Crime Thriller Short Stories

Brand-new stories by: Thomas Adcock, Kevin Baker, Thomas Bentil, Lawrence Block, Jerome Charyn, Suzanne Chazin, Terrence Cheng, Ed Dee, Joanne Dobson, Robert Hughes, Marlon James, Sandra Kitt, Rita Laken, Miles Marshall Lewis, Pat Picciarelli, Abraham Rodriguez Jr., S.J. Rozan, Steven Torres, and Joe Wallace.

A spine-tingling selection of detective stories including contributions from Edgar Wallace, Conan Doyle and G. K. Chesterton.

Join Sergeant Frank Hardy and Mette Hardy in three more gripping mysteries set in late-19th-century New Zealand: Dead Shot, Lying Under Water, and Come to Grief.

When civilian life proves too dull for Major Wilbrahams, he contacts Parker Pyne to escape his boredom. Pyne's assistant arranges a chance meeting with the beautiful Freda Clegg and the two join forces, but on leaving for Africa they encounter more than they had bargained for.

The stories in this collection reflect a fundamental truth about Santa Fe: history depends on who's telling it. Too often the story of this city has been told only by the conquerors and the tourism PR firms. Hear the stories that never make the glossy tour brochures: the working class and the underground, the decolonized and the ever-haunted; the Santa Fe only we know.... Conquered and reconquered, colonized and commodified, Santa Fe understands - from historical genocide to the murders of family members - the intimacy of violence.

Ever wondered what early experiences shaped Reacher's explosive career as butt-kicker supreme, the one-man guided-missile battler for justice? In this original new short story, Lee Child looks back on an incident in his hero Jack Reacher's teenage years as the younger son of a tough career US Marine, on a faraway military base in the Pacific.

Autumn is the season of misty mornings and cosy nights in, but as the leaves begin to fall the nights get longer and the shadows grow darker… Secluded cottages, eerie manors and ghostly hauntings and cursed tombs abound in this collection of 12 supernatural mysteries and murderous plots featuring Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple and Agatha Christie’s other favourite detectives.

Somehow, they just really needed to disappear without leaving a trace of their presence behind and that simply wasn’t all that easy to do anymore. It’s the middle of the twenty-third century and while there have been staggering technological and environmental advances, human nature is still very much the same as it has always been. One woman unexpectedly finds herself thrust into the middle of a long simmering struggle between power, greed, and an overwhelming effort to keep long hidden secrets buried. Luckily she isn’t on her own. A childhood friend that she hasn’t seen in years is...

‘Tis the Season… for a Christmas Crime Thriller Short Story. A late-night shootout erupts over stolen cigarettes and leaves a Good Samaritan wondering, “Did I do the right thing?” JoJo is a repeat offender who grew up in foster care. His sister was adopted by a man named Davey, his only connection to family life. When JoJo is released after a short stint in county jail, Davey agrees to pick him up and drive him to a motel near his home. But when JoJo asks to stop for cigarettes, Davey’s in for the fight of his life. JoJo swipes a pack of smokes causing a fast-moving chain of ...

A society matron's life is threatened after she engineers the theft of her own priceless jewelry to pay off a gambling debt. Only a debonair connoisseur of crime can save her and recover her gems. For a price.

The best of the golden age crime writers, praised by all the top modern writers in the field including P. D. James and Ruth Rendell, Dorothy L. Sayers created the immortal Lord Peter Wimsey. This book of short stories is his ninth appearance and introduces another detective, Montague Egg. Poisoned port, pet cats in peril, purloined pearls... Lord Peter Wimsey solves the mysteries of the man who was blown into the fourth dimension and the murder in fancy dress.

A retelling of the Christmas Story in a way you've never heard it before.... The fable of a donkey who carries a mother and child safely to Egypt.... The tale of a widow who dislikes people until she meets a stranger.... From the most popular writer of all time comes a treasured collection of short stories and poems celebrating the holiday season. This special edition also contains a wealth of Agatha Christie rarities - not only all the stories, poems, and illustrations from her long out-of-print book Star over Bethlehem (1965) but also a reproduction of all her rare poetry.

The world of Cardiff's sex trade hits the headlines when a woman is butchered and left for dead. Pauline distributes condoms to the women of the red light district and is known locally as "the rubber woman". She and Megan, a forensic psychologist, make it their mission to stop more women from becoming victims. They don't know it yet, but one of them is already marked out for death.

He was coming for me. He was going to take what was left of my soul. That’s if his world didn’t take it first. Kinsley Daniel was my everything and then he was gone. Ripped away, leaving me in a world that took on dull shades. Leaving me to my guilt. Guilt that ate a hole through my very soul. Fin was the one person who could make me feel again he was my secret shame. I was running from everything he stood for everything he made me remember. But no matter how hard I ran or how far he always found me. He says I’m his. I shouldn’t want him I shouldn’t need him, he was Daniel’s ...

Dead Even features 15 stories highlighting major and minor characters from the River City series, including series favorite Katie MacLeod, Detectives Finch and Elias, hard-luck Officer Paul Hiero, and transplanted gangster Dominic Bracco.

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.

The story I wrote, set in the same Hell's Kitchen neighborhood that's home to my detective hero, Matthew Scudder, was "If You Can't Stand the Heat". (And in fact the bar where the story begins bears a definite resemblance to Grogan's Open House, where Matt's friend Mick Ballou holds court.) I didn't know very much about the young woman who stars in "If You Can't Stand the Heat", not even her name. I learned more as I found myself moved to record further adventures for her.

Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each story is set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book. Brand-new stories by: Wilfredo J. Burgos Matos, Ernesto Quiñonez, Mayra Santos-Febres, José Rabelo, Luis Negrón, Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro, Ana María Fuster Lavín, Janette Becerra, Manolo Núñez Negrón, Tere Dávila, Edmaris Carazo, Alejandro Álvarez Nieves, Charlie Vázquez, and Manuel A. Meléndez. Translated by Will Vanderhyden.

When Kurt Wallander first appeared in Faceless Killers back in 1990, he was a senior police officer, just turned 40, with his life in a mess. His wife had left him, his father barely acknowledged him; he ate badly and drank alone at night. The Pyramid chronicles the events that led him to such a place. We see him in the early years, doing hours on the beat whilst trying to solve a murder off-duty; witness the beginnings of his fragile relationship with Mona, the woman he has his heart set on marrying.

Buffalo, New York, is still the second-largest metropolis in the state, but in recent years its designation as the Queen City has been elbowed aside by a name that's pure noir: The City of No Illusions. Presidents came from here; and in 1901 a president was killed here while visiting the Pan-American Exposition, by a man who checked into a hotel under a name that translates as Nobody.