Showing results by author "R. L. King" in All Categories

It’s been a rough and harrowing few months for Alastair Stone and his closest friends—but despite all the mayhem they get up to together, they still have separate lives that sometimes take them in very different directions.

Alastair Stone has just had a bombshell dropped on him about Aldwyn’s latest plans—but that particular problem will have to take a back seat to a more pressing one. Verity has disappeared. She never returned home following a weekend visit with her half-siblings in central California, and no one has any idea where she is.

Wracked with guilt and rage following the death of an ally he felt he should have prevented, Alastair Stone wants nothing more than to track down the murderer and exact violent revenge. The Universe, however, has other plans. For one, the dragons want to put him on trial for revealing sensitive information to his friends, with the penalty for losing the case potentially worse than death.

Alastair Stone knew it was only a matter of time. The demon called The Unspeakable is safely locked away, but nearly a dozen more of its kind remain behind, gathering strength like malevolent, ticking time bombs.

When his friend Jason Thayer disappears after heading to his home town to attend a wedding, the only clue Alastair Stone has to his whereabouts is a cryptic phone message about "something weird" Jason saw shortly before he vanished. Stone travels to the picturesque tourist town where Jason was last seen and is soon caught up in a horrific web of murder, malevolent magic, and a mysterious and ancient force that's resurfaced even more powerful than ever after a long dormancy.

Alastair Stone has successfully finished the first of the three tasks he’s oathbound to complete for his powerful dragon ancestor. To his shock and surprise, the second turns out to be something he already wants to do: kill an old enemy who shouldn’t even be alive. Except Stone has no idea how to find his target, and the deadline he’s been given makes success by no means certain. Complicating matters, a new ally has a consulting job for him: figure out why somebody in the Changeling community is kidnapping young and seemingly unconnected children all over California.

Alastair Stone has already paid off two of the three favors he owes his ancestor Aldwyn. He expects the third to be big, but he has no idea how big. Aldwyn reveals he has another scion—a man the dragon has sensed, but never been able to locate.

When a friend asks Alastair Stone to question a disturbed child who's committed a horrific act, Stone has no idea what kind of rabbit hole he's starting down. His investigations uncover more instances of appalling crimes, all committed by people with no history of violence. And other people have turned up missing.

Still coming to terms with recent events, Alastair Stone is shocked when someone from his past—someone he still feels guilty he couldn’t save—resurfaces in his life with a desperate claim that he’s the only one who can help her. She may be right. He’d thought the Evil—extra-dimensional beings with a taste for human fear, misery, and rage—had settled down. But now it appears they’ve got a new plan—and a new leader.

For the Sake of the Game is the latest volume in the award-winning series from New York Times best-selling editors Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger, with stories of Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and friends in a variety of eras and forms. King and Klinger have a simple formula: Ask some of the world's greatest writers-regardless of genre - to be inspired by the stories of Arthur Conan Doyle. The results are surprising and joyous.

Alastair Stone is surprised when a long-forgotten friend breaks his self-imposed silence to contact him. It seems that two other allies from his past have disappeared without a trace, and Stone's tracking magic might be the only way to find them. Should be simple. Right? But as Stone delves into the deepening mystery, he finds connections to unexpected avenues: old enemies, forbidden magic, and even Verity's group of San Francisco vigilantes.

It's been less than a month since Alastair Stone, Jason Thayer, and Jason's sister Verity discovered a monstrous conspiracy to take over our world one mind at a time. The battle in San Francisco struck a major blow - but it didn't eliminate the threat. Not even close.

A whole new world. When Alastair Stone chooses to remain in captivity to save his son, he has no idea how much his life is about to change. While he does manage to break free from his bizarre prison, his newfound freedom doesn’t come without a price. Everything around him is different - the world, his friends, what he thinks he knows about what he left behind. And despite all the power he commands, he can’t do a thing to fix any of it. Worse, he’s still bound by an oath he made to his captor - and that contract is now coming due.

It's hard enough for Alastair Stone to keep his two lives - powerful mage and mundane Occult Studies professor - separate without an old friend asking him to take on a new apprentice. Especially after a university colleague wants him to investigate a massive old house for things that go bump in the night. Still, Stone figures it's an easy job: just turn up, put on a little show, and announce that the house is clean. Only it isn't. A malevolent spirit is reawakening in the basement.

Kira Talon has a secret. Raised since childhood among the nonmagical “Dim” when her expected magical birthright didn’t materialize, she barely remembers her early time in the opulent floating city high above the war-torn sprawl below. Years later, she’s made a life for herself among the nonmagical, discovering an affinity with machines, making good friends, and venturing carefully into the dangerous, clandestine resistance against the magical overlords.

It starts with an article from Jason's crank file. Some campers have discovered an unconscious "space alien" in the wilds of Colorado. Every mention of the story quickly vanishes from the internet - but not before Alastair Stone gets a look at the single, blurry photo. The "space alien" looks tantalizingly familiar....

Alastair Stone has some rare free time, so he agrees to help Jason with a case of a missing college student with a wealthy father who's desperate to bring her home safely. As often happens when Stone is involved, though, the girl's disappearance soon proves to be only the tip of a much larger and more dangerous iceberg, ultimately leading them to a malevolent megachurch with a lot more than salvation on its agenda.

When Alastair Stone’s former apprentice Verity approaches him with the story of a drugged and caged Changeling she spotted at a magical black market in Europe, Stone is quick to offer his aid to locate the victim. Once on the Changeling’s trail, though, Stone and Verity soon discover they have stumbled upon the tip of a horrific iceberg—a shadowy organization operating deep underground, kidnapping specifically-targeted Changelings for an unspeakable fate.

Nick Morgan knows there’s no magic in the world, no matter how much he wants to believe. Magic is for suckers, but fortunately, for his job as a sham fortune teller to Hollywood’s fading stars, there are plenty of those around. When somebody starts peddling a new miracle beauty potion to the town’s never-ending supply of wannabe actors, Nick’s suspicious. But his suspicion becomes terror when it turns the niece of his best client horrifically ugly and kills her right in front of his eyes.

Alastair Stone knew it would take a big sacrifice to end the Evil's hold over our world. He was ready to make that sacrifice - but he expected it to be his life. Never in his worst nightmares did he think it would be his magic. Despairing and grief-stricken at the loss of the abilities that defined his existence, he's on the fast track to self-destruction when a dear friend convinces him to take a desperate last chance. He heads to Las Vegas to find the only man who might be able to help him, but instead finds some old allies in dire need of his own help with a deadly threat.