Short Mystery Collection

It’s the hottest winter on record, but Raymond’s demanding, bedridden mother doesn’t mind. She likes it warm. Lately, however, control over the thermostat has become a nasty struggle. And each morning that she’s still alive is a suffocating new challenge for Raymond. How high can the mercury climb before he boils over?

With gimlet-eyed cool and razor-sharp wit, these spare, stylish stories from a master of modern-crime fiction assemble a world of gangsters and con men, of do-gooders breaking bad and those caught in the crossfire. The uncle of an FBI agent spends his life as sheriff in different cities, living too close to the violent acts of men; a cocktail waitress moves through several desert towns trying to escape the unexplainable loss of an adopted daughter; a drug dealer with a penchant for karaoke meets a talkative lawyer and a silent clown in a Palm Springs bar.

When Olivia Dawson returned home one rainy Autumn afternoon, she could never imagine her life as she knew it would change dramatically. She finds an injured and unconscious man close to her cottage and takes him back to her home. After three days of nursing him back to health, a search party arrives at her cottage, and Lord Falmer identifies the injured man as his cousin, the Duke of Penrith. In a surprise decision, the Duke requests Miss Olivia stay at the estate until he regains his memory and recovers completely, as she is the only familiar thing in his life at that moment. When Lord ...

Ivy Bloom wants to believe you can go home again and so she does, leaving her work as a writer in NYC and returning to Hydrangea Bay on Cape Cod to start the next chapter of her book-loving life. She and her sister Gigi work to turn the rambling old mansion they have inherited into a bookstore. Baby books in the nursery, entertaining books in the dining room and romance reads in the ladies boudoir. It looked like it would work out great right up until the moment that the leader of a local religious cult turned up dead in the driveway. Soon his wife is dead as well. Through no fault of her ...

The terror at Hotel Caligula continues, as ghost-hunting enthusiasts explore its sinister corners. Ancient forces of nature turn the table on a lonely old man. And bullied teenagers discover that supernatural vengeance comes with a deadly price. Scare Street welcomes you to this spine-tingling collection of a dozen frightening tales. There’s a dark, cozy room waiting just for you - a perfect place to start listening. But as you lose yourself in terror, you hear creaking outside your door. You try to turn the knob, but the room is locked from the outside! There is no escape.

Decipher. Deduce. Deliver. Sherlock Holmes, the most cerebral of detectives, finds his deductive powers put to the test in this intriguing collection of cases. Each adventure presents a web of secrets, clues, and deceptions. Only his highly honed observational skills lead him to the truth. In a locked-room murder, did the victim succumb to “The Curse of Kisin?” And how had the daughter of Squire Northridge disappeared from her own locked bedroom? Can Holmes, an ocean away, determine if a missing treasure hunter ran off with Jean Lafitte’s fabled buried plunder? The disappearance of a ...

This bundle includes Basil and the Lost Colony, Basil and the Big Cheese Cook-Off, Basil and the Royal Dare, and Basil and the Library Ghost.

Villains have all the fun - everyone knows that - and this anthology takes you on a wild ride through the dark side! The top villains from 16 urban fantasy series get their own stories - including the baddies of New York Times best-selling authors Jim Butcher, Kevin Hearne, Kelley Armstrong, Seanan McGuire, and Jonathan Maberry. For every hero trying to save the world, there's a villain trying to tear it all down.

Kurt Reid may be innocent of the murder he's charged with (and of grand larceny, for that matter), but he's got no time to be thrown in jail and defend himself. Instead, Reid flees to pre-Communist China and Shanghai, the exotic city of mystery and death. Reid takes refuge in a tea house where he meets a Russian woman, Varinka Savischna, whom he manages to rescue from certain death. As beautiful as she is smart, she recruits him in her crusade against Chinese intelligence services.

Bringing together six short stories - two of which are previously unpublished - One Last Dram Before Midnight is perfect for fans of Denzil Meyrick. These tales take us from Jim Daley's early days pounding the beat in Glasgow as a young constable to a lighthearted whisky smuggling romp involving Hamish and some ghostly pipers.

From the pen of a multiple award-winning author... From the depths of the Taklamakan desert in Mongolia, a priceless emerald has been stolen. Through circuitous paths, it makes its way to a baseball diamond in St Louis, Missouri. A thoughtful conversation between three friends sees the mystery unfold, and the whereabouts of the emerald finally revealed. Step up to the plate to read, "The Emerald in the Diamond." Also included is the prequel to this story: the same three friends recount the murder of a woman in a Malaysian condominium, where the murderer's identify is divined through ...

"What could go wrong?" is what a group of teenagers wonder about before breaking into an abandoned house at the edge of town. They seal their fates on the darkest night of the year, Halloween. Listen as history comes alive in front of their own eyes in a series of terrifying events. Broken families, lives tortures by those that had happened in the past. And in the middle of it, is the one person that was never supposed to come back in the first place. Allowing her to roam free is what will cause the demise of them all. But what if there is a way?

This captivating collection will take you on a journey with characters whose lives lead to unexpected endings. Prepare to question the boundaries of life and death with this gripping anthology.

Deadly Reunion is a collection of short stories. The first story, Deadly Reunion, tells of five women who reunite at a school reunion. A few months later they are invited to one of the women's lakeside cabins for a girl's weekend. Unfortunately for them they have been lured into a trap, this reunion does not go well. Who's you Daddy is the story of two young children whose mother dies leaving them orphaned. Having never known who their father was or if he was even still alive, they run off in the hopes of finding some relatives to live with rather than being split up and placed in separate ...

Four enthralling, distinctive novellas representing the diverse genres of: historical adventure; political thriller; science fiction and murder mystery. Plus exclusive Extras: an alternative, extended ending and a bonus ghostly story to explore - if you dare...

Clark’s investigation begins with cocaine and leads to cold-blooded murder - the discovery of one, and then another, headless corpse. Who is behind the slaughter? Are the killings tied to the drug traffic? Or is a deeper, darker, and even more sinister conspiracy unfolding in the carnival?

When Santa’s visit to the Gulch is called off due to a bad storm Butterscotch Jones has to step in and save Ricky’s Christmas. While Butterscotch is busy in Manitoba, Miss Henry is in Quebec. She is trying to drum up some Christmas spirit while hunting for a missing lawyer. Nicodemus Smith has her hands full tracking down a lost philanthropist who fancies himself to be Santa Claus, and Jane Blackthorn is going her best to cope with a plum pudding thief who is vexing her first Christmas in merry olde England. While Kenneth Mayhew tries to restore order at the Mayhem Mansion revels, Chloe...

A collection of short stories that covers several genres including romance, grief/loss, mystery, suspense, sci-fi, fantasy and paranormal. This book is dedicated to a courageous friend who passed this year. The first story is specially created for her and is the inspiration for the title of this book.

"I LOVED THE IMAGINATION OF THIS AUTHOR!" ~ Satisfied Kindle Reader "FIVE STARS!" ~ Multiple Fans "Alice Crowley is one of our best living authors!" ~ G. Taylor In this torrid, tantalizing compilation of all-new stories from Alice Crowley, the reader is taken along for the ride as our heroines are gaped beyond their wildest imaginations! This bundle contains 80,000 sexy words and ten sensual stories of beastmen, groupings of reverse harems, and brave women test their anatomical limits and push their boundaries. This swollen and engorged bundle includes the following titles: TAKEN HARD BY ...

From tales of chilling horror, to heart-stopping stories of suspense, Warped is best-selling author Jeff Menapace's ultimate collection of short fiction. Warped contains currently published tales of the macabre like "Princess" and "The Straw Man and a Murder", the currently out of print and award-winning "Sugar Daddy" and its sequel, "Sugar Daddy 2", and the author's preferred version of his controversial "Torment".