Books in CLS.LITTERATURE series

A cold case heats up . . . A dead man in Big Bay Creek, spring break, and a rogue Fbi agent would be enough to drive Chief Callie Jean Morgan to drink . . . if she hadn't already quietly crawled inside a bottle of gin to drown her sorrows over a life ripped apart by too many losses.When her investigation into the stranger's death heats up an unsolved abduction case, Callie finds herself pitted against the town council, her son, the agent, and even the raucous college kids enjoying idyllic Edisto Beach.Amidst it all, Callie must find a way to reconcile her grief and her precious taste for gin before anyone else is killed. C. Hope Clark is the award-winning author of the Carolina Slade Mysteries and now the Edisto Island Mysteries. During her career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, she met and married a federal agent-now a private investigator. She plots murder mysteries at their lakeside home in South Carolina when not visiting Edisto Beach. Visit Hope at chopeclark.com.

It was a time when gods walked the earth, when armies fought not for bits of land, but for the very existence of humanity. On such a battlefield, five formidable warriors stood against an evil greater than any the earth had ever seen. But evil is not an honorable foe. Betrayed by someone they trusted, the warriors were cursed, one by one, tossed into the maelstrom of time, imprisoned in stone, their freedom resting on nearly impossible conditions. Until . . .Kato Amadi . . . born of darkest sorcery, unstoppable on the battlefield, his magic is as deadly as his blade. But not even magic could save him from vicious betrayal. Trapped for millennia in darkness and silence, he is freed at last, only to find himself in the middle of a battle against the very beasts of hell he was created to destroy. Grace Van Allen is a scholar of ancient languages who toils in the dim recesses of a museum basement with only a beautiful stone warrior to keep her company. But when Grace calls upon her silent warrior to help her translate an obscure new language, she breaks the ancient curse holding him prisoner . . . and frees three deadly demons to rampage through her city. Tracking demons is what Kato was born to do, but he’ll need Grace’s help. And when they discover that Kato’s enemy is still alive and still plotting against him, their hunt takes a dangerous turn, one that might just prove fatal for both of them . . .

The zombie apocalypse just got real.Zombies rule. Almost everybody in the world has turned into one, thanks to a nifty little disease called Necropoxy. Sixteen year old twins, Tripp and Trina Light, however, are among the rare humans who are not only immune to Necropoxy-they're super immune. Even a bite from a zombie won't infect them.Great, right? Yeah, but . . . researchers are capturing every immune human they can find-and experimenting on them like lab rats. Just yesterday, the twins and their friends narrowly escaped.The researchers will do anything to get them back.That means Tripp, Trina, and their small band of survivors are on the run from zombies, mad scientists, and who knows what else. What's worse, some people in their group are starting to act funny, which isn't funny at all.This is so not how they planned to spend the beginning of their junior year of high school in Massachusetts.Everyone is dead.Everyone is wicked dead.Author and playwright Howard Odentz is a lifelong resident of the gray area between Western Massachusetts and North Central Connecticut. His love of the region is evident in his writing as he often incorporates the foothills of the Berkshires and the small towns of the Bay and Nutmeg states into his work.In addition to The Dead (A Lot) Series, he has written the horror novel Bloody Bloody Apple, the short story collection Little Killers A to Z, and a couple of horror-themed, musical comedies produced for the stage.

Last Friday night, the world changed-and not for the better.Zombies are among us. School's out for the foreseeable future, and with Mom and Dad at the lake house, my twin and I are on our own in this mess. Which is fine as long as we can avoid being on the menu.Tripp Light's teenage world is suddenly filled with "poxers"-the infected ones, the ones that have the Necropoxy virus. In an entire world gone mad and bad, Tripp's only hope of survival is to clear a path through zombie land with his sister and head for the hills (aka his aunt's farm) to rendezvous with his parents.Success clearly favors the fittest and the fastest. Survival demands the twins make hard, ruthless decisions, but that all changes when Tripp and his twin hear a distress call via the radio. Prianka Patel, a girl Tripp loves to hate, is trapped and surrounded in a bakery. Soon, the twins have quite a collection of misfits and survivors and miles to go before anyone can sleep safely again.No matter where Tripp looks, everyone everywhere is dead.Like really dead . . . a lot.Howard Odentz is a life-long resident of Western Massachusetts, where he divides his time between writing and tending a small farm. His love of animals, along with the lore of the region, often finds its way into his stories. The supernatural plays a major role in Mr. Odentz's writing. He is endlessly fascinated by the psychological aspects of those who are thrown into otherworldly circumstances.In addition to Dead (A Lot), he has penned two full length musical comedies, including "Piecemeal," which tells the backstory of Victor Frankenstein's Hollywood-created protégé, Igor.

The Black Knight Chronicles: Lots of Vampires. No Sparkles. Serious Snark. BOOK ONE: HARD DAY’S KNIGHT Children are missing. The police are stumped. Halloween is coming, and an ancient evil is on the horizon. The vampires are the good guys. This is not your ordinary fall weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina. Vampire private detectives Jimmy Black and Greg Knightwood have been hired to save a client from being cursed for all eternity, but end up in a bigger mess than they ever imagined. Suddenly trapped in the middle of a serial kidnapping case, Jimmy and Greg uncover a plot to bring forth an ancient evil. Soon, they’ve enlisted the help of a police detective, a priest, a witch, a fallen angel and a strip club proprietor to save the world. This unlikely band of heroes battles zombies, witches, neuroses and sunburn while cracking jokes and looking for the perfect bag of O-negative. BOOK TWO: BACK IN BLACK Vampire detectives Jimmy Black and Greg Knightwood investigate a series of assaults plaguing the alleys of Charlotte, North Carolina. The string of hate crimes becomes personal when Jimmy’s just-maybe-main-squeeze Detective Sabrina Law’s cousin is attacked. Helping a lady out could get the boys killed when they end up in Faerie. Before long, they’re up to their butts in trolls, dark fae and a grand battle royale. The odds are against them, but to the boys, this is just another day on the night shift—if the night shift included a steel cage match of supernaturals. BOOK THREE: KNIGHT MOVES Et tu, Vampire? The boys discover they may be tied to a string of serial killings at the college and that they suddenly aren’t the only vampire game in town. The vampire count in Charlotte is at least three. Or more. As far as the unhappy boys are concerned, anything more than two is a crowd not to be tolerated. While tracking down the killer and the competition, they encounter coeds, booby traps (not related to the coeds) and a hirsute bounty hunter with a moon fetish and a bad attitude. To catch the killer, Jimmy will have to survive a dive headfirst into the great unwashed horde of Dorkdom (game night at the local comic shop). What’s a red-blood-drinking vampire to do? His job. Again.

To protect those she loves from herself, Jax will leave them all behind.She'll risk everything in a desperate search for answers.Jax Pherson fled the darkest of covens and from her own father's evil. For a brief moment, her courage was rewarded. She found everything she'd ever wanted. A normal life. An amazing boyfriend. An envy-worthy best friend .But her past put them all in danger, forcing a confrontation with the dark covens. In a life-and-death battle to save those she loved from the covens, Jax gained staggering power. Power so intense, so dangerous, she fears the darkness that now dwells inside her like a living thing. If she can't control the power, she may yet become as evil as the witches she conquered. With her friend Egan, Jax leaves all she's built and heads for the one place that might hold the answers she desperately needs to hold back the darkness-Salem, Massachusetts. Her research unearths a shocking discovery: the Bane, a secret group of witches dedicated to thwarting the covens. Jax desperately needs their help in her fight against the covens, but finding the Bane is easier said than done and takes all her skills and courage. As Jax gets closer, her dark powers begin to rise and control her actions. If she succumbs to the darkness, Jax may have as much to fear from the Bane as the evil covens and the determined hunter on her trail.

What's a girl to do when her first-ever summer romance turns out to be . . . a little ghostly?For Heather Tildy, life doesn't get much better than watching cute boys ride skimboards during her family's summer vacation at the Georgia shore. Yes, she still has her problems: she's a hypersensitive "ghost handler," a soon-to-be ninth grader with a bullying older sister, and the number-one lovesick fan of gorgeous lifeguard Drew Blanton. But she's living in a ghost-free zone for the moment, and that's great.Until she wakes up with a handsome teen ghost in her bed. Jack thinks he's still alive, so he's convinced he's the one who's found her in his bed. He drowned while he and his family were living at this very rented beach house, sleeping in the same room that Heather now occupies.So much for a fun time at the beach! Heather is now in charge of this cute, stubborn ghost-guy who doesn't believe that only Heather and her ghost-psychic Aunt Geneva can see and hear him. Just like the last time she got stuck with a wayward ghost, Heather has to dodge trouble and play detective. Jack needs proof that he's dead. How can she find the evidence he needs in order to move along with his life, er, death? And will she ever forget his oh-so-real kiss? Although Georgia author Maureen Hardegree concedes to having all the usual baggage of a middle child, she is Not a ghost handler. She does, however, believe in connecting with her inner teenager and in feeding her active imagination-it likes Italian food and chocolate. Visit her at MaureenHardegree.com.