragon -- Alyssa Wong Her Curse, How Gently It Comes Undone -- Haralambi Markov Burning Bright -- Shanna Germain Santa CIS (Episode 1: No Saint) -- Alethea Kontis Requiem for a Manic Pixie Dream -- Katy Harrad & Greg Stolze The Refrigerator in the Girlfriend -- Adam-Troy Castro The First Blood of Poppy Dupree -- Delilah S. Dawson Red Light -- Sara M. Harvey Until There Is Only Hunger -- Michael Matheson Super Duper Fly -- Maurice Broaddus Drafty as a Chain Mail Bikini -- Kat Richardson Swan Song -- Michelle Lyons-McFarland Those Who Leave -- Michael Choi Nouns of Nouns: A Mini Epic -- Alex Shvartsman Excess Light -- Rahul Kanakia The Origin of Terror -- Sunil Patel The Tangled Web -- Ferrett Steinmetz Hamsa, Hamsa, Hamsa, Tfu, Tfu, Tfu. -- Alisa Schreibman Real Women Are Dangerous -- Rati Mehrotra SECTION II: DISCUSSING THE TROPES I'm Pretty Sure I've Read This Before ... -- Patrick Hester Fractured Souls -- Lucy A. Snyder Into the Labyrinth: The Heroine's Journey -- A.C. Wise Escaping the Hall of Mirrors -- Victor Raymond Tropes as Erasers: A Transgender Perspective -- Keffy R.M. Kehrli SECTION III: DEFINING THE TROPES Afterword -- Monica Valentinelli & Jaym Gates Trope Definitions/Index of Tropes SECTION IV: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND ADDITIONAL BIOS

In a brilliant collaboration, New York Times and critically acclaimed coauthors Charlaine Harris, Christopher Golden, Kelley Armstrong, Jonathan Maberry, Kat Richardson, Seanan McGuire, Tim Lebbon, Cherie Priest, James Moore, and Mark Morris join forces to bring you a crime-solving audiobook like you've never heard before. Investigative reporter Nora Hesper spends her nights cloaked in shadows. As Indigo she's become an urban myth, a brutal vigilante who can forge darkness into weapons and travel across the city by slipping from one patch of shadow to another. Her primary focus both as Nora and as Indigo has become a murderous criminal cult called the Children of Phonos. Children are being murdered in New York, and Nora is determined to make it stop, even if that means Indigo must eliminate every member. But in the aftermath of a bloody battle, a dying cultist makes claims that cause Indigo to question her own origin and memories. Nora's parents were killed when she was 19 years old. She took the life insurance money and went off to explore the world, leading to her becoming a student of meditation and strange magic in a mountaintop monastery in Nepal...a history that many would realize sounds suspiciously like the origins of several comic book characters. As Nora starts to pick apart her memory, it begins to unravel. Her parents are dead, but the rest is a series of lies. Where did she get the power inside her?

Lie. Cheat. Bargain. Fight. Accept. Bribe. Conquer. Evade. No matter what humanity tries, Death always wins. Or does it? Discover the answer in The Death of All Things, where twenty-two writers take their shot at the Grim Reaper with explorations of the mythical, fantastical, and futuristic bonds between life and death. Learn the cost of mortality, the perils—and joys—of the afterlife, and the potential pitfalls of immortality … Featuring stories from: K. M. Laney, Andrea Mullen, Faith Hunter, Kendra Leigh Speedling, Jason M. Hough, Julie Pitzel, Shaun Avery, Christie Golden, Leah Cutter, Aliette de Bodard, Andrew Dunlop, Juliet E. McKenna, A. Merc Rustad, Ville Meriläinen, Amanda Kespohl, Mack Moyer, Fran Wilde, Kathryn McBride, Andrija Popovic, Jim C. Hines, Stephen Blackmoore, and Kiya Nicoll.

Two books, one anthology. The grift. The scam. The double-cross. Blackmail and burglary; murder and larceny. Blood Business tracks the underbelly of human nature as it drags itself through the muck of our lesser angels in twenty-seven crime stories set in this world... and beyond. "Blood Business is as satisfying as a stiff drink after a tough case. Deliciously gritty, and dark as a day-old bruise, these stories will thrill any noir fan." —Jaye Wells, USA Today bestselling author "In Blood Business, duality is a theme but nuance reigns. Honesty won't save you. Virtue is subjective. And what if the only difference between appearance and a reality is what we choose to believe? Cinematic at times, uncomfortably intimate at others, Blood Business is a visceral delight." —John Wenzel, The Denver Post “Blood Business compiles an absolutely stunning collection of talent." —Brian Keene "Editors Acevedo and Viola offer an anthology of noirish tales exploring the dark recesses of both real and supernatural worlds... Two sharp, distinctive, and complementary clusters of stories." —Kirkus Reviews "In this uniformly good anthology of noir stories, the authors are able to inject some life, of the supernatural variety, into a genre usually rife with clichés." —IndieReader "Take horror writing at its best and add a crime/mystery spin. Then pair this with psychological depth for the foundation of the special atmosphere and focus of Blood Business, where every story is powerfully wrought, filled with satisfying twists, and presented with a flair of originality and surprise not typically seen in crime story collections. For all these reasons, Blood Business is a unique, compelling, dark production very highly recommended for fans who like their crimes tinged with psychological depth and horror, and who look for original, unique, compelling productions where every story is a gem and no 'filler' is allowed." —D. Donovan, Sr. Reviewer, Midwest Book Review Table Of Contents From This World FOREWORD Gary Phillips INTRODUCTION Mario Acevedo DOUBLING DOWN ON DEATH Edward Bryant BONE ON WOOD Mark Stevens BLACK AND BLUE Carter Wilson GIRLS GONE WILD Cat Rambo NIGHT IN TUNISIA Manuel Ramos AN OFFICER AND A HITMAN Gary Jonas SLUG Paul Goat Allen MORPHING Alvaro Zinos-Amaro THE PLEDGE Mark Stevens & Dean Wyant SHADOWS WITHIN SHADOWS Mark Stevens & Dean Wyant IT DOESN’T MEAN ANYTHING Shannon Baker THE GUESSING GAME Sean Eads STRAIGHT TO THE TOP Trevor Jones Table Of Contents From Beyond BITTEN OFF Edward Bryant A CLAMOR OF BONES Alyssa Wong DIVIDED THEY FALL Patrick Berry JANE DOE MUST DIE Angie Hodapp OUTSORCERY Joshua Viola DO IT ALREADY Stephen Graham Jones LUNCHTIME Jeanne C. Stein NUMERAL ELEVEN Jason Heller A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME Betsy Dornbusch SHOE Aaron Michael Ritchey CARD SHARP Kat Richardson TAKERS FIND GIVERS Mario Acevedo THE COMBO Warren Hammond THE GROUP HOME Chris Holm AFTERWORD Christine Goff THE ASH OF THE PHOENIX: REMEMBERING EDWARD BRYANT Sean Eads

Long time grifters Sam and Rachel love two things: each other and the grift. On the run from the mob, the two lovers move from one con to the next, winning some and losing others, but always finding a way to survive. Episodes 26-28 of Season Four begin with Ghost Image by Kat Richardson. In an eerie lodge in the Pacific Northwest, Rachel poses as a medium with Sam as her technician, as the pair target the wealthy Axel Strauss. Strauss has some deep secrets of his own that are dangerously close to spilling over and the “supernatural” events that Rachel and Sam must manage for him only heightens the tension. Old and new betrayals, longstanding alliances, and unspoken agendas all come to a head as the snow flies, trapping everyone at the lodge. Can Rachel and Sam manage to con an angry skeptic and escape with the money? Or will their efforts fall short, adding their ghosts to the ones supposedly haunting this ancient location? Paul J. Garth penned Episode 27, The Low White Plain . Terrified and on the run after a disastrous con in Dallas, grifters Sam and Rachel find themselves trapped by a blizzard in Nebraska. Low on cash and nerve, they find a local job that seems easy enough: orchestrate the fake kidnapping of a down-and-out academic, then split the ransom with the "victim." But underneath all that open space, malice and hate breed quickly. Sam and Rachel soon discover everyone is lying, and that this simple job is a lot more complicated—and dangerous—than either of them expected. The duo can only rely on their skills, and each other, or see their own blood spread atop the constantly falling snow. Episode 28, Dangerous to Know , closes out Season Four in spectacular fashion. Hilary Davidson takes us into the world of fake artifacts and their collectors. Rachel poses as a museum curator while Sam takes on the role of rogue archaeologist, targeting Robert and Evie Malvern, a wealthy couple who are known to quietly collect ancient artifacts via illicit means. But the grift hits a snag immediately when Robert Malvern turns the tables on them at gunpoint. The threat of death or prison is very real but he offers them a way out: if Rachel will pose as his missing wife for the next few days, he will call it even. This seemingly easy task turns out to be a most dangerous one, leaving the grifters to wonder if this is the end of line.