(Art) Science Crimes in Progress

The Zero Signal, the first Science Crimes Division mystery, officially releases today in paperback and digital. Here's what readers are saying: "The imaginative worldbuilding, the complex characters and the sheer scope that’s both shown and at time hinted at, reveal a world that both breathtaking and scary." -Goodreads review "Given that a lot of cyberpunk …

(Fiction) The Red King

Anders Benet had murdered his mother in the womb. He had no memory of this, nor could he say he intended the woman any harm. Indeed, it wasn’t until his fourteenth year that he killed anyone intentionally. That was the year his middle-aged gym teacher learned, just before she died, what a mistake it was …

(Fiction) Evidences

In the midst of the scuffle, none of the chanting protesters noticed the man in the ball cap weave between the police barricades and trot up the steps to the government building. No one glanced at his oddly colorful backpack as he crossed the open veranda and patiently held a door for a young PhD …

(Fiction) The Bell Tower

In the 18th year of my exile, I fell in love with a Brabian woman who was neither wholesome nor chaste but who evinced in me a kind of dread. I had been so long without romance that it seemed my potential for it was waning, and even though I secretly felt I deserved better, …

(Fiction) The View From Space

After the events of this week, it only seems appropriate to share this one again... In 1848, I was living in Hungary—or what was then Hungary. That was the year people across Europe finally imagined change. There were marches and demonstrations right across the continent, many of which broke into open revolution. It started in …

(Fiction) The Most Dangerous Man in the World

The ruined church had been swept clean of dust and cobwebs but still smelled faintly of earth and mildew. The altar was bare. There was a stack of wooden pews in the knave. I heard the door shut with a thud. I heard the clicks of the lock. I knew that if I turned, the …

(Fiction) A Minor Exorcism

He was making a proper nuisance of himself, whoever he was. I could hear the screams from the street. I stepped from the car and met the officer in charge, a woman named Ballantine. I didn’t know her, but I’d seen her around—at PEA meetings, I think, back when they still thought I might make …

(Fiction) As If To Swallow Me

Bistro Indigenes was packed with the dinner crowd. Male and female servers scurried about in neat black aprons and matching bandannas. By the time I got there, Amber was already waiting, which embarrassed me a little and I apologized profusely. I repeated how I hadn’t showered and I wasn’t dressed nearly as nice as her. …

(Fiction) You Don’t Even Wanna Know

We tracked the kidnapper to a swanky private club on the Upper East Side. The old stone building looked like any other row mansion on the street—walled and immaculate and seemingly impenetrable. The only hint of a difference was the dark metal plaque next to the front gate, half-covered in ivy. MALEFICIUMEst. 1980 “And you’re …

(Fiction) This is kidnapping, you know that right?

I tripped hard that night. I don’t remember all of it. Supposedly, I freaked out at some point and told everyone death was stalking me, that it was coming, that I could feel it. I started hyperventilating and Shanna cleared the room and that was it. Party over, oops, out of time. The next morning, …