Mystery Reads

MEAN: A psychological thriller novelette

Cassandra Connelly looks like a normal twenty-four-year-old girl. She seems sweet and shy. She works hard in two jobs and still finds time to do volunteer work. Nonetheless, there’s something wrong within her. She has a lot of anger boiling inside, and a very problematic past, making her a dark, twisted woman.

She hides her true self from the world, but there’s someone Cassandra hates so much, she has been thinking of doing something unspeakable: killing this person.

To her, killing this person is absolutely necessary, for he or she should not be alive. However, since she is still not sure about doing it or not, she seeks help. She goes to a psychiatrist in order to make a decision: should she continue hiding her meanness and being a normal girl, or should she let the meanness win and kill this person she believes deserves to die?

In this contemporary piece of fiction, we’ll find out how badly child abuse and a dysfunctional family can transform a life for worse, much worse.

Mean is a novelette (longer than a short-story but shorter than a novella).

ADVICE: CONTAINS VIOLENT SCENES AND HARSH LANGUAGE

Renata F. Barcelos lives in Brazil with her beautiful and creative daughter and teaches English and Spanish as Second Languages. She loves dark, twisted and flawed characters and stories.
She watches way too much TV and reads perhaps too many (almost exclusively) mystery novels, convincing herself it’s all work–research for her own stories. She writes for as long as she can remember, and her other stories are waiting impatiently to be published. Soon to be released, her next book is a coming-of-age mystery novel called “My sore hush-a-bye”.

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The Hunter Inside by David McGowan

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You can lock your windows and your doors, but you cannot lock your mind from The Hunter Inside.

Paul Wayans and Bill Arnold have something in common. They are being stalked by a vicious killer.

Sandy Myers, rushing from home with her 7 year-old twins in tow, grabs a letter from the mailbox. It is addressed to Sandy Carson. Her maiden name. Contained within the plain manila envelope is a photograph. A photograph of a corpse.

The past has caught up with them, and now their lives are in jeopardy. A monster more fearsome than any the world has ever seen is hunting them, bringing with it echoes from the past and threatening the future of civilisation.

Should they run, or should they stand and fight?

FBI Special Agent Sam O’Neill will fight desperately to solve a case that he could not solve ten years before. Then, he had no clues as to the identity of the vicious killer. This time, it’s different.

But can he find them before it’s too late? And if he does not, will ANYONE survive?

The Hunter Inside is a psychological thriller with a twist. It is a page-turning roller-coaster of a novel that you won’t be able to put down until all of its secrets, twists and turns have been revealed. Packed full of gruesome murders, fear and suspense, it harbors a monster so fearsome it will give you nightmares.

Shimasou is here – and no-one is safe.

David McGowan is 34 years old and from Liverpool in the United Kingdom. He holds a degree in English language and literature, and spins tales of suspense with a twist. He rates as his biggest influences Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Peter Straub.

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Beauty

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“I’d been sitting here wishing on a star, the moon, genies, birthday cakes, wishing wells, whatever I could think of that would make what just happened not be true. I’d never had a wish granted in my life. That was the stuff kids believed in. I wasn’t a kid anymore…”

Plain. Invisible. Ugly. Fat.

When nineteen year old Evelyn Barns wakes up two hundred and forty-three pounds lighter, her heart’s desire suddenly becomes her curse.

“Your fate is in your hands,” were the witch’s words, but when every bad deed counts, there’s not much she can do to stop the weight from packing back on, even with coke as her new best friend. It was all moving too fast, her pain only masked by a high that was becoming harder to keep. A new life and social status was all she ever wanted but what she finds leaves her drowning in a beautiful nightmare that only gets worse.

Suicidal and guilt ridden, Evelyn must decide if loving herself is worth letting go of everything else.

There was beauty somewhere in there. She just had to find it.

Patria L. Dunn (Patria Dunn-Rowe) hails from the small town of Louisa Virginia. Born in 1981, a true child of the 80’s; her interest range from classic to unimaginable. While The Gifts Trilogy is her first work, it certainly isn’t her last. A young woman with many talents and many titles such as: Pianist, Author, & most importantly Mother, if you ask about her accomplishments she will tell you: “The best is yet to come.”

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Down Among the Dead Men

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GET READY FOR A JAW DROPPING TWIST…

From the bestselling author of TRIAL JUNKIES comes the ITW Thriller Award Nominee for Best Novel

When assistant district attorney Beth Crawford’s sister Jen invites her on a weekend cruise to Baja California, Beth is looking forward to a few days of much needed down time. But the fun in the sun doesn’t last long when Beth meets a mysterious couple on board and Jen disappears without a trace on the streets of Playa del Sol.

Now Beth must travel through Mexico’s violent underbelly–a stranger in a strange land–while searching desperately for her missing sister. And the only one who can help her is Nick Vargas, a disgraced newspaper reporter on the trail of a dangerous and deadly cult that has big plans for the upcoming celebration of El Dia de los Muertos–The Day of the Dead.

Robert Gregory Browne began his career by selling a two-part mystery story, NOTHING BUT THE COLD WIND, to EasyRiders magazine. After more than a decade as a screenwriter, Browne shifted his focus to his first love, novels, and wrote KISS HER GOODBYE, which recently served as the basis for a CBS Television series pilot, starring Dylan Walsh and Terry Kinney.

Rob’s subsequent books are the thrillers TRIAL JUNKIES, WHISPER IN THE DARK, KILL HER AGAIN, DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN and THE PARADISE PROPHECY (as Robert Browne).

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PLUMMET

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Working in a big law firm is murder.
Want to find out for yourself?
Then take the plunge…

Micah Grayson is an eager rookie fresh out of law school. Raphael Bianco is a degenerate senior associate who’s never met a temptation he could resist. Gabe Weiss is a millionaire senior partner who has a dream life. All three are litigators at Sullivan & Adler, the most powerful law firm in Manhattan. Two of them share a lover. One of them will kill in cold blood. But who is his victim? A dark why-dun-it set in the backstabbing conference rooms of corporate law.

MICHAEL ZAROCOSTAS is represented by the Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency, which also represents New York Times bestselling authors DENNIS LEHANE (Mystic River, Shutter Island, The Given Day), PAUL DOIRON (Bad Little Falls), and C.J. BOX (Blue Heaven).

Michael’s work has been honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowship, the Chesterfield Writers Film Project, and the Rupert Hughes Prose Writing Competition (at the former Maui Writers Conference).

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Murder at Thumb Butte by James D. Best

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In the spring of 1880, Steve Dancy travels to Prescott, Arizona to gain control of a remarkable invention. But on his first night in the territorial capital, his friend, Jeff Sharp is arrested for a midnight murder at Thumb Butte. Dancy launches a personal investigation to find the real murderer, only to discover the whole town wanted the victim dead. For help, he turns to another old friend and associate, Captain Joseph McAllen of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.

Can Dancy discover the true killer before his friend stretches a rope on the courthouse square?

James D. Best is the author of The Shopkeeper, Leadville, and Murder at Thumb Butte in the Steve Dancy Western series. His other books include Tempest at Dawn, The Shut Mouth Society, and The Digital Organization. Tempest at Dawn is a dramatization of the 1787 Constitutional Convention. James has written monthly columns for two magazine and numerous journal articles. He lives with his wife, Diane, in Paradise Valley, Arizona.

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The Shut Mouth Society

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When a rich Santa Barbara collector acquires a newly discovered Abraham Lincoln document, he asks detective Greg Evarts and UCLA professor Patricia Baldwin to authenticate it. Their research launches them into a dangerous struggle with a secret society formed during Reconstruction. Before they can solve the mystery surrounding the Lincoln manuscript, a shocking murder forces them to run for their lives.

As they race across the country, they discover a Civil War secret that could upset the balance of power in North America. Now Evarts and Baldwin must unravel the 150-year-old conspiracy before it’s too late … and before they are silenced for good.

James D. Best is the author of The Shopkeeper, Leadville, and Murder at Thumb Butte in the Steve Dancy Western series. His other books include Tempest at Dawn, Principled Action, The Shut Mouth Society, and The Digital Organization. Tempest at Dawn is a dramatization of the 1787 Constitutional Convention and Principled Action is a non-fiction companion book. James has written monthly columns for two magazine and numerous journal articles. He lives with his wife, Diane, in Paradise Valley, Arizona.

You can learn more about James and his books at jamesdbest.blogspot.com

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The Folks at Fifty-Eight by Michael Patrick Clark

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Gerald Hammond is the exception to the rule; an honourable spy, whose lofty principles have brought him nothing but loneliness and isolation. Catherine Schmidt is the stunning young daughter of an assassinated spymaster, whose murderous quest for vengeance has left her at the mercy of the infamous Head of Soviet State Security.

On a covert operation, in Soviet-occupied Germany, Hammond has no knowledge of the unseen forces that sponsor and oppose his mission. He only knows that he must somehow save her to save himself, but, as ever-more disturbing revelations come to light, begins to wonder which poses the greater threat; the enemy he runs from, or the friend he runs to?

Set against a factual background of government conspiracy, and one of the most audacious espionage coups in history, the Folks at Fifty-Eight is a beautifully-paced tale of seduction, betrayal, blackmail, and murder that blurs the boundaries between fact and fiction.

Author Bio:
Michael Patrick Clark was born on The Fourth of July 1950.
He spent the first few years of his life in an orphanage, before adoption brought a new home and a change of name.
Michael joined the armed forces as a boy apprentice. He trained in telecommunications, and subsequently transferred to a specialist mobile-communications unit.
Over the ensuing years he travelled the world; living and working in environments as exotic, hostile, and diverse as the Libyan Desert, Europe, the Australian outback, South-East Asia, and Central and South America.
In the late seventies Michael moved into the high-tech industry. He worked predominantly on international consultancy, for U.S. based communications and computer manufacturers, but after twenty-five years in the industry, made the life-changing decision to move to Spain, with his wife Pamela, and write novels.
Since then he has completed the first and last parts of The Etzel Trilogy, The Folks at Fifty-Eight being the first. He has also written Flying with Cuckoos, an amusing and heart-warming account of his tortuous journey from the orphanage to Special Forces: due for publication later this year.

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Patient 6:24 (The Chronicles of Detective Michaels)

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His suspect has awakened from his six month long coma and Detective Michaels is determined to get his confession but when the maniac is let loose and takes over the hospital, everyone is facing death. With only six staff members left Michaels must find a way to get them out alive before the maniac fulfills his mission. Even more troubling Michaels must deal with one of the staff members possibly being an apprentice to the delusional killer.

Will Michaels be able to save everyone including himself? Why is this killer targeting his victims? And who is this killer’s apprentice?

The second short story in the Detective Michaels series follows up on Michaels and his attempts solve big cases, this story is a stand alone short but there are slight references to the previous short “Just the Beginning”. At around 8,000 words this story is entertaining and will have you reading till the very last word. Enjoy and be sure to check out “Just the Beginning”.

Author Bio:
Hello, I’m H.L. Navarro Jr. I was born and raised in Staten Island, New York. Currently still there. Thanks to several of my college professors I’ve found the courage to write the abundance of stories and ideas that flow through my head daily. I like writing about science fiction because of the technology but I’m currently also enjoying writing about horror, all fiction. I’m currently working on a lot of things right now, horror (Detective Michaels 3-7), Sci-fi (the second Project Sol-Nites), satire (What Could and Should Never Be), philosophical (no title) and a book of flash fiction horror stories and if at least one person enjoys it and gets the messages I’m writing then I will happy and grateful. I hope everyone enjoys my stories.

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Human Trial II: Adam’s War

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After facing off with the aliens in the woods of Pleasant Valley, the MMD travel halfway across the continent, hoping to become members of a larger colony of survivors. Along they way, they encounter more battles with marauders and wild animals, and also have to deal with the mental disintegration of one of their members.

The MMD arrives in Big Springs, Nebraska, where they seek to assist in rebuilding society. Soon Daron finds himself at odds with the colony’s leader, a megalomaniac named J.D. Cooks. Furthermore the colony has the appearance of a POW camp. When he sees that the area is patrolled by armed guards, Daron suggests to his cohorts that they develop a plan of escape, if needed.

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