You Like It Darker (2024) is a collection of 12 short stories.
Stephen King modified the title from a Leonard Cohen lyric.
I love King the story teller. But generally don’t like horror. #conflicted
I did like this collection. He’s amazingly good at drawing you into unusual characters in unexpected situations.
“You like it darker? Fine, so do I,” writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life—both metaphorical and literal.
“Two Talented Bastids” explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous gentlemen got their skills.
In “Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream,” a brief and unprecedented psychic flash upends dozens of lives, Danny’s most catastrophically.
In “Rattlesnakes,” a sequel to Cujo, a grieving widower travels to Florida for respite and instead receives an unexpected inheritance—with major strings attached.
In “The Dreamers,” a taciturn Vietnam vet answers a job ad and learns that there are some corners of the universe best left unexplored.
“The Answer Man” asks if prescience is good luck or bad and reminds us that a life marked by unbearable tragedy can still be meaningful.
Two large, and very rare, Amur tigers have vanished from their cage, and authorities are worried sick that they’ve been stolen for their body parts. Traditional Chinese medicine prizes those parts for home remedies, and people will do extreme things to get what they need. Some of them are a great deal more extreme than others — as Virgil is about to find out.
Then there’s the homefront. Virgil’s relationship with his girlfriend Frankie has been getting kind of serious, but when Frankie’s sister Sparkle moves in for the summer, the situation gets a lot more complicated. For one thing, her research into migrant workers is about to bring her up against some very violent people who emphatically do not want to be researched. For another… she thinks Virgil’s kind of cute.
The Chalk Pit (2017) is the 9th book in the Ruth Galloway series.
Boiled human bones have been found in Norwich’s web of underground tunnels.
When Dr Ruth Galloway discovers they were recently buried, DCI Nelson has a murder enquiry on his hands. The boiling might have been just a medieval curiosity – now it suggests a much more sinister purpose.
Meanwhile, DS Judy Johnson is investigating the disappearance of a local rough sleeper. The only trace of her is the rumour that she’s gone ‘underground’. This might be a figure of speech, but with the discovery of the bones and the rumours both Ruth and the police have heard that the network of old chalk-mining tunnels under Norwich is home to a vast community of rough sleepers, the clues point in only one direction.
Cross the Line is the 24th installment in the popular Alex Cross series by James Patterson. The novel, set against the backdrop of Washington, D.C., dives into a series of intense events triggered by the death of a high-profile police official, prompting a citywide crisis. …
Alex Cross, along with his wife Bree Stone, who is the chief of detectives, becomes deeply involved in the investigation. The perpetrator, referred to as the “Trigger Man,” appears to target members of the police force specifically.
The investigation reveals that the crimes are not only brutal but also bear signs of personal vendetta, indicating that the killer harbors a deep-seated grudge against law enforcement. …
Oregon is an Audible Originalshort thriller from Audie Award-winning and internationally bestselling author Don Winslow. A short story, only an hour long. But powerful.
Masterfully performed by four-time Academy Award nominee Ed Harris, it delivers an audio experience that will stay with you long after it’s over. Listen now.
It was 1970 in a defeated Rhode Island fishing town. Vietnam and Nixon dominated the national news. Both the near and distant future looked bleak.
But they were five inseparable high school friends with something incredible in common: an unwavering resolve to look after each other no matter what hell life threw at them. And they were on a mission.
The plan was simple: Go off the grid before they turned 18 to avoid the draft. They’d sell some grass, stack some cash, then head west and start a commune. What could possibly go wrong?
Yet another young adult dystopian novel where people are killed for entertainment.
Park’s debut novel, originally released South Korea 2020, was translated to English for 2024 publication.
It’s got the usual weaknesses of this genre. The details makes no sense — so you must quickly try to treat it as symbolic.
Average temperature is -50F. … HOW does anything get done outside?
For example, where in this future version of Earth are they still making planes?
Where are they getting the fuel for motor vehicles? The snow globe has traffic jams!
I doubt I’ll read the inevitable sequels.
Ever since the world plummeted to sub-zero temperatures due to climate change, 16-year-old Jeon Chobahm and the rest of the lower-class population must provide the city’s power via manual labor.
The sole exception to the rule are the actors and directors who live inside Snowglobe, the only temperature-regulated part of the world that is protected from icy conditions.
Chobahm has always felt an inexplicable connection to actress Goh Haeri. When she’s offered the opportunity to move to Snowglobe to secretly pretend to be Haeri after the actress dies under mysterious circumstances, Chobahm quickly realizes that life there is nothing like what she’s seen on TV, and she finds herself caught in the middle of a conspiracy.
Garrett pulls it off well — and keeps the book feeling very contemporary.
… no one bats an eye when a Black reality TV star is found dead—except her estranged half-sister, whose refusal to believe the official story leads her on a dangerous search for the truth. …
“I found out my sister was back in New York from Instagram. I found out she’d died from the New York Daily News.” …
“A briskly plotted, socially astute thriller.” ―Los Angeles Times
“Like a Sister combines the voice and humor Kellye Garrett fans have always loved with a twisting and surprising story sure to attract new readers. Domestic suspense for the Instagram gen. #lovedit.” ―Lori Rader-Day, Edgar-nominated author of The Lucky One
Too slow paced for me — but I did enjoy the setting and plot. It kept me guessing.
India Steele is desperate.
Her father is dead, her fiancé took her inheritance, and no one will employ her, despite years working for her watchmaker father.
Indeed, the other London watchmakers seem frightened of her.
Alone, poor, and at the end of her tether, India takes employment with the only person who’ll accept her – an enigmatic and mysterious man from America. A man who possesses a strange watch that rejuvenates him when he’s ill.
Matthew Glass must find a particular watchmaker, but he won’t tell India why any old one won’t do. Nor will he tell her what he does back home, and how he can afford to stay in a house in one of London’s best streets. …
Rick McCharles 