Kealan Patrick Burke, Ray Garton, Bev Vincent, C. A. Suleiman, and Paul Melniczek treat readers to some spooky tricks with a hair-raising assemblage of tales gathered together by author, editor, and master of the macabre Brian James Freeman.THE MANNEQUIN CHALLENGE by Kealan Patrick BurkeFor some, office parties are the highlight of the season. For others, they can paralyze with dread. Theo is determined not to let his anxiety stop him from attending—though m...

(If you enjoy this book, check out the sequels: NO SUBSTITUTE FOR MONEY, NO SUBSTITUTE FOR MATURITY, NO SUBSTITUTE FOR MYTH, NO SUBSTITUTE FOR MISTAKES, and NO SUBSTITUTE FOR MOTIVES.)A sleuthing substitute teacher tackles her first case and it's nearly her last.Notice: This mystery contains no vampires, werewolves, zombies, or space aliens. It was not tested on laboratory animals. It makes no claims to political correctness. Characters may not be fully clothed at all times...

Literary critic Shearman Waxx can kill a good book with just a few acidly worded bon mots. And as one unlucky author is about to discover, that’s not all he’s prepared to kill. . . .From #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense Dean Koontz comes a mesmerizing thriller about the battle of wills that ensues when a successful author and likable family man confronts a reclusive sociopath who wields an all-too-deadly poison pen. Respect Shearman Waxx’s opinion and you might esca...

“Wickedly funny and always movingly illuminating, thanks to kick-ass storytelling and a poet's ear.” –Oprah.comThe New York Times bestselling, hilarious tale of Mary Karr’s hardscrabble Texas childhood that Oprah.com calls the best memoir of a generation.The Liars’ Club took the world by storm and raised the art of the memoir to an entirely new level, bringing about a dramatic revival of the form. Karr’s comic childhood in...

From New York Times & USA Today bestselling author Gemma Halliday comes a female reporter with a stalker, a hot bodyguard with a problem, a dead body, a little romance, and a lot of laughs!Tina Bender is the gossip columnist at the infamous L.A. Informer tabloid. She knows everything about everyone who's anyone. And she's not afraid to print it. That is, until she receives a threatening note, promising, "If you don't stop writing about me, you're dead." Suddenly finding out who's w...

From USA Today bestselling author Kelly Rey comes a holiday novella that is ho-ho-hilarious…When Jamie Winters' elderly neighbor Jack disappears a week before Christmas, Jamie pairs up with her landlord's fearless teenaged niece to find him. Only the more they look into his disappearance, the more they begin to believe Jack is not the man they thought he was...and he bears a suspiciously striking resemblance to jolly old Santa Claus! One carjacking, some spooky reindeer, a little p...

This white-knuckled horror thriller follows a lone survivor in a zombie-infested world struggling to understand the apocalypse in which he lives.Unable to find a moral or sane reason for the horror that surrounds him, Jonah Caine is overwhelmed by violence and insignificance. Then Jonah comes across a group of survivors living in a museum-turned-compound. They are led by Jack, an ever practical and efficient military man; and Milton, a mysterious prophet who holds ...

In New York's Long Island, in the unpredictable decade of the 1960s, a young boy laments the approaching close of summer and the advent of sixth grade. Growing up in a household with an overworked father whom he rarely sees, an alcoholic mother who paints wonderful canvases that are never displayed, an older brother who serves as both tormentor and protector, and a younger sister who inhabits her own secret world, the boy takes his amusements where he can find them. Some of his free time i...

SAM DOLAN is a young man coming to terms with his life in the process and aftermath of making his first film. He has a difficult relationship with his father, B-movie actor Booth Dolan—a boisterous, opinionated, lying lothario whose screen legacy falls somewhere between cult hero and pathetic. Allie, Sam’s dearly departed mother, was a woman whose only fault, in Sam’s eyes, was her eternal affection for his father. Also included in the cast of indelible characters: a preco...

**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this “poignant and gripping” (Kirkus Reviews) young adult novel, a high school senior navigates newfound attention after a physical transformation that leaves him in unchartered waters.“A chillingly accurate portrayal of the high-school social scene, in which morals, perceptions and conceptions of truth are continually . . . challenged.”—Publishers Weekly**A screwed up past.No visible future.But a...

Thirty-two macabre minitales for young readers, from the award-winning author of Attack of the Vampire Weenies.Welcome to the Weenie Zone! Acclaimed author David Lubar is back with Beware the Ninja Weenies, his sixth collection of Warped and Creepy Tales . . .Stranded aliens seek out Earth's most intelligent species. (Hint: It's not us.) A bully discovers the meaning of "spatial displacement." Two girls find out why you should never annoy a ...

A violent home invasion shatters Eileen’s tranquil country life, forcing her to confront her deepest fears.This short story takes place in the world of the Elements of the Undead, but is not part of the series.