Short Stories Crime Suspense

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.

Following the success of Paris Noir, the Akashic Noir Series has expanded to include the famously diverse and sometimes controversial suburbs of this legendary city.

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.

Poirot Investigates a host of murders most foul—as well as other dastardly crimes—in this intriguing collection of short stories from the one-and-only Agatha Christie. Agatha Christie’s classic Murder in the Mews presents four mystifying criminal conundrums that will seriously test the superior detecting skills of the unflappable Hercule Poirot.

The coffee shop on the corner of First and Main in Oak Grove, Kansas, seems to attract a series of mysterious events. Morgan Butler, new owner of the Coffee Perk, hosts a weekly book club to attract new customers to her shop. One thing after another seems to want to drown her dreams. Dean Matthews, true-crime best-selling author, starts coming everyday to use Morgan’s free Wi-fi when his goes down. What Morgan didn’t expect was for crime to arrive on her doorstep shortly after the author. Needing a bulb replaced in her shop sign, she hires a local man to fix it only to find the man dead...

A collection of seven short stories, featuring crime-fighting duo Tilly and Poe: The Killing Field, Why Don't Sheep Shrink?, Dead Man's Fingers, Strange Ink, A Permanent Solution, Mondo Bizzarro and Once in a Red Moon.

When an improvised explosive device is found outside a hospital, the understaffed Middleton PD knows it’s up against a pro. No one takes credit for the sophisticated device—all that Detective Jake Sloan has to go on is a poem. The cryptic rhyme surfaced shortly after the bomb scare. But ex-soldier and football player Sloan has never been much of a poetry buff. When a second verse turns up, containing a message in code, he solicits the help of English professor Ciara Hawkins.

Tasha After my father was killed, Mark came into my life. Now, I can't imagine life without him. But when the man responsible for my father's murder escapes, I'm determined to take matters into my own hands. Mark I love Tasha more than life itself. After the loss of my wife and child three years ago, no one understands vengeance more than I do. But Tasha is determined to step into a whole new world that she has only gotten a taste of. However, can she handle the repercussions after she pulls the trigger? Once you take a life, something inside you changes. But no one will take my Tasha from ...

A city at once ancient and modern, Istanbul is the quintessentially postcard-perfect metropolis. But don’t let the alluring vistas fool you. For beneath its veneer as the meeting place of cultures, religions, and ethnicities lies a heart of darkness, seething with suppressed desire, boiling with frustration, and burning with a fervor for vengeance.

A deadly black widow has eliminated three husbands and counting. But Nameless knows her one weakness. To bring truth and its consequences to her crimes, the vigilante must spin a web of his own in part three of the Nameless series. Lucia - current last name, Rickenbah - has made a fortune by marrying rich men who tend to drop dead. But the superstitious blonde believes in more than money and murder. Nameless’s job is to scare a confession out of Lucia, and as the psychological warfare escalates, even he may be in for a shock.

For the past twenty years, Lee Child has been one of the bestselling authors in the world, thanks to the popularity of his iconic and instantly recognizable hero Jack Reacher. But even at the height of Reacher's fame, Child's short story writing was not confined to the series; throughout the course of his career, he published tales about a range of characters on both sides of the law, including assassins, a body guard, CIA and FBI agents, gangsters, and more.

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.

In one of London's most elegant shops, a decorative doll in green velvet adopts some rather human, and sinister, traits.... A country gentleman is questioned about a murder that has yet to be committed.... While summoning spirits, a medium is drawn closer to the world of the dead than she ever imagined possible.... In a small country church, a dying man's last word, sanctuary, becomes both an elegy and a clue to a crime.

It's autumn in Painters Mill, and Chief of Police Kate Burkholder and John Tomasetti are taking a much-needed vacation at a small bed and breakfast an hour outside of town. After closing a difficult case, they're looking forward to some down time, but their relaxation is cut short by rumors that the old house where they're staying is haunted by a girl who disappeared twenty years earlier, leaving nothing behind but some bloody clothes by the river and rumors of a volatile relationship.

Killing Me Softly introduces Key West private eye Gideon Lowry, who moonlights as a piano player at a local jazz club. When Virginia Murphy shows up one night to ask him to investigate her sister's death 40 years earlier, Gideon is led down the darker side of memory lane where secrets linger. Some are buried as deeply as the paradise that was once Key West, now entombed in concrete. Key West's Hemingway Days is in full swing in Night and Day, when Gideon is pulled into the world of a famous nightclub singer known only as Asia.

Penelope makes a fast break from her old life to the picturesque town of Bath, Maine. But the excitement halts when a dead body is found near her dumpster. Divorcee', Penelope, starts a new chapter in the town known for it’s boutiques. But when handyman Ricky’s body is found behind her shop, the old cliche, shop ‘til you drop, suddenly becomes a literal reality. Her curiosity piqued over the unsolved murder, she sets out to unearth the truth, with her bite-sized sidekick, Teo the Teacup Chihuahua, in tow. When town gossip reveals Ricky’s shady past and his recent argument with Harry...

A collection of short stories from the number-one New York Times best-selling "Queen of Suspense" Mary Higgins Clark, including the never-before-published novella Death Wears a Beauty Mask.

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....

Hot on the heels of Best Cases of the Continental Op comes Honest Gain: Dicey Cases of the Continental Op, another original compilation from Skyboat Media. The Continental Op is back on the case, tracking down thieves and murderers from the steep streets of San Francisco to the rough and tumble Wild West in Arizona. These six stories featuring the Continental Op show that this private eye is not afraid to get his hands dirty in order to get the job done right, or get himself hurt in the process.

Needing a break from the big city, Alvirah and WIlly escape to Cape Cod - only to meet a would-be heiress framed for murder in "Death on the Cape." When Alvirah and Willy seek the tranquillity of the Cypress Point Spa, it's the perfect getaway - until a jewel thief turns up in "The Lottery Winner." Back in Manhattan, the search for a neighbor's missing newborn makes for a suspense-filled Christmas in "Bye, Baby Bunting."