Showing results by narrator "Jodie Harris" in All Categories

My life has never been better. I have a beautiful little girl, and I am engaged to be married to the man I’ve had a crush on since I can remember. So when Nick, my handsome fiancé, announces that his sister Carla is finally coming home, it’s truly the icing on the cake. That was twelve years ago, and no one has seen her since. Everyone is ecstatic about Carla’s return. But as I spend more time with her, I can't shake the feeling that something isn't right. Her behavior is a little off, her childhood memories don't align with mine, and she's oddly evasive about her lost years.

London, 1923. Newly minted research assistant Saffron Everleigh is the first woman to hold the position at University College of London. When she attends a dinner party for the school, she expects to engage in conversations about the university's large expedition to the Amazon. What she doesn’t expect is for Mrs. Henry, one of the professors’ wives, to drop to the floor, poisoned by an unknown toxin. Dr. Maxwell, Saffron’s mentor, is the main suspect, and evidence quickly mounts.

Mia's grief counseling practice, The Pleiades, is named for the seven sisters from Greek mythology who were the companions of the Goddess of the Hunt—and who, in some stories, die of grief or are killed to be saved from attackers. Mia has been gathering broken women together for a radical form of group therapy. Amy. Gabrielle. Katy. Brooke. Olivia. Five women crippled with grief by the murders of their sisters—and seething with rage that the partners who killed them all walk free. She just needs one more.

A Russian scientist working for the English government has been poisoned and expired in Adrian’s train compartment. Alexander asks Saffron to put in a good word for Adrian with Inspector Green. Despite her unresolved feelings for Alexander, Saffron begins to unravel mysteries surrounding the dead scientist. As if a murder case weren’t enough, her best friend Elizabeth’s war-hero brother, Nick, arrives in town and takes an immediate interest in Saffron. Saffron learns Alexander has been keeping secrets from her, including a connection to Nick.

Welcome to a very special issue of Weird Tales. This issue celebrates the Bram Stoker Awards, the “Oscars” of the horror trade. They are presented every year by the Horror Writers Association (horror.org), a group founded in 1985 (and incorporated in 1987) by a collective of masters of that genre, including Joe R. Lansdale, Karen Lansdale, Robert McCammon, and Dean Koontz. This issue is packed with short stories, flash fiction, poems, and an essay—all written by past winners of the Bram Stoker Award.

Lifelong friends Joanna, Debbie, and Gwen grew up on Bribie Island together in the quaint little hamlet of Sunshine. Now that they're on the cusp of retirement, they hold a regular potluck brunch to catch up.

Detectives Cara Elliott and Noah Deakin are on the case of a series of seemingly unconnected murders, each different in method but shocking and brutal. As the body count increases, they can’t ignore the details that echo famous cases of the past. As Elliott and Deakin get closer to unmasking the killer, the murders are moving closer to home. Meanwhile, Jessica Ambrose is on the run, implicated as the arsonist who killed her husband and injured her daughter. With the help of disgraced detective Nate Griffin, Jess discovers a link between her case and the ultimate copycat killer.

Jennifer A. Nielsen, award-winning author of A Night Divided and Rescue, artfully weaves together the stories of five kids living through World War I, each of whom holds the key to the others' futures... if they are lucky -- and brave -- enough to find each other. World War I stretches its cruel fingers across Europe, where five young people, each from different backgrounds and nations, face the terror of battle, the deprivations of hunger, and all the awful challenges of war.

1920s London isn’t the ideal place for a brilliant woman with lofty ambitions, but research assistant Saffron Everleigh is determined to beat the odds in a male-dominated field at the University College of London. She embarks on her first research study alongside the insufferably charming Dr. Michael Lee, traveling the countryside with him in response to reports of poisonings. But when Detective Inspector Green is given a case with a set of unusual clues, he asks for her assistance.

Grief has settled in at Hart House. For nine months, Alfie has been caring for his twin seven-year-old daughters after the sudden death of their mother, Pippa. One night, Alfie wakes to find Sylvie and Cassia at the foot of his bed, claiming there’s a man in their room. Alfie finds no sign of a man, but it isn’t long before the girls start talking about an imaginary friend. What seemingly begins as a harmless coping mechanism for the two grieving girls quickly develops into something more insidious.

Tech designer Sloane Reinhart and her ten-year-old daughter, Gwyneth, were living ordinary lives outside of Milan, Italy, when an extraordinary event occurred. The sky turned to swirling hues of purplish red and blue, and a thunderclap shook the land. Then there was a blinding flash and a gale force of wind that separated Sloane and Gwyn from each other—and Earth.

For much of the twentieth century, a series of terrible events—abuse, both physical and psychological, and even deaths—took places inside orphanages. The survivors have been trying to tell their astonishing stories for a long time, but disbelief, secrecy, and trauma have kept them from breaking through. For ten years, Christine Kenneally has been on a quest to uncover the harrowing truth.

Lucy’s husband has been missing for days while she tries to pretend to those around her, including her distracted teenagers, that everything is normal. In desperation, she uses a phone app to track him—and discovers he’s with another woman. As her life falls apart, Lucy realizes nothing is as it seems. There's another woman in her husband’s life, but it’s someone she has known—and hated—for twenty years. As the story unfolds, including in the national press, her family must pull together before lives are destroyed.

The old gods have fled, and the monsters they had kept at bay for centuries now threaten to drown the city of Valentine, hunting mankind as in ancient times. In the midst of the chaos, a serial killer has begun ritually sacrificing victims, their bodies strewn throughout the city. Lilac Antonis wants to stop the impending destruction of her city by summoning her mother, a blood god—even if she has to slit a few throats to do it. But evading her lover Arcadia and her friends means sneaking, lying, and even spilling the blood of people she loves.

When bride-to-be Sally spends a weekend away with her bridesmaids, the last thing she expects is for the ghost of her fiancé’s ex-girlfriend to crash the party. Red just won’t go away, but Sally is desperate to rid herself of the ghost before her wedding day is ruined.

Tamsin recently married renowned composer Robin Featherstone. Robin is much older, but Tamsin doesn’t care—she’s in love. And she knows Robin loves her too, even if he is very close to another young woman—his assistant, Mia. Meanwhile, Robin’s ex-wife and grown children aren’t happy—they’re sure Tamsin is a gold-digger and Mia is an opportunist. Then, when Robin suddenly dies, the family’s worst fears are realized: Tamsin stands to inherit everything. But when the will is read, its contents are beyond shocking.

Due to an unfortunate series of events, a teenage girl named Carmilla is left in the care of a wealthy widower and his daughter, Laura. Laura, upon meeting the poor girl, comes to realize that she knows her face. Years prior when she was but a child, Laura was haunted by a presence in her room with the likeness of the young girl. Convinced it was just a nightmare, Laura and Carmilla become fast friends. But as Carmilla's stay continues, strange things begin to happen to the townspeople nearby.

With a massive downpour and flash floods predicted, Quinn Durand leaves work and races for the safety of home. The first drops start to fall as she spots something strange on the familiar bush route. With no reception and nothing but an empty road for miles in either direction, she investigates and discovers it’s a body, dumped by the side of the road. When she approaches to check for signs of life, an arm reaches out and grabs her.

When the body of Jen’s teenage son, Eli, is found at the edge of a lake, her shock and grief are overwhelming—and so is the activity swirling around her as the police investigate. The guilt she feels because she was not at home the night her child was killed weighs heavy on Jen’s heart. But while she hides a secret, Jen yearns to know what happened—are Eli’s friends telling the truth? After she learns that Eli had a girlfriend, something his friends say he’d kept hidden from everyone, it becomes more and more difficult to separate the fiction from the facts.

Ruby was murdered on Earth 18 years ago and reincarnated on Zadok as a Pastel Zeek named Harlow. To be born at the bottom of her race’s caste colour system to a middle-class family of Magentas has made Harlow a source of conflict amongst the ruling Purples, and a source of derision from all three colours.