Books Tagged With potential trigger - murder

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Summary: Peace, seclusion, wildlife…the provincial park offers that and more. Park warden, Jamie Mathers, is living her dream after a small earthquake closes the mineral springs to visitors. But what are those bloody bits floating near the cave’s entrance, and how can she keep the water's secrets from bringing unwanted attention? Fuzzy is ravenous, and Fuzzy will feast! “Horror How You Like It — Fun & Freaky. Sharp writing, vivid visuals, strong sense of setting. This was a fun read, bringing back memories of well-cribbed paperbacks, passed around VHS tapes, and stories told in the dark.” Erick Mertz, editor of BACK INTO THE GROUND “Fast-paced and gory with nods to classic monster narratives and a surprising twist ending, this was such a fun read! Perfect for fans of old school VHS horror.” Angela Sylvaine, author of CHOPPING SPREE and FROST BITE “A freaky, unnerving, disturbing, and fast-paced book, perfect for spooky season and beyond! Definitely one for cryptid and swamp creature fans!” Jendia Gammon, Nebula and BSFA finalist author of DOOMFLOWER and ATACAMA “I don’t want to give too much away… Let’s just say Stinger has a handle on not only those throwback monster narratives, but also the more modern ones. Monsters come in all shapes and sizes, and sometimes you won’t see one until it’s too late.” C.C. Adams, author of BUT WORSE WILL COME

Word Count: Click here to reveal117000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: She plunged her blade into his chest, feeling it grind along his ribs... Outcast swordfighter, Kyer Halidan, was abandoned in a cornfield at age three. Now, twenty years on, shes searching for answers: Who left her there? And why? Kyer doesnt suffer fools, and when she kills a man in a duel, it changes her life forever. The duel catches the eye of Valrayker, a legendary hero, who pulls her into his company for a high-stakes mission to save a village. While on the mission, Kyer is stalked and captured by powerful allies of the man she killed, who are determined to learn what she knowsand will stop at nothing to find out. Shes rescued by an inexplicable magic that raises suspicions among her friendsand fuels her enemies wrath even further. And worsetheir fear. As trust crumbles around her and danger closes in, Kyer must defy orders and challenge the very people she swore to follow. As for her true identity, Valrayker harbours his own suspicions. But hes keeping those secrets to himself for now. Gatekeeper's Key is an adventure riddled with danger, intrigue, mysterious magic, scheming villains, humour, sword-wielding badassery, and dark consequences.   "Gatekeeper's Key is a dark and luscious truffle everyone will want to savor and beg for more when it's done." ~ Diana Pharaoh Francis - USA Today Bestselling Author of the Path trilogy and the Crosspointe Chronicles. Gatekeeper's Key is a thrilling start to a fantasy series full of danger, intrigue and attitude. Reviews: "I just finished reading Book 1, and it was SO GOOD. Absolutely sank into this one." ~J. Reeser - author "I love this series. I just finished book three at two in the morning last night. For reference, I go to bed around nine. I just kept thinking just one more page. Just one more..." ~Theresa Miller - author of Mushrooms, Magic and Murder "WARNING: Start reading on a weekend or clear your schedule for the next few days because you will not be able to put this down!" ~Ruby Seah - Goodreads reviewer "This book is a love letter to classic fantasy: swords and sorcery, wizards and elves, struggles between good and evil - plus a spunky heroine who kicks ass and doesn't take anyone's sh*t." ~Celia T - Goodreads reviewer

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Summary: Elderly, unarmed, and extremely dangerous. Ajay Andersen was the best hacker the NSA had ever hired. He sank corporations, toppled governments, and broke cryptography. All of it. Retirement hasn't slowed him down one bit, thank you very much. When his estranged daughter shows up on his doorstep with his two granddaughters, Ajay will do anything to keep them safe. He’ll hack biotech corporations and criminal enterprises alike. He'll brave the woods of Minnesota. Nobody after his girls will be safe, but the more he digs, the more he dredges up the shadows of his own dangerous past. He only needs to know one thing: What makes his granddaughters so darn dangerous?

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Summary: Seasoned, strange, and dangerously clever Some invitations are impossible to refuse. When Ajay and Kylie are invited to a dinner party hosted by one of the wealthiest women around, Ajay sees it as an opportunity to dig into her past. He needs to find what shady business she’s been up to and how dangerous she really is. Never mind that she’s Kylie’s grandmother. What starts out as a dinner party turns quickly to trouble when a guest is murdered. Was the killer the billionaire socialite, the odd chef, or one of the other guests? Ajay needs to cut through the complex connections between the reluctant guests, because one of them is a killer–but they aren’t the only one. Too old to learn decent manners? Maybe. Too old to solve a murder? Not this grandfather.

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Summary: Doran had a problem, and it wasn't that he'd been stabbed. Iole City is in turmoil. Doran Ó Seanáin, leader of the Black Lung Gang, is determined to challenge the Archon, Arajon’s tyrannical ruler, for his brutal treatment of the miners. But Doran has more to deal with than getting stabbed and a city-wide lockdown that’s seeing his gang of ex-miners slowly starved out of their base. His daughter Grace has turned against him, and the death of his wife haunts them both. Although he finds reprieve in Nathaniel Morgenstern, the apotheker with a mysterious past to whom he owes his life, the clock is ticking. The fate of the mines hangs in the balance and the Archon is closing in. Doran’s plan to break the cycle may very well be his last.

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Summary: “Pain is pain. It all hurts the same.” Inflicted with dark desire, one man chooses between idyllic pretense and disturbing reality. Haunted by the silence of deep space, an engineer chases an eerie melody. Torn between penance and pride, a dishonored prince challenges the course of history. Suffering cracks our hearts and splinters our minds. It scars and alters us in irreversible ways. Yet while pain breaks us apart, it also binds us together. Our broken pieces can never rejoin as they once were, but they fit together to create new and distinctive wholes. Like the Japanese art of kintsugi, we can fill the velvety darkness of our scars with gold. Inflicted with life, an intelligent machine questions the illogic of family. Tempted by the desire to die, a shop clerk confronts the promise of his life. Offered the chance to transform his disfigurement, a ruined being looks to the smallest of lives for acceptance. An amalgamation of science fiction and fantasy subgenres, Inflicted invites you to peer into your own pain, examine your scars, and remember you are not alone. Pain binds us all, and how we face our brokenness redefines us. Immerse yourself in the brokenness of others and come away with a new understanding of self.

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Summary:

“Is blood thicker than water?”

The answer seems obvious until a half-millennium-old blood feud ignited between twin brothers of a 16th century Scottish Reiver clan revisits violence generation to generation, pursuing their descendants from island to island and finally onto a new continent ,where the familiar proverb is ultimately pitted against this fluid tale of guilt, blood, water, and time.

Rich with magical realism, Is Blood Thicker taps millennia-old folklore to spin a modern fable of love, pain, and family wisdom consumed by a lived code:

‘Drink, Pray, Fight, Feck’ … and a fox.

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Summary: Never look a mannequin in the eyes! Edi has collected antiques and ghost stories for as long as they can remember. Some old objects buzz with history, and when Edi touches them, they see fragments of the item's story. But are the visions real? Edi desperately wants to believe in the supernatural until a mysterious ghost transforms their mom into a mannequin. Helped by Delilah, a thirteen-year-old psychic, Edi researches local hauntings to untangle how and why their mom became a mannequin. When Edi finally employs their ability to see an artifact’s history, they learn the terrifying truth. The ghost that turned Edi’s mom into a mannequin wants to resurrect herself, and she doesn’t care how many people she murders in the process. If Edi doesn’t put her spirit to rest by the end of the summer solstice, dozens of people will be forever mannequinized, including Edi and Delilah’s moms. Find out what happens in Junk Junction by Sara Codair!

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Summary: To pursue his future, Leopold must first understand his past. What does a former assassin do when he’s not out there… well… assassinating? Saving his species from extinction, of course. At least, that’s what Leopold wants to do with every molecule in his body. But the task won’t be fast or easy, and he can’t do it alone. Enter Mastrodai—a mrrog prince who has absolutely no desire to rule, much to his father’s exasperation. He craves the ability to prove his worth as a mate and to somehow atone for his actions that led to Leopold’s torture at the hands of an enemy. Making humans official would be a good start. But politics rule no matter what the species, and Mastrodai has to maneuver carefully and risk what he has built to give his mate what he deserves. And when he realizes both he and Leopold have deeper feelings for Alex, one of Mastrodai’s human slave women, he knows his future is out among the stars with his humans, not planet-bound with his kin. Unfortunately, before they can set their plan into motion, Leopold receives a vision that sends him reeling and questioning everything he knows about himself. A vision he must investigate, back to where he began—Lex, the backwater planet where he spent his early years, and where he swore never to return. Reader Discretion Advised: MMF romance, PTSD, violence, a moment of graphic torture.

Word Count: Click here to reveal94,000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: What if you base your life on a lie? In the planet Tatrax in the Dainne system, Cooper Hadley has made It to the top in his underground world—he’s the Security Chief of the Tunnel Corps as well as a Patrician, the most privileged class in the Kingdom. But when politics force him to marry, he needs a bride. The perfect candidate is Wye Botero—his one-time best friend. But Wye's a Drone, a member of the lowest class, and she has hated privileged Cooper for ten long years, ever since he threatened to have her recycled. Permanently. Wye is hiding a terrible secret about where her loyalties really lie. If she ends up in a fake marriage with the SecChief, what will happen when he finds out who she really works for? As the physical attraction between them grows, the two slowly learn to trust—but will it be too late? After all, the supernova is coming.

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Summary: Where is everyone? Twenty-five years ago, a message from deep space fractured Humanity. The transmission? Only one word: “Hello.” Half of Humanity wanted to explore it, while the other half wanted to hide. Despite the division, a megaship, called the Traveler, followed the signal through space. Its disappearance only solidified the divide and led to the bloodiest civil war across Humanity, the Sapien War. Ten years later, Humanity met aliens, but not the ones who sent the signal. Today, Kasey Mako, one of the Traveler’s sons, investigates mysterious phenomena plaguing the galaxy. A virus and missing colony are just the tip of the iceberg for Kasey and the Galactic Union. As Kasey’s team of aliens and humans delve into the mystery, they discover these events aren’t random; they’re connected. They discover a more sinister plot that threatens not only the Union, but the entire galaxy. Missing Among the Stars is a light-science fiction novel, perfect for a first time science fiction reader and it draws inspiration from The Mass Effect series, the Old Man’s War series, the Wayfarers series, and The Final Architecture series. If you enjoyed those, you’ll love Missing Among the Stars. Buy your copy today and dive deeper into the Among the Stars Universe!

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Summary: All Armand wants is to share his life with his girlfriend Vonnie. But money is tight, their relationship is fizzling, and not even a monster-hunting side gig is paying off. When a mysterious drifter named Mr. Penny-Farthing blows into town on his antique high-wheeler, Armand thinks his troubles are over. Penny-Farthing offers Armand and Vonnie enough money to cover their expenses with one condition: they must find and return the soul of a serial killer who escaped Hell. Completing Penny-Farthing’s contract won’t be easy when demons appear all over the city and bodies start piling up. Overwhelmed and pushed to the brink, Armand realizes his greatest fear isn’t demons or shadowy murderers: it’s losing Vonnie forever. Can Armand stop a killer and keep the woman he loves, or will Hell take everything from him? Nail-biting and visceral, Mr. Penny-Farthing is a high-octane horror story about escaping your comfort zone while fighting for love.

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Summary: For years, the whispers and legends of a lost city hiding in the Pacific Ocean were just that; legend. On the day Kaimi discovers his parents, the Queen and King of Mu, murdered, Mu’s most powerful weapon fired, sending a pulse rushing towards the North American west coast. After the 2025 Great Pacific Pulse Event, or Pulse, vomited up much of humankind’s trash in the Pacific Ocean along the North American west coast. The mysterious occurrence causing the largest environmental disaster in human history, people are no longer certain there is nothing concealed in the depths of the ocean. Scientist Karen Linn and billionaire investor Michael Donovan want to find out what actually happened that day five years ago. Will Michael’s life in the adult entertainment industry and Karen’s moniker in pseudoscience keep them as social pariahs, or are they on the cusp of finding a civilization that has been kept out of our grasp, deep in the world’s largest ocean? How does the event from five years ago tie into the murder of the Queen and King of Mu? What lies under the sea may be bigger than anyone can imagine, and neither civilization may be ready for the truth.

Word Count: Click here to reveal112200 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Miranda has three days until an arranged marriage erases her existence forever. Unable to bear a loveless marriage in a nation where wives surrender all rights, Miranda escapes. Freedom costs more than she imagined. In 1961 Fellowship America, obedience is enforced by genetically-identical female assassins called the Angels of Death. Angels who pursue her across a country where trust is fatal and truth is treason. Miranda uncovers her father's unforgivable acts and her mother's lies. The aunt whose funeral she attended? Alive and a scarred warrior of the resistance. When her supposedly dead aunt agrees to train her, Miranda seizes the chance to fight back. She'll risk everything to prove she's more than the naive girl who fled marriage. Book One of the Fellowship Dystopia trilogy: One girl's escape fuels a war. What would you sacrifice to keep your soul? “a chilling but inherently fascinating read from start to finish.” —Jim Cox, Midwest Book Review “Intense and gripping”… “strongly recommended”—K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite Now Miranda faces an impossible choice: retreat to the suffocating safety of her old life, or join a resistance that could cost her not just her independence, but her family, her future, and possibly her life. My Soul to Keep is a powerful exploration of resilience, identity, and the courage to chart your own path in a world determined to dictate your destiny. In a world where conformity means survival, what would you sacrifice to keep your soul?

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Summary: The 15 short stories in the new collection by K.G. Anderson tackle the classic science fiction query: “What if this goes on?” Her answers span magic realism, humor, science fiction, horror, and fantasy. Each story is firmly rooted in the familiar present and moves seamlessly into a very near political future—chilling in most cases, but darkly humorous in others. Stories include: “A Sign of the Times”—A Seattle protestor is tried under the new Corporate Personhood laws “Wishbone”—An elderly woman faces euthanasia under the Age Equity Act designed by her politician grandson “The Bodies We Carry”—A young widow bankrupted by medical bills joins a “death camp” protest in front of the mansion of an old college friend who is now a healthcare CEO “Unwanted Visitors”—Seattle is declared a “terrorist zone” and the new Federal Security Agency comes calling “Yoga for Protesters: A Field Guide”—Advice for combining political fury with physical fitness “The Right Man for the Job”—Summoned by desperate Democrats, the ghost of Lyndon B. Johnson returns to haunt the Trump White House “Unnoticed”—The teenage daughter of frightened immigrants demands her native identity

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Summary: Qwyrk is having a bad day; several, in fact. One of the Shadow folk tasked with keeping an eye on humanity, she’s ready for a well-earned break in Yorkshire, but now she’s (literally) run into a girl, Jilly, who just saw something quite supernatural and truly awful happen in her town. As Qwyrk tries to unravel the mystery, layers of villainy are exposed, and she’s stuck with an assortment of unlikely folk that she’d rather not have “helping” her. Together, they confront ancient magic, medieval conspiracies, and the possible end of the world (that again?). It’s not the holiday Qwyrk was hoping for! Qwyrk is the first in a series of four novels about the adventures of a group of misfits at the edge of reality in modern northern England, a world of shadows, Nighttime Nasties, sorcery, intergalactic councils, tacky nightclub attire, an abundance of sarcasm, and even elves… though they are a bit silly.

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Summary: What is the price of Vengeance? Kell Shaw's Vestiges of Magic universe gets a new hero in this thrilling, stand-alone adventure. Her name is Vex and she has it all: the greatest boyfriend in the world, and a golden future as an athlete and top university student. Then it's all ripped away from her in a brutal, senseless attack. As she's dying, a demon makes her an offer: vengeance in exchange for service. Vex doesn't think twice. Newly alive and filled to the brim with demonic power, Vex is ready to kill the men who murdered the boy she loved. Pity finding them will mean descending into a world of supernatural cults, predatory monster hunters, dark magic, and fell secrets. Even worse, the boy she sold her soul to avenge might not be the man she thought she knew… Reflections Upon the Anniversary of My Descent is the first book in the Cambion Chronicles, a series of adventures exploring the demonic underworld of the Vestiges of Magic universe.

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Summary: The ForeRunners have destroyed Capulet’s city, Ephesus, and the joint Lenar-Human search teams are needed to root out the enemy. But when the empathic Lenars refuse to work without Selena Dillon and her team of commandos, they soon find themselves back there in an uneasy alliance and a race against time to stop the enemy from destroying other cities. Throughout the galaxy billions are dying. Despite her fear that the alien Manta and their allies will turn against them, Selena needs to unite the races and find a way to destroy the ForeRunners before it’s too late. Selena knows there’s no more running, and that sooner or later there will be a final reckoning between herself and the queen. But even if they survive that long she needs to discover who will stand with her, and who against her, in this final confrontation with the tyrannical monarch.

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Summary: "A compelling story with an unpredictable plot... a must-read for fans of extraterrestrial intrigue." — Readers' Favorite (5-Star Review) A near-future mystery for fans of Blake Crouch and The X-Files. The world hasn't changed, but your reality has. They told Jenny Rand her recovery was a miracle. But for her, the Earth doesn't feel like home anymore. She wakes from a four-year coma in a San Francisco that looks the same but sounds wrong. She can hear whispers of thoughts beneath the city noise, and the stray cats at Ocean Beach watch her like they are waiting for a signal. Even her memories of Dorian Chase, the movie star who stayed by her bed, feel like a script that has been edited one too many times. Jenny uncovers a terrifying truth. Humanity is losing an invisible war. An alien faction known as the Xarion is rewriting human history through algorithms and manipulated media. From shadow finance and manufactured chaos to the insidious distractions of mindless entertainment, they are keeping our eyes off the stars while they quietly prepare to isolate the Earth forever. With only fifteen launch windows left for humanity to escape, Jenny must find the Quantum Core before the lights go out. In a world being derailed by its own obsessions, she is the only one who can see the cracks. But in a war fought with manufactured lies, she has to wonder if her own heart is a truth she can trust, or just another piece of code. The Earth is finally waking up. Discover the mystery of Round Midnight. A sci-fi thriller for anyone who knows the truth is usually hidden in the shadows.

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Summary: For some, the zombies are a good thing. The man who calls himself Marcus Black spent years hiding his true identity from the world, killing to feed the shadow that lives inside him. Now the dead walk the earth and he’s just trying to survive. With the dead a constant threat, Marcus is forced to suppress his true self and fight against the shadow that lives inside him. Losing that fight will leave him exposed and could cost him his life. When he discovers an abandoned camp deep in the forest Marcus believes he’s finally found a home. A place where he can once again unleash the shadow. Isolated. Quiet. Safe. It’s perfect. Until the outside world intrudes and Marcus finds himself caught between the living and the dead. Hiding behind a veneer of humanity, Marcus struggles to find a way to get rid of the new arrivals. But as his mask begins to slip, he discovers that he may not be the only one with a deadly secret. Dexter meets The Walking Dead in this gripping new horror series. Get Serial Killer Z today and face the dead.