It's Christmas Eve in Santa Fe, and the city is resplendent with lights and decorations. But among the revelers on Canyon Road, a decidedly unholy scene is taking place: a desperate man, Agent Paul Kagan, feverishly seeks refuge for himself and the baby he holds tightly who has the power to change the course of global events.

His pursuers are his former colleagues--members of the Russian mafia who will stop at nothing to accomplish their mission. By stealing the child from them, Kagan has not only risked his life but blown his carefully crafted cover. All he knows is that he must ensure this baby's survival, even if it will cost him his own life.

Just a short distance away, Kagan will find an unexpected pair of allies: a mother and her young son who are victims of domestic violence. Kagan soon realizes that he must enlist them in his frantic effort to stop the ruthless men gathering outside in the enveloping darkness. In the course of a wild and violent night, the unlikely trio learns lessons of generosity, courage, and selflessness, discovering within themselves the luminous strength of the true Christmas spirit.

FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER ... Lee Child's Jack Reacher will team up with Kathy Reichs' Temperance Brennan to unmask a cunning killer. Val McDermid's Tony Hill and Carol Jordan work with Peter James's Roy Grace on a very unusual murder case. These are just some of the never-before-seen pairings in Match Up - a brand new collaboration between the world's famous crime writers. Edited be international bestseller Lee Child, this exclusive page-turning anthology promises the same thrills and chills brought to you by the previous collection, Face Off. Read on for the full list of author and character pairings: Diana Gabaldon's Claire Randall Fraser + Steve Berry's Cotton Malone Lisa Scottoline's Bennie Rosato + Nelson DeMille's John Corey Sandra Brown's Lee Coburn + C.J. Box's Joe Pickett Kathy Reichs's Temperance Brennan + Lee Child's Jack Reacher Val McDermid's Tony Hill + Peter James's Roy Grace Charlaine Harris's Harper Connelly + Andrew Gross's Ty Hauck Gayle Lynds's Liz Sansborough + David Morrell's Rambo Karin Slaughter's Jeffrey Tolliver + Michael Koryta's Lincoln Perry Lara Adrian's Lucan Thorne + Christopher Rice J.A. Jance's Ali Reynolds + Eric Van Lustbader's Bravo Shaw Lisa Jackson's Regan Pescoli + John Sandford's Lucas Davenport

'NOBODY DOES IT BETTER THAN DAVID MORRELL' LEE CHILD One war waged against one man: RAMBO First came the man: a young wanderer in a fatigue coat and long hair. Then came the legend, as John Rambo sprang from the pages of FIRST BLOOD to take his place on the world's cultural landscape. This remarkable novel pits a young, disillusioned and ragged Vietnam veteran against a small-town cop who has no idea whom he is dealing with - or how far Rambo will take him into a life-and-death struggle through the woods, hills and caves of rural Kentucky. From best-selling author David Morrell, this is the critically acclaimed thriller that launched the cultural phenomenon, Rambo. 'Morrell writes action scenes like nobody's business.' New York Times Book Review 'An absolute master of the thriller.' Dean Koontz, #1 New York Times bestselling author 'The finest thriller writer living today, bar none.' Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author

"Like listening to a beloved brother. I found the acute observations and his narrative philosophy more valuable for the new writer than the contents of any 100 other texts."-Dean Koontz
"The Successful Novelist is the vehicle you want if you plan to drive your way to successful fiction."-Joe R. Lansdale
David Morrell, bestselling author of First Blood, The Brotherhood of the Rose and The Fifth Profession, distills more than fifty years of writing and publishing experience into this single masterwork of advice and instruction.
Morrell covers:
-Plot
-Character
-Research
-Structure
-Viewpoint
-Description
-Dialogue
-Succeeding in publishing
-And much more
The Successful Novelist reveals the truth about writing, providing the perspective authors need to write successful fiction that sells.

The year is 1855. The Crimean war is raging. The British government has fallen. The Empire itself hangs in the balance. And then the murders start... Someone is targeting members of London's elite - leaving with each corpse the names of men who failed to assassinate Queen Victoria. It's clear that Victoria will be the ultimate victim. As the notorious Opium-Eater Thomas De Quincey and his daughter Emily race to save her, they uncover the heart-breaking past of a man whose lust for revenge has destroyed his soul. Based on actual attempts to assassinate the queen, Inspector of the Dead brilliantly merges fact with fiction, bringing a bloody chapter of Victorian England to vivid, pulse-pounding life.

Two brilliant operatives known as Saul and Drew are drawn together to solve a baffling mystery: Why have ten elderly men from around the world been kidnapped? As the agents investigate they are pulled into a violent cycle of revenge that stretches back to World War II--and is now forcing sons to pay for their father's darkest sins.
David Morrell's international thrillers have no equal. From the Vatican to the Swiss Alps, from Australia to the heartland of America, The League of Night and Fog brings together two generations bound by one chilling legacy.

An artist of death is stalking Victorian London, recreating earlier masterpieces of murder. Police suspicion falls on the notorious 'opium-eater' Thomas De Quincey, recently returned to the capital, who wrote in detail about the original crimes. Someone is using his essays as inspiration - and he must uncover the truth before the killer completes his work. In MURDER AS A FINE ART, London becomes a battleground between a literary star and a brilliant murderer - whose lives are linked by secrets long buried, but never forgotten.

Unexploded landmines and ordnance are one of the most horrifying legacies of any war, killing and maiming thousands of people all over the world each year, often long after the conflict has ended.
Nobel Prize honored Mines Advisory Group (MAG) is dedicated to eradicating this menace, not only saving lives, but offering new beginnings to these war-torn regions.
Explosions: Stories of Our Landmined World is an all-star charity anthology for MAG, featuring stories contributed by both bestselling and up-and-coming authors. 100% of the proceeds from this book will go directly to MAG and its work around the world.
Jeffery Deaver, David Morrell, John Sayles, Peter Straub, Amy Wallace, and James Grady are just some of the writers whose work author and screenwriter Scott Bradley has collected here, with haunting visions of "our landmined world" to help build a better one.
From the Spanish Civil War to Iraq; from the corridors of power to the battlefield, these 25 tales, along with a cover by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Matt Wuerker, offer an extraordinary literary feast for any reader.
And help save lives at the same time.
www.maginternational.org

Chiral Mad 2 is an anthology of psychological horror containing twenty-eight short stories by established authors and newcomers from around the world. All profit from sales of this anthology go directly to Down syndrome charities. Featuring the imaginations of David Morrell, Ramsey Campbell, Jack Ketchum, John Skipp, Gary A. Braunbeck, Mort Castle, Gene O'Neill, Gary McMahon, Lucy A. Snyder, Thomas F. Monteleone, and many others, with an introduction by Michael Bailey. Table of Contents: 01. Another Man's Bones - Mason Ian Bundschuh 02. Mnemonicide - James Chambers 03. Flowers Blooming in the Season of Atrophy - Max Booth III 04. The Counselor - Mort Castle 05. Dear Boy - John Biggs 06. Interference - Andrew Hook 07. Picture-in-Picture - Dustin LaValley 08. When I Was - Thomas F. Monteleone 09. Tight Partners - Gene O'Neill 10. Approaching Lavender - Lucy A. Snyder 11. Orange is for Anguish, Blue for Insanity - David Morrell 12. In the Eyes of the Beholder - Ann K. Boyer 13. Empathy - John Skipp 14. Versions - E. L. Kemper 15. The Tended Field of Eido Yamata - Jon Michael Kelley 16. Playing with Fire - Richard Thomas 17. Indian Summer - Philip C. Perron 18. Blood Women - Usman T. Malik 19. Whitechapel - P. Gardner Goldsmith 20. The Chute - Gary McMahon 21. Scavenging - Kevin Lucia 22. The Word - Ramsey Campbell 23. Welcome Home, All You Uninvited - Erik T. Johnson 24. The Geminis - John Palisano 25. A Guide to Etiquette and Comportment for the Sisters of Henley House - Emily B. Cataneo 26. The Right Thing - Jack Ketchum 27. Passing Affliction - Patrick O'Neill 28. The Great Pity - Gary A. Braunbeck

From the bestselling author of First Blood comes a spectacular thriller, in which a former Navy SEAL and a Japanese samurai master are bound together in a terrifying past that never happened.

David Morrell, whose many bestsellers include Double Image, Extreme Denial, and The Brotherhood of the Rose, has consistently redefined the modern thriller. Now he turns to a darker side of suspense in a powerful collection of tales, many of them award winners, that delve into the weird, uncanny terrors that lurk just beneath the comforting surfaces of daily life.

BLACK EVENING

Fear of loss, fear of pain, fear of madness, fear of being trapped, fear of the inescapable, unspeakable horrors that fester deep within the soul....No matter who or where you are, fear is always with you, always ready to attack from behind the masks of thought and dream. Let David Morrell tell you a story...

From the American heartland to the edge of Hell, David Morrell, the bestselling author of the classics First Blood and The Brotherhood of the Rose, presents a career-spanning examination into his own life...and the fears we all share. From his first published short fiction to his latest, award-winning stories, including:

"The Beautiful Uncut Hair of Graves"--Winner, Best Novella, Horror Writers of America Award: Both your parents die suddenly; now, going through their legal papers, you find adoption papers, dated on your birthday...signed in a town that has been abandoned...

"Orange Is for Anguish, Blue for Insanity"--Winner, Best Novella, Horror Writers of America Award: Beneath the placid, beautiful landscapes of a master's paintings lie hidden levels of pain, madness...and unearthly horrors...

"Dead Image"--Finalist, Best Novella, World Fantasy Award: You know, of course, that Hollywood movie stars think fame is more important than life itself...but you don't know the half of it...

"The Shrine"--Nominee, Best Novella, Horror Writers of America Award: Parents grieving the deaths of their children find a hidden place that offers lost hope...or eternal madness...

Ex-marine Chase Malone must stop a dangerous and powerful arms dealer before he kills again in this new high-action thriller by the bestselling author of "Double Image" and "Black Evening." The wealthy and dangerously twisted arms agent has spent the last two decades marrying a succession of beautiful women--all of whom have met with mysterious deaths just after having their portraits painted by a top artist.

Also Available as an eBook

International bestselling author David Morrell takes on the psychological thriller with a sensational new novel that combines the cinematic suspense of Vertigo and Basic Instinct with an explosive, erotic tale of intrigue, obsession, and murder...Double Image

After a harrowing experience in Bosnia, war photographer Mitch Coltrane makes a vow. From now on, he will take only those pictures that celebrate life and document hope instead of despair. Then the horrors of his previous assignment return to threaten him, and Coltrane must seek refuge from the present in the past. Having uncovered an old, uncaptioned photograph of a hauntingly beautiful woman, Coltrane sets out to discover who the woman was, and why her photo was hidden in the vault of a world-famous art photographer. Soon he finds himself hopelessly obsessed with the woman in the photograph and slipping into a maze of deception and treachery. Surrounded by illusions of the past and present, Coltrane now must fight for his life in the world capital of make-believe: a decadent and deadly L.A.... A novel of dizzying Hitchcockian twists and turns, Double Image is David Morrell's most daring, imaginative, and unsettling work to date. For here, the much-praised author of such superb suspense thrillers as Extreme Denial, Desperate Measures, and The Brotherhood of the Rose takes us on a journey as complex and frightening as our darkest desires-and as haunting as a love that will not die.

An Alternate Selection of Book-of-the-Month Club.

After a harrowing experience in Bosnia, war photographer Mitch Coltrane makes a vow. From now on, he will take only those pictures that celebrate life and document hope instead of despair. Then the horrors of his previous assignment return to threaten him, and Coltrane must seek refuge from the present in the past. Having uncovered an old, uncaptioned photograph of a hauntingly beautiful woman, Coltrane sets out to discover who the woman was, and why her photo was hidden in the vault of a world-famous art photographer. Soon he finds himself hopelessly obsessed with the woman in the photograph and slipping into a maze of deception and treachery. Surrounded by illusions of the past and present, Coltrane now must fight for his life in the world capital of make-believe: a decadent and deadly L.A....

David Morrell, bestselling author of such suspense classics as The Brotherhood of the Rose and Assumed Identity, now breaks new ground with a thriller that weaves blockbuster action and intrigue with psychological complexity and passion...Extreme Denial

At forty, Steve Decker is one of America's most accomplished anti-terrorist operatives. Then a bungled covert operation kills twenty-three people and leaves Decker shouldering the blame. Embittered, he retires...and meets a captivating woman named Beth Dwyer. Suddenly, Decker has the very thing he lived so long without: a beautiful, brilliant woman he passionately loves. But in a terrifying assault, Beth disappears—leaving an agonizing mystery in her wake. Is she still alive? Was she captured by Decker's enemies or her own? Who is this woman he loved so completely, almost to the point of obsession? Did she love him, or use him? For Decker, the stakes are high: Beth's love, Beth's life, and, most of all, the truth.

An Alternate Selection of the Literary Guild and of Doubleday Book Club

At forty, Steve Decker is one of America's most accomplished anti-terrorist operatives. Then a bungled covert operation kills twenty-three people in Rome and leaves Decker shouldering the blame. Embittered by the fiasco, he retires to the mountains of New Mexico and there meets an extraordinary woman named Beth Dwyer. She changes his life. Suddenly Decker has the very things he had lived so long without: a beautiful, brilliant woman he longs to marry and a future that could include children. But when a terrifying assault rips his world apart, Beth disappears - leaving an agonizing mystery in her wake. Who is this woman he loved so completely, almost to the point of obsession? Is she still alive? Was she captured by Decker's enemies or her own? Did she love him or use him - possibly as bait in some sinister plan? Reaching back into his shadowy past, Decker discovers that two malicious - and diametrically opposed - forces have been stalking him. To stay alive, Decker must use all his carefully honed skills, stay one step ahead of his murderous enemies, and pray that luck is on his side as he moves from hunter to hunted, from the deserts of Santa Fe to the streets of New York City. For Decker the stakes couldn't be higher: Beth's life, Beth's love, and, most of all, the truth.

Famous for his suspenseful fiction that delivers sheer emotional power, David Morrell, the bestselling author of First Blood, The Brotherhood of the Rose, The Fifth Profession, and Assumed Identity, here presents a mesmerizing novel of intrigue and high-action thrills...Fallen star journalist Matt Pittman holds a gun in his hand, ready to commit suicide...until he's abruptly interrupted by a phone call and a bizarre assignment: to write the obituary of a man who is not yet dead. Suddenly, clinging desperately to a life he'd so recently been eager to discard, Matt is thrust into the heart of a global conspiracy whose sinister machinations promise a terrifying endgame. He will find himself both a murder suspect by the police and a target for murder by invisible assassins determined to destroy him. Now Matt Pittman is on a desperate, great final story -- and his last byline may be written on a tombstone.