A stunning new work of intimate, nuanced, and quietly profound realism.From the award-winning author Nina Dunic, stories in this collection have twice won the Toronto Star Short Story Contest, been long-listed for the CBC Short Story Prize four times, nominated for The Journey Prize, and pre-date her critically acclaimed novel The Clarion.With crisp and penetrating prose that recalls the work of Mavis Gallant and Alice Munro, the stories in Suddenly Light are bracing, buoyant, and test the delicate threads that tie us together.

Bentham, Wyoming. A deserted ghost town built upon abandoned coal mines. Once windtorn woodrot, now a private penitentiary set in a reformative community pledged to clinical testing.Neurosurgeon Dr. Wayne Sykkes truly believed he had found the cure for all sin. But one year into testing and Belle Rivera, twenty-four, was found dead. Bloodied in the underbrush. A sprig of hyssop pressed to her lips.Enter Corey Handler Delgado. Fallen angel scorned. Five years ago he was nothing more than a scruffy detective. For an act of brutal justice he was arrested in the attempted murder of an innocent man.One call and the charming doctor has convinced him to take a second chance. Insists that he can be saved. But something is wrong.Something is wrong with this town.Something is wrong with this body.Something is wrong with this cure.Cora isn't dead.

With her housemate Blake away and her lover Chase also absent, Sam Westin, at loose ends, embarks on a backpacking trip in the North Cascades, hoping to photograph the elusive gray wolves. Blake, reeling from a recent breakup, has taken a six-week job far away in Evansburg, caring for three gorillas while their owner, Dr. Grace McKenna, is on vacation. But events take a dark turn when the baby gorilla is shot by an intruder, prompting Grace's lover, Detective Finn, to investigate.Sam's impromptu trip becomes dangerous when she finds a corpse and then stumbles upon an injured immigrant and pack horse carrying drugs. After a gunshot forces her to flee her campsite, Sam faces a perilous cross-country journey with the injured man and horse in tow.In Evansburg, while following the trail of the gorilla shooting, Detective Finn stumbles upon a murdered woman in a nearby abandoned house and her child hiding in the gorilla barn. With both investigations going nowhere fast,...

Entertaining the Earl (Vows in Vauxhall Gardens, Book 2)

Five hundred years ago, Oleris III was ravaged by a Chaos plague. Now it is a world of tombs and catacombs. It belongs to the dead. Colonel Graven and his 401st Krieg Regiment are charged with searching for a missing inquisitor in the bone-filled ossuary tunnels beneath the planet. But the dead are stirring, and down in the labyrinthine darkness, his kill team comes face to face with unspeakable horrors.As whispering spectres seed fear and suspicion, turning allies into foes, the colonel has ghosts of his own to battle. Haunted by a tragedy of his own making and unable to trust anyone, even the most resolute Death Korpsman might start to doubt himself. But on this world, it could be the death of him.

Newly graduated reaper Aralyn hates her assignment: ferrying the souls of children into the afterlife. Her reluctance earns her the wrath of her uncle, Grim, the most powerful reaper, who banishes her to the most miserable post imaginable—the oldest church in America, where her only company is the brooding and mysterious Church Grim, a supernatural black dog.Maverick, a snow leopard shifter, returns home to celebrate his alpha's new baby, only to be drawn inexplicably to the ancient cemetery on the church grounds near his hometown. There, he discovers two shocking truths: the Church Grim is real, and his truemate is a disgruntled reaper.Jack Frost, ever scheming, plans to overthrow his brother Santa by seizing control of the Well of Magic, and he's enlisted Grim to help. As part of their plan, Frost abducts Aralyn, twisting her desperation to escape her job into a trap laced with his dark magic. With every moment she's in Frost's icy grip, she edges closer...

Eat, Pray, Love goes full Lovecraft in this queer, feel-good cosmic horror that reflects on gaslighting and emotional abuse.Lemon, poppy seed, sun-warmed sand. These visions convince Aoife to quit her job, leave her manipulative boyfriend, and escape to the isolated shores of the Farmstead commune. There, among its charismatic and hedonistic residents, Aoife finds everything she's been missing: a community that adores her, the freedom to indulge, and the promise to be a part of something miraculous.But darkness underpins her airy new way of life. A disappearing cave looms above an ocean no one dares step foot in, mysterious crying fills the night hours, and a rot is spreading across the island. But perhaps most concerning is the commune's reverence for their leader, Jonah—a love tinged with fear that Aoife knows all too well.When Aoife's boring old life comes crashing into her bold new one, loyalties are tested, unleashing a spiral of...

It's the off-season in the seaside resort town of Blackpool, where Tommy never imagined he would return. His relationship has broken down, so he returns home to keep an eye on his widower father. While counting down the hours before attending the funeral of a well-loved friend, a mysterious group turns up on the seafront. One by one, the locals are entranced by their presence until Tommy and his father can no longer resist the allure.Tommy soon discovers a secret desire his father has been harbouring for his entire life.

It wasn't just another live shot ... TV reporter Pete Lemaster anticipates nothing more riveting than filming a short lifestyle segment for an upcoming college football rivalry when he arrives at the Jacksonville Waterfront pregame tailgate party. Then chaos erupts as a bystander stops an active shooter with an act of stunning bravery. And Pete suddenly holds a golden career opportunity in his hands—an exclusive video that goes viral. With the citizen hero's star rising among the Second Amendment folk, Pete, too, enjoys the perks of fame. But something about that now-famous moment feels off, so he uses his journalism skills to poke around. Suddenly, he's not sure what he captured is the truth. And now opportunistic political and media figures are threatening Pete's life if he doesn't back off. Can he blow the whistle on a coverup, out the real villain, and stay alive?