01| Begin / End The last thing I remember is noise. Images are hazy, and they only come in flashes. Most of them are dark, dripping with night, and impossible to make sense of—a glimpse of a tree branch here, a wiry crack in the glass there. Bloodstained fingers. Fragmented pieces of my reflection gazing…
Chapter 1 I was born in death. At least that’s how my father put it whenever I’d ask him about my mother. In truth, I guess he’s right, because she died during childbirth. Some people say it was her last selfless act, but I’ve been told that a mother’s love is unconditional, and no matter…
Chapter the First After my reconciliation with my brothers in the summer of 1889, I spent August quite happily with Reginald Collie, visiting Ferndell, my childhood home in the country. Moreover, after returning to London and my very safe albeit somewhat Spartan room at the Professional Women’s Club, I purchased a delightful new dress, apricot…
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 FIVE HOURS LATER Eleanor The light in the small room is cold, the stark, white glare of an eco-friendly bulb. I’m sure it’s meant to be reassuringly normal, just like the anonymous chair I’m sitting on, and the smooth, light-wood table in front of me. When I look at my hands I…
Chapter 1 Seated behind the HH-60’s cockpit and facing outward, Captain Nicholas Flynn felt his stomach floating as the helicopter raced downslope at more than one hundred and sixty knots. Through the cabin window in front of him, he caught blurred glimpses of massive boulders zipping past not more than a few feet below.…
Available wherever books are sold on January 11, 2022 — pre-order today from any of these partner bookstores: Anderson’s Book Shop (Naperville, IL) BookBar Denver (Denver, CO) Book Carnival (Orange, CA) Cavalier House Books (Denham Springs, LA) Copper Dog Books (Beverly, MA) Fiction Addiction (Greenville, SC) Fountain Bookstore (Richmond, VA) Itinerant Literate (Charleston, SC) My Sister’s Books (Pawley’s Island, SC) Murder by the Book (Houston,…
PROLOGUE A black-pajama-clad figure crouched alongside the sandbags piled up to protect the building in Saigon—a building filled with U.S. soldiers. Putting an explosive charge between the sandbags powerful enough to blow up the building and everyone inside. He was a Vietnamese youth, with dark hair and dark eyes, his face covered with sweat. He…
Priced at just $1.99, this original short story in the bestselling Mike Bowditch mystery series by Paul Doiron finds Maine Game Warden Mike Bowditch on the hunt for a sinister prowler turning a couple’s dream vacation home into a nightmare. New owners of a dream cottage on a remote Maine lake find themselves taunted, then…
“Dude, that’s not funny. Quit it.” My first instinct said Derek was playing around. He’d been an infamous prankster when we were in high school, and this looked like another one of his unfunny jokes. I was too annoyed about the mess he’d made, with gobs of coconut milk splattered all over the table, not…
The Townhouse was already on the radar of detectives, thanks to the investigation into Peter Anderson’s murder. When they visited the bar to conduct interviews, regulars were guarded, reluctant to talk. “The homosexual community wasn’t very open about what they were doing in their private lives,” said Kuehn. Nevertheless, detectives found Douglas Gibson. A blond-haired,…
