Julian Black avoids people. Tormented by the ability to experience their most intimate, painful memories with a single touch, he reluctantly begins using his skill to assist tenacious Philadelphia police detective Lela Mars. But his life is soon upended when he’s captured by an equally gifted man claiming to be from his past—a suave master thief who can make people forget.

Married couple Mark and Cecilia seem to have it all—looks, wealth, love. But behind closed doors, things are very different—they live in silent resentment, their marriage broken by the shattering loss of the child they so desperately wanted. Enter Alice: Mark’s idea of the perfect woman. She appears from nowhere and offers Mark the chance of a new life filled with love, passion, and, finally, the joys of parenthood—everything he’s ever dreamed of. But there’s a catch.

Army veteran Mason Sharpe's world is turned upside down when his beloved fiancée is killed in a random shooting. Struggling to cope with his grief, Sharpe instinctively heads for the North Carolina town where he and his bride had planned to honeymoon. Alone on a beach, contemplating a future which now seems bleak and empty, he stares into the abyss. But then… A body washes ashore. An investigation begins and the police quickly pronounce an accidental death. But Mason isn't buying it. He believes the man was murdered and someone is trying to cover it up.

1991. A restless young man called Dox is back home in Texas. His friends have missed him, and his mother and sisters need him. But after four years as a Marine and another two as a CIA contractor fighting the Soviet Union alongside the Afghan mujahideen, small-town life in Abilene is a suffocating dead end. Another secret war, this one in Southeast Asia, offers a big payday and the solution to his family’s troubles. But secret wars are never what they’re billed to be, and Dox is about to get the education of his young life.

In the Australian desert, a nuclear bomb explodes. There are no survivors and no clues about who has made it or detonated it. In England, two police officers are shot dead when they apprehend a cargo vessel in Portsmouth dock. Vast quantities of heroin are later found on board.

Florence Darrow has always felt she was destined for greatness, but after a disastrous affair with her married boss, she starts to doubt herself. All that changes when she sets off for Morocco with her new boss, the celebrated but reclusive author Maud Dixon. Amidst the colorful streets of Marrakesh, Florence begins to feel she’s leading the sort of interesting, cosmopolitan life she deserves. But when she wakes up in the hospital after a terrible car accident, with no memory of the previous night - and no sign of Maud - a dangerous idea begins to take form....

Joshua Mason has been alive for thousands of years. He doesn't know how or why it happened, only that he can die like any man, but will always return. When you live forever, everything you love will die, so he decided long ago to not become attached. That all changed when he met Doreen. With her, he found something more than the woman he loves, after thousands of years of wandering, he found his place in the world. Now she's dying of old age. Distraught, Joshua promises to look after Charlie, Doreen's grandson, who is thirty-six, but forever a child due to a terrible brain injury.

When Liz Greene discovers that her father is missing, she is unwittingly drawn into a sinister plot that could change the world forever. Before he went missing, Professor Harry Greene had been working on a crucial research project with major ramifications for the world. Now, Liz needs to find both her father, and his groundbreaking research before it's too late.

A tropical paradise destroyed by hurricanes. Converted into an open-air prison. The perfect place for undesirables. The American dream is a mirage. The gap between the haves and the have-nots is wider than ever before. In 2050, people struggle for their piece of a shrinking pie. In 2050, the seeds of discontent are growing. The elites will stop at nothing to maintain their dominance. But the people are awakening to the rigged game. And they’re very, very angry.

Riske is a freelance industrial spy who, despite his job title, lives a mostly quiet life above his auto garage in central London. He has avoided big, messy jobs - until now. A gangster by the name of Tino Coluzzi - once a compatriot of Riske - has orchestrated the greatest street heist in the history of Paris: a visiting Saudi prince had his pockets lightened of millions in cash, and something else. Hidden within a stolen briefcase is a secret letter that could upend the balance of power in the Western world. The Russians have already killed in an attempt to get it back.

Bic Green, a.k.a. Black Ghost, is a world-class contract killer. Tormented by his inner demons, he clings to absolution from his evils by channeling his funds toward his goddaughter, Gracie, to help in her quest to cure cancer. In his final job, Bic plans each murder meticulously, creating elaborate ways to make each death look accidental.

Jo Nesbø is known the world over as a consummate mystery/thriller writer. Famed for his deft characterization, hair-raising suspense and shocking twists, Nesbø’s dexterity with the dark corners of the human heart is on full display in these inventive and enthralling stories.

A debut novel in the vein of Greene and le Carré, A Dying Breed is a brilliant and gripping story of the politics of news reporting, intrigue and blood set between the dark halls of Whitehall, the shadowy corridors of the BBC and the perilous streets of Kabul, in the shadowy le Carré-esque world of foreign correspondents reporting from war zones around the world. Carver, an old BBC hack, is warned off a story when a bomb goes off, killing a local official in Kabul, but his instincts tell him something isn't quite right....

Veteran BBC journalist Chris Wyrecliffe finds himself in the Middle East as the Arab Spring explodes into life. Back on the front line at last, he’s stumbled across the biggest story of his life. But two women have a hold on him. One, a wealthy Saudi beauty he has loved since the first moment he saw her. The other, a feisty young Palestinian refugee, loves him with a frightening intensity. Wyrecliffe is caught between them in a dangerous game whose implications are as extreme as they are hidden....

Lee Child selects the 20 best mystery short stories of the year, including tales by Stephen King, Sara Paretsky, and many more. Under the auspices of New York City's legendary mystery fiction specialty bookstore, The Mysterious Bookshop, and aided by Edgar Award-winning anthologist Otto Penzler, international best seller Lee Child has selected the 20 most suspenseful, most confounding, and most mysterious short stories from the past year, collected now in one entertaining volume.