New Detective

Private eye Mike Hammer is no stranger to murder, but this time he has two to untangle - the killing of the Captain, a legless, homeless panhandler, dismissed by the police as minor, and the slaying of gambling kingpin Marty Wellman, whose lady friend, Helen Venn, turns to the P.I. for help when the Mob fingers her for the next kill. Seems the new kingpin, Carmen Rich - with whom Hammer has a violent history - thinks Helen made off with ten mil in skim money courtesy of her late lover, or anyway, so Rich claims.

Staten Island would be forgettable were it not for the gleaming Tabernacle of the Silver Spire, where thousands of congregants come every Sunday to hear the sermons of Barnabas Bay. Millions more tune in on television, giving the good Reverend international fame, and a chance to spread the gospel from New York City’s harbor all the way to South Korea. But threatening notes have been appearing in the collection bag, suggesting that one of the faithful has decided it’s time this good shepherd get the hook.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective genius, Sherlock Holmes, came to NBC radio in 1930 starring Richard Gordon. By 1939, Basil Rathbone was heard as Holmes with Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson. The duo was simultaneously starring in a popular series of Sherlock Holmes features for Fox, and later for Universal.

Flavia Albia is a private investigator, always drawn to an intriguing puzzle - even if it is put to her by her new husband's hostile ex-wife. On the Quirinal Hill, Clodia Volumnia, a very young girl with stars in her eyes, has died, amid suggestions that she was poisoned by a love potion. It will have been supplied by a local witch, who goes by the name of Pandora, though Albia learns that Pandora carries on a trade in herbal beauty products while hiding much more dangerous connections.

Flavia Albia's day-old marriage is in trouble - her new husband may be permanently disabled, and they have no funds. So when Palace officials ask her to help expose a plotter in their midst, she is obliged to accept their commission. The plot could not be bigger. Ever since he died in AD 68, apparently by his own hand, Rome has been haunted by reports that Emperor Nero is in fact very much alive and about to return to claim his throne.

The Book of Extraordinary Impossible Crimes and Puzzling Deaths is the latest collection from legendary murder mystery editor and writer Maxim Jakubowski. Filled with impossible murders and puzzling plot twists that keep your brain on the mysteries until the last minute. Clever fictional crime stories. Some of mystery fiction's most inventive talents from the USA and UK offer a series of brand-new ingenious murder stories that will have you scratching your brow until the very last minute and delighting in Machiavellian solutions.

From 1939-1946 Americans gathered around their radio to listen to The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, featuring Basil Rathbone as the high-strung crime solver and Nigel Bruce as his phlegmatic assistant, Dr. Watson. Witty, fast-paced and always surprising, these great radio plays, written by the prolific writing team of Anthony Boucher and Denis Green, are as fresh today as they were then.

New Orleans. They call it the Big Easy, but there’s nothing easy about Jack Nightingale’s latest case. Dead usually means dead, but corpses are coming back to life and carrying out targeted killings. The supernatural detective is called in to investigate and he soon discovers that Voodoo is behind the spate of murders. Whoever is making the dead rise obviously has a plan - a plan so heinous that even the Devils of Hell are concerned.... But there are darker forces at work. And they have Nightingale in their sights. His life - and his soul - are on the line.

Alice didn’t think her maternity leave would involve so much, well, murder. Before becoming proud new moms, she and her friends bonded more than members of a prenatal group usually would, as they became accidental amateur sleuths and solved a crime together. Now, with all this behind them and Alice’s son Jack somehow already a year old, Alice is keen to finally catch up on some sleep. So when an opportunity presents itself in the unlikely form of an eco-protest, Alice and her friends willingly chain themselves to trees and settle in as an excuse to get some overdue rest.

The journey that takes Mark Jacobson around the world began when a friend bought a lamp at a rummage sale and was told that it was made from the skins of Jews. While he didn't believe the story, he sent it to Mark, saying, "You're a journalist, you figure out what it is." This is the first known discovery and investigation of such an artifact.

The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was a radio show which aired in the USA from 1939-1950, most famously starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson. Episodes from 1939 through 1943 were written or adapted by Edith Meiser from the books of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. From 1943 onward, most shows were written or adapted by the team of Dennis Green and Anthony Boucher or Green and Leslie Charteris who replaced Meiser, who left the show over her disagreements with a sponsor over the amount of violence in the program.

David Bain releases nine new tales of crime and horror from his haunted gothic settings of Green River and Gray Lake, including an all-new Will Castleton paranormal investigator story! (There's also a bonus short from the "It's Over" post-apocalypse universe created by C. Dennis Moore and Caleb Straus!)

Nineteenth-century New Orleans is a blazing hotbed of scorching politics and personal vendettas. And it’s into this fire that Benjamin January falls when he is hired to follow Oliver Weems, a bank official who has absconded with $100,000 in gold and securities. But it’s more than just a job for January. The missing money is vital to the survival of the school for freed slaves that he and his wife, Rose, have founded.

Where Old Bones Lie is set on an isolated archaeological dig in the Cotswolds. When a body is found near the site, the suspects, witnesses, and clues all conflict, and the disappearance of a group of New Age travellers just seems to add to the mystery. Superintendent Markby and Meredith Mitchell must untangle the mess, and in doing so find themselves in a dangerous and uncompromising situation.

“DNA," is what I read in the paper. That’s hard to argue with. Until an unofficial search of the victim’s room uncovers evidence that the police missed, or chose to ignore. An engraved ring; a phone number; and an antique copy of Lorna Doone inscribed with a cryptic message.

A decades-old vendetta.... A man thought long dead who might be seeking revenge.... Two monstrous eagles at his beck and call.... Men haunting rooftops, the skin ripped from their flesh.... Rumors of stolen gold buried beneath the earth in a boxcar...and a villain so bold that he takes Jim Anthony's headquarters hostage! All this and more in Red Shambhala, by Joshua Reynolds from Pro Se Productions and Pulp Obscura!

A smothering fog of doom heralds a terror that leaves a pile of bloody corpses in a busy subway station. The Death's Head Cloud strikes swiftly, snaring innocents in its foul grip, leaving madness and death in its wake. Will Jim Anthony be able to solve this mystery, or will he also succumb to this terrible menace?

Detective Ngaire Blakes is back on the case when a skeletonized murder victim is discovered - a crime that took place during the Springbok Tours of 1981. A period that pitted father against son, town against city, and police against protesters. When the victim is identified as Sam Andie, a young African American man transplanted from the States to NZ by his family, Ngaire must investigate whether racial motives were behind the death.

Here are 14 new cases by repeat customers written by award-winning author Lyn McConchie, in which the famous duo deals with blackmail, a kidnapped child, a lost gem of immense value, a missing girl, and other heinous crimes, including murder most foul - and know that for every crime investigated, there will be a Holmesian solution, of far better than seven percent!

In 1900, the crumbling French Quarter is an enclave of immigrants, primarily Sicilian. Early one July evening, four-year-old Luigi Bova is lured from in front of his house by the promise of ice-cream by a man who tosses Luigi into the back of a passing wagon. A frantic search ensues but Sicilians are reluctant to call the New Orleans Police Department populated by mostly Irishmen. Detective Jacques Dugas, taking a short cut through the Quarter, comes upon a street full of people looking for the missing boy and takes command of the situation.