Bloody Animals

Joe Barboza knew that there were two requirements for getting inducted into the Mafia. You had to be Sicilian. And you had to commit a contract killing. The New Bedford-born mobster was a proud Portuguese, not Sicilian, but his dream to be part of La Cosa Nostra proved so strong that he thought he could create a loophole. Barboza’s legacy, buried for years thanks to the murders or deaths of its participants, is finally coming to light and being told in its unvarnished brutality by one of America’s most respected true crime writers.

The forest is not empty. It is watching. And it is hungry. From the dense river bottoms of Mississippi to the frozen marshes of Belarus, a prehistoric force is reclaiming the earth. They are not the barnyard animals of nursery rhymes. They are biological tanks equipped with self-sharpening ivory daggers, capable of snapping a human femur like a twig. Killer Boars unearths the terrifying, true history of human conflict with the feral swine. This is not a biology textbook; it is a chronicle of survival, horror, and the grim reality of the food chain. Inside these blood-soaked pages, you will ...

A weekend getaway was supposed to mend a fractured family. Instead, it woke a forty-year-old curse. Former search-and-rescue diver Owen Rourke just wants to reconnect with his grieving teenage daughter, Sadie, at their old vacation cabin. But when a violent summer storm traps them on the water alongside a hundred panic-stricken tourists, they realize they aren't just fighting the elements. Something massive, intelligent, and relentlessly hungry is hunting the crowded shallows—attacking boats from below and tearing through steel like paper. To survive a night of claustrophobic terror, Owen...

A quiet mountain town. A final night of movies. An unstoppable force emerging from the dark. The Pine Ridge Drive-In is closing its gates forever, and manager Emma Reeves has planned the ultimate all-night movie marathon to send it off. The lot is packed. The projector is humming. The crowd is ready for a scare. But the real terror isn't on the screen. Deep within the dense forest bordering the lot, a legendary apex predator has been pushed to the brink by decades of corporate greed and environmental destruction. Tonight, it is reclaiming its territory—and it will tear through steel, ...

The Road Dies Here. When a brutal winter storm traps Ray Colter and his teenage daughter on a remote mountain highway, their only hope for shelter is a weather-beaten ranger outpost. But the strangers huddled inside the freezing cabin are about to discover that the plunging temperatures are the least of their problems. Outside in the blinding white, an ancient, violent war is reigniting. Caught in the middle of a blood feud between a territorial guardian of the peaks and a mimetic, insatiable force driven by pure starvation, the group must fight to outlast the night. As the outpost's walls ...

The ice held a secret for ten thousand years. Now, it’s awake. When a high-altitude corporate retreat at an isolated Rocky Mountain lodge is severed from the outside world by a catastrophic whiteout storm, the survivors think their biggest threat is the plummeting temperature. They are wrong. Deep in the abandoned underground research tunnels beneath the ski station, something ancient and hungry has been thawed from the permafrost. It is not a myth. It is Arctodus simus—the giant short-faced bear, an apex predator standing twelve feet tall and built for relentless slaughter. As the ...

The Magnificent Seven meets The Wind in the Willows in this action-packed fantasy adventure from Daniel Polansky, The Builders. A missing eye. A broken wing. A stolen country. The last job didn't end well. Years go by, and scars fade, but memories only fester. For the animals of the Captain's...

The Appalachian ridge has always held secrets. When a hunter goes missing in the deep timber, the locals blame the treacherous terrain. Bailey knows the official story is a lie. Her brother vanished in these same woods. She is going in to find out why. She hikes into a region the old-timers refuse to enter. She finds a landscape torn apart by violence. The recovered trail cameras reveal a terrifying truth. A highly coordinated pack of upright lupine predators has claimed the valley. They are fast. They are intelligent. They are hunting her. But the pack is not the only force in the forest. ...

Deep in the Adirondack mountains, a resurrected nightmare is waiting for the dinner bell to ring. Nate Bishop thought a summer head counselor position at the newly renovated Camp Kill Lake was the perfect escape. The brochures promised an unplugged digital detox for kids—the way summer camp used to be. But the new management is hiding a dark history of wildlife incidents that drove the previous owners into bankruptcy. They thought the massive black bear stalking the tree line was just a passing nuisance. They were wrong. When a violent summer storm washes out the only access road and cuts...

Welcome to the Blackwater Fossil Preserve. The apex hunters of the past are no longer history and the containment grid just failed. Paleobiologist Tessa Harlan knew resurrecting the ancient beast was a catastrophic mistake. The thousand pound reptile is not a slow river dweller. It is an armored and fully terrestrial pursuit hunter with interlocking tusks and terrifying speed. When a massive Gulf Coast storm floods the preserve and kills the power the grand opening turns into a slaughter. Trapped behind high concrete walls with a sinking escape route Tessa and a small group of tourists must...

Splash Ridge Waterpark was supposed to be the ultimate summer escape. But historic flooding has driven a massive, starving threat out of the deep woods. On opening day, a highly coordinated herd of feral hogs—led by a monstrous, three-hundred-pound alpha—breaches the park's perimeter, turning the sun-drenched concourses into a claustrophobic trap. As communications fail and the panic rises, park manager Nate Rourke and his staff must navigate a deadly labyrinth of shattered attractions and flooded maintenance tunnels to save thousands of trapped guests.

The perfectly twisted word-of-mouth horror phenomenon that set the internet on fire. When Eamon and his two closest friends, Caroline and Mark, journey to Addington Isle, they hope to explore the island that inspired their favorite book, Winterset Hollow—a timeless tale about a tribe of...

When humanity steps into the untamed wild, the food chain violently resets. This visceral collection plunges you into the unforgiving depths of the forest, where isolated hikers, oblivious tourists, and seasoned rangers suddenly find themselves facing an apex predator. From the terrifying crack of ice on a frozen lake to the claustrophobic dread of a remote cabin under siege, these intense narratives explore the brutal reality of man-versus-nature. Every rustling bush. Every snapped branch. Every shadow moving between the pines. These grounded, high-stakes narratives strip away civilization...

The fire is the least of their problems. When a catastrophic wildfire jumps containment in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, wildland firefighter Mara Voss must lead a stranded convoy of civilians to safety. Trapped behind a wall of flame, their only escape route is a treacherous march through the burning woods. But the smoke has awakened something ancient. Driven from the deep timberland by the inferno, a ferocious, winged apex predator is using the chaos of the blaze to hunt. With communications dead and the temperature rising, Mara must navigate her group through an ash-choked nightmare while...

Three friends went into the woods. Only one understood the rules. Evan wanted an off-grid expedition to prove a point. Matt wanted to escape his own failures. Kara just wanted to keep the peace. But when their hike leads them miles off the marked trail and deep into an ancient, silent expanse of forest, they realize too late that they have crossed a boundary. Something is pacing them from the tree line. Something massive, territorial, and operating with a flat, unwavering certainty. As their supplies dwindle and the panic sets in, the group is relentlessly hunted by an apex predator that ...

When an innocent person is murdered, the suspect list isn't clear. Who would want to kill a friendly, but mousy victim? Could that person know more than they should have working in a large corporation where secrets may hide? A quarreling corporate family may have secrets worth killing over. Or was the victim not so innocent, having a secret life that led to her death? Has Wanda found love? She's not the type to give her heart willingly. Will Wren make an appearance and explain the reason for her absence?

They thought they were the hunters. They were wrong. When cartel assassins track a frightened family in witness protection to a remote cabin deep in the wilderness, they expect an easy job. The forest has other plans. Something ancient lives here. Watching from the trees is a creature humans call Bigfoot—a solitary giant who survives by avoiding conflict and never staying in one place for long. But this time he stays. Told entirely through the sensory, instinct-driven perspective of the creature itself, BIGFOOT: Through His Eyes plunges readers into a brutal wilderness where danger closes...

The silence of the woods was just the beginning. Caleb Mercer thought he left the nightmare behind in the Bitterroot wilderness. But the ancient, towering terror that hunts by sound hasn't forgotten him—and it has followed him into the sprawling concrete labyrinth of the city. Haunted by an unending, deafening ringing in his ears, Caleb is thrust into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse. The entity has evolved, turning the urban electrical grid and subway tunnels into a viral acoustic weapon. Worse, Caleb isn't the only one tracking the anomaly. A shadowy, well-funded black-ops foundation is ...

Step into a world where magic reveals its true face, and destinies collide in the shadows. In the wake of her twin sister's mysterious disappearance, stage magician Lila is thrust into a world where illusions give way to undeniable magic. When enigmatic Nick appears, his sorcery defies all logic, plunging Lila into a perilous journey of discovery. Meanwhile, Grace Lackland inherits leadership of a pirate fleet after her father's tragic end. As she navigates treacherous waters, she must shield her vulnerabilities to safeguard her crew's survival. Across distant realms, Lady Bulwark ...

The complete "Beyond the Trods" trilogy of fantasy adventures, including: SHADOW’S CALL (Book 1) Magic isn’t an illusion. It’s a reckoning. After her twin sister vanishes without a trace, stage magician Lila is forced to confront a truth she never believed—real magic exists. And when the enigmatic Nick appears, wielding powers that defy reason, Lila is pulled into a dangerous world where nothing is as it seems. Elsewhere, Grace Lackland inherits command of a pirate fleet after her father’s death. Surrounded by danger on all sides, she must hide her weaknesses—or risk losing ...