Showing results by narrator "E J Lavery" in All Categories

When attorney Elizabeth English and her husband, Paul, catch up to their energetic sons at the end of their hike, they expect to find the two boys waiting by their car. It’s been only minutes since Henry and Nick bolted ahead. But when Elizabeth and Paul emerge from the trail, Henry is gone, and all Nick says is that he saw a lone truck leaving the lot shortly after Henry went to the bathroom. Gritty park ranger Hollis Monroe launches a massive search and teams up with a local detective to investigate the possibility that Henry was kidnapped.

Can she keep the secrets of her past to rescue a girl tormented by a ghost? In 1920s Los Angeles, Letitia Hawking reads the veil between life and death. A scrying bowl allows her to experience the final moments of the deceased. She brings closure to grief-stricken war widows and mourning families. For Letitia, it is a penance. She knows no such peace. For Alasdair Driscoll, it may be the only way to save his niece, Finola, from her growing night terrors. But, when Letitia sees a shadowy figure attached to the household, it rouses old fears of her unspeakable past in England.

In the introduction to this selection of tales of the macabre, anthologist Arthur Reeve writes: "What is the fascination we feel for the mystery of the ghost story? Man is incurably fascinated by the mysterious. If all the ghost stories of the ages were blotted out, man would invent new ones. For, do we not all stand in awe of that which we cannot explain, of that which, if it is not in our own experience, is certainly recorded in the experience of others, of that of which we know and can know nothing?"

Amy Wilson believed in doing the right thing. That was her first mistake. When she votes for pandemic safety measures as a member of her local school board, she unleashes a campaign of terror against her. Vandalism escalates to stalking. Anonymous threats become physical attacks. The mysterious figures behind it all seem to know her every move—and there appears no limit to what they're willing to do to her.

Apolonia "Lina" Flores is a sock enthusiast, a volleyball player, a science lover, and a girl who's just looking for answers. Even though her house is crammed full of books (her dad's a bibliophile), she's having trouble figuring out some very big questions, like why her dad seems to care about...

Merle Warner is a real estate investor who has never had a permanent home of his own. When he decides to settle down, he contacts a matchmaker he finds in an old ad, telling her that he plans to travel to the location of his intended. Vanessa Acker isn't well-liked in Pinyon Falls because she's too aggressive for most people. She contacts the matchmaker several others in town rave about, hoping to relocate and start over.

Kai Sosa is so passionate about swimming he is practically a fish. This summer, he's determined to become the athlete he once was on an elite invitational team. But something invisible holds him back. His race times are off. Dreams of his sister Cali haunt him. And he hasn't found her missing gold cuff, her last request. When Kai discovers a library book Cali had checked out multiple times—about an underwater realm and a mysterious place called the Library of Despair and Sorrow—details from the story begin to appear in his own life.