Zoe Cannon

When her best friend Heather calls in the middle of the night, Becca assumes it's the usual drama. Wrong. Heather's parents have been arrested as dissidents - and Becca's mother, the dystopian regime's most infamous torturer, has already executed them for their crimes against the state.To stop Heather from getting herself killed trying to prove her parents' innocence, Becca hunts for proof of their guilt. She doesn't expect to find evidence that leaves her questioning everything she thought she knew about the dissidents... and about her mother.When she risks her life to save a dissident, she learns her mother isn't the only one with secrets - and the plot she uncovers will threaten the lives of the people she loves most. For Becca, it's no longer just a choice between risking execution and ignoring the regime's crimes; she has to decide whose life to save and whose to sacrifice.It's easy to be a hero when you can save the world, but what about when all you can do is choose how you live in it? THE TORTURER'S DAUGHTER is a story about ordinary teenage life amidst the realities of living under an oppressive regime... and the extraordinary courage it takes to do what's right in a world gone wrong.

The Torturer's Daughter

A year and a half ago, Becca Dalcourt joined the resistance. Three months ago, she started working undercover inside Internal Defense. A year from now, she'll probably be dead. She knows the odds. She's seen how the life of a double agent ends. All she wants is a chance to do something with what little time she has left. Something big. Something meaningful. But the resistance doesn't trust her, and her job transcribing torture sessions hasn't given her anything but the names of dissidents whose lives, according to her resistance contact, aren't worth saving. So when she discovers a secret government program designed to brainwash dissidents into loyal citizens, she resolves to shut it down, no matter the cost. Even if her plan puts everyone she loves in danger. Even if the most experienced resistance fighters say it can't be done. Even if it means betraying the only person who sees past the mask she wears every day. Even if she has to do it alone. The sequel to THE TORTURER'S DAUGHTER, which has been praised for its dark realism, NECESSARY SACRIFICES asks how you fight an enemy that can't be defeated... and what sacrifices are worth making along the way.

Necessary Sacrifices

Radioactive ruins. A radical anti-technology faction known as the Swords of Eden. Sinister scientists performing secret experiments. Shea knows what horrors await in the world outside the sanctuary she built for herself. Her mother is dead; her father is gone; her body is marked with the scars of what the outside world did to her. All she wants now is to be left alone.So when she learns she's a Catalyst, someone born to save the world by making seemingly-insignificant changes that ripple into larger effects, her answer is simple: no. This world isn't worth saving.Until she's given her first mission: save the followers of a radiation-worshipping cult in the remnants of Washington, D.C. Until she discovers the secrets that tie the cult's eccentric prophet to her own past. Until she sees a chance to regain something that was stolen from her long ago: a real family.But there's more than radiation worship going on in the ruins, and the prophet's plans could put all his followers in the crosshairs of Shea's old enemies... or cause devastation that reaches far beyond the cult. And as she races against time to stop him, Shea will face a threat that terrifies her more than any of that: the risk of starting to care about the world outside her walls.

Walk Through Fire

It’s been ten years since Mal died. Five years since the god Hades dragged her from the underworld and forged her, through blood and pain, into his living weapon. And in five minutes, the only other agent of Hades she trusts will die. Someone is assassinating Hades’s agents all over New York City. If Mal can’t find the one responsible, she’ll be next—if she’s lucky. If not, she’ll watch everything she cares about go up in flames first. Mal didn’t choose this life. But now it’s all she has. And she’ll be damned if she lets anyone—human or god—take what is hers.

An Urban Fantasy Thriller

Death Trace

Frankie’s house is more than a home. Enchanted by her powerful witch ancestor, it’s kept her family safe for generations. But one bad decision takes the house away from Frankie and puts it in the hands of a developer who cares more about money than magic. If Frankie wants to save her family’s guardian, she’ll have to travel far and wide to uncover the lost magical secrets that created it… and decide for herself what home means to her. This short story is 11,000 words long. It is also available in the short story collection Love Is Strange.

Home Is Where the Magic Is

Eamon’s quest to steal the enchanted sword went perfectly… right up until the sword betrayed him to the enemy. Now he has nothing to look forward to but a lifetime in a prison cell with no one but that traitorous jerk of a weapon to talk to. But the sword is facing an even worse fate… unless they can figure out how to work together. This short story is 8200 words long. It is also available in the short story collection Love Is Strange.

The Weapon and His Wielder

Allie doesn’t need family. She doesn’t need friends. She doesn’t need a job, or a home, or a plan for her future. She has her lover, and that’s enough for her. Because her lover is Gaia, the spirit of the earth itself. And Gaia will always take care of her. Until Gaia leaves her for someone else. This short story is 14,000 words long. It is also available in the short story collection Love Is Strange.

Gaia's Lover

A decade ago, Courtney and her friends survived an attack so shocking it made the national news. Their classmate Olivia Kendall’s obsession with them, which had grown as her mental health declined, culminated in a scene of brutal violence. At least that’s the story they told. And with Olivia locked away in a mental institution, who is there to question them? Until Courtney sits down with a reporter for a ten-year retrospective. Because the longer the interview goes on, the more Courtney suspects the reporter knows more than she’s saying… This short story is 7900 words long. It can also be found in With Friends Like These, a psychological thriller short story collection.

Crazy Guilty

With friends like these, who needs enemies? A popular clique with a body count. A teenage girl whose twin sister may be a born killer. A sleepover with life-and-death stakes. In these six short, twisty psychological thrillers, the arena is high school. The game: climbing the social ladder, crushing their enemies, and convincing the grown-ups they’re perfect angels. And the prize? They get to stay alive. This collection contains the following short stories: The Sacrifice Her Sister’s Shoes That’s What Friends Do Family Secrets A Little More Ruthless Crazy Guilty

A Psychological Thriller Collection

With Friends Like These

Annie knows the rules. Smile when her mother tells her to smile. Talk when her mother tells her to talk. And under no circumstances is she to mention the incident that landed her in foster care over the summer. But Annie learned a few things during her time away. Like how not to be afraid. And how to keep people from hurting her. The rules have changed. Her mother just doesn’t know it yet. This short story is 2700 words long. It can also be found in With Friends Like These, a psychological thriller short story collection.

Family Recipe

Annika hasn’t been the same since her accident. She’s missing memories. Losing time. Remembering things that never happened. She’s lucky to have her devoted husband Hugh to take care of her. So lucky. Sure, he keeps threatening to replace her with one of those new companion bots. But it’s just a joke. He loves her too much to trade her in for a cold, soulless robot, who would never have a thought of its own and never question him. And he definitely wasn’t involved in her accident—how could she even think such a thing? If she’s noticed him acting strangely, it’s because her brain is still damaged from the accident. And Hugh is there to help her get better. He’s always right there… This short story is 9800 words long. It is also available in Digital Soul, a science fiction short story collection.

The New Me

A dark night. A bonfire by the lake. At the eighth-grade class camping trip, Meg will finally get her chance to prove she’s worthy to join the popular crowd. If she makes it through the secret initiation ritual, she’s in. All it takes is a sacrifice. The woods are dark. The lake is deep. It would be easy for someone to disappear out there. Like the adults keep saying, it’s a dangerous world out there for girls her age. Good thing the popular crowd taught Meg how to be dangerous, too. Because tonight, the ritual won’t end the way any of them expects. This short story is 5400 words long. It can also be found in With Friends Like These, a psychological thriller short story collection.

The Sacrifice

This December, Bex has a new job working for a charity that distributes Christmas gifts to needy children. It doesn’t pay well, but it makes her feel good inside. Or it would, if not for her coworker Deirdre. Deirdre has never had a kind word for Bex since she arrived. She threw away the festive decorations Bex bought with her own paycheck. Worst of all, she stopped Bex from giving a little extra help to a family that needed it. Why is someone that bitter working at a Christmas charity, of all places? And how can Bex stop her from ruining Christmas for everyone else? One man might know. And if he’s right. Deirdre might not be ruining Christmas at all. In her own way, she just might be making the world a better place. This short story is 7500 words long. It is also available in Santa’s Rejects, a collection of offbeat Christmas stories.

The Unlikable Ones

A hunter always walks alone… A reluctant werewolf forced to choose between a cure and the life of an innocent girl. A retired vampire hunter whose vampire husband may not be as defanged as she thought. A monster who finds a reason to be human in a scared child’s eyes. From the author of the Hound of Hades series comes a collection of six standalone urban fantasy stories about women who protect the innocent from the creatures that stalk the night… no matter the price. All of them hunt monsters. Some are monsters themselves. And all face a choice between their duty and the people they love. If you like the strong heroines of Patricia Briggs and Ilona Andrews, and the solitary world-weary heroes of Jim Butcher and Mike Carey, you’ll love the women of Lonely Streets. This collection contains the following stories: Once a Predator Lone Wolf Moon The First Anniversary The Boy and What He Made Me Prodigal Daughter The Right Kind of Monster

An Urban Fantasy Collection

Lonely Streets

Start running. If you make it fun for us, we’ll let you live. Lark figured a weekend alone in the woods with the school’s mean girls would involve them ordering her to clean up their messes while seeing how many synonyms for “fat” they could rhyme with her name. Basically just like school, but more so. She didn’t expect them to transform into wolves in front of her eyes. Now she’s nursing a bite wound and counting down the days to the next full moon. She has one chance at a cure. One chance to get her bullies out of her life forever. There’s just one catch: the price may be the life of an innocent girl. This short story is 10,000 words long. It is also available in Lonely Streets, an urban fantasy short story collection.

Lone Wolf Moon

In my first memory, I was nine years old. That’s when I looked into the boy’s eyes and saw a monster reflected there. That’s when I knew I could be something other than a killer. Maybe even something close to human. He thinks I’m like him. He doesn’t know how I've kept him safe all his life. And he doesn’t see the danger my past is about to bring down on both of us. This short story is 9600 words long. It is also available in Lonely Streets, an urban fantasy short story collection.

The Boy and What He Made Me

Hades’s assassins are closing in, and Mal has only one place left to run: home. In her previous life, Mal was the dutiful daughter of a prominent United States Senator, and her family is still living and working just outside the city. It’s a risky move, but she knows the Marked of the gods won’t dare follow her into the public eye. For the last ten years, the world has believed Mal dead. It’s time to show them how wrong they are. But she hasn’t taken into account how far her family will go to avoid losing her a second time. Or her knack for finding divine trouble wherever she goes. Or that the long-forgotten ghost of her former self still lurks inside her, desperate to get her old life back… at any cost.

Trinity Gambit

The gods don’t do anything by half-measures—including breakups. Persephone has decided she’s done with Hades and wants NYC all to herself… and she’s willing to play dirty to get it. Mal knows Hades’s temple doesn’t have the strength for war, or the leverage to negotiate better terms. But they do have Ciara—Marked of Persephone and Mal’s oldest friend. She’s working from the inside, and she promises her plan will get them through this alive. And it had better work. Because if it doesn’t, it will be up to Mal to figure out plan B. And unlike Ciara, Mal will have no problem sacrificing whoever and whatever gets in the way of her mission—including her own humanity.

Bitter Fruit

A month ago, Mal was ordered to close a gate between Hades’s realm and the mortal world—by killing Hades’s last surviving priestess, one of her only friends. She hesitated, and saved her friend’s life. Now the city is paying the price. Two spirits are haunting the streets of Manhattan, and one of them has a body count. Victims have been turning up all over the city, each killing more vicious than the last, and the only way to stop it is to send the spirits back where they belong—before they grow too strong for even Hades to control. If Mal can’t return them to the afterlife, she’ll pay a price of her own. When she let the spirits slip through the gate, she violated a fundamental law of the underworld: the worlds of the living and the dead must remain separate at all costs. For this betrayal of her god, only one punishment exists—she will be stripped of Hades’s Mark. And the only way to remove a god’s Mark is to destroy the bearer’s soul.

Ghost Town

Armies in the streets. Allies disintegrating at the wave of a hand. An old enemy is making a play for New York—and they’ve found a loophole in the laws of the universe. One that gives them access to a source of power none of the other gods can use… or stand against. But one person can. Bastian Reid—the magic-wielding demigod and mastermind behind Humanity Ascendant’s plan to defeat the gods. Oh, and he happens to be Mal’s ex. But his help carries a steep price. If he and Humanity Ascendant succeed, they’ll have the power to defeat the gods. And without the gods to keep them in check, their magic will plunge the human world into a blood-drenched struggle for power that makes the wars between the gods look tame. Mal isn't just fighting for Hades anymore. She's fighting for the future of humanity.

Zoe Cannon

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