Murder Creek, pop. 4999.For Janis Graystone and Scott Spruel, it’s the vacation they’ve long needed. No superhero training. No nation saving. Just a week of rest and relaxation, even if it happens to be with Scott’s screwy parents.But when someone breaks into their beach house and dogs begin turning up blood-drained, the pair of Champions are on the case. Scott suspects vampires, namely the motorcycle-riding hoodlums who loiter in the town’s amusement park, while Janis’s intuition speaks to a more pervasive evil, one that lurks in the town’s shadowy past.Soon enmeshed in a murder mystery, Janis and Scott must scramble to piece the clues together before the killer strikes again.Or strikes them.Cry Little Sister is the first standalone novel in the XGeneration collection, independent of the series’ overarching Cold War plot.XGeneration is a teen paranormal thriller series, inspired by classic superhero comics and the 1980s.Rated 14+ for language and moderate violence.

The dark is rising . . . Detective Inspector James Quill is about to complete the drugs bust of his career. Then his prize suspect Rob Toshack is murdered in custody. Furious, Quill pursues the investigation, co-opting intelligence analyst Lisa Ross and undercover cops Costain and Sefton. But nothing about Toshack’s murder is normal. Toshack had struck a bargain with a vindictive entity, whose occult powers kept Toshack one step ahead of the law – until his luck ran out. Now, the team must find a 'suspect' who can bend space and time and alter memory itself. And they will kill again. As the group starts to see London’s sinister magic for themselves, they have two choices: panic or use their new abilities. Then they must hunt a terrifying supernatural force the only way they know how: using police methods, equipment and tactics. But they must all learn the rules of this new game - and quickly. More than their lives will depend on it. ‘He's gone and written a novel too! I suspect it will be just as good as everything else he's written, and that's not fair at all’ George R R Martin

Shakespeare, Arkansas, is a small Southern town with plenty of secrets, and Charlaine Harris's Lily Bard is just one more of its residents - albeit one harboring a few secrets of her own - with a desire to live quietly. Lily keeps to herself, between her job as a cleaning woman for several townspeople and her visits to the gym, where she's a devotee of karate and bodybuilding. These two pursuits seem a bit odd for the petite Southern woman, but as work and play, they keep her focused and balanced. When a fellow gym member is found dead after a workout with a barbell across his throat, Lily wants to believe it's an accident. But looking at the incident against the background of other recent events in Shakespeare, including a few incidents that appear to be racially motivated, she's afraid it could be a part of something much, much bigger - and much more sinister.

SUMMARY: When librarian Aurora Teagarden becomes the unexpected beneficiary of a colleague's estate, she stumbles upon the skeleton of a murder victim and sets out to clear the name of her late friend, but the real killer is still watching and waiting nearby. Reprint. AB. PW.

When Lady Valeria Augusta Marianus is captured by the savage Pict army, she is fearful of her treatment by their renowned and fearless commander. His enemy is the Roman Empire and she is the Cesar’s niece, but Tristan Caileanach is nothing like the wild beast she imagined. Instead his ruggedly handsome face and toned body makes her long to be held in his powerful arms. And her traitorous body can only resist the heat of this fierce warrior’s touch for so long… One night in Tristan’s bed is all it takes for Valeria to give him her innocence and her heart. Yet she knows they have no future together – not when his hatred for all things Roman runs so deep. But when the Roman army descends on the camp and Tristan is enslaved and forced to be a Gladiator, facing death every day, suddenly their roles are reversed. Now all Valeria wants is to give him back his freedom, but Tristan’s only chance is to win it in the arena…

Zhanna has a vision, one of the return of honor to the Witches and Mercenaries of Russia. Making that hope a reality is becoming more difficult as time goes on, with the young woman battling prejudice from her neighbors and attacks from other Magic users. It is a good thing that Dascha always has her back, as her Witch sets out to show the disorganized and dishonored mercenary Witches of Russia exactly what it means to stand by your Word! Lead by example, practice what you preach. Progress is being made, one step at a time as Zhanna acquires spells and allies. It is too bad that progress is paid with pain.