Short Crime Thriller

The wealthiest zip code in Florida doesn't just have billionaires, yachts, and private planes - it also has the best murder plots money can buy.

Two hitmen in a depressed rust belt town struggle with a job gone wrong. A girl witnesses a horrifying accident and carries it with her for the rest of her life. Medical students bring a severed foot to a college party. Five-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Joyce Carol Oates has made a career of exploring the forbidden corners of human experience, and the stories collected here, spanning her first three decades as a writer, are among her most unsettling and unforgettable works to date.

Accidents happen to Charley Clutterbuck. Always just scraping by, living on his ramshackle boat, not above the dodgy deal here and there... So when his body is found floating down river, accidental drowning seems the logical conclusion. But Charley's pal Ray thinks it's murder. And when Jack and Sarah get involved... they find themselves facing an unexpected danger as they uncover the strange truth. Set in the sleepy English village of Cherringham, the detective series brings together an unlikely sleuthing duo: English web designer Sarah and American ex-cop Jack.

The expected never happens... a man calls unexpectedly on his mistress and sees another man leaving her flat. Accusing her of being unfaithful, he quarrels with her, strikes her. She dies. Leaving unseen, he tips off the police so that the other man is arrested and charged... Has he achieved "The Perfect Murder"? A tantalising opening to "A Twist in the Tale", a fantastic collection of short stories from bestselling author Jeffrey Archer.

DI Logan McRae and his infuriating boss, DCI Roberta Steele, investigate a chilling dispute between neighbours that escalates out of control. Includes an extract of the new Logan McRae novel, The Missing and the Dead. CID isn't what it used to be.... It's been a bad week for acting detective inspector Logan McRae. Every time his unit turns up anything interesting, DCI Steel's Major Investigation Team waltzes in and takes over, leaving CID with all the dull and horrible jobs.

A superbly crafted collection of thirteen tightly plotted tales that treats listeners to murder, mystery, and mayhem in the world of horseracing. With his remarkable blend of unrelenting suspense, finely tuned narrative, and lean, stylish prose, New York Times bestselling author Dick Francis proves that he is as much a master of the short story as he is of the novel in this thrilling collection.

In this first collection of short pieces, including two novella-length works, since his western anthology Tonto Woman, Leonard demonstrates the superb characterization, dead-on dialogue, vivid atmosphere, and driving plotting that have made him a household name.

Though the lives of Mexico's characters are effected by the corrupt and dangerous subculture of their country, these are much more than simple "crime stories". They are complicated and deeply moving tales that tap into universal and enduringly powerful themes: love and loss, religion, family relationships, government abuse, sexual identity, professional ambition, cancer; they introduce us to characters that feel fully realized in their humanity.

A blinding snowstorm - and a homicidal maniac - traps a small party of friends in an isolated estate. Out of this deceptively simple setup, Agatha Christie fashioned one of her most ingenious puzzlers, which in turn would provide the basis for The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in history. From this classic title novella to the deliciously clever gems on its tail (solved to perfection by Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple), this rare collection of murder most foul showcases Christie at her inventive best.

In number-one New York Times best-selling author Charlaine Harris’s "Dahlia Underground,” venerable vampire Dahlia Lynley-Chivers survives an attack by an anti-vampire terrorist group, only to show them they tried to blow up the wrong bloodsucker. Bailey Ruth Raeburn, a ghost assigned to assist humans in trouble, steps into the middle of a marital dispute with surprising twists in Carolyn Hart’s “Riding High”....

From Jeffery Deaver's tale of international terrorism to Lisa Jackson's dysfunctional family in the California wine country to Ridley Pearson's horrifying serial killer, this collection has something for everyone. Twenty-three best-selling and hot new authors in the genre have submitted original stories to make up this unforgettable blockbuster.

A beautiful heiress has been found dead on a train. A playboy has been stabbed through the heart during a costume ball. An elderly woman suspects that she is being slowly poisoned to death. A prince fears for his reputation when his fiancée is embroiled in another man's murder. A forgotten recluse makes headlines after he is shot in the head. Who but Agatha Christie could concoct such canny crimes? Who but Belgian detective Hercule Poirot could possibly solve them? It's a challenge to be met - in a triumph of detection.

In 1998, an apparently ordinary Australian man is arrested and charged for a series of brutal murders. The news shocks the nation, bringing both horror and resolution to the victims’ families, but its impact travels even further: into the past, as the murders rewrite personal histories, and into the future, as true crime podcasts and biopics tell the story of the crimes. Highway Thirteen, Fiona McFarlane’s newest collection, takes murder as its starting point, but it unfolds to encompass much more.

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.

Are you a crime show junkie? A law and order fanatic? A real-life who done did it grand master who uncovers the clues and solves the case before any of your family or friends? Then take the challenge and solve each of the thirteen cases before the end of every chapter. Become one of the elite and earn the title of a professional couch detective.

Henrietta and her daughter, Mary Grace, are sold and taken to Charleston, South Carolina, to be auctioned. Separated from her husband, Henrietta now faces an uncertain future and the possibility of becoming estranged from her child. Luckily, fortune shifts in her favor when Olivia Hendricks—the wife of a wealthy planter—purchases her as a nursemaid for their unborn infant. During her years at Livingston Plantation, Henrietta finds sanctuary and safety in the big house, eventually becoming a caregiver to both Mrs. Hendricks and her child.

Contains books four, five, and six of the Deliver series: Devastate, Take, and Manipulate.

The recently rediscovered short story 'The Lost One', perfect for fans of Daphne du Maurier, Santa Montefiore and Anya Seton. First published in Woman's Journal in 1960, and set against the backdrop of unfenced country and dark winding valleys at night, the aptly named 'The Lost One' features The Wind off the Small Isles heroine Perdita West, who brings her characteristic pluck and courage to this classic Mary Stewart tale of suspense and intrigue....

Jo Nesbø is known the world over as a consummate mystery/thriller writer. Famed for his deft characterization, hair-raising suspense and shocking twists, Nesbø’s dexterity with the dark corners of the human heart is on full display in these inventive and enthralling stories.

An outlaw private eye meets a woman who has a horribly-blackened eye and offers to do something about it. Unlicensed outlaw private eye Joe Beck stops off at bar in Trinidad, Colorado. Inside, he meets a woman named Brandi, a brunette bombshell who's working behind the bar. She's slim, tanned and attractive. She has it all. Except, her left eye is horribly blackened, something she admits to having been caused by the hand of an abusive ex-boyfriend. Beck offers to deal with the guy, no questions asked in a move that sees him sucked into the dealings of a couple of crooked cops and a local ...