An FBI agent fights to stop a conspiracy to unleash a deadly virus on the world in this propulsive, exhilarating new thriller. The discovery of a deadly virus being smuggled across the border pits FBI Special Agent James Mason and his strike force against an unknown adversary hell-bent on humanity’s destruction. In a desperate effort to contain the pathogen, they launch a predawn raid, only to find that their enemy knows they’re coming...and it’s not about to be taken alive. An explosion rips through the building, killing the majority of Mason’s team, including his partner and mentor. Tormented by guilt, Mason returns to his home division, but he can’t seem to let go of the tragedy. He remembers seeing something inside the building before it went up in flames, something that convinces him that not only is the virus still out there, it’s merely the first stage of an even more nefarious plan. Obsessed with unraveling the plot, he launches his own investigation and uncovers a shadow organization on the brink of enacting its genocidal agenda, one carried out by a sinister mass murderer who’s been photographed at the epicenter of seemingly every historical pandemic...without appearing to age. An evil man who attempts to derail Mason’s investigation by murdering his wife. With the help of his longtime friends—Gunnar Backstrom, a corporate espionage gun-for-hire, and Ramses Donovan, a sin merchant of questionable morality—Mason’s hunt for his wife’s killer leads him from a dark union at the dawn of the twentieth century to a network of Nazi collaborators and a conspiracy against mankind more than a hundred years in the making. Fueled by anger and driven by the promise of vengeance, he must overcome a monster preparing to unleash his virulent wrath upon an unsuspecting world if he’s to have any hope of exposing a deep-state entity that’s rooted in every facet of our society, an entity known only as...The Thirteen.

Michael Laurence delivers The Annihilation Protocol, the follow-up to The Extinction Agenda, in a series described as “Jack Reacher falling into a plot written by Dan Brown” (James Rollins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Crucible). For centuries, a mysterious syndicate known as the Thirteen has staged a silent coup, infiltrating governments and manipulating the course of world events. It’s more powerful than any nation, deadlier than any army. The time has come for it to emerge from the shadows and claim the entire world as its own. And only FBI Special Agent James Mason and his longtime friends stand in its way. After narrowly preventing a global pandemic, Mason and his team discover an even deadlier threat has already been set into motion. An unknown adversary has produced enough of a lethal nerve gas to wipe every major city off the face of the world, and their only clue to finding it lies in a cryptic message written in the blood of a man found entombed behind a concrete wall. It isn’t until another victim appears—right in the heart of Central Park—that Mason realizes the murders are personal in nature, and figuring out the connection between them is the key to averting catastrophe. Eight million lives hang in the balance and their only chance of surviving lies in the hands of Mason, his old friends, and a new partner he’s not entirely sure he can trust. Can his team track down a sinister agent codenamed Scarecrow before toxic gas fills the streets of New York City, or will the true power pulling the strings from behind the scenes—the Thirteen—succeed in enacting its genocidal agenda?

Michael Laurence delivers The Elimination Threat, the next installment in a series described as “Jack Reacher falling into a plot written by Dan Brown.” —James Rollins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Crucible For centuries, a mysterious syndicate known as the Thirteen has staged a silent coup, infiltrating governments and manipulating the course of world events. It’s more powerful than any nation, deadlier than any army, and only FBI Special Agent James Mason and his longtime friends stand in its way. After narrowly preventing the release of a toxic chemical weapon, they find themselves pitted against their most terrifying adversary yet: a mass murderer with a twisted signature and a true believer in the cause of the Thirteen known only as the Dragon. With the fate of the nation’s capital hanging in the balance and the threat of nuclear destruction on the horizon, Mason’s team must unravel a conspiracy involving a greedy investment bank, a sadistic drug cartel, and a Russian energy company before it’s too late. And the secret to doing so lies buried in the past, in a dark union between the financial sector and an apocalyptic cult hellbent on remaking the world in its own image. Can Mason expose the lethal machinations of the cabal in time, or will the Thirteen finally make good on its elimination threat?

Extinction Studies focuses on the entangled ecological and social dimensions of extinction, exploring the ways in which extinction catastrophically interrupts life-giving processes of time, death, and generations. The volume opens up important philosophical questions about our place in, and obligations to, a more-than-human world. Drawing on fieldwork, philosophy, literature, history, and a range of other perspectives, each of the chapters in this book tells a unique extinction story that explores what extinction is, what it means, why it matters—and to whom.

Welcome to the nightmare . . . There is a world you don't know about, inhabited by supernatural creatures of darkness—vampires, werewolves, and all manner of savage, impossible beasts that live for terror and slaughter and blood. They are all around us but you cannot see them, for knowledge of their presence—so close and so hungry—would surely drive any ordinary human insane. But for centuries a special breed of hunter has kept the monsters at bay, preventing them from breaking through the increasingly fragile barriers protecting our mortal realm. These guardians are called skinners. But beware . . . for there are very few of them left.

Urban biodiversity is an increasingly popular topic among researchers. Worldwide, thousands of research projects are unravelling how urbanisation impacts the biodiversity of cities and towns, as well as its benefits for people and the environment through ecosystem services. Exciting scientific discoveries are made on a daily basis. However, researchers often lack time and opportunity to communicate these findings to the community and those in charge of managing, planning and designing for urban biodiversity. On the other hand, urban practitioners frequently ask researchers for more comprehensible information and actionable tools to guide their actions. This book is designed to fill this cultural and communicative gap by discussing a selection of topics related to urban biodiversity, as well as its benefits for people and the urban environment. It provides an interdisciplinary overview of scientifically grounded knowledge vital for current and future practitioners in charge of urban biodiversity management, its conservation and integration into urban planning. Topics covered include pests and invasive species, rewilding habitats, the contribution of a diverse urban agriculture to food production, implications for human well-being, and how to engage the public with urban conservation strategies. For the first time, world-leading researchers from five continents convene to offer a global interdisciplinary perspective on urban biodiversity narrated with a simple but rigorous language. This book synthesizes research at a level suitable for both students and professionals working in nature conservation and urban planning and management.

“Fans of Jim Butcher and Laurell K. Hamilton will definitely want a bite of this!” —Jonathan Maberry, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Patient Zero The extraordinary Skinners saga by Marcus Pelegrimas comes to a heart-stopping conclusion with Extinction Agenda. Author Paul Goat Allen has proclaimed Skinners “one of the most underrated paranormal fantasy sagas out there.” (He goes on to call author Pelegrimas, “the Bram Stoker of the 21st Century,” which is most assuredly the case.) The final bloody assault on the human race by monsters no longer confined to the shadows—vampires, shapeshifters, werewolves, and more, now hungrily prowling our cities—is at hand. Humankind is not completely helpless, however, as their secret protectors, the Skinners, prepare to battle the beasts. But even they may be helpless to prevent the monster apocalypse. Extinction Agenda is a stunning, action-packed finale to a series that will certainly prove to be a true classic of twenty-first century dark urban fantasy.