Victor Daly, a successful family court lawyer in Vancouver, BC, finds himself on the hunt for his biological mother after he recognizes the victim of an unsolved missing-person case on the evening news. When DNA analysis confirms Crystal Doer was his mother, he follows a forensic trail back to his own birthplace - and into a horrifying world of imprisonment, perversion and abuse.The Boy From Under is a psychological thriller that points a literary flashlight into the realm of repre...

I wrote Blowdown shortly after a violent storm in December 2006 that flattened large sections of Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia. Like most everyone, I was shocked by the scale of the carnage and inclined to anthropomorphize the event – attributing it to a malevolent force in Nature.It's not surprising people reacted that way. The sacredness of Stanley Park has been recognized for centuries… millennia. To see its giant Douglas firs scattered about like pick-up sticks sen...

When the weather outside is frightful, curl up with New York Times–bestselling masters of holiday mystery Elizabeth Peters, Margaret Maron, and more!A New England college hosts a counterfeiting scrooge, an angelic chorister falls to earth, a tight-fisted patriarch realizes his days are numbered, and a politician presents his wife with an explosive gift. In Christmas Stalkings, bestselling mystery author Charlotte MacLeod gathers fellow partners in ...

A sleuthing substitute teacher with a cute dog named Cheese Puff gives the wheels of justice a shove when her overbearing sister is accused of murder.After tangling with killers (NO SUBSTITUTE FOR MURDER) and a deranged drug dealer (NO SUBSTITUTE FOR MONEY), substitute teacher Barbara Reed craves routine, relaxation, romance, and quality time with drug cop Dave Martin.Moving in together seems like the way to achieve that. But Dave’s teenage daughter is part of the package—a...

2018 SHAMUS AWARD FINALISTMurderer or independent woman?Murder at a construction site draws Ohio private investigator Maggie Sullivan into a case that makes cops mistrust her and friends doubt her. The suspect, Rachel Minsky, is Maggie's closest friend – and all signs point to Rachel's guilt.Rachel ignores the rules society imposes on women. That independence, in 1942, as well as her success in business, has made her enemies. Yet th...

She's barely making ends meet with her beach side drink stand because her ex stole from her and fled the island. So Sasha Redding does what she has to in order to support herself—she takes a job cleaning a house in an exclusive gated community. She just didn't know she'd been hired by a billionaire beast...Her plan to get out of debt doesn't afford her many hours of sleep, and the handsome man who owns the house she cleans doesn't help that when he tells her not to...

A woman finds her everyday life engulfed by vivid fantasies, a businessman explores new ways to deal with his rage, a young woman is stuck on a boat with a bunch of delinquents, a diary is discovered, a commune goes wrong …In this captivating collection of short fiction, award-winning novelist Amanda Lohrey explores the dilemmas of modern life. Her characters find themselves caught between body and spirit, memory and desire, ambition and mortality – and they must transform themselv...

Rhonda Roberts went looking for love in all the wrong places, and found it through an ad in the personals section of her local newspaper. Family and friends think she's crazy when she becomes engaged to a convicted felon, and the lengths she'll go to see him set free."We are all vulnerable in love, and Lorraine Bartlett's "Prisoner of Love" touches on all the emotions we face when we open ourselves to others: heartbreak, need, loss, and hope. Read it, and you'll find yourself sayin...

Victor was already given his escape, but never found the confidence to tell anyone -- not even Maria. He was caught between staying and going -- with Maria holding him back, and Margaux pushing him to leave. Thinking of the debt that needs to be repaid, he was drawn to the latter. But a lie can change everything, and this single mistruth led Maria to believe Victor was truly and hopelessly in love with her. Although he never intended for anything to bloom, a night out with his miracle open...

From the heartbreaking Mi’kmaq story of Minnow, a mermaid in the Atlantic who must choose between two worlds to that of Water Lily and her five brothers, told by the Coos in British Columbia, creatures that inhabit fantastic realms appear in many First Nation stories. C. J. Taylor draws from those stories and from her own Mohawk heritage in this collection of haunting tales about some of the powerful spirits who touch the lives of human folk. The spirits of heaven and earth from the Ute he...

David Morgan and Miranda Quin are two maverick, culturally sophisticated Toronto detectives. When a man is found dead in a koi pond, or two colonial corpses are arranged in a grisly diorama, the pair leap into action — and harm’s way.This four-ebook bundle gathers together the complete Quin and Morgan mystery series by acclaimed author John Moss.Includes*Still WatersGrave DoubtsReluctant DeadBlood Wine*

All the best stories are but one story in reality−the story of escape. It is the only thing whichinterests us all and at all times, how to escape.A.C. BensonEscapist literature is traditionally the domain of well-loved genres. In Escape,we aim to disturb expectations, and to delight. Turn the page and here isexperimentation, here fantasy. Here’s crime, existentialism and romance. Nowan escape artist, now an escapee...