‘Tis the season in Saint Johnsbury, Vermont. And in the house of little Corey Gatlin a creature is stirring... a creature by the name of Chanks. Haunted by the shadow of Chanks throughout his life, Corey lives in mortal fear of the holidays. Under the stress and rage of a crumbling and hollow marriage, Corey’s sanity cracks unleashing the beast that has been coiled inside him all those long years. Somewhere, in the black pit of Corey’s mind, a chilling metamorphosis takes place and a hideous holiday of unholy evil falls upon an unsuspecting and unprepared world.

Senior Investigator Shana Merchant has spent years running from her past. But she never imagined a murder case would drive her to the most dangerous place of all—home. After leaving the NYPD following her abduction by serial killer Blake Bram, Shana Merchant hoped for a fresh start in the Thousand Islands of Upstate New York. Her former tormentor has other plans. Shana and Bram share more than just a hometown, and he won’t let her forget it. When the decades-old skeleton of Shana's estranged uncle is uncovered, Bram issues a challenge: Return home to Vermont and solve the cold case, or the blood he spills next will be on her hands. As Shana interviews members of her family and the community, mining for secrets that could help her solve her uncle's murder, she begins to realize how little she remembers of her childhood. And when Bram grows impatient and kidnaps again, leaving a trail of clues Shana alone can understand, she knows his new victim will only survive if she wins the psychopath’s twisted game. In order to solve one mystery, Shana must wade into her murky past to unravel another.

THE THIRD INSTALMENT IN THE SANDRO CELLINI SERIES: Florence lies deserted. The sluggish Arno and the Ponte Vecchio shimmer in the summer haze. A corpse lies on the roadside, waiting for discovery... Every August, Florence shimmers in the summer heat. But this year the heatwave is fiercer than usual, and the city's inhabitants have fled to the cool of the hills. So it is no surprise that amidst the shrubbery of a normally busy roundabout, a corpse lies unnoticed, bloating in the humid air. Sandro Cellini will not be joining the crowds of holidaymakers this year. The former policeman turned private detective has a case: a man who seems to have vanished into thin air - leaving his pregnant young wife alone in the city. Meanwhile, bankteller Roxana Delfino is also stuck in the city for the season, with nothing to do but worry for her aging mother and puzzle over the disappearance of one her regular clients. As all Florence sweats it out, Cellini attempts to grapple with his case and the complications it throws up. And when the weather finally breaks, it brings with it a shocking revelation...

The story centers on Angela and Lutie, who have been married for over thirty years. Early in the book, I chronicle their upbringings; while Angela was sheltered and filled with the good things in life, thanks to her mothers personality and desires, Luties life was filled with hard work and the tragic deaths of his parents and an eventual brutal period of service in Korea. After the war, he puts himself through college and takes a bankers job in the very bank run by Angelas stepfather, and so they meet, fall in love, and marry. After the death of Angelas mother, in the early eighties, the couple decide to accept the legacy she left of a fine home on the Island of Marthas Vineyard, where much of Angelas growing up took place, and substantial investments to guarantee a genteel lifestyle. The transition from their home of three decades in Pittsburgh to a life of leisure on the Island takes some getting used to, but they soon come to enjoy it. In fact, before long Angela has taken on the mantle left by her mother as hostess and renowned artist in the community. Meanwhile, the unexpected reappearance of a hated old combat soldier from Korea thrusts Lutie back into that time period and that mentality and begin to take its toll. This, combined with an unwelcomed population burst on the Island, starts to wear on his normally imperturbable psyche. Angela observes the changes in her husband, which is never more noticeable than the night he attacks and beats up a crowd of rowdy teenagers breaking glass and scattering trash on his favorite beach. The real trouble will not begin until he discovers his loathsome old comrade frozen and dead in the house of a friend, closed for the winter. A vision of a chainsaw passes through his head, and suddenly he has a plan to stem the tide of growth on his beloved Island. It isnt long before the population is shocked and appalled to learn that a chainsaw-wielding maniac is wreaking havoc on the Island, chopping up human bodies and displaying their parts around the various towns. While the rest of the community is in a panic, Lutie grows increasingly agitated at what he has started; and when the investigation reveals the source of the bodies and the fear is assuaged, he decides to sink his remaining parts in the sea and get his life back to normal. It appears that he is in the clear, but is he? This book is skillfully crafted, highly suspenseful, and cleverly written, with an understatement that only serves to reinforce the plotline. It presents the troubling idea that people are not always what they appear, and it is a testament to the detrimental psychological effects of being in a brutal war zone. Given the high number of veterans experiencing this trauma in our current wars, the book has a high contemporary relevance. My wife, our two children, and I lived on the Island for over twenty years, and I have tried to distill the charm and grace, as well as the gritty underside, of this beloved piece of paradise. Book Reviewsilver-shingled cottages, salty boats and the captains who man them, patches of sand between glacial boulders, the crisscross of ferries and the mysterious realm of the rich. Such are among the evocations of Marthas Vineyard. Author Tony Friedman and his wife Barbara washed ashore on the Vineyard in the early 1970s, spent nearly 30 years living and raising their children here, and now comes Tonys first novel: Dead Season on Marthas Vineyard. Tonys keen sense of observation, deep knowledge of the Islands history, and a lifetime of storytelling combine in Dead Season on Marthas Vineyard to make a Writer finely constructed tale of the Tony interaction of several layers Friedman of Vineyard people, their lives and dreams, and the lengths to which each will go to keep the Island special. The dance of characters follows the clash and harmony of locals who make the Island function and the privileged who come for the season. With his finely tuned ear for authentic language and

The fourth season of Walking Dead picks up with the group settled into their new lives in the prison. Rick has given up leadership and the Woodbury survivors have joined the new peaceful community but as ever in the post apocalyptic world of the Walking Dead, threats old and new are on the horizon. Inside this book are 200 questions of varying difficulty so batten down the hatches and prepare to test your knowledge on the actions of the survivors of the zombie apocalypse in the latest chapter of this series of quiz books about one of the best shows on television.

Four boys lounge around a campfire beside the lapping edge of Lake Inclement. They each are a perfect 12 years of age, at the stepping off point of their teenaged years, when diving in the lake with friends and gobbling hotdogs around the fireside is just about more important than anything else. The star-studded sky stretches out above them, and they talk about nothing much when suddenly a glow appears in the woods to the south. All of them-- Walt, Paxton, Carpenter, Zack, and his faithful beagle, Flash, wonder at the sight, but it is Grampa Clondyke, Carp's beloved grandfather that is there to tell the tale of the light in the forest. It is a story he has kept buried deep inside for 70 years. He paints them a picture with his words of life in Inclement in the 1930's. He talks about Orland Buck, an unusual African American father and his daughter, Delilah, who arrive in Inclement in a pristine white Cadillac with money flowing from their pockets in a never ending stream. Orland Buck built himself and his daughter a house high up on what is now known as Buck's Point, and then he built his pretty little Delilah a rodeo arena simply because she wanted it. . Grampa's story weaves a spell over the boys, and they return night after night to hear more and more about Buck's Rodeo, the magical Delilah and the undercurrent of racism that the Buck family and anyone who associated with them faced all those years ago. And the boys begin to notice strange coincidences, odd correlations of current events with the story Grampa is sharing. Zack, also a newcomer to Inclement, begins to wonder how his father, a well-known photographer now dead 8 long years, could be connected to the photographer in this Inclement of the past. The boys decide that hearing the story is not enough. They need to travel up to Buck's Point and to whatever mysteries lie there even after Grampa strictly forbids them to go. There they learn the secrets of Buck's Rodeo, of Delilah's magical talent, and the horrible consequences of senseless hate. in the end, some mysteries are solved, while others are continued in the next book in the series, The Western Radio Hub. Buck's Rodeo is written with a strong descriptive voice that paints a story for your imagination to savor. It is written for those 12 and up, but all ages will enjoy this trip to the mythical town of Inclement, Iowa which rests on the shores of sparkling Lake Inclement. Like any other small town, characters abound, from Thorson Poe, the owner of the excellent Poe's Pizza Pies, to the scruffy band BETWIXT who plays folksongs in the park and seems to have some sort of mystical connection to Buck's Rodeo. Come visit. Stay a while. Take a dip in the lake. Sit around the fire and let it bake your clothes dry as you listen to a gravelly voice transport you to another time and place. Scarf down a hotdog with the boys. But don't forget to throw a bite to Flash every once in a while. Beagles love campfire cookin'.

This book is the logical continuation of a series of collected essays examining the origins and evolution of myths and legends of the supernatural in Western and non-Western tradition and popular culture. The first two volumes of the series, The Universal Vampire: Origins and Evolution of a Legend (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2013) and Images of the Modern Vampire: The Hip and the Atavistic. (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2013) focused on the vampire legend. The essays in this collection expand that scope to include a multicultural and multigeneric discussion of a pantheon of supernatural creatures who interact and cross species-specific boundaries with ease. Angels and demons are discussed from the perspective of supernatural allegory, angelic ethics and supernatural heredity and genetics. Fairies, sorcerers, witches and werewolves are viewed from the perspectives of popular nightmare tales, depictions of race and ethnicity, popular public discourse and cinematic imagery. Discussions of the “undead and still dead” include images of death messengers and draugar, zombies and vampires in literature, popular media and Japanese anime.

A drinking guide that “dives deep into Star Wars prequels, Doctor Who (the blue-hued Gin & Tardis) and superhero culture (a Midori-spiked Hulk Smash)” (Liquor.com). Sci-fi and fantasy worlds are full of characters who know that sometimes magic happens at the bar. Drink Like a Geek is a look at iconic drinks and the roles they play in our favorite movies, shows, books, and comics. It’s also a toast to the geeks, nerds, and gamers who keep this culture alive. Drink Like a Geek is a fan encyclopedia and cocktail book. Because audience participation is strongly encouraged, dozens of recipes for otherworldly cocktails, brews, and booze are included. If you’re looking for geek gifts, Drink Like a Geek raises the bar. Homebrewers and mixology nerds who are fans of superheroes, wizards, or intergalactic adventure will also enjoy this book’s celebration of real-world bar-arcades, geeky Tiki culture, and the surprising connections between space and modern booze. In Drink Like a Geek, you’ll find entertainment and drinks for fans who love:Sci-fiComic booksWizardsGenre TVB-moviesVideogamesCosplay and conventionsSpace! “Puts a whole new spectrum of geek-loved media together with peppy, name-checked cocktails . . . Drink Romulan Ale with Doc McCoy, Tardis-blue gin with The Doctor, and a corrected Vesper with Bond, James Bond.” —Lew Bryson, author of Tasting Whiskey “Not only is Cioletti’s book informative and inventive, but wildly entertaining as well. Of course, I’m drunk on an Ewok ‘Bright Tree Swizzle,’ but there you go.” —Matt Gourley, actor, comedian, podcaster

"Weird Westerns is an exploration of the hybrid genre of the weird western, analyzing movies, TV shows, and comic books such as Django Unchained, The Walking Dead, and Wynonna Earp"--

This volume is an account of the development and destruction of slavery in St Thomas, St John and St Croix, the Caribbean islands which today comprise the US Virgin Islands. The book sees slavery as fundamental to the entire fabric of colonial society, and pays particular attention to the social and political life of the whites and freedmen in interaction with the slaves.