Games Creatures Play(2014)

Charlaine Harris

Includes a brand-new story featuring Sookie Stackhouse and Manfred Bernardo

ALL-NEW TALES OF UNUSUAL ATHLETICS BY JAN BURKE * DANA CAMERON * ADAM-TROY CASTRO * BRENDAN DuBOIS * CHARLAINE HARRIS * TONI L. P. KELNER * CAITLIN KITTREDGE * WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER * ELLEN KUSHNER * MERCEDES LACKEY * JOE R. LANSDALE * LAURA LIPPMAN * SEANAN McGUIRE * BRANDON SANDERSON * SCOTT SIGLER

Welcome to the wide world of paranormal pastimes, where striking out might strike you dead. Editors Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner are your announcers for this all-new story collection of the most peculiar plays ever made…
 
Sports fans live and die by their teams’ successes and failures—though not literally. But these fourteen authors have written spirited—in more ways than one—new tales of killer competitions that would make even the most die-hard players ask to be benched.
 
In #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris’s “The Blue Hereafter,” Manfred Bernardo learns about softball from a certain blond barmaid in Louisiana.
 
Life-and-death stakes make the competition get serious in New York Times bestseller William Kent Krueger’s “Hide and Seek.”
 
New York Times bestselling author Mercedes Lackey’s “False Knight on the Road” features a high-stakes drag race on a foggy mountain road between a clever young bootlegger and a mysterious stranger.
 
In New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman’s “Ice,” a young girl learns the true story behind a bit of neighborhood folklore.
 
New York Times bestseller Seanan McGuire presents “Jammed,” in which a chimera loose during the Roller Derby makes it anyone’s guess as to who will still be skating by the time the buzzer sounds.
 
In #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson’s “Dreamer,” a game of cops and robbers is a new challenge when the players are able to switch bodies at will.
 
And New York Times bestselling author Scott Sigler follows ghost stomper Hunter Hunterson as he investigates a haunted, never-ending baseball game in “The Case of the Haunted Safeway.”
 
These and eight more supernatural sporting stories are guaranteed to have you rooting for the home team…or else…

Introduction BY CHARLAINE HARRIS AND TONI L. P. KELNER

IN THE BLUE HEREAFTER BY CHARLAINE HARRIS

HIDE AND SEEK BY WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER

STEPPING INTO THE DEAD ZONE BY JAN BURKE

DEAD ON THE BONES BY JOE R. LANSDALE

THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO BOSTON BY CAITLIN KITTREDGE

ON THE PLAYING FIELDS OF BLOOD BY BRENDAN DUBOIS

THE GOD’S GAMES BY DANA CAMERON

THE CASE OF THE HAUNTED SAFEWAY BY SCOTT SIGLER

PRISE DE FER BY ELLEN KUSHNER

DREAMER BY BRANDON SANDERSON

FALSE KNIGHT ON THE ROAD BY MERCEDES LACKEY

JAMMED BY SEANAN MCGUIRE

HIDE AND SHRIEK BY ADAM-TROY CASTRO

ICE BY LAURA LIPPMAN

BELL, BOOK, AND CANDLEPIN BY TONI L. P. KELNER