Thirty Christmases ago, a manic father assaulted his wife and daughter, stopped only by his nine-year-old son. Recently released from a mental hospital, the old man appears unexpectedly at his son's doorstep, hopeful to end their estrangement. Can time—and a shared love of chess—bridge the gap and bring them together?

Our 66th issue kicks off our holiday festivities, thanks to Katherine Fast’s “Reunion” (brought to you by Acquiring Editor Barb Goffman) Plus we have an original tale by Albert Tucher (courtesy of Acquiring Editor Michael Bracken), and a darker science fiction story by David C. Smith (thanks to Acquiring Editor Cynthia Ward, who had been on leave for the last few issues.) On the mystery front, we have another Johnny Liddell mystery from Frank Kane, a historical novel (okay, a western…but i...

Stone Cold presents twenty-eight delicious crime stories from a bevy of award-winning New England mystery writers along with several exciting new voices.   Drop dead funny or stone cold deadly, the inventive and sometimes twisted tales in Level Best Books' eleventh anthology leave no stone unturned—a not-so-innocent trivia game, blood-red geraniums, an army of angry skunks, spousicides, lousicides, arsonists, rum runners, hackers, withless wonders, and even a diabolica...

After serving ten years in prison for dealing cocaine, a crime she swears she didn't commit, Casey Cavendish returns to the small college town of Oberlin, Ohio determined to clear her name, finish her interrupted college degree, and build a new life. Her arrival coincides with an upsurge in drugs on campus. When her erstwhile best friend Jules, who married Casey's old love while she was in prison, is found dead from an overdose of cocaine and alcohol in the cellar of the Drinking Gourd, an...

Home sweet home, or so ex-con Casey Cavendish thinks. After years of family turmoil, violence and romantic betrayals, she finds a safe place all her own in an antique railroad station in a leafy Boston suburb. Her new job maintaining the mansion and party house next door provides funds to refurbish a funky caboose that sits on a siding beside the station. She befriends the tenant's darling little boy and his mother and an unstable, but helpful Vietnam vet who had once squatted in the caboo...

In this cozy mystery, a young woman in Maine must protect her family’s clambake business when an employee is accused of murder.For Julia Snowden, the Founder’s Day summer celebration in Busman’s Harbor, Maine, means helping her family’s clambake company to prepare an authentic taste of New England seafood. Any Mainer will tell you that a real clambake needs wood for the fire . . .so why is there a foot sticking out of the oven?The townspeople want to pin th...

Summer has come to Busman's Harbor, Maine, and tourists are lining up for a taste of authentic New England seafood, courtesy of the Snowden Family Clambake Company. But there's something sinister on the boil this season. A killer has crashed a wedding party, adding mystery to the menu at the worst possible moment. . .Julia Snowden returned to her hometown to rescue her family's struggling clambake business--not to solve crimes. But that was before a catered wedding on picturesque M...

A Northern California B&B is the perfect spot for murder in this cozy mystery series debut by the USA Today bestselling author of Murder at the Mansion.If it weren’t for the fact that she’s replacing a dead man, Kelly Jackson would love her new job managing the Redwood Cove Bed and Breakfast on the coast of Northern California. But Bob Phillips did plunge off the cliff to his death. And Kelly’s starting to think it may not have been an ac...

**“No Mercy will leave you breathless.” —**Harlan CobenWhen those inside the corridors of power need help outside the law, they know who to call. Jonathan Grave, covert rescue specialist, always gets results.No names. No feds. No trace evidence. That’s how Jonathan Grave operates. As a freelance specialist in covert rescues, he must work outside the law to get things done—especially in highly sensitive hostage situations.

The Christmas tree twinkled from a corner of the room, the cookies were all baked, and a Nativity held pride of place on the credenza, but then the phone rang and everything that had been so eagerly anticipated began a slow but steady downward spiral. A new plan was hatched, and a new love volunteered for service. Would the rescuers make it back on time, safe and sound?A warm-hearted story of love, family and a rescued Christmas from celebrated author Annie Acorn, you won’t want to...

Did you hear about the slow student with terrible gas? He was getting farter and farter behind, so his parents hired a tooter. There’s no better way to get kids giggling uncontrollably than to tell them a poop, pee, or fart joke. With 500 GROSS & DISGUSTING JOKES FOR KIDS: ENOUGH BOOGERS, SNOT, FARTS, POOP, AND PUKE TO KEEP KIDS LAUGHING FOR HOURS by Scott Allen, your kids may never stop laughing. You might be a little embarrassed by the ridiculous humor in this giant book ...

Dennis Lehane steps up to the plate as editor and presents a scintillating collection of deep, dark fiction."Dennis Lehane advises us not to judge the genre by its Hollywood images of sharp men in fedoras lighting cigarettes for femmes fatales standing in the dark alleys . . . [Lehane] writes persuasively of the gentrification that has . . . left people feeling crushed." — New York Times Crime Fiction ColumnAkashic Books continues its grou...