CompWare is in serious trouble after a promised merger falls through, so they do what other businesses have done to bolster their public image: they hire a consulting firm to review and streamline their business practices. But there's something strange about the firm they hire--more specifically, the quirky gentleman who arrives to supervise the project, Mr. Patoff.

Tyler High experiences frightening changes after voting to become a charter school.

After his divorce, Hunt Jackson decides to start over in Tucson, where an old buddy fixes him up with his wife's friend, Beth. The attraction is immediate, and they're married a few months later. But Hunt's happiness is marred by his bizarre encounter with an insurance agent whose insistence that Hunt increase his coverage sounds, incredibly, like a threat. The agent - tall, gaunt, oddly dressed in an old-fashioned suit and fedora - is himself a menacing...

"Daniel Martin has never forgotten his childhood encounters with Frank Watkins, the man who built his family a summer home out of cardboard and plywood. Frank's gaze was oddly confusing, as if he was attempting to discern the proper way to behave because he didn't know how to respond in a human manner. Since Frank obviously wasn't an alien, young Daniel thought maybe the man was crazy. In the end, Daniel would learn the terrifying truth about Frank...

"Steve Nye writes for alumni publications, and his long-term relationship is on the steady path to marriage. But his quiet life takes an unexpected turn when he receives a phone call from his mother. His father attacked her and has been committed to a psych ward. The doctor says he's suffering from dementia--but Steve's father seems so calm, clear-eyed, and perfectly lucid when he whispers, 'I killed her.' Is it simply another symptom of delusion...

"Gary, his girlfriend, Joan, and their friends intend to make the most of their three-day vacation from UCLA partying at Burning Man. But soon after they arrive at the festival in the remote desert, Joan disappears. Calls to her parents' home yield only dead air. Her school records are gone. And there's no evidence that Joan, or even her roommate, ever existed. Most disturbing of all is what they do find. Among Joan's belongings is a prayer written...