Detective Short Stories Mysteries

When recipes are stolen, revenge boils over... Lena Larsen's Victorian guest house in New Oslo was supposed to host a simple charity chili competition. But when celebrity chef Chad "Chili" Bartell turns up dead—face down in his own cooking pot—the temperature in the kitchen really starts to rise. With her best friend Charlie, her sheriff boyfriend Mark, and the not-so-subtle guidance of her grandmother's ghost, Lena must sift through a stew of suspects: a food blogger with a fiery temper, a local diner owner with a simmering grudge, an ambitious PR agent stirring up trouble, and a PTA ...

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.

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.

The handpicked stories in this collection introduce us to the most determined of gumshoe gals, from debutant detectives like Anna Katharine Green's Violet Strange to spinster sleuths like Mary Roberts Rinehart's Hilda Adams, from groundbreaking female cops like Baroness Orczy's Lady Molly to contemporary crime-fighting PIs like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone, and include indelible tales from Agatha Christie, Carolyn Wells, Edgar Wallace, L. T. Meade and Robert Eustace, Sara Paretsky, Nevada Barr, Laura Lippman, and many more.

For the Sake of the Game is the latest volume in the award-winning series from New York Times best-selling editors Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger, with stories of Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and friends in a variety of eras and forms. King and Klinger have a simple formula: Ask some of the world's greatest writers-regardless of genre - to be inspired by the stories of Arthur Conan Doyle. The results are surprising and joyous.

The best mysteries have one thing in common: a memorable perpetrator. For every Sherlock Holmes or Sam Spade in noble pursuit, there's a Count Dracula, a Lester Leith, or a Jimmy Valentine. These are the rogues and villains who haunt our imaginations - and who often have more in common with their heroic counterparts than we might expect. Now, for the first time ever, Otto Penzler gathers the iconic traitors, thieves, con men, sociopaths, and killers who have crept through the mystery canon over the past 150 years, captivating and horrifying readers in equal measure.

For all we know, or think we know, about Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, what we don’t know is far, far greater. In the duo’s first case, A Study in Scarlet, we learn that Holmes and Watson met on January 1st, 1881, and subsequently moved into an apartment together at 221b Baker Street. Their first case officially began on March 4th of that year, and it is argued that “The Adventure of the Resident Patient” possibly took place in October of 1881, depending on which version of the story you read. But what happened during the rest of 1881? Or all of 1882?

Lytcham Close, one of the oldest stately homes in England, is owned by the last remaining heir and ruled by his intolerable whims. Old Hubert demands complete silence when he plays music and times dinner exactly by a resounding gong. Rushing down at the sound of the second - or is it the first? - gong, Joan Ashby is about to find out that not only is dinner delayed, but something is going on that no one can explain. Everyone is thrown into disarray when Old Hubert never materializes and instead a new guest is announced: Hercule Poirot himself.

What if the darkness of Lovecraft’s decadent New England overlapped into the Victorian era of Sherlock Holmes? Twenty-five new stories across two volumes pit Holmes and Watson against myriad nightmares from Lovecraft’s fiction—and against those nightmares which his writings have inspired. Join us as we journey from the familiar fog of Baker Street to the rotting gambrel roofs of Arkham, the blasphemous library of Miskatonic University, and beyond....

A Thorne Sisters Cozy Mystery – Book Two Bouquets, Betrayal, and Burial Read FREE on Kindle Unlimited! In the charming town of Bloomwood, sisters Iris and Poppy Thorne run Blossom and Thorne, a beloved flower shop known for stunning arrangements and vintage vases. But when an antique vase leads to an unexpected discovery—and the sudden death of a wealthy recluse—their quiet lives take a dark turn. What begins as a simple delivery blooms into something far more dangerous. A cryptic map, a suspicious memorial order, and a long-buried family scandal pull the sisters into a mystery ...

For Ellery Queen, there is no puzzle that reason cannot solve. In his time, he has faced down killers, thugs, and thieves, protected only by the might of his brain - and the odd bit of timely intervention by his father, a burly New York police inspector. But when a university professor asks Queen to teach a class, the detective finds there are people whom reason cannot touch: college students. Queen's adventure on campus is only the first of this incomparable collection of short mysteries.

Here is the precursor to Jurassic Park. Victorian explorers have heard there is a remote plateau where dinosaurs still survive, and a group set outs on a dangerous mission to find out more about it.

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.

Gus somehow won the church raffle. It was a miraculous feat given that he’d never entered it-the church or the raffle. He suddenly finds himself with two tickets to paradise and one of them premade out for Father Xavier. Paradise in this case being the Caribbean Island of Saint Hubbins. They’re joined at the hotel by two couples that appear to be engaged in a tangled web of extra-marital affairs with each other. Gus isn’t too interested in the affairs of others until one of them ends up dead. Another person is arrested by the local police for the crime. It’s not that Gus feels he ...

This anthology of rare stories of crime and suspense brings together 13 tales from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction for the first time in book form, including a newly discovered Gervase Fen novella by Edmund Crispin that has never previously been published. With the Golden Age of detective fiction shining ever more brightly thanks to the recent reappearance of many forgotten crime novels, Bodies from the Library offers a rare opportunity to read lost stories from the first half of the twentieth century by some of the genre’s most accomplished writers.

There is no better hiding place for clues - or red herrings - than inside the pages of a book. With Martin Edwards as librarian and guide, delve into an irresistible stack of tales perfect for every book lover and armchair sleuth, featuring much-loved Golden Age detectives such as Nigel Strangeways, Philip Trent and Detective Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn. But listeners should be warned that the most riveting tales often conceal the deadliest of secrets.

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.

This bundle includes Basil of Baker Street, Basil and the Cave of Cats, Basil in Mexico, and Basil in the Wild West.

When a family dog brings home a human bone, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder finds herself on a desperate search for answers. Where did the bone come from? Who does it belong to? And perhaps most importantly, are the bones a result of foul play? With Halloween approaching, the unsettling questions garner uneasiness, rumors, and macabre theories among the residents of Painters Mill.

This is a story from the The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes III collection. In this collection are four more individual cases for Mr. Sherlock Holmes, narrated by his faithful friend and admirer Dr. Watson. They dive into the opium dens of London in "The Man with the Twisted Lip," recall the curious history of "The Musgrave Ritual," come face to face with the grisly evidence contained in "The Cardboard Box," and go on a wild-goose chase in "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle." The powers of Sherlock Holmes prevail.