Phil Gigante

Estes Park, Colorado, is a place of serenity. But it wasn't always so serene. Shortly after the Civil War, Nathan Kendall and his wife were murdered there, leaving behind a young son. The crime was never solved. Now historian Scarlet Barlow is working at a small museum attached to a B and B, the same building where that murder occurred. She recently came to Colorado, reeling after her divorce from FBI agent Diego McCullough. Diego--who's just been...

A follow-up to "Dead Zero" finds retired marine sergeant Ray Cruz confronting a band of terrorists who have taken over the Mall of America, where they begin to systematically execute more than one thousand hostages

A suspenseful novel about a grieving woman who discovers the long-lost letters of novelist Victor Hugo, awakening a mystery that spans centuries.

Ever since the Big Uneasy unleashed vampires, werewolves, and other undead denizens on the world, it's been hell being a detective-especially for zombie PI Dan Chambeaux. Taking on the creepiest of cases in the Unnatural Quarter with a human lawyer for a partner and a ghost for a girlfriend, Chambeaux redefines "dead on arrival." But just because he was murdered doesn't mean he'd leave his clients in the lurch. Besides, zombies are so good at lurching. Now...

This is the short story, The Adjustment Team, which asks the question: Do we control our destiny, or do unseen forces manipulate us? Ed Fletcher is a real estate agent with a normal life, until one day he leaves the house for work a few minutes later than he should have. He arrives at a terrifying, grey, ash world. Ed rushes home and tells his wife, Ruth, who goes back to the office with him. When they return, everything is normal. But he soon realizes...

Former border agent Dalton Kirk thought his life was over--literally--when a gang of smugglers left him for dead. Defying all odds, he survives his ordeal and returns to his Wyoming ranch ready to dedicate his future to a more peaceful home on the range. Until lovely Merissa Baker knocks on his door. Merissa is well aware of her reputation as the local eccentric--she knows things before they happen--and she's had a vision that Dalton is in danger....

He wasn't civilized or tame. He had his own code and he lived by it. Monk. Bounty hunter. Vampire slayer. Andre Boroi has spent centuries battling the undead, holding out against the dark with honor. But now, gravely wounded by master vampire Costin Popescu, Andre will be easy to track--his spilled blood marking the killing trail for Popescu and his hungry band of underlings. Andre's only chance is to disappear into the gray mist of the Carpathians....

Originally published in Harte's 1875 short-story collection The Tales of the Argonauts, How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar is set in California in the early 1860s and, like the rest of the tales in that collection, features the gold-seeking Argonauts. In this tale, like many of Harte's others, the folly and grit of human existence balance any good intentions, good cheer, or hope, resulting in a more complicated and somewhat bleak ending than is...

In "The Fir-Tree" a little tree who is anxious to grow up, fails to appreciate that which happens to him in the moment. After experiencing burning humiliation at being small and insignificant, he is chopped down and decorated for a family's Christmas decorations. Expecting this to be the beginning of a great career, the fir tree is bitterly disappointed when he is discarded after a day and eventually cut into pieces and burned. First published in...