Books Tagged With potential trigger - murder

Word Count: Click here to reveal63,000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: There are vipers in Arajon, from the Valley to the Bronze. Grace Harrington, the Dowager Archon of Arajon, is approaching her first anniversary on the throne she claimed following the death of her husband, slain at her own hands. But her position is so precarious that even the unwelcome presence of the former assassin Nathaniel Morgenstern, watching over her at her father’s behest, cannot protect her from her enemies. The city’s press has turned against her, the Bronze is rallying behind Odessa White, and her last hope of support from the Druids has gone up in smoke. The lies are adding up. A coup is coming for Grace, and she is running out of people in the city to trust…

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Summary:

Withrow Surrett, the most sarcastic vampire for a country mile, makes an annual Appalachian pilgrimage to keep tabs on nocturnal colleagues and his last living friend from mortal days. What should be a quiet week among familiar faces quickly fills with undead rednecks, folk magic, murder, a rookie detective and Withrow's own psychotic cousin who insists on trying to help. Because even vampires have cousins, and Southern ones especially so.

As Withrow chases the phantoms of conspiracy and paranoia across moonlit forests, abandoned factories, shadowy back roads and seedy bars - all the quiet little places humans fear to tread - Withrow also struggles with who he wants to be. Can a monster find a place among family and friends?

Fans of The Black Knight Chronicles, The Tome of Bill, and Fred, the Vampire Accountant will love this series!

Word Count: Click here to reveal31600 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Can love last when one won’t leave, and the other can’t stay? Fear of moving farther away from his family had cost Eer the love of his life, but now, after twenty-five turns, Kat has returned…with a son, and Eer’s feelings resurface as if it had been only yesterday since they’d first kissed. But any hope Eer has of rekindling their love seems doomed to fail when a murderer’s taste for revenge forces Kat to choose between endangering their family or running… and leaving Eer behind, again. ___________________________ wordcount: 31,600 words TALES OF THE FOREST is an ongoing series of standalone stories linked by a forest world. Content warnings are available in the book's front matter and on the author's website.

Word Count: Click here to reveal123,000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: This city of fools will be brought to order! Deposed, her father presumed dead, her friends slaughtered and the cavern in chaos, Grace Harrington is on the run and entirely alone. The only ally she has left is the man she hates most in the world: Nathaniel Morgenstern, the assassin who murdered her mother and seduced her father. Grace’s only hope of reclaiming the throne and saving her people is to seek the aid of Éamon Tadhg, the High Druid of Arajon. But she needs to survive the hostile streets of Iole City before she can even think about fleeing to the Violet Valley. Nathaniel made a vow to Doran to protect Grace, but he could never have imagined how quickly and horrifically their lives would fall apart. Grieving the dual losses of the man he loved and his new friend Tsa Lien, Nathaniel devotes himself to the service of the overthrown Lady Archon who despises him – even if it costs him everything he is.

Word Count: Click here to reveal82473 (Click here to hide)

Summary: They’ll do anything to prevent another mauling... Frankie had it all in their youth; they were a talented musician and dancer with a promising career in ballet. But that all fell apart in one night, after an encounter with a fellow jaguar left them scarred for life. With the help of their former rescuer and partner, Nikita, and close friend, Dasha, Frankie put on a little muscle, learned to fight, and even kill. All skills needed for their partner’s walk of life—but not Frankie’s. When Dominique offered them a job as a piano player at her dance studio, Frankie took it—and her heart. Their mutual love for the arts helps keeps Frankie grounded. But she only knows them as the tortured soul and fallen dancer. But the careful image Frankie has crafted for themself begins to unravel when the alluring Sophie enters their life. Sophie, who may be the next victim in a string of violent cat attacks…

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Summary: A Supernatural Noir Mystery Did faeries spirit away the young moonshiner? Sean Joye can’t help but wonder, yet he hopes for a more reasonable explanation. Fleeing to America in 1923 as soon as he’d mustered out of the army, Sean aims to put Ireland’s civil war, his assassin past, and faerie attention behind him. But his one-time lover, Caleb, is missing. As Sean treks through a November ice storm in search of his friend, the forest itself bristles with fae ill intent, and a strange old mountain woman would just as soon shoot Sean as feed him squirrel stew. Calamity reigns unless he cracks the secret of Otter Springs and its water of life.

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Summary: A man arrives at his new job. A woman lets one last customer into her shop. Two teens sneak away to a party. These all sound normal. But these simple actions are on worlds that it's unlikely you've seen before. Twenty short stories bring you twenty weird worlds you won't soon forget.

Word Count: Click here to reveal27000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Runa, alone, survives the massacre. But a traitorous mage has captured her king’s essence—his vital energy, linked to a long line of wolf-shifter rulers. Unless Runa can recover that power by dawn, the mage will command not only her, but also her kindred. Yet Runa is the weakest of the pack. Her quest will fail unless she finds help, and the dark winter woods is deserted but for a small dog and a young soldier.  Prince Paolo is eager for adventure and stirred to action by Runa’s ordeal. As they learn to respect each other’s unique skills, attraction blossoms. But the mage is a trusted figure from Paolo’s past. And he’s filled his lair with marvelous steam-powered machinery and ambitious plans for the prince’s future. Paolo can’t help but have second thoughts about Runa’s story and must choose between his promise to Runa and the life he’d hardly dared to envision. Can Runa recover the king’s essence and protect her kindred?  The answers lie in the wolf’s very heart.

Word Count: Click here to reveal110000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Courage. Honor. Loyalty. All fine things, but they’ve led John Ringo to kill a man. He was raised right and he knows he’s not a murderer, but otherwise he’s a mystery even to himself. Doc Holliday claims to have some insights, but Doc is too devoted to Wyatt Earp to spare much attention for the man who’s already lost his soul. Which leaves Johnny Ringo prey to the distractions of a demon. Imaginary or not, if this creature abandons him, too, then surely his sanity is forfeit – and what will his life be worth then? This Queer Weird West novel follows these three along the complex trails that lead into and out of Tombstone, Arizona in 1881.

Word Count: Click here to reveal95000 (Click here to hide)

Summary: Sixties folk singer Dane Donovan vanished from a desolate highway rest area in 1979. Forty years later, he’s found hitchhiking in the California desert on a cold winter’s night. He hasn’t aged a day, but the roadmap of scars he wears tells a chilling tale. Veteran detective Walter Muse took over Dane’s missing persons case twenty years ago, but his haunting connection to Dane Donovan goes back to a peculiar run-in as a child with The Troubadour and his Talking Board at a traveling carnival. He receives a late-night call with Dane’s whereabouts and races to Laurel Canyon to see for himself whether Dane is real — or a ghost meant to taunt Walter and his somewhat precarious hold on his sanity. Walter’s carefully honed detective instincts are thrown out the window, however, when his obsession with the case develops into an undeniable attraction to the mysterious singer. Dane is on a mission to stop a new killer hell-bent on picking up where Dane’s kidnapper left off, and Walter is determined to protect him, no matter the personal and psychological cost. They’ll have to rely on new friends and trusted colleagues as well as the power of a mystical spirit board to stop the killing, and have a chance at a real future together. You Can Save Me is part of the multi-author Carnival of Mysteries series. All books may be read as a standalone, but this book is a continuation of the events in You Can Do Magic. Recommended 18+ and TW for violence and mention of suicide of a family member.