Detective Short Stories Mysteries

Gus’s wakes up to discover that he’s been kidnapped by a Mexican mobster. He’s not the only one who has been kidnapped, however. Apparently, someone’s pinched the crime lord’s kid and the head thug of the gang wants Gus to find the missing kid before the crime lord finds out about it. By kid, it turns out that they meant young goat. If the goat doesn’t turn up in time then the ire of the crime lord will surely fall on one of them. Gus needs to figure out which suspect is the correct one. Luckily, Gus has Father Xavier around to help him sort out this tricky situation. Can Gus ...

Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, a screenplay writer, and political activist. Among his enduring character creations are Sam Spade, Nick and Nora Charles, the Continental Op, and P. I. Rush, introduced in this book, who is ugly, mean, focused, and "works for pay". Hammett is widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time and was called, in his obituary in The New York Times, "the dean of the...'hard-boiled' school of detective fiction." Ths short novellette is a crime story with an intricate plot and characters, and a surprise twist at the end.

Behind the stage lights and word-perfect soliloquies, sinister secrets are lurking in the wings. The mysteries in this collection reveal the dark side to theatre and performing arts: a world of backstage dealings, where unscrupulous actors risk everything to land a starring role, costumed figures lead to mistaken identities, and on-stage deaths begin to look a little too convincing. This expertly curated thespian anthology features 14 stories from giants of the classic crime genre.

Hercule Poirot is about to tuck into a very traditional English supper with his old friend Bonnington when a lone diner sparks his interest. Like clockwork, the man has eaten at the restaurant on Thursdays and Tuesdays for the last 10 years, but no one on the staff knows his name. When "Old Father Time", as they have fondly nicknamed him, suddenly stops coming, Poirot believes that he might have picked up the one essential clue that could shed light on this mysterious man. Could what Old Father Time ordered as his final meal provide the key?

There is a persistent and incorrect idea, reinforced by countless film misrepresentations, that Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were always staid and dull British chaps of middle years (or older), with Holmes a spry, cranky, and impatient eccentric, and Watson a white-haired and portly Boobus Brittanicus, a la Nigel Bruce. Students of the true and Canonical Sherlock Holmes know this to be a falsehood. When we first meet them on January 1, 1881, Holmes is still 26 years old (although he will turn 27 in just a few days), and Watson, already a wounded war veteran, is only 28.

Throwing on an almost convincing French accent, Tommy is determined to act the Great Detective Hanaud to his and Tuppence's latest, lovely client. Miss Hargreaves has recently received a box of chocolates from nobody knows who, and, due to her dislike of chocolates, was the only one to not fall afoul of the arsenic-spiked treats. But, Miss Hargreaves is not the first recipient of such a gift; three other large country houses have received arsenic-laced chocolates. Miss Hargreaves is holding something back, and Tommy and Tuppence must take up residence at her house to discover the true culprit.

‘A bloody confrontation at a massage parlor leaves a customer fighting for his life as a masseuse flees into the night. Detective Tom Stone swings into action, searching for the suspect while monitoring reports on the victim’s condition. He investigates a nearby bar where the owner, Jasmine, is closing for the night and wants nothing to do with the police. A shadowy figure huddles at a back table and Stone approaches to question her, but she escapes to the back parking lot and takes off in her car. Jasmine, fearful of the power that law enforcement wields, offers to show Stone where the...

Seven tales that have appeared in various anthologies, including the MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, from master pastiche author Arthur Hall. A client who is uncertain of his brother's demise; a priest with a curious accent; a headless body recovered from the Thames. Is Holmes correct in deducing that these things indicate a threat to the prime minister? Why is Mr. Michael Burlott constantly stalked by a man he does not know? The Whitechapel murders continue. Is the murderer known as Jack the Ripper still at large?

Twelve mysteries for Dorothy L. Sayers' aristocratic sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey.

Here for the first time are three never-before-published mysteries by Edmund Crispin, Ngaio Marsh and Leo Bruce. Together with a newly unearthed short story by Ethel Lina White that inspired Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes, and a complete short novel by Christianna Brand, this diverse mix of tales by some of the world’s most popular classic crime writers contains something for everyone.

An American starlet with a mysterious diamond, a suicide that may be more than it appears, an impossibly cheap flat, a locked room murder, a million dollar robbery, an ancient pharaoh’s curse, a precious stolen jewel, a political abduction, a disappeared banker, a phone call form a dying man, and a missing will … Who could possibly solve such varied, gruesome, and dastardly crimes? None other than Agatha Christie’s beloved Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot!

Are you a Law & Order Junkie? Then take the challenge. Read each chapter. Find the evidence. Solve the case. Become a Couch Detective.

Twenty classic authors from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction are brought together in the latest “Bodies from the Library” anthology series of previously unpublished and uncollected stories of crime and suspense.

A ruthless outlaw private eye sets off on an unrelenting quest to recover a stolen baby. Blood will be shed. Recovering from the events in Las Vegas, Nevada, brutal ex-cop Joe Beck is in Daytona Beach, Florida. He's resting up and laying low, sitting in an open-air bar on the city's main street. A woman walks by with a baby in her arms and a black van screeches in beside her to a halt. In broad daylight, the unthinkable happens. A masked man emerges from the van and rips the baby from her mother's arms. He bundles the child into the back before the van speeds off. It all goes down right ...

Hercule Poirot is reluctant to answer a letter demanding his services by the reclusive and eccentric millionaire Benedict Farley. Farley wants him to diagnose his recurring dream of death, in which he shoots himself at precisely 3:28 p.m. Then, a week after dismissing Poirot, the dream becomes real. Each member of the Farley household that Poirot questions seems to be more puzzled than the one before. Was Benedict Farley's death a suicide? Or are darker forces at work?

Tommy and Tuppence Beresford wait anxiously for a letter from Russia that may contain information of international importance hidden beneath the stamp. The letter is anticipated by more than just the Beresfords, and they must fight to keep the information from getting into the wrong hands.

These six cases are among the last undertaken by Sherlock Holmes before he retired to the Sussex downs. However, the problems facing the sleuth are as diverse and challenging as ever. What with seeking the whereabouts of the stolen Mazarin Diamond, discovering the importance of being called Garrideb, encountering a mysterious murder on Thor Bridge, searching for eternal youth and the threat of a vampire in Sussex, there is no sign of Holmes' deductive powers slowing down.

This follow-up to the national best-seller A Study in Sherlock is a stunning new volume of original stories compiled by award-winning Sherlockians Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger.

Handsome white-knight police officer Jack Stratton is back in this action-packed, thrilling adventure. When his sexy old flame disappears, no one thinks it's suspicious except Jack and one unbalanced witness. Jack feels in his gut that something is wrong. He knows that Marisa has a past, and if it ever caught up with her - it would be deadly. Determined to buck the critics and listen to his instincts, he and his feisty sidekick Alice (aka Replacement) plunge ahead and start tracking down leads, hoping to find Marisa in time.

Spadework was published on the 25th anniversary of The Snatch, the first Nameless Detective novel. Spadework collects 15 short stories perfect for those who love the Nameless Detective. Two of the stories appear in print for the first time ("Worried Mother Job" and "Zero Tolerance"). The book has an excellent foreword by Marcia Muller about her take on her husband's work, and an interesting afterword by Mr. Bill Pronzini in which he talks about his dedication to the needs of the story.