Jack Winchester was a notorious hit-man for a ruthless New Jersey crime family, until a job went wrong, and he wound up serving time. Four years later, Jack is free, and he wants out of the game, but his boss won't let him go. Forced to take on one last job to make amends for what landed him in prison, he travels to the small town of Rockland Cove, Maine. There, he not only discovers that the target and money have disappeared; he finds himself falling for a damaged woman and befriending an unruly son left behind.

Matthew Riker keeps to himself, doesn't cause trouble, and never talks about his past. But after a chance encounter with a woman and a small child on the run, Riker will have to make a choice: use his hard-won skills to protect two innocent victims, or stay in the safety of his quiet life. What follows is an adrenaline-soaked thrill ride that will take Riker on a cross-country chase, through the seedy underbelly of a New York criminal empire, and into the darkest places of the human heart.

When renowned FBI Agent Benjamin Forrester suffers a devastating loss while trying to catch an elusive serial killer, he quits the bureau. Years later, after a similar series of gruesome murders trigger an investigation in the coastal town of Eden Falls, Maine, Ben is called upon to assist the rookie police detective, Dakota Woods. He soon learns he's being lured into a deadly game of cat and mouse where the only way to stop the murders is to confront his past and face his worst fear.

Still haunted by her brother's disappearance and the high-profile murder trial that gripped the nation, New York homicide detective Kara Walker deals with survivor's guilt by tracking down killers. But as the anniversary of her brothers abduction approaches, Kara receives news of her mother's death and is drawn back to her rural hometown in the Olympic Peninsula to tie up loose ends. She soon makes a shocking discovery that brings into question the facts surrounding her brother's case, her mother's obsession, and the man who pled not guilty.

Court Gentry is known as The Gray Man—a legend in the covert realm, moving silently from job to job, accomplishing the impossible, and then fading away. And he always hits his target. But there are forces more lethal than Gentry in the world. And in their eyes, Gentry has just outlived his usefulness. Now, he is going to prove that for him, there's no gray area between killing for a living-and killing to stay alive.

Ex-Delta Force sniper Breed has spent most of his life at war, and now he’s trying to make some time for peace. But when a veteran from his old unit is murdered in El Paso, Breed feels duty-bound to bring the killer to justice. A feeling that only grows stronger when his friend’s widow and son are also murdered. As he uses all his specialist skills to uncover the truth, Breed finds himself working with some unlikely allies - a devious CIA operative and a determined Latina reporter. Together, they uncover a conspiracy to launch a massive attack on US soil.

Private investigator Jim Bean is a straightforward, to-the-point man. He likes his cases to follow suit. But when his latest client, Sophie Evers, asks him to find her brother Daniel, Jim has no idea how complicated his life is about to become. As he falls deep into a manipulative game of cat and mouse, Jim uncovers the horrible truth about Sophie. Now he must set things right before her plan leads to the loss of innocent souls...even more than it already has.

Evan Smoak is a man with skills, resources, and a personal mission to help those with nowhere else to turn. He’s also a man with a dangerous past. Chosen as a child, he was raised and trained as an Orphan, an off-the-books black box program designed to create the perfect deniable intelligence asset: An assassin. Evan was Orphan X - until he broke with the program and used everything he learned to disappear. But now someone is on his tail.

Jason King and Will Slater, the two most lethal operatives in government history, are out on their own. They’ve been through their personal journeys into hell, but they unite in New York City as brothers in arms. So begins a vigilante crusade against the city’s morally bankrupt inhabitants. But their private war doesn’t last long. Sometimes you can’t escape the past, no matter how hard you try. They’re revisited by old government contacts with an agenda, and soon enough they’re fighting tooth and nail to prevent the destabilization of the entire country.

After a covert mission became personal, the only way elite counterterrorism operative, Alexander King, could keep his loved ones safe, and the eyes of Washington's enemies blind to his existence, was to disappear. A year after his family buried a body they thought was his, King saves a young woman from a car bomb in London, and that's when his work in the shadows becomes complicated. Because she's not who he thinks she is, and the web that King is pulled into is tangled with enemies that reach the highest levels of the United States government.

John Dempsey's life - as an elite Tier One Navy SEAL named Jack Kemper - is over. A devastating terrorist action catapults him from a world of moral certainty and decisive orders into the shadowy realm of espionage, where ambiguity is the only rule. His new mission: hunt down those responsible for the greatest tragedy in the history of the US Special Ops and bring them to justice.

America is under attack. Thousands lie dead after simultaneous strikes across the country. The day will come to be known as Bloody Monday. Jason Trapp, codename ‘Hangman’, was a covert operative whose feats became the stuff of legend. He was the tip of the spear—the man his country unleashed when all hope was lost. Six months ago, someone sold him out. The Agency listed him as killed in action. He lost everything—and everyone—he held dear. But Trapp’s not that easy to kill.

Josh Duffy is staring into the abyss. A decorated army veteran turned military contractor, his last mission went sideways, leaving him badly injured and his career derailed. Now, he’s working as a mall cop, trying to keep his family one step ahead of the bill collectors. So when a chance at redemption - and a big pay day - comes his way, Duff eagerly jumps in. The job - to ride shotgun on a motorcade of heavily armed and armored vehicles as they roll into Mexico’s cartel country.

Before he was considered a CIA superagent, before he was thought of as a terrorist's worst nightmare, and before he was both loathed and admired by the politicians on Capitol Hill, Mitch Rapp was a gifted college athlete without a care in the world...and then tragedy struck.

This original short story takes us back in time to show us how it all began. On a whirlwind, action-packed thriller ride through Italy, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, it shows us the beginning of CIA operative Agent Zero's career - and brings us up to the fateful moment when his memory came to be lost.

Meet John Milton. He considers himself an artisan. A craftsman. His trade is murder. Milton is the man the government sends after you when everything else has failed. Ruthless. Brilliant. Anonymous. Lethal. You wouldn't pick him out of a crowd but you wouldn't want to be on his list. In this second dip into his case files (see 1000 Yards for a further novella), Milton is sent to Italy to investigate the death of a colleague from Group 15.

Sam Acquillo is at the end of the line: he's a middle-aged corporate dropout living in a ramshackle cottage in Southampton's North Sea. But then the old lady next door ends up floating dead in her bathtub, and it seems that Sam is the only one who wonders why.

It's been said that all great literature boils down to one of two stories—a man takes a journey, or a stranger comes to town. While mystery writers have been successfully using both approaches for generations, there's something undeniably alluring in the nature of a stranger: the uninvited guest, the unacquainted neighbor, the fish out of water. In the newest collection of stories by the Mystery Writers of America, each author weaves a fresh tale surrounding the eerie feeling that comes when a stranger enters our midst, featuring stories by prolific mystery writers.

Jay Brodsky is an enigma. To his fellow agents at the FBI’s cybercrimes division. To his new partner. Even to himself. For someone whose skills are beyond question, he often seems just on the edge of losing control. He seldom speaks about his family and his personal life, but he seems to be hiding something. And he has an unusual obsession with even the most obscure punk rock. So when a mysterious cyber-terrorist organization begins erasing Americans’ medical debt, Jay must put his personal issues aside to focus on an attack that threatens to destabilize the US economy.

The rules have changed. Now the Damned can go on vacation and even hook up. Without Pandora near him, can Calvin get a little action in Cabo? Unfortunately, the general has a different demand for Katie, and it’s coming from the whole industry. Requested in New York to work with the NYPD, Katie is working a side job or two. Her mercenary skills are useful, and profitable, for other types of hard jobs. And this time, the Damned can help a child. There will be hell to pay when Katie and Pandora come calling, with no quarter for the demons.

Carter's a homicide cop in Titanshade, an oil boomtown where 8-tracks are state of the art, disco rules the radio, and all the best sorcerers wear designer labels. It's also a metropolis teetering on the edge of disaster. As its oil reserves run dry, the city's future hangs on a possible investment from the reclusive amphibians known as Squibs. But now negotiations have been derailed by the horrific murder of a Squib diplomat. The pressure's never been higher to make a quick arrest, even as Carter's investigation leads him into conflict with the city's elite.

Ex-St. Paul cop Rushmore McKenzie has more time, and more money, than he knows what to do with. In fact, when he’s willing to admit it to himself (and he usually isn’t), Mac is downright bored. Until he decides to do a favor for a friend facing a family tragedy: Nine-year-old Stacy Carlson has been diagnosed with leukemia, and the only one with the matching bone marrow that can save her is her older sister, Jamie. Trouble is, Jamie ran away from home years ago.

Disillusioned newspaper reporter-turned-private detective Ray Dudgeon doesn't want to save the world; he just wants to do an honest job well. But when doing an honest job threatens society's most powerful and corrupt, Ray's odds of survival make for a sucker's bet.

In a world invaded by demons, it's up to Katie and her Killers to restore order while also evading enemies - and friends - who want her in the worst way.

Shaken by the death of his beloved wife and wrestling with powerful personal demons, Professor Gabriel McKenna leaves New York City for New Mexico to claim an inheritance from mysterious distant relatives. He finds something other than a Land of Enchantment. Unseen enemies threaten his life. Old friends turn up and rally to his side. Together they plunge into a lethal struggle for a 19th century treasure, the fabled Lost Adams gold.