More Twisted Collected Stories Vol Ii

Jeffery Deaver has famously thrilled and chilled fans with tales of masterful villains and the brilliant minds who bring them to justice. Now the author of the Lincoln Rhyme series (The Cold Moon and The Bone Collector) returns with a second volume of his award-winning, spine-tingling short stories of suspense. While best known for his twenty-four novels, Jeffery Deaver is also a short story master—he is a three-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Reader’s Award for Best Short Story, and he won the Short Story Dagger from the Crime Writers Association for a piece that appeared in his first short story collection, Twisted. The New York Times said of that book: “A mystery hit for those who like their intrigue short and sweet…[The stories] feature tight, bare-bones plotting and the sneaky tricks that Mr. Deaver’s title promises.” The sneaky tricks are here in spades, and Deaver even gives his fans a new Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs story. Deaver is back with sixteen stories in the tradition of O. Henry and Edgar Allan Poe. His subjects range from a Westchester commuter to a brilliant Victorian England caper. With these intricately plotted, bone-chilling stories, Jeffery Deaver is at the top of his crime-writing game.

Stories, edited by bestselling authors Neil Gaiman (author of The Ocean at the End of the Lane and the epic American Gods) and Al Sarrantonio, is 'an unmissable collection' (Guardian), filled with distinctive, original and thrilling tales from writers such a Jodi Picoult, Lawrence Block, Roddy Doyle and many more. Rather than being dictated by genre, for co-editors Gaiman and Sarrantonio there is only one true distinction in fiction: the one dividing realistic and imaginative fiction. STORIES is a collection of the very best original fiction from some of the most imaginative writers in the world, as well as a showcase for some of fiction's newer stars. One hell of a huge book of great, exciting stories which will become a uniting force for readers of all forms of imaginative fiction.

New York Times bestselling author Lee Child and the International Thriller Writers, Inc. present a collection of remarkable stories in First Thrills. From small-town crime stories to sweeping global conspiracies, this is a cross section of today's hottest thriller-writing talent. This original collection is now split into four e-book volumes, packed with murder, mystery, and mayhem! First Thrills: Volume 3 contains stories five original stories by: Jeffery Deaver Karin Slaughter Rebecca Cantrell Gregg Hurwitz Theo Gangi At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Tate Collier, his ex-wife Bett, and their estranged daughter Megan are targeted by psychopathic psychologist Aaron Matthews for his own brand of revenge.

Behind the well-known U.S. security organizations— the FBI and CIA among them—lies a heavily guarded, anonymous government agency dedicated to intelligence surveillance and to a highly specialized brand of citizen protection. Shock waves of alarm ripple through the clandestine agency when Washington, D.C., police detective Ryan Kessler inexplicably becomes the target of Henry Loving, a seasoned, ruthless “lifter” hired to obtain information using whatever means necessary. While Loving is deft at torture, his expertise lies in getting an “edge” on his victim—leverage—usually by kidnapping or threatening family until the “primary” caves under pressure. The job of keeping the Kessler family alive falls to a man named Corte, a senior federal protection officer known as a “shepherd.” Uncompromising, relentlessly devoted to protecting those in his care and a passionate board game aficionado, he applies brilliant gaming strategy to his work. For Corte, the reappearance of Loving—the man who, six years earlier, had tortured and killed someone close to him—is also an opportunity to avenge his friend’s death. The assignment soon escalates into a fast-paced duel between Corte and Loving, a dangerous volley of wits and calculated risks. As he shepherds the Kesslers to a concealed safe house, Corte must anticipate Loving’s every step as the lifter moves in on his prey, and with the help of razor-sharp investigator Claire DuBois and his longtime ally, FBI agent Paul Fredericks, pinpoint which of Kessler’s seemingly insignificant cases has triggered Loving’s return. As the team digs deeper, each of the Kesslers comes under close scrutiny, and in captivity their family bonds are stretched to the breaking point—as the lifter draws near, Corte must ultimately choose between protecting his charges and exposing them to a killer in the name of long-awaited revenge.

When a smuggler known as the Ghost scuttles a ship filled with undocumented Chinese immigrants right outside New York harbor, detective Lincoln Rhyme and his partner must stop him before he murders the two families who made it to shore.

Get on the case with Kathryn Dance. Three novels featuring California Bureau of Investigations body language expert Agent Kathryn Dance from internationally bestselling suspense master and seven-time Edgar Award nominee Jeffery Deaver, plus an excerpt from the next Kathryn Dance novel, XO (publishing June 2012). The Cold Moon On a freezing December night, with a full moon hovering over New York City, two people are brutally murdered. The death scenes are marked by eerie, matching calling cards: moon-faced clocks that investigators fear ticked away the victims' last moments on earth. Renowned criminologist Lincoln Rhyme immediately identifies the clock distributor and has the chilling realization that the killer—who has dubbed himself the Watchmaker—has more murders planned in the hours to come. With Rhyme’s longtime love Amelia Sachs now busy as the lead detective on a homicide case of her own, it will take the expertise of Agent Kathryn Dance to stop the Watchmaker killings and unravel the trail of a diabolical criminal masterwork in the making. The Sleeping Doll Daniel Pell, the “Son of Manson,” is serving a life sentence for the brutal murders of the wealthy Croyton family, a crime mirroring those perpetrated by Charles Manson in the 1960s, and that left behind only one survivor: the youngest Croyton daughter, who, because she was in bed hidden by her toys, was dubbed “the Sleeping Doll.” When Agent Kathryn Dance is called in to interrogate Pell in connection with a recent murder, the psychological jousting match that ensues goes terribly wrong, and Pell escapes. But far from simply fleeing, Pell turns on his pursuers—and other innocents—for reasons Dance and her colleagues can’t discern. The only person who can help her find the pattern in Pell’s rampage is the now-teenage girl who lay as though asleep through that terrible night. Roadside Crosses The Monterey Peninsula is rocked by fear when a killer begins to leave roadside crosses beside local highways—not in memoriam, but as announcements of his intentions to kill. And he kills in particularly horrific and efficient ways: using personal details about his victims that they've carelessly posted in blogs and on social networking websites. Agent Kathryn Dance traces the leads to Travis Brigham, a troubled teenager whose role in a fatal car accident has inspired vicious attacks against him on a popular blog, The Chilton Report. To get to Brigham, Dance must overcome speechifying politicians, paranoid parents, and the blogger himself, James Chilton, whose willingness to derail the case—and possibly Dance’s career—soon forces Dance to take desperate measures. XO (excerpt) Country-pop ingénue Kayleigh Towne’s career is reaching new heights with her huge hit single “Your Shadow”—but increased fame is also bringing unwanted attention to the young singer. An innocent exchange with one of her fans, signed with an “XO,” leads Kayleigh into a dangerous and terrifying realm of obsession. Despite her clear rejection and threats from lawyers and law enforcers, Edwin Sharp remains convinced that Kayleigh loves him, and he announces he's coming for her. A series of accidents and disturbing phone calls lead Kayleigh to believe her life is in danger, and soon people close to Kayleigh die. Agent Kathryn Dance must stop the stalker—but before long she learns that, like many celebrities, Kayleigh has more than one fan with a mission…

From the bestselling Sunday Times author of The Goodbye Man, discover Jeffery Deaver's chilling series that inspired the film starring Angelina Jolie and Denzel Washington, and is now a major NBC TV series. Companies know everything about you. So does he. He knows you, better than you even know yourself. And he is using his knowledge to plan your death. But you are not his only victim. He is also watching your killer. He is about to get away with the perfect murder . . . Rhyme's cousin has been arrested for murder - and while the evidence clearly shows he did it, Rhyme agrees to check things out. All too soon the entire case is turned on its head when it turns out that his cousin, along with others, is being cleverly framed by a killer who knows far too much about his victims . . . 'Another corker . . . precision-engineered to keep the reader turning the pages without a hitch' Evening Standard

DEAVER. DANGEROUSLY GOOD. A spring night in a small town in Wisconsin. A call to police emergency from a distant lake house is cut short. Is it a phone glitch or something more sinister? Off-duty deputy Brynn McKenzie leaves her family's dinner table to find out... ...And stumbles onto the scene of a heinous murder. Before she can call for backup she finds herself the next potential victim. Deprived of her phone, weapon and car, Brynn flees, along with the only survivor of the crime. These unlikely allies can survive only by escaping into the dense, deserted woods, on a desperate trek to safety. And ultimately to a life or death choice. Flight. Or fight? 'Confirms his status as one of the finest crime writers in the world . . . grabs the reader by the throat from the beginning. Superb.' Independent on Sunday

Brand-new stories from world-class crime and thriller legends including Karin Slaughter, Jeffery Deaver and Stephen Coonts, handpicked by number one bestseller Lee Child. 12 LITERARY LEGENDS 13 RISING STARS ONE MUST-HAVE COLLECTION OF FIRST THRILLS Con men and killers, aliens and zombies, priests and soldiers, just some of the characters that thrill and kill in this compelling collection of gun-toting, double-crossing, back-stabbing, pulse-pounding stories. Jeffery Deaver investigates the suspicious death of a crime-writer in "The Plot"; Karin Slaughter's grieving widow takes revenge on her dying ex-husband in "Cold Heart", Stephen Coonts discovers a flying saucer in the depths of the ocean in "Savage Planet" and John Lescroart's secret field agent finds himself caught up in a complex game of cat-and-mouse in "The Gato Conundrum". Handpicked by world number one Lee Child, celebrity authors and stars of the future are brought together, writing brand-new stories, especially commissioned for this must-have collection. Whether you're reading today's bestseller or tomorrow's phenomenon, grisly horror or paranoia thriller, historical suspense or supernatural crime, one thing is for certain. You'll be thrilled to the core.

A World of Sources II is a continuation of Michael Hillyard’s accumulated insights from reading and documenting information in hundreds of books, journals, and articles, and then applying that information as an executive, investor, military leader, humanitarian, and university president. Sources II spans genres as diverse as science, politics, history, philosophy, finance, psychology, fiction, sports, entertainment, and biography. Its insights offer valuable principles, practices, and approaches to create a successful life in today’s challenging world.

The first gripping mystery in the Kathryn Dance series from master of suspense, and author of the Lincoln Rhyme novels, Jeffery Deaver. California Bureau of Investigation Special agent Kathryn Dance is an expert in kinesics: the science of interpreting behaviour. It makes her a brilliant interrogator. But she's up against Daniel Pell, a master of control who mesmerises, seduces and exploits people for his own murderous ends. A convicted killer who is known as The Son of Manson for the chilling parallels between him and the notorious ritual murderer. To track down Pell before he destroys yet more lives, Kathyn Dance must enlist the help of four people from the killer's past. The three women who lived under his sadistic sway in the cult he once headed. And the young girl known as the Sleeping Doll, the only survivor of her family's slaughter at Pell's hands ...

SOON TO BE A MAJOR TELEVISION EVENT FROM NBC, STARRING RUSSELL HORNSBY, ARIELLE KEBBEL, AND MICHAEL IMPERIOLI. Lincoln Rhyme, the quadriplegic detective made famous in The Bone Collector is back in a thriller from the masterful Jeffery Deaver. When a sadistic killer leaves clocks at his murder scenes, will time run out for the criminologist and his partner Amelia Sachs? On a frigid December night, an eerie pattern emerges from two equally brutal murder scenes, where a killer’s calling card is a moon-faced clock that seemingly ticked away the victims’ last moments. From his wheelchair, criminologist Lincoln Rhyme tracks the Watchmaker, a time-obsessed genius. With every passing second, the Watchmaker is moving with razor-sharp precision to his next act of perfectly orchestrated violence—and Rhyme can’t afford to have his trusted partner Amelia Sachs distracted by a daunting homicide case of her own. Up against a brilliant madman, Rhyme and Sachs are locked in a blood-chilling race with their deadliest enemy: time itself.

SOON TO BE A MAJOR TELEVISION EVENT FROM NBC, STARRING RUSSELL HORNSBY, ARIELLE KEBBEL, AND MICHAEL IMPERIOLI. From New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver—Lincoln Rhyme is back, and on the trail of a killer whose weapon of choice cripples New York City with fear. The weapon is invisible and omnipresent. Without it, modern society grinds to a halt. It is electricity. The killer harnesses and steers huge arc flashes with voltage so high and heat so searing that steel melts and his victims are set afire. When the first explosion occurs in broad daylight, reducing a city bus to a pile of molten metal, officials fear terrorism. Rhyme, a world-class forensic criminologist known for his successful apprehension of the most devious criminals, is immediately tapped for the investigation. Long a quadriplegic, he assembles NYPD detective Amelia Sachs and officer Ron Pulaski as his eyes, ears and legs on crime sites, and FBI agent Fred Dellray as his undercover man on the street. As the attacks continue across the city at a sickening pace, and terrifying demand letters begin appearing, the team works desperately against time and with maddeningly little forensic evidence to try to find the killer. Or is it killers…? Meanwhile, Rhyme is consulting on another high-profile investigation in Mexico with a most coveted quarry in his crosshairs: the hired killer known as the Watchmaker, one of the few criminals to have eluded Rhyme’s net. Juggling two massive investigations against a cruel ticking clock takes a toll on Rhyme’s health. Soon Rhyme is fighting on yet another front—and his determination to work despite his physical limitations threatens to drive away his closest allies when he needs them most…

Forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme and his partner Amelia Sachs return in this short story from New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver. The Deliveryman A Lincoln Rhyme Short Story A man is murdered in a back alley. Renowned forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme and his partner Amelia Sachs are left with a veritable mountain of evidence collected from the trash-filled alley, and their only lead is a young eyewitness: the man's eight-year-old son, who was riding along on his father's delivery route. But the murder victim may have been more than just a simple deliveryman. Rhyme and Sachs uncover clues that he might have been delivering a highly illegal, contraband shipment--which is now missing. And someone wants it back...

In Hell's Kitchen, New York City, to work on a low-budget documentary on the area's colorful history, ex-stuntman-turned-location-scout John Pellam finds himself investigating a series of suspicious fires that may be linked to efforts to hide the past.

Jeffery Deaver, "the master of manipulation" (Associated Press) and "the most creative, skilled and intriguing thriller writer in the world." (Daily Telegraph, UK) returns with the new, long-awaited, Kathryn Dance thriller. A tragedy occurs at a small concert venue on the Monterey Peninsula. Cries of "fire" are raised and, panicked, people run for the doors, only to find them blocked. A half dozen people die and others are seriously injured. But it's the panic and the stampede that killed them; there was no fire. Kathryn Dance--a brilliant California Bureau of Investigation agent and body language expert--discovers that the stampede was caused intentionally and that the perpetrator, a man obsessed with turning people's own fears and greed into weapons, has more attacks planned. She and her team must race against the clock to find where he will strike next before more innocents die.