Crime Thriller Short Stories

Whether they're cops or conmen, savage killers or creative types, gangsters or God-fearing citizens, George Pelecanos's characters are always engaged in a fight for their lives. They fight to advance or simply to survive; they fight against odds, against enemies, even against themselves. In this, his first collection of stories, the acclaimed novelist introduces readers to a vivid and eclectic cast of combatants.

From master of suspense author James Patterson comes the thrilling new novella in the globally bestselling series plus two gripping new stories.

There's a chill in the air and the days are growing shorter.... It's the perfect time to curl up in front of a crackling fireplace with this winter-themed collection from legendary mystery writer Agatha Christie. But beware of deadly snowdrifts and dangerous gifts, poisoned meals and mysterious guests. This compendium of short stories, some featuring beloved Detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, is an essential omnibus for Christie fans and the perfect gift for mystery lovers.

Grace had never been more terrified...the pain was relentless. Nothing in her life prepared her for this. She desperately needed somewhere safe...someplace she could hide. Someone she could trust with her life. It was dark...and getting darker. Ronan Hendricks didn’t recognize her voice. Not family...not friends. Probably not an enemy. But he didn’t need the years he’d spent as a detective to recognize what he did hear... Fear. In a desperate moment of hope, a single number saved her life. Then a complete stranger opened his home offering safety yet Grace knew danger surrounded them.....

The Black Goat is a short story that takes on a contemporary approach of the legend of Van Hunks and the devil. Jan van Hunks is down and out, a functioning alcoholic who is battling a divorce from his wife. One wintry night, he decides to escape the clutches of his studio apartment in the heart of Cape Town and venture out to find the darkest bar he can. He meets a mysterious character along the way who advises him against his journey.

Get to Know Jade Harrington You know what they say about “curiosity”… Before she grew up to become a badass FBI agent, Jade Harrington was a curious and precocious child. One day, a mysterious stranger visited her family and changed her life forever. Few Are Chosen is a short-story prequel to the Jade Harrington Series.

In addition to tales from some of today's top stars — including Laura Lippman, Susan Wiggs, Marcia Muller, Carolyn Hart, Nancy Pickard, and Elizabeth George herself — Two of the Deadliest showcases work from an impressive array of exceptional newcomers, as together they explore the dark depths women and men will sink to when driven by passion, avarice, and a lethal hunger for power.

There is something of both the absolutely spectacular and positively disgraceful about Tehran. But most writers around the world are inclined to think that their own sprawling metropolis is the capital of every imaginable vice and crime, of impossible love and tenderness and cruelty and malice in measures that seldom exist anywhere else. For me, Tehran's case is no different - except that there really is a difference here. The city may be a hothouse of decadence, a den of inequity, all that. But it still exists under the watchful eye of a very unique entity, the Islamic Republic.

Brand-new stories by: Tom Abrahams, Robert Boswell, Sarah Cortez, Anton DiSclafani, Stephanie Jaye Evans, Wanjiku Wa Ngugi, Adrienne Perry, Pia Pico, Reyes Ramirez, Icess Fernandez Rojas, Sehba Sarwar, Leslie Contreras Schwartz, Larry Watts, and Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton.

The best noir writers make us feel the heat of the sun, the touch of a lover. Setting can be gritty but can also be sublime, no longer relegated to urban locales and seedy hotel rooms but also mansions and swimming pools. Hence, Palm Springs, which may seem like an odd setting for a collection of dark short stories—it’s so sunny and bright here. The stories in this collection come on like the wicked dust storms common to the area.

In these eight intriguing tales, Holmes and Watson solve cases that range from the suspicious to the downright strange. They encounter mysteries as diverse as vanishing staff, secret plans and eccentric lodgers as Holmes is struck down by a rare tropical disease and, later, lured away from retirement to help his country on the eve of war.

When Taylor, a professional writer, discovers that others have been plagiarizing her work, she gets even in her own way—by writing their fake obituaries. Nobody knows about her favorite pastime, and she wants to keep it that way. Then, one day, the unthinkable happens: One of the plagiarists turns up dead. Taylor tries to put it out of her mind, until two detectives come knocking on her door. Author Linda Smolkin delivers a gripping audiobook filled with suspense and an ending listeners won’t see coming.

AFTER the SUNRISE, a short story introducing Kat Martin's Maximum Security series, plus an excerpt from her new novel, THE CONSPIRACY.They Called Him the Hero of St. Andrew'sWhen an active shooter in full body armor strides down the center aisle of St. Andrew's church, Kurt Layton knows he’s the congregation’s only hope of survival. As petite, auburn-haired Erin McCallum looks into the barrel of an assault rife wielded by a ruthless gunman, she knows she is going to die.But sometimes, in the instant between life and death, a connection is forged between two strangers—as strong as ...

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.

Elizabeth Haynes' new psychological thriller is a brilliantly suspenseful and shocking story in which nothing is at it seems, but everything is at stake. Sarah Carpenter lives in an isolated farmhouse in North Yorkshire, and for the first time after the death of her husband some years ago and her children, Louis and Kitty, leaving for university, she's living alone. But she doesn't consider herself lonely. She has two dogs, a wide network of friends and the support of her best friend, Sophie.

Follow the greatest of the greatest detective in the world in Agatha Christie’s short-story collection Poirot Investigates. Featuring 11 adventures around the world, this collection show’s Christie’s famous character Hercule Poirot at his best as he travels and unravels mysteries of all sorts.

Is the ‘perfect murder’ possible? Can that crime be committed with such consummate care, with such exacting skill, that it is unsolvable—even to the most astute investigator? In this unique collection, legendary crime writers Margery Allingham, Anthony Berkeley, Freeman Wills Crofts, Ronald Knox, Dorothy L. Sayers and Russell Thorndike each attempt to create the unsolvable murder, which Superintendent Cornish of the CID then attempts to unravel.

It starts with a few near-accidents: A car almost swipes Mike Hammer when he’s crossing the street. A junkie robs the notoriously hardboiled detective at knifepoint. A fight on a subway platform comes close to pushing him in front of a train. While any one of these could be a coincidence, together they make a conspiracy—one that Hammer will have to end in order to survive. And when it comes to finishing something—or someone—nobody does it better than Hammer.

Short Story for Adults; Romance, Espionage, Sexpionage, International Crime Mystery. Jennifer, for the first time in her career working on sexpionage cases, is allowed to work on U.S. soil and with good reason. Political sanctions create a vacuum for money laundering. An International Money Broker becomes a person of interest when he brokers deals for foreign countries, raising money for guns and weapons. However, as it turns out, the foreign government is not the problem. It becomes clear the danger stems from someone in the U.S. government. Copying the target's cellphone data which is ...

Jake Hughes cannot run from the fact that he is entering a head on collision with the Mob! Six weeks earlier Jake Hughes was living the quiet life in America with his wife Emily, They decide to take their annual vacation, walking in England. A chance meeting during the walk awakens a hidden memory in Jake, dragging him into direct conflict with a powerful Mafia Family, catapulting him into a a game of cat and mouse, challenging life or death! He teams up with, Jonty Ball, a retired detective inspector, between them they thread the pieices of an unsolved murder twenty years earlier. Is it ...