Showing results by narrator "Elizabeth Evans" in All Categories

San Francisco Noir lashes out with hard-biting tales exploring the shadowy nether regions of scenic "Baghdad by the Bay". In this superb collection, virtuosos of the genre meet up with the best of SF’s literary fiction community to chart a unique psycho-geography for a dark landscape. From inner city boroughs to the outlands, each contributor offers an original story based in a distinct neighborhood.

From the introduction by Les Standiford: "The truth is that Miami, though naturally lovely, is a frontier town, perched on the border between the known and the rarely before experienced. The poet Richard Hugo once said that the natural place for the writer was on the edge, and 'edge' might well be the definitive word when it comes to this city... We are not only on the edge of the continent, we are to this country what New York was in Ellis Island's heyday, what the West Coast was in the middle of the 20th century.

"Readers of Brooklyn Noir will recall that its contents were labeled by neighborhood - Bay Ridge, Canarsie, Greenpoint, etc. We have chosen the same principle here, and the book's contents do a good job of covering the island, from C.J. Sullivan's Inwood and Charles Ardai's Upper East Side, to Justin Scott's Chelsea and Carol Lea Benjamin's Greenwich Village."

With Cayne's fate in the hands of his enemies and Julia spirited away to the covert Stained compound, the two are separated by impenetrable walls and a gulf of unanswered questions. Soon Julia learns the truth about the Stained and the plans they have for her, the compound is attacked, and a new group is running from an unwanted destiny, searching the globe in pursuit of the knowledge that just might save them all.

Seventeen-year-old Julia is finally living the good life. She's traded a hard cot in a Memphis orphanage for her very own room in a perfect little house, on a perfect little street, with a perfect set of parents who picked her to be their daughter. But Julia is hiding a secret - and one fall night, she returns home from a friend's house to find that her secret has found her. Her 'forever home' is ashes. Her parents are dead. And, in the sky above the flames, a winged creature hunts her.

Julia has been chosen. While at the Stained compound, she was tapped as The One to win the war against the Nephilim and leashed with an illness that worsens each day she is away from The Three - and her destiny. Determined not to return to the frightening Chosen leaders and desperate to escape her fate, Julia and her friends journey to the Swiss Alps, home of a rogue Chosen clan. In this snowy haven, all hell breaks loose. Someone is traitor. Someone changes sides.

Ripped apart by the betrayals of two friends and ensnared by Celestial captors, Julia and Cayne are poised to fulfill their sacrificial role in The Three's return to power. Their Chosen friends will move Hell and Earth to win their freedom, but how will they fight fate when a powerful deity gets the upper hand? The net will come down. Someone will be sacrificed. A dear friend will die. And a Celestial battle will play out on Earth, with everything - and everyone - at stake.

Though Lena is only 38, she finds herself in the grip of a midlife crisis. She feels out of place in her adoptive country, her career has stalled, and her marriage has tumbled into a spiral of apathy and distrust - it seems impossible she will ever find happiness again. But then she meets Ben, a failed artist turned reluctant academic, who is just as lost as she is. They strike up a precarious friendship and soon surprise themselves by embarking on an impulsive weekend adventure

Meet Mandy Halsey, fresh out of college and determined to go from being a receptionist at the assembly line comic book house where she works to being a real-live penciler by the end of the year. That's the plan, anyway. But life isn't cooperating. First, her job feels like a dead end. Second, her personal life isn't exactly on fire, either, especially since her best friend seems to be moving in on every guy who catches Mandy's eye.

Karen DeSonne is used to pretending to be something she's not. All her life, she's passed as a normal all-American teenager; with her friends, with her family, and at school. Passing cost her the love of her life. And now that Karen's dead, she's still passing - this time, as alive. Meanwhile, Karen's dead friends have been fingered in a high-profile murder, causing a new round of anti-zombie regulations that have forced nearly all of Oakvale's undead into hiding.

The phenomenon that's been sweeping the country seems to be here to stay. Not only are the teenagers who have come back from their graves still here, but newlydeads are being unearthed all the time. While scientists look for answers and politicians take their stands, the undead population of Oakvale have banded together in a group they're calling the Sons of Romero, hoping to find solidarity in segregation.

Gaia Moore isn't like anyone else in the world. She's trained in ten different martial arts. She has a sharp mind, and an even sharper tongue. As a teenager she cut class to bust gang members and drug dealers on the streets of New York City. And now Gaia's been recruited to join the world's leading crime-fighting organization. At FBI training camp in Quantico, Gaia will become a part of an unparalleled team. She'll learn the strict codes and procedures of the FBI. She'll be pushed to her body and mind's utmost limits.

An agent's work is never done. Hot-shot recruit Gaia Moore has just managed to close one case — and find her way back into the FBI's good graces — when the Lollipop Murderer strikes again. Every minute that passes with the killer on the loose puts more innocent women in danger.Gaia and Kim are closing in on the killer. But when all leads point to the same suspect, Gaia is thrown off balance — and into conflict with her partner. Because Kim's theories incriminate the one person she desperately wants to trust.

Catherine is dead. At least that's what the FBI claims. They say there's no point investigating the strange disappearance any further. Instead they want Gaia to stay in Quantico to carry on the search for the Lollipop Murderer.

There's been a murder. And it isn't part of some FBI training exercise. Late one night, in the middle of a rainstorm, Gaia and her roommate stumbled upon an actual killing. Since they were the only ones to glimpse the perp, headquarters has granted Gaia and Catherine temporary FBI badges to solve the case. Way to hit the ground running. But the investigation is not like a TV show. It's gruesome. It's frustrating. It's real. When the killer strikes again, they realize this isn't a one-shot deal either.

When a massive earthquake strikes, divorcing couple Callie and Peter Carson's one thought is to reach their 4 year-old son. As they move through the rubble of their small town, sights and sounds trigger visions of a previous trauma for Callie. Can they put aside their differences long enough to reach their boy? Can Callie struggle through the tide of memory that threatens to swamp her sanity? Will the earthquake force both of them to see through the rage and disappointment of their marriage to what is truly important?

The Flax women reunite in their old hometown in this long-awaited sequel to Mermaids, the novel that became the cult-classic movie starring Cher, Winona Ryder, and Christina Ricci.

In the 21st century, the pioneers who tame Earth's sister planets - the Sunspacers - venture into the frontiers of deep space. From the scorching mines of Mercury to the icy voids beyond Pluto's orbit, these visionaries develop Earth's sunspace and spearhead humanity's expansion into the galaxy.

Jo Spencer is a girl who knows what to be and how to be it - straight-A student, cheerleader, May Queen, popular and cute and virginal, and in perfect control. But halfway through her first year in college in the early '70s, her carefully normal life explodes and she comes completely undone. In The Cheer Leader, Jo Spencer looks back, as if she were watching reruns of old syndicated TV shows, to figure out what happened.

When her best guy friend falls victim to a vicious hate crime, 16-year-old Cat sets out to discover who in her small town did it. Richly atmospheric, this daring mystery mines the secrets of a tightly knit Southern community and examines the strength of will it takes to go against everyone you know in the name of justice.