Anderson’s flesh had been laid open. Arching upward and away in a v-shaped furrow, a deep channel now butterflied the man’s back half from the base of his skull to the top of his pelvis. Where his spine should have been there was only a bloodless, grayish-red channel. The red and ivory of cleanly clipped bone and cooked organs were clearly visible in its absence, his heart a gray and veined lump. It was as if the tattooed sea had somehow come alive, restless and roaring, and attempted to rise away from its host who could never have survived its rebellion.
Without the slightest drop of blood, Ronald Anderson had been boned like a fish.
“Damn,” muttered Carter, stepping forward so he could track with his light the awful wound. “Never seen that before. What do you make of it, Dan?”
For Gray, who had only experienced the more pedestrian horrors of stranglings, stabbings and gunshot wounds in his brief career, there was no clean reply. “That’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” he breathed instead, staring down at the carved gutter. Gray had said ‘strangest’ – however, what he had truly wanted to say was ‘most horrible’. Looking down at the murdered man, Gray knew that his ‘sexy’ case had arrived, just as he had wished for it, but the only thing he could wish for now was to be anywhere else.
As if sensing the truth behind Gray’s words, Carter snorted softly. “Lucky you, kid,” he replied in a wry and vaguely weary tone. “Lucky you.”
Bone Wires, by Michael Shean
(http://curiosityquills.com/bone-wires/)
In the wasteland of commercial culture that is future America, police are operated not by government but by private companies. In Seattle, that role is filled by Civil Protection, and Daniel Gray is a detective in Homicide Solutions.
What used to be considered an important – even glamorous – department for public police is very different for the corporate species, and Gray finds himself stuck in a dead end job.
That is, until the Spine Thief arrives.
Theocracide, by James Wymore
(http://curiosityquills.com/theocracide/)
In a time when Americans live isolated lives behind computer glasses that mask the harsh reality, Jason is forced to abandon this rose-colored fantasy as an unwilling part of his father’s plan to assassinate the Undying Emperor.
With aliens invading the world and his sister dying of an incurable flu they brought, he is pulled from his perfect life with an amazing new girlfriend and plunged into a dark game of intrigue and conspiracy against the most powerful people in the world. Is there any way to regain the respect of the girl he loves after committing Theocracide?
Prolongment, by Grace Eyre
(http://curiosityquills.com/prolongment/)
Would you like to live forever? B&E Labs has created a commercial process called Prolongment, letting their very old and very wealthy clients extend their consciousness beyond death using time travel technology, then return with new memories. Postmortem memories. Memories of the future.
Prolongment touches everyone, from the victim of a haunting, to a wealthy client, to a rogue scientist experimenting with her own brain, and finally, to B&E’s CEO Ken Muerta, whose moral boundaries grow increasingly murky as he struggles to hold the company together. The fate of the living, the dead, and Time itself is in their hands.
The Zona, by Nathan L. Yocum
(http://curiosityquills.com/the-zona/)
The Storms came, and with them disease and blight like mankind had never experienced. Most died. Those who survived were quick to scramble for weapons, wealth, and control. Petty lords gave way to new societies.
From the ashes of old came the Reformed Arizona Theocracy, or simply put, the Zona. Their laws are simple, all sins are punished swiftly and violently.
But what happens when men of honor take a stand against their rulers?
Appetizer:
Book Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Main Course:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Epilogue
Dessert:
Closing
About the Author
A Taste of Bone Wires, by Michael Shean
Copyright & Publisher
More from Curiosity Quills Press
Table of Contents
Publisher & Copyright
Title Page
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Epilogue
Closing
About The Author
A Taste of "Bone Wires", by Michael Shean
More From Curiosity Quills Press
Table of Contents
Redeye (The Wonderland Cycle Book 2) Page 49
