Mostrando resultados por autor "Kim Fielding" en Todas las categorías

Follow the rules. That’s what Con Becker does, even when it means denying his own needs. Because one thing he’s learned is that breaking the rules gets you into trouble. It alienates you from your family. It brings you face-to-fangs with death. So Con sticks to his lab in the basement of the Bureau, examining evidence, updating his spreadsheets, and enduring the pain of his damaged body. Until Chief Townsend sends Con on a field mission with Agent Isaac Molina.

Brute leads a lonely life in a world where magic is commonplace. He is seven and a half feet of ugly, and of disreputable descent. No one, including Brute, expects him to be more than a laborer. But heroes come in all shapes and sizes, and when he is maimed while rescuing a prince, Brute's life changes abruptly. He is summoned to serve at the palace in Tellomer as a guard for a single prisoner. It sounds easy but turns out to be the challenge of his life.

Morli is a prince on a mission - but he’d rather be baking. Baxter is a lonely production artist stuck in a pandemic lockdown. They are literally universes apart. But with a little help from a magic shop, a raven, and a dead great-aunt who was possibly a witch, Morli and Baxter are joined together on a cross-worlds adventure. Battling killer brambles in order to rescue an enchanted princess seems simple compared to their real challenges: Discovering their strengths and creating a future together.

Prosperity comes at a price. In Praesidium, that price is freedom. Strict laws and a harsh penal code ensure ordinary criminals become bond-slaves. But the most serious traitors are turned over to the wizard to be suspended in a dreamless frozen state known as Stasis. Miner is one such criminal, suspended forever—until Ennek, the youngest son of Praesidium’s Chief, stirred by the horror of Miner’s fate, sets him free. Ennek has always skirted the edge of the law.

Crow Rapp assumes he’ll spend his life growing corn in rural Illinois, like the grandparents who raised him. But during a visit to a traveling carnival, he encounters a handsome stranger named Simeon Bell—and receives a prophecy of a horrifying future. When that future materializes soon afterward, Crow flees...only to find that no matter how far he goes, fate pursues him.

A drifter since his teens, Jimmy Dorsett has no home and no hope. What he does have is a duffel bag, a lot of stories, and a junker car. Then one cold desert night, he picks up a hitchhiker and ends up with something more: a letter from a dying man to the son he hasn't seen in years.

This collection contains the first three Bureau novellas: Corruption, Clay White, and Creature.

World War I veteran Thomas Donne is new to San Francisco. Always a stoic man, shell shock and a lost love have nearly turned his heart to stone. No matter - a private eye has no room for softness. Almost broke, he takes on what appears to be a simple case: finding a missing young man. As a magician and medium, Abraham Ferencz cons his audiences into believing he can cheat death and commune with their dearly departed. Although his séances are staged, the spirits are very real, and they’ve brought him almost more pain than he can bear.

As the son of a wealthy man, Enitan Javed has spent his life frivolously - drinking, fighting, and making love. But after his father dies, Enitan is unjustly accused of murdering him and is given the harshest sentence possible. Judged irredeemable, he is banished to the Downs. As even young children know, nothing lives in the Downs except demons who delight in torturing the condemned. Brutalized by the men who transport him to his fate, Enitan has nothing left but his thirst for vengeance.

A brutal war left Volos Perun with physical and emotional scars and with a reputation as a hero. Now he's a soldier stationed at the palace, desiring Prince Berhanu while receiving only loathing in return. But when Berhanu foolishly refuses the king's request to let Volos accompany him on a peace mission to the neighboring country, Berhanu is kidnapped and brutalized. Now Volos must risk his life as he works to save Berhanu and help his country avoid another devastating war.

This collection contains the fourth and fifth Bureau novellas, Chained and Convicted.

Skinny, quiet hipster Dylan Warner was the kind of guy other men barely glanced at until an evening's indiscretion with a handsome stranger turned him into a werewolf. Now, despite a slightly hairy handicap, he just wants to live an ordinary - if lonely - life as an architect. He tries to keep his wild impulses in check, but after one too many close calls, Dylan gives up his urban life and moves to the country, where he will be less likely to harm someone else.

Simeon Bell just hasn’t been himself. Although he has spent a happy year as a roustabout with the Carnival of Mysteries—accompanied by his beloved, Crow Rapp—lately something has felt off. Maybe he hasn’t been himself because he doesn’t fully know who he is. Abandoned in a foundling home as an infant, he has never known anything about his family and has never met another of his kind. A tiny box found on the carnival midway leads Simeon and Crow on a quest to Simeon’s childhood home in the Victorian slums of London, where he discovers the ability to move through time.

Tobias Lykke is big, awkward, and accustomed to spending his holidays alone. This year, however, his godmother—who may or may not be an Italian countess—gives him an elf doll originally entrusted to her by her second husband, who might or might not have been a wizard.

Lewis loves his holiday job. As the Ghost of Christmas Present, he guides people to improve their lives. Sure, he’s a little lonely at home in Minnesota, but Fezziwig the cat keeps him company. When Lewis is spirited to California one Christmas Eve, he meets Sammy, an ex-lawyer who seems to already have his life in order. Lewis and Sammy share Korean fried chicken and a brief fling, but distance and career obligations appear destined to thwart anything permanent.

It's been a few weeks since Dylan Warner wolfed out and killed Andy, the crazed werewolf who originally turned him and later tried to murder Chris Nock. Architect Dylan and handyman Chris are still refurbishing Dylan's old house as they work out the structure of their relationship. They come from very different backgrounds, and neither has had a long-term lover before, so negotiating their connections would be challenge enough even if Dylan didn't turn into a beast once a month.

Praesidium is the most prosperous city-state in the world, due not only to its location at the mouth of a great bay but also to its strict laws, stringently enforced. Ordinary criminals become bond-slaves, but the worst punishment—to be suspended in a dreamless frozen state known as Stasis—is doled out by the wizard and reserved for only the most serious of traitors.

Orris Spencer is an abomination. At least that was what his father said in 1886 before banishing him from their Fifth Avenue mansion and sending him across the continent to Oregon. Now Orris must try to find a place for himself on his brother’s farm. His studies did little to prepare him for pioneer living, and when he’s called on to help protect the livestock from a predator, he’s not at all certain he’s up to the task. Then he meets Henry Bonn, a strange and intriguing man who lives in a cabin in the hills.

Aside from a sympathetic parole officer, Aiden Finn is alone in the world. He knows this is his last chance - after a lifetime in and out of prison, one more mistake will land him there to stay. Unfortunately, his job as a night custodian at a motel is neither satisfying nor good for building his confidence, and booze and burglary are always just a step behind him. Enter beautiful, exotic, and secretive Luka Gabor, the motel's new security guard.

This collection contains the seventh and eighth Bureau stories: Caroled and Camouflaged. Caroled: Charles Grimes hasn’t celebrated Christmas in years, so spending December in San Francisco while keeping an eye out for monsters sounds like an easy way to earn a few bucks. He should have learned by now that nothing is ever easy. Camouflaged: Ever since Ralph Crespo was trapped in human form, he’s been going through the motions at a job he once loved. Maybe that’s why the Bureau chief seems to have demoted him to messenger.