Actually, Erwin was wrong. The cops had less than two hours to live, but smoking would not be a factor.

Monstruwaken

Erwin wasn’t in the Army anymore. Thirteen years in—just after his third tour in Afghanistan—he’d decided he’d killed enough people.

“I dunno. Pretty hard, I guess. Thing is, though, she did leave a print.” Dorn’s face clouded. “You’re kidding me.” “Nope.” “Which, the one on the light switch? It wasn’t in IAFIS,” Dorn said, meaning the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System. “That’s right,” Erwin said. “It wasn’t.” He was going to let the phrase hang there,

Alicia held the black candle, still burning as it had in the golden ruin at the end of time. Rachel and her phantom children whispered among themselves of the futures that would never be. The twins, Peter and Richard, watched intently as the librarians filled out the twelve points of the abbreviated circle, studying some deep order that everyone el

Father was many things, none of them gentle. So when, on the first frosty night of the year, Isha called Carolyn over to lie with her and her child for warmth, something broke open inside her. She did not weep or otherwise show weakness—that was not in her nature—but she took Isha into her heart wholly and completely. Not long after, winter announc

“It wouldn’t help, though. It never works out the way you would think. The problem with a heart coal is that the memory always diverges from the actual thing. She remembers an idealized version of her son. She’s forgotten that he was selfish, that he enjoyed giving little offenses. It wasn’t really an accident that they saw him and the other man fu

Carolyn’s first clue as to what this actually meant came a few weeks later. She was studying at one of the lamplit kiosks scattered here and there around the jade floor of the Library. Margaret, then aged about nine, sprinted out from the towering, shadowy shelves of the gray catalog. She was shrieking. Blind with terror, she tripped over an end ta

“I’ll need to see two forms of identification, Officer”—he broke off and squinted at the form—“Leffington? Erwin Leffington?” He looked up for the first time.