Crime Thriller Short Stories

The most civilized and 'decent' among us find that we are complicit with the most brutal murderers. We enter into literally unspeakable alliances - of which we dare not speak except through the obliquities and indirections of fiction, poetry, and visual art of the sort gathered here in New Jersey Noir.

When gentlemen's tailor Albert Rossi hits an unsuspecting pedestrian in his Nissan Micra, he is amazed to escape the seemingly inevitable knock on the door from the police. Instead he receives a mysterious phone call from a man who tells him that his money will be left in the "usual" place. At that very moment, Albert Rossi decides to change careers. Albert Rossi’s life is about to get a whole lot more interesting....

Sherlock Holmes is one of the most iconic and lasting figures in literature. In this new edition of Baker Street Irregulars, authors present the iconic detective in over a dozen wildly entertaining new ways. In Keith DeCandido's "Six Red Dragons", Sherlock is a young girl in modern New York City. In Sarah Stegall's "Papyrus", Sherlock is a female librarian in ancient Egypt. In Daniel M. Kimmel's mesmerizing "A Scandal in Chelm", Sherlock is a rabbi. Derek Beebe sends Sherlock to the moon, while Mike Strauss, in "The Adventure of the Double Sized Final Issue", casts him as a comic book character.

Pittsburgh has recently (and more than once) been called the most livable city in America; yet the old image of smoky skies and steel mills spewing forth grit has never quite disappeared. Its history as a dirty industrial center is a part of its residents, a part of their toughness. The people of the steel city fight.

Berlin does not make it easy to write noir fiction - or perhaps Berlin makes it too easy. Noir tradition casts a long, influential, and even daunting shadow. Neither Döblin nor Benn, Brecht nor Lang, catered to any crime fiction traditions. They merely steeped their literary projects in a great deal of noir. And so it is with most of the stories in our anthology: they do not necessarily follow the usual patterns of crime fiction, but regard noir as a license to write as they wish, a certain way of approaching the city, and a prism through which its nature is viewed....

From the introduction by Les Standiford: "The truth is that Miami, though naturally lovely, is a frontier town, perched on the border between the known and the rarely before experienced. The poet Richard Hugo once said that the natural place for the writer was on the edge, and 'edge' might well be the definitive word when it comes to this city... We are not only on the edge of the continent, we are to this country what New York was in Ellis Island's heyday, what the West Coast was in the middle of the 20th century.

An eccentric boarding house denizen winds up dead; his presumed killer, a fellow boarder, has vanished. The baffling case unfolds through the testimony of witnesses, who are themselves suspect.

This is a story from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes II collection. In this collection are four of the finest cases of Mr. Sherlock Holmes, narrated by his faithful friend and admirer Dr. Watson. What was the mystery of the engineer's thumb? What was behind the disappearance of the race horse? Why did masked royalty walk up to see Holmes in Baker Street? These and other puzzles are solved in this collection by this bloodhound of a genius.

Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city. Now, West Africa enters the Noir Series arena, meticulously edited by one of Nigeria's best-known authors. The 13 stories that comprise this volume stretch the boundaries of "noir" fiction, but each one of them fully captures the essence of noir, the unsettled darkness that continues to lurk in the city's streets, alleys, and waterways.

Maxim Jakubowski has edited all the great names in crime fiction, and stories from his anthologies have won the CWA Dagger six times. Now he has collected 19 Dagger Award-winning stories in one volume, making it the first retrospective deep dive into the CWA’s archive of Dagger Award winners. Edgy, twisted, and disturbing, Daggers Drawn is visceral and thrilling collection showcasing the very best modern crime fiction has to offer.

"I LOVED THE IMAGINATION OF THIS AUTHOR!" ~Satisfied Kindle Reader "FIVE STARS!" ~ Multiple Fans "Alice Crowley is one of our best living authors!" ~ G. Taylor This 5,000-word hyper-sexual paranormal erotica tale is sure to get the juices of your imagination gushing. Angie is an undercover cop with a heck of an addiction: she loves reverse harem situations, with fellow cops and also criminals. Now she is being recruited to a new unit, and she makes her male partners prove themselves to her. Soon, an imprisoned wolf-man joins in the festivities, and Angie begins to suspect her body might not...

Joyce Davenport is a senior crime scene investigator focused on making the unjust pay, having seen thousands of scenes she can not unsee. She is determined and tenacious, and never lets a cold case sit for too long. Her most recent case follows a trail of cold cases over a century old to one that occurred just last month. There is evidence consistent amongst the murders, and she doesn’t yet know how that is possible. The location of decades-old evidence is being shared with her, something only the killer would know. She is surprised at what she learns.

Murder for Love: Murder for Women is a collection of wickedly witty crime-of-passion short stories by some of the best women writers inside and out of the mystery field.

A gripping narrative from the master of the race against time thriller. Have you ever been in the wrong place at the wrong time? You are hiking in the Scottish highlands with three friends when you come across a girl. She is half-naked, has been badly beaten, and she can’t speak English. She is clearly running away from someone. Do you stop to help her? Even if it means putting your friends’ lives - and your own - in terrible danger?

In this thrilling selection of stories, a young porter is found dead in a coal tub; Colbeck devises a trap to catch a thief; and a burnt train carriage holds a gruesome secret in a small coastal village. As Colbeck and his trusty aide Sergeant Victor Leeming begin to piece together clues and motives for each crime, it becomes clear the pair must stay a step ahead of the culprits to solve the cases. With a new suspect at every turn, can the duo unearth the real villains?

(Professionally Edited June 24th 2018) I let his love almost destroy me and now I was running from it all. Alisa I've loved him forever or so it seems. I was to be wed to his twin brother as the contract demanded. He let his sister beat me and his brother kill my father. Now, the Emilio Empire is at stake and everyone wanted a piece of it. But, the Emilio empire isn't the only prize. In order to take control of the family, they needed me to say I do. And, I am not willing to go down without a fight. Jason She should have been mine. However, our fates were decided the day we were born. I ...

In the stories of Havana Noir, current and former residents of the city - some international sensations such as Leonardo Padura, others exciting new voices like Yohamna Despestre - uncover crimes of violence and loveless sex, of mental cruelty and greed, of self-preservation and collective hysteria.

More Faces is a crime short story collection from A Chaser on the Rocks author Simon Maltman. The twelve mystery noirs included feature published and previously unpublished stories and all series shorts currently available. Take a journey across Northern Ireland, through the beauty and darkness, with the fresh new voice in Irish Crime Fiction."I’m amazed how a writer can cram so much into such a short space of narrative. You hit the ground running and it’s a sprint finish."Crime Book Junkie“A punchy tale, told plainly, with plenty of pace… of old fashioned thuggery and backstreet ...

A drug rip turns terribly wrong for four hapless men. A bored housewife plays a dangerous game of cat and mouse with her retired neighbor. A father learns the realities of street life while searching for his daughter. A cop breaks the law to find a missing child. These are just a few citizens embracing mayhem as a part of their lives. Many more wait in the shadows, around the corner, or down the next alley. It’s time to see the 509 in a way you never expected.

A collection of tense thrilllers, each centered on a mystery and the unfortunate officer tasked with solving it, set in the world of Hideo Yokoyama's best-selling Six Four.