Two days ago, Moira escaped the Midwest with Kasey and her Barbie doll in the back seat of a beat-up van. Now, on sun-drenched Highway 95 in nowheresville Nevada, she wonders if she escaped at all. The residents of Hawthorne, one of the few towns in the desert and her ultimate destination, use bombshells as lawn decorations. She thinks Hawthorne marks the end of her trip; instead, it marks the beginning of one strange and scary adventure, one she and Kasey need to survive. Kristine Kathryn Rusch's crime stories are exceptional, both in plot and in style. -Ed Gorman, Mystery Scene Magazine...

Readers know Hugo-award winner Kristine Kathryn Rusch for her serious, deeply thought-out science fiction. But the former editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction also has a silly side, one in evidence in the five stories in this collection. Only one story, "Paparazzi of Dreams," is at all serious, although it has a very skewed perspective of the world. "Going Native," pretends to seriousness, like so many news stories do. In "Advisors at Naptime," a child saves the world only because she wants a nap. In "The One That Got Away," poker players thwart an alien invasion, and in...

When Robert Cooper first sees Nathalie Renard, he finds himself drawn to her. She seems ethereal, magical. And when he finally meets her, he finds her even more beguiling. But Robert has a job to do, and Nathalie seems the best candidate from the Paris Telephone Exchange to hire as a translator. As the Allied governments move forward with their plan to put the surviving Nazis on trial, however, Nathalie's view of justice begins to worry Robert. Can he trust her to do the job? Or is her reason for taking it in the first place darker than he imagines? "Rusch excels at the novella length and...

The entire world convulsed in the middle of the 20th century. Everything changed-even the magical universe. From faerie to mages, from wizards to war criminals, the Second World War touched every single life. The War and After explores the effect of the Second World War on the magical world in five different stories spanning thirty years-from the 1920s as the war glimmered in the distance to the 1950s when it had just barely passed. Included are "Corpse Vision," "Dark Corners," "Subtle Interpretations," "Judgment," and "The Thrill of the Hunt." "Like early Ray Bradbury, Rusch has the ability...

Thomas fell in love with the Oregon Coast while filming his signature role as Anthony Short. Then his estranged daughter, Heather, died there, and Thomas fled. Now, he returns, not to solve his daughter's murder, but to see if he can live with himself and his past. Only someone leaves mysterious notes, signed Your Daughter, and birds die on his porch. Strangers report a man in a cloak who looks just like Thomas, but the fans who follow him everywhere don't see anyone. But Thomas knows something strange lurks in the shadows. Then more people die and Thomas realizes he holds the key to it all....

For the fourth anthology in the Fiction River line, paranormal romance writer Kristine Grayson invited a stellar lineup of cross-genre authors to tell heartwarming stories of love set in the holiday season. From Regency England to modern day Portland, Oregon, ghosts facilitate-or try to stop-true love in the dark at the end of the year. Featuring stories by bestselling authors Mary Jo Putney and Carole Nelson Douglas to fan favorites M.L. Buchman and Anthea Lawson, Christmas Ghosts provides the perfect beginning to the mid-winter festivities. "A sugary Christmas treat for those who love...

The Pane expect perfection of their living windchimes. The difference between a performer's life as the biggest star on Djape and a ruined career comes down to one mistake. When a child prodigy loses everything familiar, he must learn how to survive on a space station very far from home. And perhaps finally understand the life he almost lived. Winner of the Asimov SF Magazine's Readers Choice Award for 2009. " Rusch does] an excellent job in showing us the personal voyage of discovery the protagonist goes on, as his world, and particularly his appreciation of music, widens out step by painful...