In Eden, nothing gets in the way of your happiness…not even yourself.Eddie Logan, a desperate man crumbling under a lifetime of depression, is offered a new life in a place called Eden. Here, everything is designed and tightly controlled to keep its residents happy. They know everything about Eddie and provide him with (almost) everything he's ever desired—including a secret dream he's never shared with anyone.But can happiness truly come from abandoning yo...

Running a karaoke bar is no way for an ex-PI to make a living.Just ask Ridley Brone, a California private investigator who returns to his Michigan hometown when he inherits his estranged parents' multi-million-dollar estate. The songs they wrote made them rich, but their popular karaoke bar, the High Note, made them famous. Now Ridley owns a bar he doesn't have a clue how to manage, and his every effort seems only to further tarnish his parents' legacy.Then...

Your daughter murdered. Your son the prime suspect. How far would you go to prove his innocence?There was a time when Ethan Trent's days consisted of little more than thrill rides and petty theft. Fatherhood changed all that. Now he struggles to raise his teenage son and daughter on his own, doing everything he can to keep his criminal past where it belongs...in the past.A late-night visit bearing news of his daughter's murder shatters Ethan's illusions of ...

Three years after the case that changed Ridley Brone forever, he has cobbled together a life he can deal with, working as a PI out of the office above his karaoke bar. Then Eddie Arndt walks in.He wants Ridley to investigate his family's murder-suicide from twenty years ago. But to Ridley, it doesn't sound like there's much to investigate. He passes on the case until he receives a peculiar phone call.Cryptic, vulgar, and disturbing. the caller threatens the one thing most p...

No good deed goes unpunished.For private investigator Harrison Hart that's more than an old cliché—it's his current damn life.After giving up his FBI career to care for his mentally ill brother, Harrison does his best to adjust to life in suburban Detroit. The last thing he needs is somebody else's problems. But when he sees a lowlife grab a woman's purse and run, what can Harrison do but chase him down?This one act of heroism draws Harrison into a messy crossfire o...

Crime And...I challenged folks to give me a crime story with a one word title that could complete that phrase above.Many answered, and nearly twenty made the final cut, from coziest fun to darkest noir, always with Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment in the back of their minds.Historic tales sent in mid-Twentieth Century Los Angeles or Budapest. Modern mysteries from small towns to Appalachia to the big city.Crime takes many forms. Where will it take you?

The Agency taught him how to fight monsters, not a war. How to protect his country, not those he loved. How to kill, not how to live.Now Craig Lockman faces a legion of vampires led by a self-proclaimed vampire king. Never before have these creatures amassed in such great numbers. Their goal is uncertain. Their reach unknown.And while Lockman's training can help in the battle against this dark legion, nothing can prepare him for the sacrifice he must make in order to defeat...

One objective has driven Craig Lockman since the day his daughter arrived on his doorstep—protect her at all costs.But now he works for a new Agency with a leader who insists Jessie is the Chosen One, prophesied to bring about The Return and send all supernaturals back to wherever they came from. He will stop at nothing to see it realized.Meanwhile, still enraged over the loss of her sister, Teresa Stevenson sees Jessie as a dangerous monster who must die, and Teresa will s...

Craig Lockman has always protected the world from evil. Battled wicked creatures with an unquenchable thirst to destroy our world. Stood against the darkest of the darker things.Now his most dreaded enemy lurks closer than ever before.It's a horror he's not prepared—much less equipped—to fight. And if he doesn't prevail, the future of everyone he loves will fall into darkness.For the first time in his life, Lockman feels afraid.He is about to face his darkes...

A town full of lies.Something about Sasha Brown catches Ridley Brone's eye the moment she walks into his karaoke bar. Not just her angelic voice when she takes the mic. Or the way the stage lights make her white-blonde hair shimmer. She seems to embody the very essence of innocence. So when she ends up dead on a snowbank in the middle of a harsh Michigan winter, he becomes obsessed with learning the truth behind her demise.But the truths he discovers will n...

Three years after the wolves tore Jessie Lockman's world to shreds, she continues to carry the burden of a prophecy only she possesses the power to fulfill.Yet, while the prophecy chose her, it must have chosen wrong.For every monster she banishes from the mortal plane, hundreds of thousands remain. Even with the help of the formidable Agency, tasked with combating paranormal threats, Jessie can't imagine completing such an impossible mission.Meanwhile, a host of ne...

Welcome to the second year’s-worth of stories from the online magazine ZNB Presents published by the small press Zombies Need Brains. In these pages, you will find original science fiction and fantasy stories of awe and wonder, darkness and light, ranging through all of the subgenres, including urban fantasy, alternate history, space opera, future fairy tales, and more. They come from the most talented authors in the field today—new voices as well as trusted and familiar names. Join us as ...