It's the perfect getaway. But the past will always find you . . .

When ex-cop Bill Robinson takes over The Inn by the Sea, all he wants is a quiet escape from the city.
But when a crime boss moves into town and begins terrorizing Bill's friends, he can't just sit back and watch.
It's not long before local criminals are turning up dead and The Inn comes under attack.
With the help of The Inn's fearless...

"When two wealthy white landowners are found dead, the whole country immediately thinks it must be Jerome Washington, the hired help, who killed them. He was standing over the bodies when the police responded to an anonymous call and the only one on the property at the time of death. As far as the state is concerned, it's an open and shut case. Jack Lee, born and raised in Freeman County, knows that every man deserves a solid defense and agrees to...

A collection of the year's best mystery and suspense short fiction selected by Lisa Unger and series editor Steph Cha.

The saboteur targeting Rory VanDam's hotshot team or Brittney Townsend, the hot reporter asking too many questions? Maybe the secrets Rory has had to keep since he survived a plane crash are more dangerous than both of them. When a killer pursues the guarded firefighter and relentless journalist, it's Rory's past that could cost them their lives. And his reluctant attraction to the newswoman could make him expose the shocking truth.

Three women, bound by friendship And a thirty-year-old secret Lucinda was angry when her husband left his job in the city to work with his father. Deidre never shared her husband's dream of moving to Nashville. And Harlowe wanted a baby that her husband couldn't give her. When their men vanished, the Whispering Winds Widows told the same story. Will the son of one of the disappeared and a writer from Chattanooga finally uncover the truth?

"It's a blazing summer when two men arrive in a small village in the West of Ireland. One of them is coming home. Both of them are coming to get rich. One of them is coming to die. Cal Hooper took early retirement from Chicago PD and moved to rural Ireland looking for peace. He's found it, more or less: he's built a relationship with a local woman, Lena, and he's gradually turning Trey Reddy from a half-feral teenager into a good kid going good places....

"Interrupting an attempted murder--and leaving with incriminating evidence--makes Sissy Spencer a serial killer's next target. With a flash drive in her possession containing disturbing proof of multiple murders, Sissy has no choice but to trust her ex-boyfriend, private investigator Beau Brighton, to keep her safe. But can they unravel the clues and track down a killer...before he catches them first?"--Page 4 of cover.

His investigation reveals her family's dangerous legacy. Sheriff Brandt Parker knows that nothing short of her father's death could have lured Molly Lockhart to Montana. He's determined to protect the stubborn, independent woman even before she starts making herself a target. Keeping his own feelings under control is an additional challenge as his investigation unfolds. What could keep this New Yorker in Fortune Creek once her father's murderer is...

As snow falls on the small town of Lost Creek, Colorado, a three-year-old boy is found playing quietly in his car seat, his mother, cold as ice, slumped against the steering wheel in front. Tearing herself away from reconnecting with her special agent father who abandoned her for his career, Detective Madison Harper is haunted by the fear in the boy's sky-blue eyes, and vows to find justice for this innocent child, left motherless just days before...