The carnival rolls in sometime after the midnight hour of a chill Midwestern October eve. Ushering in Halloween a week before its time, a calliope's shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. Young boyhood companions James Nightshade and Will Halloway are the first to heed its call. From a place of safety, they watch a midway come to spectral life, their emotions a riot of eagerness, trepidation, bravado,...

Coming of age within the smoldering borders of the Gomorrah Festival's traveling carnival of fantasy, Sorina uses her rare illusion-creating talents to create family members that she believes do not really exist, until one of them is murdered.

"A boy and his pet dragon spend a day at the carnival going on rides and playing different games"--Provided by publisher.

"No one knows about defense attorney Charlotte Wellington's murdered sister, or about her childhood spent with the carnival that's just arrived in town. For Charlotte, what's past is past. But others don't agree. And as a madman's body count rises, she and Detective Daniel Rokov are drawn into a mission that's become terrifyingly personal..." -- P. 4 of cover.

"Kaylene Shelton's home had always been wherever her father's carnival pitched its tents across the wild frontier. It was a lonely upbringing save for the companionship of Midnight, the black panther she had raised from a cub. But she always knew in her heart that somewhere, someone was waiting to end her deep, unspoken longing--if she could only find the dark-haired warrior she had seen in her dreams...Nothing could stop Chief Fire Thunder from freeing...

"Crime scene photographer Greer Montgomery didn't expect to witness a murder at a small-town carnival--nor to be rescued by the father of her secret baby. A storm chaser, Locke Gallagher often stares down death, but he's never known true fear until Greer's life is at risk. But how can he protect his newly discovered family when the killer could be anyone?" -- Page [4] cover.

Since 1904, when the ice breaks up on the North Saskatchewan River, Edmonton crowns a Melting Queen, a woman who presides over the Melting Day spring carnival and must keep the city's spirits up over the following winter. But this year a genderfluid university dropout called River Runson is named as Melting Queen. River is betrayed by their best friend, and River recalls intrusive memories of past Melting Queens, and vows to change things.

While visiting her friend Sydney in Iowa, Gabby and her pal head to a carnival, but when strange things start to happen, it becomes obvious to Gabby that this carnival is not what it seems.

"When the crisp leaves dance, the fair rolls into town. This year, Buddy is excited to ride the big kid rides - the tall swings, the high launcher, and the super big wheel. Why should Buddy be scared? Big kids don't get butterflies"--

When Ella the elephant goes to the carnival and loses her lucky hat in a storm, she learns a valuable lesson about the real meaning of luck.