Showing results by publisher "Crossroad Press" in All Categories

Lieutenant Thomas Mullin may be retired from the U.S. Calvary, but he's still considered the best tracker around. So when a senator's son turns up missing, Mullin is the man called upon to find him. It doesn't take long for Mullin to figure out that quite a few travelers and cowboys have disappeared recently in the same area. And the desolate, inhospitable land is offering no clues - only shallow graves.

Her body seemed out of her control...her hips and pelvis jumped involuntarily, thrust forward, as the warm blood burst through her body.... Another shuddering. Another rage of thick pleasure... And then, just as suddenly, it was over.... As their frequency and ferocity increased, the women of Renaissance Village became terrorized by these inexplicable "attacks". But even as the death toll mounted, who could expect that the key to stopping the assaults would be an 11-year-old autistic girl?

Los Angeles is an apocalyptic wasteland. Without orientation, Colton stumbles through the vast, deserted city. He doesn’t remember who he is or where he came from. Scavengers save his life from mutants and bring him to the only remaining inhabited area and safe Zone in former Hollywood. There he learns that after a devastating catastrophe called The Glitch, reality shifted, allowing nightmarish creatures from another dimension to enter our world. These so-called Dark Ones feed on suffering and violence, wanting nothing less than the complete annihilation of humanity.

Life has been good to Paul Tremblay. He has a decent job, a beautiful girlfriend, and a devoted pal. It's just another average day for this average joe. That is, until he wakes up on a table in the morgue. Now, his heart doesn't beat, he doesn't breathe, and he keeps forgetting things like his own name. Desperate to get to his girlfriend, Linda, before it's too late, Paul sets off on a cross-country journey to Los Angeles.

Spadework was published on the 25th anniversary of The Snatch, the first Nameless Detective novel. Spadework collects 15 short stories perfect for those who love the Nameless Detective. Two of the stories appear in print for the first time ("Worried Mother Job" and "Zero Tolerance"). The book has an excellent foreword by Marcia Muller about her take on her husband's work, and an interesting afterword by Mr. Bill Pronzini in which he talks about his dedication to the needs of the story.

Since the night he made an ill-advised decision to commit a pair of revenge killings, Nick has made his living as a professional murderer. Early on, he dispensed with guilt or emotion. But after a routine hit gets messy, Nick gets sick, and the conscience he thought he’d killed comes creeping back into his brain. Now, Nick’s profession and life are on the line, and he has begun stalking a perfectly innocent couple to see if he can snuff them out without the slightest hint of remorse...or if the humanity he worked so hard to suppress is making up for lost time.

Syd and Theresa Guiness got out of their crowded city apartment and moved to a quaint house on a quiet cul de sac in the suburbs. Their dreamhouse. Then little things began to happen. Theresa was certain it was just her imagination and didn't pay much attention...until it was too late - their dreamhouse had become a nightmare.

It's 1960. The Black Stiletto, in her civilian persona as Judy Cooper, volunteers to work for John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign, only to become involved in a devious behind-the-scenes plot that could change the course of history. Is the mysterious eastern European man she briefly dated associated with a Cuban/Soviet spy ring? Closer to home, the Stiletto must challenge dangerous tongs in Chinatown after befriending a teenage boy whose father was killed by the gangs.

This collection marks the ninth book by Fangoria and Dread Central writer, Thom Carnell. In this volume, we present 14 tales - some old, some new - designed to mesmerize and astonish. From “high adventure”, to quiet stories detailing the darkest corners of the human experience, Thom Carnell presents them all with an unflinching eye, toward both terrifying and entertaining the unsuspecting listener.

A late-winter blizzard has closed the road beside Maclaren’s Food and Lodging. The staff of three - Neil Maclaren, former cop turned motel-keeper; Julia Sanders, as capable handling trouble as she is mixing drinks; Willie Ennin, whose fondness for knives makes him a superb cook - prepare to entertain their few customers through a long winter night, unaware that they are being watched. They all have secrets, secrets which have attracted the watcher.

Fifteen-year-old Ashley has a complicated life. There's no doubt her overachieving parents love her, but they are wrapped up in their own worlds for so much of the time it leaves her feeling like she's alone. Like a lot of teenagers, Ashley dreams of other worlds, but unlike a lot of teenagers, her world is about to collapse as rifts to an ancient fae kingdom begin to open all around her. Ashley's London is about to become a magical and mysterious warzone where the prize is Ashley herself.

DRAGON ISLAND is a dark, young adult fantasy that explores the dysfunctional relationships that often exist between nature and technology, and father and son. With action and cliffhangers galore moving the story along at a breakneck pace, DRAGON ISLAND combines elements of Japanese pop culture and mythology with the Western coming-of-age tale to create an adventure that will have both young and old racing through to hear what happens next!

A suicidal nudist strolls into traffic. An eccentric Buddhist claims he can occupy other people's bodies. All the while, whispers of a new form of entertainment blow through town. Prompted by these strange occurrences, Marty Raft, a not-so-gentle giant, investigates and discovers underground clubs peddling music that induces an out-of-body experience. Marty and a wannabe comedian, Corey, set out to prove these special frequencies are nothing more than a hoax, or at worst, a mass-drugging. Instead, they uncover a secret with world-ending possibilities.

This lesser-known character isn't so much a typical Lumley hero as an innocent bystander, who all too often seems to be standing by in the wrong place at the wrong time - a man in collision with various weird horrors, who can never state definitely that the things he experiences are real. So here he is - the neither hero nor anti-hero narrator of these stories - though, in The Nonesuch and Others, he's at least seen to be brave, if not actually heroic.

Ben Clary is an everyday working man who caps off an afternoon of holiday shopping with a drink at his favorite watering hole. Before long, he is intoxicated, and a brutal winter storm descends. Trapped by a howling storm seems bad enough, until Ben and his fellow bar patrons find out something terrible lurks in the blizzard outside. One by one, unseen assailants pick them off until a local historian claims the attackers may be the remnants of a clan caught up in an ancient blood feud, said to have occurred at the site of the tavern. And, worse, they seem to eat human flesh.

The only psychic ever to lecture at the FBI Academy, Noreen Renier has assisted law-enforcement officials all over the world, working on more than 400 criminal cases. From the discovery and development of her unique talents to becoming a respected figure in the police community, this is the true account of Noreen Renier's remarkable life and career.

What would you do with an enchanted kingdom of living puppets? Would you look for adventures, or enjoy the sights of a stranger-than-strange land? Would you rest and make friends in this one safe place, or build new wonders for the next child who needs a refuge? Would you rule? Would you smash your toys, because the outside world hurts? Two girls have come to the land of Here and There, and a little doll named Heartfelt was the first to meet them both.

His touch can heal or harm. His fate is solitary. His agony belongs to us all…He was born on a day of pain: November 22, 1963. He came of age in agony: that moment of tragedy when fun-loving rock-and-roll deejay Paul Handler discovered the inexplicable power in his own hands. It is the power to make the wounded whole again. The power to make the lame walk and to heal the sick. It is a power that will sap his soul and plunge him into the world of a famous faith healer. It is a power that can turn to rage, even murder. It is a gift that makes Paul Handler a living, breathing human sacrifice. For thousands of years, a secret cabal has guarded the lineage to which Paul is heir — scapegoats who have been forced to bear humanity's anguish upon themselves. Now, while the cabal searches for him, and one man seeks to destroy him, Paul makes a lonely, frightening journey to the core of his identity and to his destiny … to all the pain his soul can bear, to all the redemption he can give, to the freedom that is death.

For a very long time, Jack Ketchum and Edward Lee have followed their separate paths of line-crossing, gut-wrenching, no holds-barred storytelling. Now, those roads have drawn close and merged for a collection of five collaborative stories guaranteed to shock, amuse, disgust, and bring lovers of extreme fiction back for more.

Someone in town has a macabre passion for beautiful young men. Healthy, gym-toned male bodies keep turning up, tortured, drained of blood, missing parts, and quite, quite dead. Someone is using the Creative City as a canvas of gruesome, sadistic creativity. Someone... or something. At the end of her investigative rope, WeHo city coroner Becky O’Brien calls upon the aid of an old college friend, Christopher Driscoll, who is an expert on serial killers.