An enthralling debut, The Protectors offers a dark twist on the classic superhero story as fallen hero Scott McAlister embarks on a globe-hopping chase to stop his former teammate—and ex-lover—gone rogue.Don’t call him a superhero.Heroes change the world. Scott McAlister? On a good day, he manages to change out of sweatpants.It wasn’t always like this. Scott used to be leader of the Protectors, the world’s one and only squad of superheroes....

When Dr. Julian Lambert receives millions in funding for his water-bottling operation deep in the Amazonian rainforest, workers and owners alike celebrate their good fortune. All except one man--Lambert's mysterious foreman, Manolo--who whispers a grave warning: Opportunity is not the only thing money brings... Manolo knows the price of success in this lawless part of the Peruvian jungle--a place where good intentions and noble pursuits often suffer violent deaths. He understands the news ...

Finalist for the 2015 Derringer Award - novelette category1888--New Mexico Territory Father William Clarke knows his share of desperate men. A priest in a dangerous border town, Clarke's business is to minister to anyone who'll listen: liars, beggars, thieves...even killers. But when Father Clarke walks through the door of the Hard Case Saloon one night, he encounters something new--a ragged, filthy stranger who insists he has no soul for Clarke to save. The priest scoffs at first, convinc...

A new work of short fiction from the 2012 Derringer-nominated author of Ballistic. When you need to hunt down a god, call a sniper. The D.E.A. believes Marine Corps Sergeant Matt O’Connor is their best bet to capture the deadliest meth kingpin in the United States—Herman Estevez, the self-proclaimed “God of Speed.” Special Agent Sam Brookings drops O’Connor into thick Ozark mountain country with a simple directive: stake out backwoods drug labs and pinpoint Estevez, a man who has eluded th...

Danny has a simple job: he makes people pay for their mistakes. Unfortunately, even hitmen screw up too. When an exhausted Danny escorts an unreliable accountant to his final audit in a run-down hotel, he realizes the moneyman isn’t the only one scheduled for termination. And when you need a professional, lightning-quick gunman dead, they don’t just send one man—they send all of them. Alone, facing multiple killers, he has to move fast and shoot faster. Worse, Danny knows the leader of the...

A new work of horror short fiction from the Derringer-nominated author of Ballistic andThe God of Speed. Nine-year-old Kayla suffers from horrible dreams, along with the nagging fear that monsters will come for her in the night. Employees of the Stafford Sleep Clinic think they know better, until an astonished technician discovers that beyond all of the machines, wires, and monitors he trusts so completely, the little girl's fears may not be imaginary after all.

This collection features 20 dazzling and diverse tales about thieves by some of the best short story writers in the world today. From an audacious intergalactic heist and a daring tightrope walk across New York, to a pirate ship in the Caribbean and a trip through time to visit Leonardo da Vinci, the rogues and robbers in these tales will tantalise, disturb, move you or make you laugh out loud.

Holly Frick has just endured the worst kind of breakup: the kind where you're still in love with the person leaving you. While her wounds are still dangerously close to the surface, her happily married best friend confesses over a bottle of wine that she is this close to having an affair. And another woman comes to Holly for advice about her love life -- with Holly's ex!Holly decides that if everyone around her can take pleasure wherever they find it, so will she. As any self-respe...

The bestselling French phenomenon, winner of the Prix Lion Noir, now available in English for the first time...When Madame Préau returns to her own house outside Paris after several years spent in a convalescent home, she immediately notices that the neighborhood has changed. Now, instead of a beautiful garden next door there is a new house. And she can see directly into her new neighbors' windows.Madame Préau quickly feels that something isn't right. Her neighbors have two...

"Thayer paints a rich picture of Hong Kong politics as well as of the world of international architecture" (Publishers Weekly) in this gripping thriller about the world's most famous architect, who makes a fatal mistake in building the world's tallest skyscraper for the Chinese government.To mark five thousand years of civilization, China has commissioned master architect John Llewellyn to construct a building like no other—a three-thousand-foot-tall cresc...

Investigator Vissarion Lom has been summoned to the capital in order to catch a terrorist -- and ordered to report directly to the head of the secret police.A totalitarian state, worn down by an endless war, must be seen to crush home-grown insurgents with an iron fist. But Lom discovers Mirgorod to be more corrupted than he imagined: a murky world of secret police and revolutionaries, cabaret clubs and doomed artists.Lom has been chosen because he is an ou...

The military sci-fi classic of courage on a dangerous alien planetThe planet is called Banshee. The air is unbreathable, the water is poisonous. It is home to the most implacable enemies that humanity, in all its interstellar expansion, has ever encountered.Body armor has been devised for the commando forces that are to be dropped on Banshee—the culmination of ten thousand years of the armorers’ craft. A trooper in this armor is a one-man, atomic powered ba...