Bluff

Bluff

Michael Kardos

Literature & Fiction / Mystery & Thrillers / Short Stories

The magician's job is to create a mystery—an unbridgeable gap between cause and effect. Michael Kardos brilliantly constructs his new novel Bluff as a magician would, delivering a perfectly calibrated performance of intrigue and, ultimately, astonishment. At twenty-seven, magician Natalie Webb is already a has-been. A card-trick prodigy, she started touring at seventeen, took first place at the World of Magic competition at eighteen, and never reached such heights again. Shunned by the magic world after a disastrous liaison with an older magician, she now lives alone with her pigeons and a pile of overdue bills in a New Jersey apartment. Performing for a roomful of lawyers one night, she finds herself confronted with the worst kind of audience volunteer, a show stealer, and in a split second of fury she launches a 70 mph-card at the man's face, slicing his left eye. If he presses charges, it could spell her final ruin. In a desperate ploy to make extra cash, she...
Read online
  • 56
The Classic American Short Story Megapack, Volume 1

The Classic American Short Story Megapack, Volume 1

Ambrose Bierce

Short Stories / Nonfiction / Poetry

The Classic American Short Story Megapack, Volume 1 assembles 34 of the greatest stories ever written by American authors—including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Ambrose Bierce, Edgar Allan Poe, Bret Harte, Sherwood Anderson, Mark Twain, O. Henry, Jack London, and Stephen Crane. Includes multiple stories per author, their most famous short works, along with biographical notes.Complete contents:YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN, by Nathaniel HawthorneTHE CELESTIAL RAILROAD, by Nathaniel HawthorneTHE GREAT STONE FACE, by Nathaniel HawthorneETHAN BRAND, by Nathaniel HawthorneRIP VAN WINKLE, by Washington IrvingTHE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW, by Washington IrvingAUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A POCKET-HANDKERCHIEF by James Fenimore CooperTHE DAMNED THING, by Ambrose BierceAN OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK, by Ambrose BierceTHE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, by Edgar Allan PoeTHE CASK OF AMONTILLADO, by Edgar Allan PoeTHE PURLOINED LETTER...
Read online
  • 56


City of Bohane

City of Bohane

Kevin Barry

Literature & Fiction / Short Stories

FB2Library.Elements.CiteItem Forty years in the future. The once-great city of Bohane on the west coast of Ireland is on its knees, infested by vice and split along tribal lines. There are the posh parts of town, but it is in the slums and backstreets of Smoketown, the tower blocks of the Northside Rises and the eerie bogs of Big Nothin’ that the city really lives. For years, the city has been in the cool grip of Logan Hartnett, the dapper godfather of the Hartnett Fancy gang. But there’s trouble in the air. They say his old nemesis is back in town; his trusted henchmen are getting ambitious; and his missus wants him to give it all up and go straight… And then there’s his mother. City of Bohane is a visionary novel that blends influences from film and the graphic novel, from Trojan beats and calypso rhythms, from Celtic myth and legend, from fado and the sagas, and from all the great inheritance of Irish literature. A work of mesmerising imagination and vaulting linguistic invention, it is a taste of the glorious and new. Review FB2Library.Elements.CiteItem FB2Library.Elements.CiteItem FB2Library.Elements.CiteItem FB2Library.Elements.CiteItem FB2Library.Elements.CiteItem FB2Library.Elements.CiteItem
Read online
  • 56
Year's Best Fantasy 1

Year's Best Fantasy 1

David G. Hartwell

Science Fiction & Fantasy / Short Stories

Tales As Deep As Legend And As New As DawnAcclaimed editor David G. Hartwell has gathered a harvest of shimmering beauty and powerful writing in this inaugural volume of the very best fantasy from the last year. Established masters rub elbows with rising stars in this outstanding collection of short stories rich with imagined lands and finely etched, unforgettable characters. Travel to distant realms -- and around the block -- with stories by: Terry Goodkin Nicola GriffithNalo Hopkinson George R.R. Martin Robert Sheckley Michael Swanwick
Read online
  • 56
Threats

Threats

Amelia Gray

Literature & Fiction / Short Stories / Poetry

David's wife is dead. At least, he thinks she's dead. But he can't figure out what killed her or why she had to die, and his efforts to sort out what's happened have been interrupted by his discovery of a series of elaborate and escalating threats hidden in strange places around his home--one buried in the sugar bag, another carved into the side of his television. These disturbing threats may be the best clues to his wife's death: CURL UP ON MY LAP. LET ME BRUSH YOUR HAIR WITH MY FINGERS. I AM SINGING YOU A LULLABY. I AM TESTING FOR STRUCTURAL WEAKNESS IN YOUR SKULL. Detective Chico is also on the case, and is intent on asking David questions he doesn't know the answers to and introducing him to people who don't appear to have David's or his wife's best interests in mind. With no one to trust, David is forced to rely on his own memories and faculties--but they too are proving unreliable. In THREATS, Amelia Gray builds a world that is bizarre yet familiar, violent yet tender. It is an electrifying story of love and loss that grabs you on the first page and never loosens its grip.
Read online
  • 56
Any Other Name

Any Other Name

Emma Newman

Science Fiction / Urban Fantasy / Short Stories

Cat has been forced into an arranged marriage with William – a situation that comes with far more strings than even she could have anticipated, especially when she learns of his family’s intentions for them both. Meanwhile, Max and the gargoyle investigate The Agency – a mysterious organisation that appears to play by its own rules – and none of them favourable to Society. Over in Mundanus, Sam has discovered something very peculiar about his wife’s employer – something that could herald a change for everyone in both sides of the Split Worlds. File Under: Fantasy [ How Grotesque | Taking Tea | Lords of Misrule | Sorcerous Magic ]
Read online
  • 56
183