Zhao Yunlan heads up a covert division of the Ministry of Public Security that deals with the strange and unusual, blurring the line between the mortal realm and the Netherworld. His cocky, casual attitude conceals both a sharp mind and an arsenal of mystical tools and arcane knowledge. While investigating a gruesome death at a local university, Zhao Yunlan crosses paths with the reserved Professor Shen Wei. Zhao Yunlan is immediately intrigued by Shen Wei’s good looks and intense gaze, an...

A young man's body is found outside a glitzy high-rise on the West Side of Yancheng--dressed for celebration, strangled, and left with a sheet of paper covering his face. One word is scrawled across it: money.To Sergeant Luo Wenzhou, head of the Criminal Investigation Team at the Yancheng Municipal Public Safety Bureau, it's just another case in a city rife with power plays and buried secrets. But as he digs deeper with his team, what begins as a straightforward homicide unravels into some...

The discovery of violet gold, a vital fuel for steam-powered machines, propelled the empire of Great Liang into an age of prosperity. But for Chang Geng, a young man raised on the impoverished northern border, the concerns of the empire are as distant as the stars above. When raiders from the north attack Chang Geng's small village, he discovers that the life he knows is a lie. His mother, his teacher, and even his godfather whom he trusted more than any other, Shen Shiliu, are not what th...

When a powerful business magnate dies in a mysterious car crash, the stability of his empire collapses overnight. Days later, his eldest son is kidnapped, forcing Luo Wenzhou and his team into a treacherous investigation where every lead is undermined by the tycoon's colleagues--and even by his own surviving children.As the scope of the case widens, Luo Wenzhou must navigate secrets and betrayals worthy of a Shakespearean tragedy.Fei Du is crucial to the investigation, particularly because...

Ronnie doesn't know it yet, but her fate rests in the hands of the dead.Silent film star Venita Rost's malevolent spirit lurks spider-like in her cliffside mansion, a once-beautiful home that's claimed countless unlucky souls. And she's not alone. Snared in her terrible web, Inspector Bartholomew Sloan—her eternal nemesis—watches her wreak havoc in helpless horror, shackled by his own guilt and Venita's unrelenting wrath.Now the house has yet another new ow...

When a mysterious illness knocks Zhao Yunlan off his feet, he enjoys being doted on by Shen Wei--until he discovers a grim secret that threatens to tear them apart. However, it's not just their domestic bliss that's on the verge of collapse. The Great Seal is cracking, order itself is about to break down and extinguish all life, and their only hope to stop the destruction is the final Hallowed Artifact: the Soul-Guarding Lamp. But even as the world threatens to crumble around them, Zhao Yu...

"This smartly paced, genre bending novel is a good choice for the horror-curious thriller reader who enjoyed The Good House by Tananarive Due and Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia." —Booklist, Starred Review"Cherie Priest is our new queen of darkness, folks. Time to kneel before her, lest she take our heads." —Chuck Wendig, author of The Book of AccidentsHouses fall into the Pacific ...

REDISCOVER THE BEGINNINGS OF A LEGEND! Critically acclaimed European artist ERGÜN GÜNDÜZ rejoins legendary writer CHRISTOPHER PRIEST for an expanded reimagining of Forrest J Ackerman’s classic origin story in Vampirella: Year One, collecting all six issues of the original series. With framing sequences set in the present day illustrated by GIOVANNI TIMPANO, the story explores the exotic world of Drakulon, the pressures that caused Vampirella to leave, and her first days on Earth, beginning...

Yancheng Municipal Bureau is called in to handle a school bus hijacking--a bizarre crime, but seemingly an isolated one. Sadly, the police are unable to return one of the bus's young passengers to her parents. She's vanished without a trace.The schoolgirl's disappearance leads Luo Wenzhou and Tao Ran to reexamine a police investigation that took place twenty years earlier. That strange case seems to have haunted almost everyone who lived through it--especially Luo Wenzhou and Tao Ran's own...

Four years ago, Chang Geng and Gu Yun parted in anger. When fate draws them together again, Chang Geng, a once-awkward teen, is now an elegant and adroit young man. But storms lie ahead. As Great Liang faces foreign pressure from without, Gu Yun finds himself embroiled in turmoil within the imperial court. Meanwhile, as the curse in Chang Geng's blood grows, his feelings for his godfather become more painful to subdue by the day. How much longer can he keep Gu Yun from learning his secret....

As snow quietly covers Dragon City in the final days of the lunar year, patients writhing in pain flock to the hospital. Baffled doctors call upon Zhao Yunlan and his team for help. As the case unfolds, Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan discover that one of the Four Hallowed Artifacts, the Merit Brush, has appeared in the Mortal Realm. In the wrong hands, its power can be transformative. While each step toward the artifact only pulls the pair deeper into a vortex of mysteries, Zhao Yunlan keeps stu...

Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks; and when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one....The people of Fall River, Massachusetts, fear me. Perhaps rightfully so. I remain a suspect in the brutal deaths of my father and his second wife despite the verdict of innocence at my trial. With our inheritance, my sister, Emma, and I have taken up residence in Maplecroft, a mansion near the sea and far from gossip and scrutiny...