“Play Him Play Her” by Claire Stibbe

Lilja Osborne’s marriage to method actor Zane Osborne has been quietly imploding for years. But things really begin to unravel when he takes on a controversial role on a television show where he plays brilliant but sadistic Dr. Evan Holloway, a renowned surgeon who has an affair with his patient and a penchant for murder. Life imitates art when Lilja unearths Zane’s affair with his assistant. She wants nothing more than to escape Zane’s lifestyle—the lies, the relentless paparazzi—so she and her teen daughter can live a normal life. But when Zane’s mistress disappears, it becomes alarmingly clear that Lilja must choose her next steps carefully.

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“And Then She Smiled” by D.W. Nelson

Lily Thompson is saddened and outraged at the loss of her dog, Duke, caused by a poacher’s reckless actions. When she reaches out to the warden from Fish and Wildlife, her anger is further compounded by the warden’s ineffectiveness in finding the culprit. The death of her beloved canine has hit Lily hard; she is sputtering and looking for purpose. The loss of her friend has put Lily in a vengeful mindset, where the only comfort she finds is in retribution. The identity of the hunter may not be known, but Lily works at a diner where random gossip flows as freely as the coffee and pie. Lily’s hopes begin to pick up when she hears words that hint of a trap that ensnared the wrong prey.

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“A Manor to Rue In” by G.H. Glover

G.H. Glover’s A Manor to Rue In is a Gothic psychological-horror novella in which a haunted house becomes something considerably more interesting than a repository for ghosts. In the aftermath of the 1929 stock market crash, Thomas Harrow, a thirty-two-year-old banker who has lost his job, arrives at decaying Blackwood Manor to reconcile its former owner’s financial records. The manor’s strange caretaker, Mr. Poole, gives him access to the study and its ledgers, cryptically informing him that everything must eventually be reconciled. It is the first of many lines whose meaning changes considerably as the story unfolds.

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