Detective Short Stories Mysteries

To Leger, Halloween is a nuisance. Everyone is talking about superstition and as a black cat he is in the firing line at this time of year. When his human's great-niece, Brianna, decides to dress as a black cat to go trick or treating and dress Leger in his very own costume, Leger decides enough is enough and leaves home, planning never to return. But just hours later on a stormy autumnal night, Leger embarks on his most difficult investigation so far... Following in Leger's footsteps, Brianna has gone on the prowl and he must find her before anyone else with sinister intentions does. ...

"Project Orthia is the very promising project, with so much potential..." project report from Dr. Russo, 20 years ago. “Finn Peterson, the retired police officer, comes home to visit his parents. He found that they are not living in their old house, which belongs to someone else now. In attempt to get more data about his parents, Finn discovered that there are no records at all about such people, as they never existed. He tried to resolve the mystery of the disappearance of his own parents, the people who never bought anything, never worked, newer paid taxes, and newer raised their son…...

From esteemed crime fiction writer George Pelecanos comes four blistering novellas, drawn together by themes of strife, violence, and humanity. When the son of the Carusos is involved in a hold up, the family home comes under siege in the form of a no-knock warrant. Months after the cops destroyed their home, the Carusos struggle to return to normal. Elsewhere, two former inmates reunite by chance on the set of a TV production. Both have found their way on the straight and narrow path, that is, until one sees the potential for an easy grift.

At a séance, Sir Alington, a venerable expert of the mental condition, is pestered by Mrs. Eversleigh about the importance of the sixth sense. Soon, a young man named Dermot is drawn in and tells them both about the sixth sense he experiences, a red signal that spells danger. He is about to tell them of the last time he saw the red signal when he stops himself. The last time he had the signal was earlier that very evening. But how could there be danger at a simple gathering of old friends?

Now settled in his new home as a hotel cat on a tiny Scottish island, Leger is searching for activities to keep him busy. As always, his mind turns to sleuthing... At a Burns Supper hosted by Tony, the hotel's manager, in honour of the Lithuanian girls he has employed to work for him, the mystery of three recent thefts is apparently solved when two of the stolen wallets turn up in one of the girl's bags. However, Leger is not convinced that the accused, Emilija, is guilty and using his feline instincts, sets about searching for the true culprit to clear Emilija's name.

A missing artifact. A town losing its magic. And a feisty librarian. Two decades ago, Elara Blackwood’s parents died in a mysterious accident. Since then, Quillhaven’s magic has disappeared, along with her own. When historical manuscripts relating to the town’s history are stolen on her watch, she is determined to find the thief. As she digs deeper into the mystery with Jasper, Quillhaven’s quirky journalist, she uncovers a startling secret. The stolen books contain clues about her parents’ death and the powerful artifact they had with them when they died. With the help of Leo and...

“Five Quickies for Suzanne and Roger” is an anthology of shorter stories featuring characters from the popular South American mystery series of novels. In this novel-length collection, Roger solves cases in Montevideo, Uruguay; Fortaleza, Brazil; and Los Angeles, California in a novella, a novelette, and three short stories---five quickies. Three obvious murder victims, two additional dead bodies, and a mysterious dog add spice to these stories. The five stories give you five times as many chances to see if you can deduce whodunit before Roger and Suzanne do. Good luck.

When Miss Marple comes up from the country for a holiday in London, she finds what she's looking for at Bertram's Hotel: traditional decor, impeccable service, and an unmistakable atmosphere of danger behind the highly polished veneer.

The steadily expanding devotees of the Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street will hail with delight this crowning volume in a series of collections which have now pastiched the entire quintet of the master’s adventures. Here is another collection of “as sparkling a galaxy of Sherlockian pastiches as we have had since the canonical entertainments came to an end,” as Vincent Starrett - who contributes a preface to this book - wrote in his introduction to the first collection of the adventures of Solar Pons 20 years ago.

This second collection of dramatized stories from the early days of detective fiction includes the following: "The Mystery of Mrs. Dickinson" by Nick Carter; "The Stolen White Elephant" by Mark Twain; "The Red-Headed League" and "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; "The Purloined Letter" and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe; "Mr. Policeman and the Cook" by Wilkie Collins; and more.

Professional thief Blake agrees to come in on a nightclub heist outside of Belfast. He doesn’t count on a double cross or on stumbling on an old flame and a mess of murder and deceit. Blake was featured recently in the hardboiled story Riot Score and the press said:"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 Junkieand“a short but snappy read that gives a fresh glimpse into a life of crime and where it can lead you.”Writing.ie

Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, with the help of his friend newspaper reporter Hutchison Hatch, solves a variety of mysteries using cold, hard logic. No matter how twisted the trail of clues or how clever the perpetrator, Professor Van Dusen, aptly dubbed “The Thinking Machine”, reminds us that “two and two make four, not some times, but all the time”.

The stories in this collection will dredge up delight in crime fiction fans, as watery graves claim unsuspecting victims on the sands of an estuary and disembodied whispers penetrate the sleeping quarters of a ship's captain. This British Library anthology collects the best mysteries set on choppy seas, along snaking rivers and even in the supposed safety of a swimming pool, including stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, C. S. Forester, Phyllis Bentley and R. Austin Freeman.

221b Baker Street is known all over the world, for it’s the address most associated with the legendary Sherlock Holmes! But there was a time before Sherlock Holmes moved to Baker Street, before his fame had grown, when he was still learning his craft and struggling to create his unique profession - the first of its kind - consulting detective! Join some of the finest Sherlockian writers as they explore those early days before Baker Street.

Revelations from the despatch box of Doctor John Watson. These seven stories previously featured in various volumes of The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories and other anthologies. They come together in their own collection for the first time.

An anthology featuring famous sleuths: Edgar Allan Poe's "The Purloined Letter", Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Crooked Man" and G.K. Chesterlon's "The Man in the Passage".

First published in 1911, The Innocence of Father Brown contains stories involving one of the greatest characters in the history of detective fiction: Father Brown. He is a Roman Catholic priest who has an uncanny insight into human evil. Rather than the large serial villains in, for example, Sherlock Holmes stories, the mysteries Father Brown solved were more local murders by small-town crooks, narrowing the suspect list down to those in the area of the crime.

This collection contains nine early stories featuring the Continental Op, an un-named middle-aged detective working for the San Francisco branch of the fictional Continental Detective Agency. The stories are narrated in the first person. The “hardboiled detective” voice was later used by author Dashiell Hammett in The Maltese Falcon (Sam Spade) and the Thin Man series of stories.

Queen's Bureau of Investigation is now open for business - and in each department of this new enterprise Ellery finds ample opportunity to exercise the brilliant, ingenious, and at times startling talents of his crime-lab mind. For to the bureau come some of the most plaguey cases in Queen's career.

More Things Impossible contains 15 of Dr. Sam's extraordinary cases solved between 1927 and 1931, including an impossible murder in a house that whispers; poisoning by a gargoyle on the courthouse roof; the case of the devil in the windmill; the houseboat that resembles the Mary Celeste; the affair of the vanishing Gypsies; stabbing in the locked cockpit of a plane in midair; a ghostly pirate in a lighthouse; and eight other ingenious riddles.