Showing results by author "Matthew Cox" in All Categories

It started with the insects. Before society realized the danger, the Earth had inexorably begun a transformation into a place where life could not survive. A small group found shelter in the Arc, an underground refuge safe from the toxins ravaging the surface. After centuries of darkness, humanity’s second chance is running out - and Raven Wilder knows it. Her job fixing the machinery in the Arc makes her aware of how close everything is to breaking down. When her six-year-old begins showing signs of oxygen deprivation, Raven refuses to go quietly into oblivion.

In the wake of a 20-year war, the people of Lucernia struggle to believe their former enemies aren’t demon-loving savages. However, that’s easy compared to the more alarming change: accepting their nation now has two queens. Many citizens in a land devoted to the God of Purity view the love between Kitlyn and Oona as unnatural, but the young women have earned guarded acceptance in the wake of their heroic deeds. Alas, unrest stirs in the shadows. Worse, Oona thinks the Talomir family line is cursed. All who have worn the crown before her have met with untimely deaths.

Sarah Wright has a job to die for. She never asked for it, never even filled out an application. To be fair, she didn’t ask to die either. Ever since she woke up as a vampire, she only wanted to unlive in as ordinary a way as possible. Alas, the realities of undeath and awakening to the greater existence of the supernatural made certain demands of the family. Now Sarah runs errands for the vampire boss of Seattle. It isn’t such a bad gig when she’s not being shot at, chased, clawed up, thrown around, or scrambling to keep her family safe.

Most brides have some anxiety over their wedding, but not too many have to worry a dead person might spoil it. Detective Maddy Wimsey is looking forward to her handfasting to Caius. Mostly. She’s simultaneously on edge and can’t wait. About the only thing capable of going wrong is her catching a homicide investigation complicated enough to push back the date.

Life is difficult for the world’s tiniest superhero. Her genius plan to save her parents from supervillainy in one easy step proved impossible - at least not without destroying the Earth. Superpowers, good or bad, aren’t going away any time soon. Mom’s as likely to hug her as trick her into a ridiculous trap, but at least, her dad’s mellowed out a bit. Lately, he seems focused more on being weird than evil.

Cops sometimes rely on hunches to guide them, but Detective Maddy Wimsey takes it a step further: Magic. August opens with the bad omen of a suicide that she suspects is more than it appears. However, before she can even start to find evidence that won't get her a date with a shrink, an even worse case walks in the door. A local nurse claims she suspects one of her co-workers of murdering patients. Unfortunately, the woman has even less evidence than Maddy's belief that a spirit is throwing people off tall buildings. However, something about the story rings too true to brush aside.

It’s been a few weeks since the Nolmek scattered giant crystals around the world that unintentionally gave some people superpowers. They also nearly eliminated war and shared technology to solve famine, drought, and pollution, so pretty much everyone loves them. Alas, the aliens didn’t visit Earth purely out of kindness. They needed a primitive species to enslave.

Six months ago, Harper Cody stressed out over finding the right college. Now, she’ll be thrilled if she makes it to her 18th birthday. Unexpected nuclear war destroyed the world she knew, along with her dreams for a future. Violent thugs took away her parents and home, sending her fleeing into the ashes with her traumatized little sister. Following her best hope for survival, she chased a rumor of safety in the mountains.

Life in suburban New Jersey with her mother is comfortable, not to mention boring, to an introverted 14-year-old. As if her friend’s surprise trip didn’t suck enough, her best summer ever falls to pieces when she’s sent across the country to stay with a father she hasn’t seen in six years.

For most 12-year-olds, being kidnapped is terrifying. For Althea, it’s only Tuesday. Her powers of healing make her a precious commodity in the Badlands, a place where the strong write the law in blood. For as long as she can remember, she has lived either as a possession or a goddess. Althea contents herself with captivity as long as she can help others, even those who killed to own her. After three whole months in the same village, the friendship of a young warrior makes her feel almost like a member of the tribe rather than a prisoner.

Eleven-year-old Kiera Quinn is sure she’s having a nightmare. She doesn’t believe a nap that started in her suburban bedroom ends in an empty wasteland. She doesn’t believe everyone she’s ever known may have never existed - and she definitely doesn’t believe an old man who tells her she will resurrect the world. The odd shaman clad in junk and old computer parts claims she is "the child born of the earth", humanity’s only chance to survive. Desperate and scared, Kiera humors him, hoping her bad dream ends soon.

Saving the world isn’t easy. It’s even harder when you’re only nine. Kelly Donovan used to be a nobody. Well, a smart nobody. Skipping ahead a year in school made her the smallest kid in fifth grade and a target for bullies in search of an easy mark. She tried to follow her father’s advice and ignore them, but it didn’t do any good. Escaping into her favorite comic books at least helped her through the day. Who needs friends anyway? Sometimes, dreams find a way to come true, even if nobody asked them to.

God’s will be done. After 11 years as a priest living by these words, Father Antonio Molinari never imagined who would teach his strongest lesson of faith - vampire. A case of possession brings him to the French countryside, where two local clergy offer him the chance of a lifetime...When their monster turns out to be a little girl.. he cannot bring himself to destroy her. Hunted by the Church he once served as well as the fiends he once destroyed, Father Molinari clings to his faith there is still room for him in God’s plan. But God is quiet, and the darkness tempting.

A move to the small town of Spring Falls, New York, is the perfect cure for Mia Gartner’s horrid commute. However, her new home isn’t quite empty. She adored working in fine art restoration, but a two-hour ride each way got old fast. When her husband found a house for sale at a suspiciously low price, they jumped at it. Mia expected chemical contamination, a fixer-upper, or termites, so when the problem turned out to be persistent rumors of haunting, she set aside her worries.

She saw it coming. She knew it would happen - but no one believed her. Almost a year after tragedy shattered her family, 16-year-old Paige Thomas can’t break free from her guilt. Her mother ignores her, doting on her clingy little sister, while her father is a barely functioning shell. He hopes a move to the quiet little town of Shadesboro, PA, will help them heal, but Paige doesn’t believe in happiness anymore.

Brooklyn Amari knew not to get in a car with a stranger. When a man tried to lure her - she killed him. As if taking a life at the tender age of ten wasn’t bad enough, her childhood home burned to the ground two years later. She doesn’t remember how she survived, but she’s felt a pull toward the conflagration ever since. After a troubled patch in her teens, she’s become a respectable firefighter, rushing again and again into the inferno that almost killed her.

Agent Kirsten Wren, a gifted psionic with a troubled past, possesses a rare combination of abilities that makes her a powerful weapon against paranormal threats. Adrift in a society that fears people like her, she feels alone in a city of millions. In 2418, rampant violence and corporate warfare have left no shortage of angry wraiths. Most are little more than fleeting shadows or eerie whispers in the darkness, but every so often, one gathers enough strength to threaten the living. A series of attacks by androids known as dolls leave the normal police baffled.

Kerys Loring hopes an expedition to a distant alien ruin will make her career - assuming she lives long enough to still have one. When Avasar Biotechnology appeals to her unique combination of experience and desperation, she jumps at the chance. At least she’ll be thousands of light-years away from her abusive ex. Within minutes of arrival, her excitement shatters at the sight of her ex already there. Then, on her first day in the ruins, she makes a profound discovery...but something goes terribly wrong.

On the way home one day, 13-year-old Keith Croft stops at a neighbor’s yard sale and discovers a book for Crypts & Creepers that the lonely old woman says belonged to her granddaughter who disappeared without a trace. Days after he convinces his friends to try this bizarre game that doesn’t require electronics, strange noises in his closet wake him. His increasing inability to focus on anything other than a girl who vanished before he was born - and his obsession with her NPC ranger - drives him to dig deeper into the past, searching for what really happened to her.

In 2411, overpopulation has spread a plaque of filthy, congested city to the corners of the Earth. Government has raised corruption to an art form, and no one hears the cries of those left to die in the dark passageways of civilization. Following the End of Nations, people cling to the only division left: social status. Since running away from home four years ago, Sima has managed to stay a step ahead of death - or worse. At 16, she’s getting too old to survive from begging, despite her best effort to pretend she’s younger.