It’s easy to find a book; it’s hard to find the book, that new author who sets your life on fire.That’s why we put this collection together. This book gives you an easy way to sample a group of eight up-and-coming mystery writers who you may not have heard of, but who critics and award committees have noticed. We’ve assembled eight very different styles to let you sample a wide array of stories and find new voices you might have trouble finding on your own.We have hard-boiled detectives, and we have crime-solving animals. We have deeply flawed characters, and we have cute youngsters. We have damaged women, kick-ass women, noble women and mean women, sometimes in the same character. We have tough guys in spades, and we have funny in spades.Each writer contributed a story, a sample chapter from a book, and an interview. Because of our variety, there’s sure to be something here you’ll love, and maybe love for life.

A Fantastic Vacation Becomes A Fight For Life Visiting San Esteban is supposed to be a vacation for Frank and Joe Hardy and their friends, but it doesn't take long for them to realize that the island is no paradise. Some of the local inhabitants aren't very friendly to tourists, and the island itself is crawling with dangerous wild animals -- some of which take up residence in the Hardys' bungalow. As if this isn't enough to worry about, someone starts dogging the Hardys every step of the way. Is this person responsible for most of the "bad luck" they've had? Not even the worst villain, though, could arrange the typhoon that turns all of San Esteban into a death trap. Can the Hardys solve the mystery of Typhoon Island before they're wiped off the map?

When Chet, a graduate student of archaeology, is invited to show a gorgeous woman named Journey around their summer dig site, he has no idea what he's in for. For one thing Journey isn't a woman: she's Flame, one of the reviled, shape shifting, gender-fluctuating people of Uos. Then Journey uncovers a deadly secret in the dust. Chet must run to keep up with spies, murder, long-lost magic, and a romantic dream embodied by a 332 year old man who holds the key to absolute power on the world of Uos. (Other, M/F, M/M)

John Sevier had not taken much interest in the American Revolution. Homesteading in the Carolina mountains, Sevier was too busy fighting Indians and taming the wilderness to worry much about a far-off war, but when an arrogant British officer sends a message over the mountains, threatening to burn the settlers' farms and kill their families, the Revolutionary War becomes personal.That abrasive officer is British Army Major Patrick Ferguson, who is both charmingly antagonistic and surprisingly endearing. The younger son of a Scottish earl, Ferguson suffers constant misfortunes, making his dedication and courage count for nothing. When he loses the use of his arm from an injury at Brandywine, his commander sends him south, away from the war—which, in 1780, George Washington and the Continental Army are losing. Ordered to recruit wealthy Southern planters to the British cause, Ferguson courts disaster by provoking the frontiersmen, and suddenly the...

James W. Huston takes the hottest issue of our time--the War on Terrorism--and explores it with a compelling, stay-up-late thriller filled with high-stakes courtroom drama, white-knuckle in-the-cockpit flying, and the shadowy world of American Special Forces operations.Lieutenant Kent "Rat" Rathman is back. In the middle of the desert, in the dead of night, Lieutenant Rathman parachutes with his Special Forces team into Sudan, where an arms merchant is selling weapons to Wahamed Duar, the world's most wanted man in the ongoing War on Terrorism. Duar escapes, but a key member of his organization is captured. Determined to find Duar, Rat uses questionable means of persuasion to uncover his whereabouts and the information leads to his capture. But the man he brutally interrogated later dies as a result on a U.S. Navy ship.Washington is thrilled with Duar's capture, but a slick European lawyer with the International Criminal Court asserts that Rat violated...

In the seventh Super Turbo book, visiting a student's home sounds harmless...until Super Turbo meets the Cat-Nappers!As the class pet hamster, Turbo is simply delighted to learn that he'll be going home with a new student each week. He loves his second-grade students! But his delight disappears when he arrives at the first student's home. That's because a bunch of lazy, napping cats turn out to be the dreaded Cat-Nappers! With easy-to-read language, illustrations, and comic panels on almost every page, the Super Turbo chapter books are perfect for emerging readers!

'Once upon a time, a mysterious time that exists through a window in your mind, a time that seemed, to those present, exactly like now does to us, except their teeth weren't so clean and more things were wooden, there was a town called Hamelin . . .' In the first in his series of Trickster Tales, Russell Brand retells the classic children's story The Pied Piper of Hamelin. You'll be enchanted and revolted in equal measure by the host of characters you meet along the way: the anarchic rats, the arrogant townspeople, sharp-eyed Sam and of course the Pied Piper himself, all brought to life in Brand's inimitable style and with the illustrations of Costa Award-winner Chris Riddell.

Lambda Literary Award Nominee Lieutenant Franco faces a psychotic killer. Case closures are up and homicide rates are down for LAPD's 93rd Homicide Squad. "Frank", Lieutenant L.A. Franco, is revitalizing her depleted detective crew while quietly mending private scars. And Frank is about to need all the back she can muster as she faces her own personal demons while trying not to jeopardize her developing relationship with Gail. When a corner hustler turns up dead with a headless rooster in his lap, Frank realizes she's up against Mother Love-Jones, renowned psychic, drug dealer and santería priestess. Soon Frank becomes inexorably pulled into Mother Love's ambush. Heedless of the warnings around her, Frank plunges into battle with Mother Love and her violent minions: A battle as dark and deadly as the ancient bloodied sands from which it sprang.**

A model town at war with itself . . . George Pullman created an ideal community for his railroad car workers, complete with every amenity they could want or need. But when hard economic times hit in 1894, lay-offs follow and the workers can no longer pay their rent or buy food at the company store. Starving and desperate, they turn against their once benevolent employer. Emily Cabot and her friend Dr. Stephen Chapman bring much needed food and medical supplies to the town, hoping they can meet the immediate needs of the workers and keep them from resorting to violence. But when one young worker—suspected of being a spy—is murdered, and a bomb plot comes to light, Emily must race to discover the truth behind a tangled web of family and company alliances.