Books Tagged With potential trigger - murder

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Summary: ONE UNDERWORLD ENTANGLEMENT. ONE HAUNTED MUSIC VENUE. ONE CHANCE TO MAKE IT OUT ALIVE. Despite the ghosts, Barry Matthews takes on the job as booker for the Boardwalk View Hotel. But the renovations uncover something much more sinister. When Barry “Bazza” Matthews leaves his band The Maggots to become the booker for Melbourne’s hottest music venue, he never expects to find a link to the past buried deep within the rubble from the renovations. And now the new spate of threatening phone calls are becoming as troubling as the disappearing visitors and the malevolent activity in the basement. Trapped within the hotel with the alluring Simon, or Felicia, depending on his choice of outfit, they must join together to survive the threats from outside, as well as the dangers growing within the walls of the hotel. But the longer the renovations go on, the stronger the dark forces become. Will Barry and Simon uncover the secrets behind the hotel’s sinister history before it’s too late, or will they become the hotel’s latest victims? Rainbow Awards 2021 - Honorable Mention "Wonderfully strange" - Rainbow Awards   Website: https://www.gracehudson.net Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gracehudsonauthor Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gracehudsonau Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/gracehudsonau.bsky.social Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/grace-hudson Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Grace-Hudson/author/B010TJ6XVG Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@GraceHudsonAU Twitter/X: https://www.twitter.com/GraceHudsonAU Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/gracehudson

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Summary: You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family… Quirk and Moth have avoided killing each other long enough to solve another case. They decide on a local job next, and take up the search for a missing scientist. How could Quirk know this new mystery put them on a headlong collision course with his troubled past, a plethora of personal issues, and a hoard of genetic hybrid creatures with an appetite for anything that moves? When their client dies in mysterious circumstances, law enforcement pursues the dysfunctional duo all the way to a research lab in frozen Yellowknife. Can Quirk and Moth find the scientist before they are banged up for murder, or has she already been eaten? Is it coincidence Quirk’s father-in-law bought the company? Can they expose the shadow from Quirk’s past and clear their names? Quirk and Moth need time, but it’s fast running out, and the bodies are piling up. Find out what happens in The Carborundum Conundrum!

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Summary: Ousting this demon has nothing to do with holy water—it’s all about a steady hand on the dagger. Mary Evans’ blood pooling in the cobbled streets beneath her corpse symbolizes everything DuHarren hates about his contract with the demon Tamuel. After two and a half centuries of a lucrative, but usually boring and occasionally horrifying partnership, he wants to get out of the deal, and he doesn’t mind dying to do it. He fears only the prospect of Hell’s fiery brimstone. When Father Michael—a beautiful but angry green-eyed priest—performs the latest in a long line of failed exorcisms, the demon is intrigued, but so is DuHarren. Would the priest make a lover? Or better, dare he hope he might at last sever his ties to the demon and escape to a cool, quiet death? Note: By Lou Sylvre writing as Loretta Sylvestre. Lou Sylvre is known for romance and happy endings. Same writer, but beware: this isn't that.

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Summary: Second son of an earl and cousin to the Crown Prince, Griffen has worked hard to forge a career in diplomacy for the principality of Tournai, but he never expected his diplomatic skills would be necessary for a problem so personal to him and his family. A delegation from the mysterious kingdom of Ivria has come to Tournai to make sure the secret of their people—the magical Talent allowing them to change into dragons—and therefore their kingdom itself remain safe. The delegation is concerned with Corentin, an Ivrian, and the man Griffen’s older brother is soon to marry. The Ivrians seem to want to drag Corentin back to Ivria for the offense of revealing their secret, but Griffen refuses to let it happen. His determination puts him into contact—and conflict—with Kirill, a negotiator for the king of Ivria who possesses the dragon Talent himself. The two clash and connect, getting closer and pulling away as they try to negotiate the needs of their people and an unwanted attraction between themselves. However, just as trust might be growing between them, a plot is uncovered and a member of the Ivrian delegation murdered. Griffen and Kirill must discover who is behind both for the safety of their countries and the people they love…and for a chance to be together.

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Summary: Enjoy the next chapter in this dark, psychological, steam-powered future mystery series from New York Times bestselling author Patricia Loofbourrow. Recovering from the tremendous losses she's suffered in our last chapter, private eye and mafia wife Jacqueline Spadros gets a new case from an unlikely source: her mobster husband. But when a mutual friend goes missing, Jacqui and her husband must join forces on a case which quickly turns deadly.

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Summary: Captured! It didn’t matter that Mercy found a cure for lycanthropy or fended off bloodthirsty werewolves in Crowsmirth. Oscar the hunter still found her. Finding herself in a place she never wanted to return to again, her captor insists she play a twisted game. Oscar wants to be the father she never had, and Mercy his doting daughter. Refusal is not an option. Plotting to escape while playing along is dangerous, but Mercy is determined to get home. She must unravel the mystery of her parents’ past and conceal her growing fury if she hopes to see her friends again.   Book 4 of The Wolves of Kanta series

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Summary: Cmd. Boone knows he works for the bad guy. He knows the warlord wants to end humankind. And he knows his treachery—hiding the warlord's rival—means death. His plan: escape with the warlord's weapon. But his superiors are catching on, and the rival fleet isn't as receptive as he'd hoped. And worse: the weapon has a reckless agenda of her own. Multi-award winning space opera. Full of page-turning action, epic space battles, twists & biological magic.

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Summary: Mercy must bring justice to Kanta. After months of being held captive in her childhood home, Mercy returns to Farrell Mill, expecting a warm welcome from her friends. But there is none. Farrell Mill has been raided and left to rot. Everyone she knows and loves is missing and even her research is gone. Thomas and Andrei have been arrested, accused of reselling werewolves, a crime they did not commit. But if they declare their innocence and reveal their true purpose at the mill of curing and freeing werewolves, they could put many lives in danger. Mercy will need to face her most terrifying opponent yet: the people of Kanta. She will need to rally the goodwill of the werewolves she has helped and hope it will be enough to turn the tide in her favor. This time without masks, without lies, and without a disguise. Can Mercy find her allies and free her friends without losing everything? The clock is ticking. An execution date looms closer and Mercy is scrambling to keep from losing the only family she has left. Book 5 in The Wolves of Kanta series.

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Summary: Mercy is on a mission. She plans to administer her partial cure to as many werewolves as she can find, giving them a new chance at life. That means leaving Kanta and convincing werewolves of her good intentions. But finding their campsites during the day isn’t easy. Hot on the heels of a large camp somewhere near Crowsmirth, Mercy and Andrei get side-tracked by an unexpected rescue mission. They soon learn that there are far more werewolves in those woods than they expected. They’re outnumbered, completely unprepared for the sheer numbers against them, and worse yet, running out of daylight. Desperate to get out of the forest before night falls and the slaughter begins, they run straight into a team of highly organized werewolf hunters. Surrounded by vicious killers and countless werewolves, can Mercy and her friends survive the long night in Crowsmirth?   Book 3 of The Wolves of Kanta series.

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Summary: An unprecedented heat and humidity has fallen upon the city of Bridges. People are dying. Crops are failing. And the Inventors can't find the cause. With all she's learned in our previous chapter, Jacqui has what she needs to unravel the conspiracy against the Four Families. The plans that her old nemesis Jack Diamond has set into motion are all that stands in her way. She's ready to stop him. Warning: Bad language, alcoholism, mental illness, animal abuse/death, smoking, gun violence, rioting, infidelity, sexual situations. This series centers a crime family and is intended for adults. This is the eleventh chapter of a 13-part serial novel: * The Jacq of Spades * The Queen of Diamonds * The Ace of Clubs * The King of Hearts * The Ten of Spades * The Five of Diamonds * The Two of Hearts * The Three of Spades * The Knave of Hearts * The Four of Clubs * The Jack of Diamonds <-- you are here * Book 12 coming March 2026 * Book 13 scheduled for March 2028

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Summary: She barely survived the last round. As the Red Dog Gang closes in on her Family, can she survive the next? After the devastating events of our last chapter, all private eye and mafia wife Jacqueline Spadros wants is to get her life back. Then a missing person she thought she'd never track down falls into her lap. Jacqui is thrown into a series of events which not only puts her and everyone around her into danger, but changes her life forever. Warning: on-screen murder, major consent issues, smoking, language, infidelity, betrayal, description of injury, gore, on-screen suicide, child injury This is chapter 9 of a 13-part serial novel. Please read these books in order: * The Jacq of Spades * The Queen of Diamonds * The Ace of Clubs * The King of Hearts * The Ten of Spades * The Five of Diamonds * The Two of Hearts * The Three of Spades * The Knave of Hearts <-- you are here Book 10 coming October 2023

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Summary: While Sacrum Umbra showed us the darkness of our own shadow, and In Ventre Tuo the guts of our inner monster, The Lesser Apocrypha is still another beast altogether. Meant to gather together the stranger stories, it contains some of the more surreal and ephemeral stories, the ones that just are without much rhyme or reason. Stories like an odd moment in the park, the strange child who won't stop haunting you, an alien invasion that gets very personal, an AI born of a lolcat, monsters in the woods, and a spell gone terribly wrong.

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Summary: They say, “Never work with androids or children.” Quirk had one job to do, deliver papers to a Milan mafia boss, before leaving Earth for his home in the asteroids. But that was before being tailed, poisoned—oh, yes—and hijacked into raising foulmouthed fourteen-year-old convent girl Angelika Moratti, aka Moth, who'd rather see him asphyxiate in space. Fleeing assassins, Quirk, Moth and her syRen® android S-0778 ride the space elevator to the Moon, where Quirk hires on to hunt an ex-terra-former who somehow used an android to murder his doctor. But which android of the two hundred under Lunaville’s dome? The trail of bodies grows, time is running out; the only way they can save the dome and the two thousand souls beneath it is to solve The Mandroid Murders. Genres: Science Fiction / Thriller / Mystery / Adventure / LGBT and Non Binary Market: Adult

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Summary: Surfside City, New Jersey. 1966. Cub reporter Harman Bass is cutting his teeth in the fast world of local journalism and getting out-scooped by the competition. Facetious, cocky, and always quoting Nietzsche, Harman isn’t making any friends both in and out of the newsroom. All that changes when the daughter of a prominent family is found dead on the beach, handing Harman the juiciest news story of the year. But she wasn’t any old beauty pageant queen; she was his high school girlfriend. Harman’s dogged reporting into the young woman’s death reveals pushback from the authorities and pulls the newshound into the resort’s darkest corners. After one of his sources is murdered, the routine story becomes dangerous and personal. Something watches Harman from the shadows, something ancient and hungry, worshipped by powerful men who kill to keep their secrets. Harman’s job and life are soon threatened, and the once brash reporter must battle his boss, rival journalists, and his own sanity before filing what could be his last story. THE OCEAN HUGS HARD is a mystery with the salty whiff of the ocean, a tinge of nostalgia, and a dollop of mind-shattering eldritch horror.

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Summary: No one wants to be fooled, but that’s what Frankenstein did to you all. Victor's words were the mere ravings of a coward and madman. The truth is a fickle mistress. I was the one that raided the graveyards and robbed the dead of their terrestrial remains. It was I who pursued your creation across continents when you hadn't the spine to see to it yourself. It was I who held my begotten son in my hands that day. Frankenstein took the glory, took the fame, and horded the money from our misfortunes. The time for my retribution has come.

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Summary: Beware the Gray People Each Seeking, the magic that protects the town of Carra must be renewed, which means the children of the Exalted Family must go into hiding. Whether through disguise or bribe, through trusted friends or perfect hiding places, every child of the Priest family must avoid capture for the full day of The Seeking. When things go wrong with the renewal, it’s up to seventeen-year-old Dahlia, the middle child of the Priest family, and her girlfriend, Bisa, to escape Carra and find the magical beings responsible for the protection. They must learn who would require such a cruel game every year and if the protection of the Gray People is really worth such a price. What they will discover is far worse.

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Summary: The daughter of a werewolf hunter will become so much more. Thirteen-year-old Mercy Pinkerton thought her days of cleaning house, fixing the barricade, and wiring electric prongs were over. She would finally get to train to be a werewolf hunter, what she has always wanted. She doesn’t know that there are worse monsters in Kanta than the werewolves that plague Kanta each night. Danger lurks around every corner. She’ll have to avoid her father’s temper and follow his orders, even if it means risking her life. It is supposed to be Mercy’s big day, but will take a drastic turn for the worse. She’ll have to keep her wits about her, remember her training, and prepare for the ultimate test of bravery if she hopes to survive. Book 1 of The Wolves of Kanta series

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Summary: The collection of the Stolen series, including Stolen, Broken, and Chosen. Dive into the heartwarming young adult fantasy series featuring faeries, dragons, and a magical world filled with cruel queens and shadow wolves. Bonus short story: Protector of Dreams featuring Mawr the Living Statue. Stolen In the garden, nothing is as it seems It’s difficult taking care of a delusional father by yourself. Sixteen-year-old Shaleigh Mallet would rather explore and photograph dilapidated buildings than cater to her father’s dark episodes. But when she is kidnapped by a creature who carries her atop a flying bicycle into another world, she realizes this wasn’t the escape she wanted. In a kingdom known as the Garden where minotaurs pull carriages and parties are held in hot air balloons, Madam Cloom and her faerie servant Teagan rule over the land with incredible but terrifying magic. Shaleigh must prove that she is the reincarnation of a long dead ruler, not because she believes it to be true, but because it’s her only chance at survival. With the help of a trespassing faerie, a stoatling, and a living statue, Sheleigh thinks she has outwitted everyone. She’ll break bonds of servitude and finally make her way home. What she doesn’t realize is that she’s played right into the hands of a far worse enemy. Broken A land has fallen. An escape was made. It’s a victory of sorts, but at what price? Shaleigh has made a terrible mistake, one she may not ever be able to fix. Lost and in a strange land with anger and death all around her, she must navigate her way through treacherous lands on her quest for redemption. Along the way she’ll have to negotiate with the mercurial Queen of the Fae, survive the dangers of the Masked King’s realm, and seek out a terrifying fire dragon. With two powerful beings hot on her trail, Shaleigh has no choice but to keep moving, or else face the dangerous magic of the Madness that has already caused so much pain and heartache. With her sights on helping her friends and her heart longing for home, Shaleigh is determined, but will it be enough? Chosen Can she stop what she unleashed? How in the world did Shaleigh Mallett find herself standing on a volcanic mountain facing the fire dragon, Tanwen? She isn’t supposed to be here. She’s supposed to be in high school, studying for classes and exploring abandoned buildings with her best friend. But no, she’s stuck on the Peak of Gwern, hoping that the dragon will somehow show mercy and stop the Madness that plagues them. There is still so much to do, so many wrongs to right. She can’t abandon her friends after she’s come so far. She won’t abandon them. Not even Talek, who is all but consumed by the Madness. She must take down Keriam the Magician, she must face the Bloody Forest, and she must lead if she ever wants to see home again.

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Summary: What would you do to protect what’s yours? Donnie’s whole world changed the day he met Nate at The Stop, a cruising spot outside a small Texas town. Nate saw him, knew him, cared for him, and then one day, in an incomprehensible act of violence, Nate was taken from him. Broken but not beaten, Donnie steps into Nate’s role at The Stop with one goal in mind: find the man who murdered his lover and see justice served no matter the cost. “Breathless and brutal, THE STOP is an unflinching Texas revenge noir awash in moral complexity and the coded lives and languages of the marginalized. W. Dale Jordan’s insistent, riveting prose and imminently relatable cast of characters, force the reader to confront the inconvenient reality of who society chooses to preserve and defends against who is abandoned to slip through the cracks.”--Mark Wheaton, author of Emily Eternal "THE STOP by W. Dale Jordan is raw and honest and gripping. In this exciting suspense/revenge tale, Jordan explores an aspect of gay culture that is often overlooked, but he does so with compassion and a lack of judgement that humanizes his characters to a thrilling degree."--Mark Allan Gunnells, author of 2B and BEFORE HE WAKES