Aaron J. Elkins

Buried ceremoniously, high in a cave, lies the skeleton of a human woman, clutching the skeleton of a part-human, part-Neanderthal child. Fascinated, Professor Oliver jumps at the chance to attend a conference near there. But two deaths, possibly murders, have rocked Gibraltar. As Oliver tries to piece things together, he's about to fall for some deadly tricks. After all, unlike the Gibraltar Boy, he's only human.

A new mystery to chill the bones-from the Edgar(r) Award-winning author of Unnatural Selection.When forensics professor Gideon Oliver joins an Amazon riverboat expedition with a group of research botanists, he expects a nice vacation. What he gets is heat, corrupt officials, dangerous insects and animals-and worse.As they travel upriver, one of the botanists is killed by a deranged passenger who leaps overboard and flees into the darkness. No one can explain why. Theories begin to simmer, and stories of long-past, half-forgotten grudges-and new ones as well-boil to the surface.Only when a fresh skeleton turns up in the river, scoured to the bone by voracious piranhas, does Gideon realize that in this jungle full of predators, humans may be the deadliest of all.

Pete and Lily's comfortable marriage is rocked by the surprise appearance of Lily's father, and when the man is found dead and Lily disappears, Pete embarks on a dangerous trip halfway around the world to solve the mystery of his wife's tragic past.

In search of peace and quiet, Gideon has accompanied his wife, Julie, to a forest rangers’ conference in Glacier Bay, Alaska. Also there is Audley Tremaine, the scientist who led an ill-fated expedition to the area 30 years before, in which three graduate students were killed in an avalanche. Audley has written a book about the incident, and he’s in Alaska to review the manuscript with relatives of the deceased. The book contains plenty of juicy revelations about the victims, and it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that Audley’s days are numbered. When the bones of two of the grad students turn up at the avalanche site, Gideon’s examination proves that one was dead before the snow even hit. So much for his restful vacation; Gideon now finds himself with two crimes to solve — one old, one new. “Icy Clutches” suffers a bit from an overreliance on coincidence, but on the whole, Mr. Elkins’ light touch and his hero’s slightly self-deprecating charm make this a marvelous mystery.

Deep in the primeval rainforest of Washington State's Olympic Peninsula, the skeletal remains of a murdered man are discovered. And a strange, unsettling tale begins to unfold, for forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver determines that the murder weapon was a primitive bone spear of a type not seen for the last ten thousand years. And whoever—or whatever—hurled it did so with seemingly superhuman force. Bigfoot "sightings" immediately crop up, but Gideon is not buying them. But something is continuing to kill people, and Gideon, helped by forest ranger Julie Tendler and FBI special agent John Lau, plunges into the dark heart of an unexplored wilderness to uncover the bizarre, astonishing explanation.

Contents: Introduction: Malevolence - essay by Isaac Asimov The Curse - shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke Julia Cahill's Curse - shortstory by George Moore The Red Swimmer - novelette by Robert Bloch The Doom of the Griffiths - novelette by Mrs. Gaskell [as by Elizabeth Gaskell ] You Know Willie - shortstory by Theodore R. Cogswell Trouble with Water - shortstory by H. L. Gold [as by Horace L. Gold ] Mad Monkton - novella by Wilkie Collins Long Chromachy of the Crows - shortstory by Seumas MacManus The Little Black Train - shortstory by Manly Wade Wellman The Curse of the Catafalques - novelette by F. Anstey A Séance in Summer - shortstory by Thomas F. Monteleone [as by Mario Martin, Jr. ] Transformations - shortstory by Christopher Fahy In Dark New England Days - shortstory by Sarah Orne Jewett The Messenger - novelette by Robert W. Chambers Or the Grasses Grow - shortstory by Avram Davidson The Dollar - shortstory by Morgan Robertson A Hunger in the Blood - novelette by Talmage Powell

Hijinks, heists, and high-octane fun abounds in a new adventure from bestselling author Jude Watson. On a foggy night in Amsterdam, a man falls from a rooftop to the wet pavement below. It's Alfie McQuinn, the notorious cat burglar, and he's dying. As sirens wail in the distance, Alfie manages to get out two last words to his young son, March: "Find jewels." When Alfie McQuinn, the notorious jewel thief, is killed on a job, his last words to his son, March, are to "find jewels," and this leads the boy to Jules, the twin sister he never knew he had, and the perfect partner to carry on the family business.

In every school at every grade, there's a pecking order among students-an in crowd and those outside it, who are often ridiculed mercilessly for the "crime" of being different. This powerful anthology explores the teen outsider experience in electrifying, never-before-published stories by eleven of today's most acclaimed YA authors. A tomboy finds the relief of self-expression through her music, while in another tale a relentless bully tests the faith of an intensely religious girl. A cheerleader discovers that the true soul of her school can't be found within the cool clique; a football player finally stands up for a harassed fellow student; and a boy watches in horror as the school "freak" marches into his classroom with a loaded rifle. Offering insights into popularity and peer pressure, nonconformity and persecution, acceptance and hate, these riveting, provocative tales will leave readers thinking and start them talking. Stories by: Joan Bauer Alden R. Carter Chris Crutcher Jack GantosAngela Johnson M. E. Kerr Ron Koertge Francess Lantz Graham Salisbury Will Weaver Nancy Werlin