It's the week before deer hunting season, as close to a statewide holiday as you get in Texas, and the locals are getting restless. Game Warden John Marlin has his hands full with poaching complaints coming in faster than he can write out-of-season tickets. Then a call of a different sort comes in. A man dressed up in some sort of deer costume has been shot at the Circle S ranch, and witnesses are reporting a massive wild-eyed buck prancing about the pasture in a lovesick frenzy.

This box set includes two mystery novels written by Edgar and Shamus Award finalist Ben Rehder. Included are Buck Fever (first novel in the Blanco County mystery series) and Gone the Next (first novel in the Roy Ballard mystery series).

Ricky Delgado works as a chicken hanger at the poultry plant in Rugoso, Texas, a small border town just 30 miles south of Laredo. His quiet, illegal lifestyle is disrupted when he learns that his brother Tomás has been shot and injured shortly after crossing the border. Together, Ricky and Tomás and seek justice, or remain silent and endure the injustices common to all "wetbacks" within the states. Meanwhile, Ricky is fighting a battle within his own body, a disease he acquired in the poultry plant.

Will Wilder is a mischievous, headstrong 12-year-old with an otherworldly gift - he alone can see the nefarious creatures encroaching on Perilous Falls. For nearly a century, a sacred relic has protected his hometown from the raging waters surrounding it. But when Will "borrows" the relic for his own purposes, he accidentally unleashes an ancient evil. As boats sink and hideous creatures crawl from the rising waters, Will must set things right before it is too late.

A peaceful village. A buried secret. Will the hunt turn deadly? Private investigator Carlos Jacobi is looking forward to a peaceful Christmas in the Peak District with his sister and his beloved dog. But when the ex-police dog unearths the body of an elderly man in the local woods and an old enemy turns out to be the lead investigator, he's forced to make a decision. Either he leaves his incompetent nemesis to jump to the wrong conclusion or he gets involved. When the victim's family ask for assistance, his resolve weakens and he's soon investigating a strange murder.

Jake is a scrappy orphaned pickpocket living by his wits on the streets of Victorian London. Lately he’s started seeing ghosts and discovers he can move solid objects with his mind! He has no idea why. Next thing he knows, a Sinister Gentleman and his minions come hunting him. On the run for his life, Jake is plunged headlong into a mysterious world full of magic and deadly peril. A world that holds the secret to who he really is: the long-lost heir of an aristocratic family - with magical powers!

Emily longs to be an artist. She’s thrilled when her mother marries a rich painter who offers to mentor her, but shocked to detect his dark motives. Fearing for her life, she flees his fancy mansion.

Russell Ammiano works on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center. On the morning of September 11, 2001, the phone rings while Rusty is rushing to work. The news is devastating: his mother has died of a stroke, leaving his brain-damaged older brother, Ben, alone. This news also saves Rusty's life. He's still at home when two planes hit the World Trade Center--and only one of his friends and colleagues survives.

Frannie and Larry Shoemaker are retirees who enjoy weekend camping with their friends in state parks in this new cozy mystery series. They anticipate the usual hiking, campfires, good food, and interesting side trips among the bluffs of beautiful Bat Cave State Park for the long Fourth of July weekend - until a dead body turns up. Confined in the campground and surrounded by strangers, Frannie is drawn into the investigation.

In this alternate reality, Prince William succeeds to the throne and his mother, Princess Diana, rejoins the Royal Family as a Muslim Queen Mother. Meanwhile, her grandson James, the next in line to the throne, is under the spell of a Saudi Arabian Princess who want him to convert and become the first Muslim King of England. 

Navy men don't come tougher than Lieutenant Peter Greene. Every day he whips hotshot SEAL wannabes into elite fighters. So why can't he handle one 15-year-old girl? His ex's death left him a single dad overnight and very unprepared. Though he can't relate to an angsty teen, he can at least keep Maddie safe - until the day she disappears. Though Pete's lacking in fatherly intuition, his instinct for detecting danger is razor sharp. Maddie's in trouble. Now he needs the Troubleshooters team at his back, along with an unconventional ally.

Barry's been patient, but after 27 years of trimming hedges for people he hates, he's had enough. All he wants to do is to find his missing father and to discover his inner ninja. But life’s not done with throwing him curveballs. With talking hedges, samurai ghosts, meddling psychotherapists, and an inexplicably non-linear time pattern conspiring against him, Barry must do battle to unleash the ninja within and rescue his father from an ancient army, a dark sorcerer, and a raging inferno.

When Lady Marjorie Snellthorpe embarks on her first river cruise with companions Rachel Prince and Sarah Bradshaw, she's not expecting murder for company! It's bad enough knowing there might be a murderer among their travelling party, but then Lady Marjorie finds herself saddled with a most unwelcome guest. Edna Parkinton, Marjorie's estranged cousin-in-law is loud, brash, and tells it as it is. Marjorie can't wait to be shot of her.

On a snowy night, Cara and her grandmother are pursued into St. Christopher's church by an unknown man. Clutching her grandmother's mysterious amulet, and following the old woman's instructions, Cara escapes their pursuer and falls into Luster, the world of the unicorns.

From the curious clauses in a miser’s will, to a plea for help on a tiny scrap of paper, these six cases, from the early years of Holmes’s career in the 1880s, present a singular collection of mysteries for the world’s first consulting detective to resolve. What is the significance of the arrival in the post one morning of a cardboard packet of children’s bricks? Who is the man found dying in a deserted warehouse in London’s East End, and what is he doing there?