Short Thrillers

The Cambodian Curse: When an ancient and supposedly cursed Cambodian sculpture disappears from an impenetrable museum, and the carving's owner is killed by an invisible assailant while a witness is a few feet away, historian Jaya Jones and her old nemesis Henry North team up to solve the baffling crime. Additional stories include: "The Hindi Houdini", "The Haunted Room", "The Library Ghost of Tanglewood Inn", "The Curse of Cloud Castle", "Tempest in a Teapot", "A Dark and Stormy Light", "The Shadow of the River", plus the bonus novella Fool's Gold.

From its launch in 1920 until its demise in 1951, the magazine Black Mask published pulp crime fiction. The first hard-boiled detective stories appeared on its pages. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner and John D. MacDonald got their start in Black Mask. The urban crime stories that appeared in Black Mask helped to shape American culture. Modern computer games, films, and television are rooted in the fiction popularized by the magazine.

Ten tales of terror in the horror genre with surprise endings to scare you! If you are fans of Twilight Zone, Tales From the Crypt, Night Gallery, Outer Limits, One Step Beyond, and horror stories with a plot and a twist ending, look no further. Billy Wells Horror is your ticket to a journey into the macabre if you dare. Hark! Don’t read this book If you don't like to be scared. Heads roll literally in these stories, so why torture yourself? Otherwise, enjoy the horror! The average Amazon review rating on all Billy Wells Horror books 4.3. TABLE OF CONTENTS: NEVERMORE: A billionaire builds...

A Festive Frolic of Frosty Streets and Fearless Feats! London, 1899: The snowy streets of Victorian London shimmer with holiday cheer, but for Flynn, the spirited Baker Street Irregular, it’s shaping up to be a Christmas calamity. Evicted from his rented room by a greedy landlord, Flynn and his mates are back on the icy cobblestones. Then Sherlock Holmes assigns Flynn a crucial mission: shadow a suspicious stranger. It’s Flynn’s chance to prove himself—but he loses his target in the bustling Christmas shopping crowd, right under Becky’s watchful eye. Determined to redeem himself, ...

Who would suspect that the same mind that created the most famous literary detective of all time also took on the eternally popular genre of vampires? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a contemporary of Bram Stoker, gave us some fascinating works of vampire fiction. From the bloodsucking plant in "The American's Tale" to the bloodsucking wife in "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire," he reveled in the horror created by creatures who survived on the blood of men and women.

After a devastating heartbreak, McKenzie Bishop swears off love to focus on her career as a branding consultant. But when her parents convince her to try the dating app, A Dime A Dozen, a seemingly harmless connection resurrects buried trauma and ignites dangerous desires. What starts as a reluctant search for companionship quickly spirals into a twisted game of deadly revenge. As McKenzie’s obsession deepens, fears are weaponized, secrets are uncovered, and no match is safe. Yet, someone has been watching her every move and is determined to expose her darkest truths. Can McKenzie ...

The Sounds of Crime is an exclusive collection of five brand new short stories by some of the best crimewriters around. Using the theme of 'audio', this unique collection features brand new stories by Lawrence Block, Peter James, Val McDermid, Mark Billingham and Christopher Fowler.

This audiobook collects Wellman’s John Thunstone and Lee Corbet stories, written between 1943 and 1979. These stories combine the mystical and horrific with traditional Southern folk tales and legends. These stories also reveal a post-World War II modernism that make them much more then pulp romanticism. The paranoia and cynicism of modern weird icons, such as The X-files, may well have had their genesis in the pulp musings of Manly Wade Wellman.

Shadows of Bigfoot Something watches from the trees. Something ancient. Something that knows you're there. For centuries, legends of Bigfoot have whispered through the forests—stories of shadowy figures, eerie howls, and things that disappear without a trace. But what if the legends are true? And what if the truth is far worse than we ever imagined? In this chilling collection of Bigfoot horror stories, you’ll uncover: A lone camper who realizes he’s not alone in the woods… and never was. A government experiment that was meant to control the beast—but failed. A missing hiker’s ...

A collection of horror/thriller stories for readers who would enjoy a stroll through a graveyard after midnight. Hark! Don’t read this book if a deranged maniac has escaped from the local asylum. Otherwise, enjoy the horror.The creepers include: THE RANSOM OF ELVIS BOZO: After a tech billionaire is murdered in a staged kidnapping, his restless spirit seeks revenge. CAMP PINE HOLLOW: A father’s deal with the occult to bring his son back from the dead unleashes a bloodthirsty curse on a summer camp. FIRST DRAFT: A creative writing class turns deadly when students realize their horror ...

Back in the harness after his abortive retirement to Florida, Rumpole glories in the mushroom pie, rainy day life of the Old Bailey. Here he spars with some old familiars like the venomous Judge Bullingham, and makes the acquaintance of some fresh foes. Six stories.

From its launch in 1920 until its demise in 1951, the magazine Black Mask published pulp crime fiction. The first hard-boiled detective stories appeared on its pages. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner and John D. MacDonald got their start in Black Mask. The urban crime stories that appeared in Black Mask helped to shape American culture. Modern computer games, films, and television are rooted in the fiction popularized by "the seminal and venerated mystery pulp magazine" ( Booklist).

Back in the harness after his abortive retirement to Florida, Rumpole glories in the mushroom pie, rainy day life of the Old Bailey. Here he spars with some old familiars like the venomous Judge Bullingham, and makes the acquaintance of some fresh foes. Six stories.

The Blood Test – A Psychological Thriller That Will Keep You Guessing When Olivia takes her son Henry for a routine checkup, the last thing she expects is a blood test result that doesn’t make sense. She and her husband, Noah, conceived Henry through IVF—but the numbers don’t add up. With a nagging suspicion that won’t let her go, Olivia digs deeper, uncovering a series of unsettling coincidences. Then she meets Margo, another mother at Henry’s preschool, whose daughter looks eerily like him. The two women bond over their shared experience with the same fertility doctor—Dr. ...

Five haunting tales from Benedict Ashforth, the best-selling author of Abbot's Keep.

Ten years ago, Craig Johnson wrote his first short story, the Hillerman Award-winning "Old Indian Trick". This was one of the earliest appearances of the sheriff who would go on to star in Johnson’s best-selling, award-winning novels and the A&E hit series Longmire. Each Christmas Eve thereafter, fans rejoiced when Johnson sent out a new short story featuring an episode in Walt’s life that doesn’t appear in the novels; over the years, many have asked why they can’t buy the stories in book form.

Season Two, Volume Two. Three more catastrophic crimes lead the Baker Street Team to distant shores as they struggle to save Lucy’s mother and defeat a relentless foe once and for all.

Motive. Means. Opportunity. Without proof of all three, the guilty can walk free. But even with an alibi, the innocent can still be condemned. For six award-winning, bestselling authors of psychological suspense, truth and lies weave together in a tangle of conflicting loyalties, hidden crimes, and dark secrets. Pull one thread, and there’s no telling what will unravel.

A terrifying mosaic of transformation and terror, "Eyes Like Mirrors, Flesh Like Ash" collects twenty macabre tales by Kevin Lintner that claw beneath the skin of reality. From a solo escape room session that unlocks an ancient evil, to haunted photographs that predict one's grotesque demise, each story delivers its own brand of psychological and cosmic horror. Enter cursed houses, twisted minds, eldritch forests, and nightmarish realities where flesh remembers, shadows whisper, and dreams consume. These stories are not for the faint of heart—they are for those who seek the forbidden, the...

Unlike the other arts, American literature has been a powerful, influential, and leading aspect of American culture. By turns sedate and mercurial and possessing a moral mind set of various social values, the American short story reveals in its pages the psyche of a growing, sprawling nation whose sense of destiny has always been larger than life. Here are seven masterpieces that will make you smile, make you frown, and leave you pondering the mystery that surrounds the soul of a great nation.