NCW Libraries

"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. King has, for half a century, been a master of the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King...

A breakout thriller from an "enthralling" (New York Times Book Review) and award-winning author: Can two parents find their lost children before disaster strikes? It's a week until the US presidential elections when a bomb goes off in an LA shopping mall. In London, the police storm Heathrow Airport to bring in a father for questioning about his missing daughter. In Florida, a mother makes a connection between her son and the bomber, fearing he has...

The story begins with a hand curled around another man's throat. This is Roman justice: Emperor Tiberius first dispatches a traitor--a friend he once trusted with the city--then the man's whole family and all of his friends. It is as if he never existed. Into this fevered forum, a child is born. His mother is Agrippina, granddaughter of Emperor Augustus. But their imperial blood is neither balm nor protection. Rather, it is a liability. Blood is easily...

"In this atmospheric thriller set at a luxury memoir-writing workshop on the shores of Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, a grieving mother goes undercover to investigate her daughter's mysterious death. Rose, the mother of 20-something aspiring writer Jules, has waited three months for answers about her daughter's death. Why was she swimming alone when she feared the water? Why did she stop texting days before she was last seen? When the official investigation...

Determined to prevent a tragedy, an Atlanta therapist uncovers a common denominator that is plaguing six of her clients from the rap and film world and debates the merits of violating her professional position to save lives.

Four teens on the Blackfeet Reservation find themselves the suspects of an investigation when a classmate is found murdered during the annual Indian Days celebrations.

Since her mother died when she was five years old, it's always just been Ronnie Miller and her dad. Two Korean Americans who, thanks to Ronnie's dad's adoption by white parents, have never felt all that Korean. But Ronnie is okay with that--as long as she has her dad and her best friend Jack, Ronnie is 99% certain she can get through anything. But as much as she wants everything to stay the same, the world--and her dad--has other plans. Now, Ronnie...

"For the past five years, Ryan Richardson has relived that terrible night. The car door ripping open. The crushing blow to the head. The hands yanking him from the vehicle. His girlfriend Ali's piercing scream as she is taken. With no trace of Ali or the car, a cloud of suspicion hangs over Ryan. But with no proof and a good lawyer, he's never charged, though that doesn't matter to the podcasters and internet trolls. Now, Ryan has changed his last...

As they do each June, the Foxes have driven the winding roads of Appalachia to drop off their children for a two-week stay at their grandmother's. Here, twelve-year-old Thea can run free and breathe in the smells of pine and fresh bread and Grammie's handmade candles. But as her parents head back to suburban Virginia, they have no idea they're about to cross paths with a ticking time bomb. Back in Kentucky, Thea and her grandmother Lucy both awaken...

These 12 stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as King's novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King writes to feel 'the exhilartion of leaving ordinary day-to-day life behind,' and in You Like It Darker, listeners will feel that exhilaration too, again and again. "Two Talented Bastids explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous gentlemen got...