Underland Arcana collects the numinous, the esoteric, the supernatural, and the weird. This issue contains stories by Jon McGoran, Nathan Batchelor, Jennifer Quail, Linda McMullen, Lexi Peréz, Tori Fredrick, Selah Janel, H. L. Fullerton, W. T. Paterson, and Eric Del Carlo. Stories about cold winter nights, stories about the panic that comes in the dark, stories about awkward house guests, stories about love, stories about diner food, stories about other kinds of food, stories about fairy tales gone rogue, stories about the lies we tell ourselves, stories about the legacies of the dead, and stories about the memories of childhood. These are the stories which usher us into a new season.

In the second installment of the SPLICED series, sixteen-year-old Jimi Corcoran risks her life to clear a friend's name—and uncovers the horrific truth about one of the most powerful men in the world.All Jimi wants is pick up the pieces of her life and move on. She never intended to uncover a conspiracy, or become a hero for chimera rights— she just wanted to protect her best friend, Del. But now she's a public figure, and she can't quite shake the spotlight. . . or her suspicion that she's being followed.Still, when a strange chimera shows up, half-dead with nothing but an odd hospital bracelet to identify him, of course Jimi tries to help. But everything goes wrong— and her friend Dr. Guzman is arrested for murder. Desperate to prove his innocence, Jimi does some digging, and discovers that the sick chimera came from a hospital owned by Howard Wells. . . . The businessman who pioneered the Genetic Heritage Act, which...

Sixteen-year-old Jimi knows people change, but nothing could prepare her for what's about to happen to her best friend, Del. Del is obsessed with becoming a chimera (ki-mir-a): a person who pays back-alley geneticists, known as "genies," to illegally splice animal genes into their own. The resulting physical changes have scared lawmakers into drafting legislation declaring chimeras officially inhuman—so when Del goes missing, Jimi is desperate to find him before he alters himself forever. Unfortunately, she's too late: Del's already been spliced, and the splice has gone horribly wrong. To save him, Jimi must face down unscrupulous people who are eager to hunt chimeras—all while knowing the choice Del has made means he's leaving her behind.

In this outstanding international thriller by Jon McGoran, Detective Doyle Carrick is awakened in the middle of the night by frantic banging on his front door, followed by gunfire. Ron Hartwell, a complete stranger, is dying on his doorstep. A halfhearted investigation labels the murder a domestic dispute, with Miriam, Ron’s widow, the sole suspect. Doyle discovers the Hartwells both worked for a big biotech company and suspects something else is going on, but it’s not his case. Then Miriam tracks him down and tells him her story. Miriam and Ron had been working in Haiti and visiting her friend Regi Baudet, the deputy health minister, when they stumbled upon a corporate cover-up of tainted food aid that sickened an entire village—and was one hundred percent fatal. They were coming to Doyle to blow the whistle. Before Miriam can say more, they are attacked by gunmen and she flees, then disappears. Doyle tracks her to Haiti, a country on the brink of political chaos. Working with Miriam and Regi, he must untangle a web of deceit and unconscionable corporate greed in order to stop an epidemic of even greater evil before it is released onto an unsuspecting world. **Review "Dust Up is an explosive international thriller. ...McGoran proves that he is the new master of this genre." - NY Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry. "McGoran [is] one fine thriller writer... It's a delight to watch McGoran propel thenarrative forward, with minimal backstory and artful use of detail... Theaction is unending, and McGoran displays enviable skill. ...[Dust Up is] A first-tierthriller." ~ Booklist, STARRED review About the Author JON McGORAN is the author of six novels, including the ecological thrillers Drift, Deadout and Dust Up, and the D. H. Dublin forensic thrillers Body Trace, Blood Poison, and Freezer Burn. He has been writing about food and sustainability for twenty years, as communication director at Weavers Way Co-op in Philadelphia and editor The Shuttle, and editor in chief at Grid magazine. During that time he has also been an advocate for urban agriculture, cooperative development and labeling of genetically engineered foods. He is a founding member of the Philadelphia Liars Club, a group of published authors dedicated to promotion, networking, and service work. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and son. 

Raymond "Red" Reddington voluntarily surrenders to the FBI after eluding capture for decades. He has a list of the most dangerous criminals in the world and is willing to guide FBI operations in exchange for immunity. However, he insists on exclusively working with a rookie profiler by the name of Elizabeth Keen. A tragic warehouse fire in Turkey, a mine collapse in South Africa, a capsized ferry disaster in Indonesia: devastating mishaps, or something more sinister? Red knows these were collateral damage in a highly lucrative and deadly game known as the Dead Ring–anything but accidental. The only way to stop the ring is to destroy it from within. Keen must go undercover and play the game, knowing that in the Dead Ring there can only be one survivor.

A trip to an island off the New England coast—and away from the demands of police work—might be just what is needed to jumpstart Detective Doyle Carrick and Nola Watkins' stalled relationship. But a mysterious plague is killing the island's bees. Nola takes a job at an organic farm hit hard by the disease, working for the rich, handsome, and annoying Teddy, with whom she quickly becomes a little too friendly for Doyle's liking. When Teddy's estranged father offers Doyle a big payday to keep his son out of trouble until he can close a big government contract—and when Doyle meets Annalisa, a beautiful researcher studying the bees—Doyle decides to stick around.Stoma Corporation, a giant biotech company, moves in with genetically modified super bees that supposedly are the answer to the world's bee crisis. As tension grows between protestors and a private army of thugs, Doyle realizes that bees aren't the only thing being modified. Annalisa's...