Deadly Night Shadows

One man left standing in the darkness of the desert night. Three bodies lay scattered in the dirt in front of his lonesome old house. Was it self-defense or was it murder?Read this true story, which includes actual text from trial transcripts. Did Dennis Flechtner lie in wait to murder his acrimonious neighbors?The Answers are in the book. Until then, the jury is out!

This fine collection of 15 stories straddles the thin border between ordinary anxiety & existential nightmare. These tales of dread & darkness ignore the traditional demons haunting country houses or popping up from unopened graves, but instead feature characters inhabiting the familiar scenes of quotidian life. That these are tales of ordinary people makes them all the more disquieting, their horrors more sharply edged, precisely because they are set in modern, everyday reality. From Elizabeth Bowen to Shirley Jackson, from Ray Bradbury to William Trevor, this selection savors the shadows of these nocturnal landscapes, providing us with momentary (& always literary) encounters with this most elusive, & least tamed, landscape of the human heart.

Icelandic detective Elma faces mortal danger as she investigates the death of a young man in a mysterious Akranes house fire, and a Dutch au pair's perfect placement turns deadly ... The breathtaking third instalment in the award-winning Forbidden Iceland series. ***WINNER of the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger*** &‘Fans of Nordic Noir will love this' Ann Cleeves &‘Elma is a fantastic heroine' Sunday Times &‘Chilling and addictive, with a twist you won't see coming. I loved it!' Shari Lapena &‘Complex, gripping and moving' The Times _________________________ The small community of Akranes is devastated when a young man dies in a mysterious house fire, and when Detective Elma and her colleagues from West Iceland CID discover the fire was arson, they become embroiled in an increasingly perplexing case involving multiple suspects. What's more, the dead man's final online search raises fears that they could be investigating not one murder, but two. A few months before the fire, a young Dutch woman takes a job as an au pair in Iceland, desperate to make a new life for herself after the death of her father. But the seemingly perfect family who employs her turns out to have problems of its own and she soon discovers she is running out of people to turn to. As the police begin to home in on the truth, Elma, already struggling to come to terms with a life-changing event, finds herself in mortal danger as it becomes clear that someone has secrets they'll do anything to hide... ____________________________ Praise for the Forbidden Iceland series: &‘An exciting and harrowing tale' Ragnar J&ónasson &‘Eerie and chilling. I loved every word!' Lesley Kara &‘Not only a full-fat mystery, but also a chilling demonstration of how monsters are made' The Times &‘Beautifully written, spine-tingling and disturbing ... a thrilling new voice in Icelandic crime fiction' Yrsa Sigur&ðard&óttir &‘As chilling and atmospheric as an Icelandic winter' Lisa Gray &‘An unsettling and exciting read with a couple of neat red herrings to throw the reader off the scent' NB Magazine &‘Chilling and troubling ... reminiscent of Jorn Lier Horst&‘s Norwegian procedurals. This is a book that makes an impact' Crime Fiction Lover &‘Elma is a memorably complex character' Financial Times &‘The twist comes out of the blue ... enthralling' Tap The Line Magazine For fans of Ragnar Jonasson, Camilla Lackberg, Ruth Rendell, Gillian McAllister and Shari Lapena

In this inspirational romantic suspense, an abducted woman is rescued by her former college sweetheart, an investigator who puts her under his protection. When she’s snatched off a sidewalk en route to the local Christmas tree lighting, Claire Phillips knows her cozy small town is no longer safe. And when she’s saved by a mystery man, she gets another surprise. Her rescuer is none other than Nate Torres—a man from her past that she’s tried to forget. He’s in town undercover, investigating a drug smuggling ring, and he thinks she’s witnessed more than she realizes. Worse, he thinks the ring’s leader is a local. Someone she knows and trusts. There’s no one for her to rely on but Nate, a man whose action-packed life is worlds away from the security she craves. As the attacks grow more menacing, it will take courage Claire no longer thinks she has to survive to Christmas.

Dark Shadows is a compelling portrait of Kazakhstan, a country that is little known in the West. Strategically located in the heart of Central Asia, sandwiched between Vladimir Putin's Russia, its former colonial ruler, and Xi Jinping's China, this vast oil-rich state is carving out its place in the world as it contends with its own complex past and present. Journalist Joanna Lillis paints a vibrant picture of this emerging nation through vivid reportage based on 17 years of on-the-ground coverage, and travels across the length and breadth of this enigmatic country that lies along the ancient Silk Road and at the geopolitical and cultural crossroads where East meets West. Featuring tales of murder and abduction, intrigue and betrayal, extortion and corruption, this book explores how a president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, transformed himself into a potentate and the economically-struggling state he inherited at the fall of the USSR into a swaggering 21st-century monocracy. A colourful cast of characters brings the politics to life: from strutting oligarchs to sleeping villagers, from principled politicians to striking oilmen, from crusading journalists to courageous campaigners. This new edition features two additional chapters covering the aftermath of Nazarbayev's fall from power in 2019; the Chinese government's repressions against the Kazakhs of Xinjiang as part of its crackdown on Muslim minorities; and an Afterword reflecting on the tumultuous events of January 2022 in Almaty. Traversing dust-blown deserts and majestic mountains, taking in glitzy cities and dystopian landscapes, Dark Shadows conjures up Kazakhstan as a living, breathing place, full of extraordinary people living extraordinary lives.

Aside from working for T-FLAC (and having the same last name), Lexi Stone and Alex Stone are polar opposites, right down to Lexi’s mere mortality and Alex’s paranormal powers. And though Lexi disdains Alex’s rule-breaking bravado, she can’t ignore how his roguish charm makes her heart race. But Lexi’s secret desires clash head-on with her duties when suspicions arise that Alex is poised to switch sides and join forces with a European terrorist cell. Lexi is now assigned to shadow his every move, but her task becomes even tougher when Lexi and Alex suddenly find themselves partnered on an emergency mission in Russia. To stop the rise of a superhuman terrorist threat, Lexi and Alex must work as a well-oiled team, with lethal shadows looming behind them and no one to trust but each other.