Old Crime

In a Mexico City mansion on October 23, 1789, Don Joaquin Dongo and ten of his employees were brutally murdered by three killers armed with machetes. Investigators worked tirelessly to find the perpetrators, who were publicly executed two weeks later. Labelled the "crime of the century," these events and their aftermath have intrigued writers of fiction and nonfiction for over two centuries. Using a range of sources, Nicole von Germeten recreates a paper trail of Enlightenment-era greed and savagery, and highlights how the violence of the Mexican judiciary echoed the acts of the murderers.

A trio of vicious World War One veterans descend on the farm in the Adirondack mountains where one of them grew up and his father now lives alone. They embark on, happily wreaking drunken havoc at the old man's place and in the nearby town. But when a naïve, mail-order bride arrives, she ignites a tinderbox of resentment, lust, and betrayal among the men that explodes in brutal depravity, bloody violence, and shocking death. This hard-boiled, literary masterpiece includes a new introduction by Jack Mearns, author of John Sanford: An Annotated Bibliography.

This is a story from the Normandy Stories collection. Maupassant is hailed as one of the greatest masters of the short story. This collection focuses upon the land he knew and loved so well - Normandy. Its people and its countryside are portrayed here in vivid color and with great warmth. Amusing, saucy, and sometimes even farcical they may be, but they are also capable of great pathos, often branching off to end tragically.

Like sharks to blood in the water, the mob arrived in Hollywood greedy and ready to tear away huge chunks of cash. Opportunistic mobsters saw labor unions as the means for muscling into the movie industry and extorting millions of dollars from studio bosses. Control the unions to which projectionists, art directors, cinematographers, electricians, scene designers, stagehands, extras belong, and you control the whole industry.

Ein erholsames Wochenende in den Highlands steht ihr bevor, bei dem sie traditionelle schottische Backwaren probieren, sich im Fliegenfischen versuchen und lernen kann, wie man einen „wee dram“, einen kleinen Schluck Whisky, genießt. Doch als sie in der Schlossbibliothek über eine Leiche stolpert, wird Gemma in einen Mordfall verwickelt, der so verwirrend ist wie ein kompliziertes Schottenmuster!

It’s a cold winter evening, and rain is sweeping in from the Atlantic when a young woman, having braved the weather to visit her sick mother in a remote part of Ireland, comes across an obstacle in the road. She clears the highway of stones from a damaged bridge only to see the body of a woman in a ditch. With no phone reception, she travels to the nearest police station to report what she has found. The local Garda waste no time in attending the scene of the crime.

A beauty traps three young friends. They are unaware of the fact that they are courting the same girl. She proves to be a death for the two of them. But why? What happens to the third friend? A savage man kills people for pleasure. What is Faridi going to do about it?

Sergeant Nita Slowater has just reconnected with Grandma Greene after years of estrangement when she discovers the elderly woman missing from her home. When local law enforcement refuses to take the disappearance of the 85-year-old woman seriously, Nita turns to the Special Crimes Team and to a private investigator, Jaz Wheeler. Nita can't stand the thought of losing Grandma Greene, yet the death of an elderly woman during her last case haunts her.

Another murder rocks the small Welsh town of Gilfach - the police are baffled, the corpse is getting colder, and only Granny Smith, the intrepid pensioner sleuth, stands between justice and all out anarchy. Granny has a talent for mayhem, and soon those talents are put to good use as our intrepid pensioner starts to unravel the case, which finds her provoking Chief Inspector Miskin as she comes up against a full-scale police investigation, proving that you’re never too old to make a nuisance of yourself and that 71 is actually the new 21.

In the summer of 1976, Duane Oshun finds himself stranded in a remote Montana town beset by a series of strange and menacing events. He takes a job as a logger and builds a cabin on an isolated road near a reclusive neighbor—a hermit named Ted Kaczynski. The two men are captivated by the valley’s endangered old-growth forest, but Kaczynski’s violent grievances against modern society soon threaten the lives of all those around him.

Tanner and Romeo team up to protect an old friend from England whose husband has become a target. When the threat escalates, Tanner faces off against the London mob.

Lynn Naismith gave up the job she loved when she married Ed, the love of her life, but it was worth it for the happy years they enjoyed together. Now, 10 years on, Ed has been diagnosed with early onset dementia, and things start to happen - things more sinister than missing keys and lost words. As some memories are forgotten, others, long buried, begin to surface...and Lynn’s perfect world begins to crumble. But is it Ed’s mind playing tricks, or hers....?

When David Audley, that most subtle of Intelligence chiefs, sends his insubordinate protégé Paul Mitchell off to investigate a KGB operation by researching a long-forgotten naval engagement off France in 1812, it doesn't look to Mitchell as if it will lead anywhere. But the fate of the crew of the Vengeful has more than a few surprises in store for Mitchell, and suddenly the past throws a dazzling and very dangerous light on the present.

Rob had a final piece to play last month, and the Black Queen has finally come forward. Negotiating a deal with three mafia heads, the Black Queen’s revenge is nearly complete but one thing stands in her way: Jonathan Greene. His death would be the unifier needed to finalize the agreement.

Sheriff Colt Harper believes he's colorblind in his enforcement of the law. But is he? When a Black man is murdered, it ignites age-old anger in the African American community over the injustices they've endured and forces Harper to confront his own personal demons. Harper's single-minded pursuit of justice for the dead man thrusts him between two volatile groups - furious Blacks who don't know if they can trust him and racist Whites who want to use the controversy to spark a bloody race war.

Millions of honest, hardworking Americans invest in pension funds hoping to survive comfortably in retirement. Dishonest managers swoop down like vampires and suck these funds dry. They use this money to support their own lavish lifestyles or salt it away in hidden accounts to use at their leisure leaving their clients destitute. If caught, these criminals serve minimum sentences in country club prisons and, on release, live in luxury on their ill-gotten gains.

Diana and her sister, Antonia, are house-sharing spinsters who have never got over their respective first loves. Naomi lives alone, haunted by the failure of her two marriages. When a body is discovered in the local quarry, all three women’s lives are turned upside down. And when Diana’s old flame Gill turns up unexpectedly, tensions finally spill over and threaten to destroy the outwardly peaceful lives all three women have carefully constructed around themselves.

During a vigil calling for police reform, students from Spelman College, a historically black women's institution, are assaulted by rifle fire from a passing vehicle. On her way to interview witnesses, Detective Sarah "Salt" Alt confronts the fleeing vehicle of the suspects, but they get away. While other detectives take the lead on the Spelman murders, Salt is tasked to investigate the case of a recently discovered decomposed body. When she combs through the missing-persons reports, it becomes clear the victim is a girl Salt took into custody two years before.

Jake Crosby has traded in a stockbroker's suit and tie for a standard-issue uniform. As a newly minted Mississippi game warden, he has two tough cases to cut his teeth on - the ongoing robbery of wealthy hunters and the ruthless search for a rumored hidden fortune.

Old Wounds: A Nick Shelby Case and Other Crime Stories is a collection of 15 short crime stories from dark detective noir to domestic murder, crossing time periods as far back as the Victorian era and into the near future—some with a twist of horror, science fiction, or the supernatural. Each story revolves around intriguing characters with twists and turns and on occasion a sting in the tail.