Short Stories Crime Suspense

Dror Eytan is a ruthless, heartless, violent extortionist. I am a simple teacher who has never had to deal with people like Eytan. Eytan wants the money. I don't have it. My friend's life is at stake. What have I got myself into? Help.

You wake up one morning with the weight of the world on your shoulders. You just lost your job, your girlfriend dumped you and you're about to be evicted from your apartment. Is it worth even going on anymore? Maybe not, but before you pull that trigger why not give a call to the folks at the suicide hotline. Maybe they can help. How good are these people at their job? Someone's gonna die no matter what. And there ain't a thing you can do about it.

This ain't no Jimmy Stewart Christmas movie. A policeman patrols the downtown area during the Christmas season, checking knobs and keeping the neighborhood safe. His rounds take him past the bridge on the edge of town where he sees a man standing on the railing, contemplating jumping to his death. Can our friendly neighborhood cop talk him out of it and give him a reason to live? Sometimes it's better to just mind your own business.

Brand-new stories by: Tom Abrahams, Robert Boswell, Sarah Cortez, Anton DiSclafani, Stephanie Jaye Evans, Wanjiku Wa Ngugi, Adrienne Perry, Pia Pico, Reyes Ramirez, Icess Fernandez Rojas, Sehba Sarwar, Leslie Contreras Schwartz, Larry Watts, and Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton.

It's 1964. Philip Duran has been driving all night to make a sales meeting in the wee hours of the morning in Hollywood. Vern Grayson has the purchasing power at MGM. Mr. Duran's new invention could be just the thing MGM needs to pull ahead of its competitors, but can Duran convince Grayson to buy his contraption? Find out here, because Philip Duran will do, anything for a sale.

It's been decades since the beatings and harassment and the humiliation of this high school bully, yet here he was big as life standing right in front of you at the car rental counter. You may never get this chance again. Go for it. Tell him what a jerk he was and how you'd like to punch his lights out. You jump over the counter, ready to exact your vengeance but you stop. Your bully is supporting himself on two crutches and he has braces on both legs. Now what? You can't very well beat up a cripple. Or can you?

Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. This anthology includes brand-new stories by: Tommy Moore, Jessica Breheny, Naomi Hirahara, Calvin McMillin, Liza Monroy, Elizabeth McKenzie, Jill Wolfson, Ariel Gore, Jon Bailiff, Maceo Montoya, Micah Perks, Seana Graham, Vinnie Hansen, Peggy Townsend, Margaret Elysia Garcia, Lou Mathews, Lee Quarnstrom, Dillon Kaiser, Beth Lisick, and Wallace Baine.

This collection of the best crime and mystery short fiction of 1999, gathered from around the globe and including more award-winners and stories than any other comparable volume, fills the void for those with a hunger for the best international mystery and suspense stories.

From a "master of suspense" ( Library Journal) and writer of "heart-whamming" fiction ( Publishers Weekly) comes an all new suspense collection by James Scott Bell. In the full-length novella One More Lie, high-flying divorce attorney Andrew Chamberlain is on top of the legal world. He buys his suits in Beverly Hills and wins his cases in court. But one day he's approached by a friend to handle the split with his wife. That's the day things start to go very wrong for Andrew Chamberlain...up to and including murder.

In this explosive short story, international bestselling author Jeffery Deaver brings listeners a classic tale of star-crossed lovers who defy the boundaries of enemy territory. When an underworld kingpin gets taken out, his prime turf is up for grabs. For Irish crime lord Brendon Nagle and archrival John Yung, head of a forty-man tong, it’s war. For Nagle’s son, Andrew, and Yung’s daughter, Loi, it’s love at first sight. But others are watching as their secret love unfolds.

It started with a haunting image: a Ford Explorer, iridiscent in the moonlight and alone on a desolate stretch of beach. Its owner, Melissa Gibbons, has gone missing. Her husband says she flew the coop. But Los Angeles Deputy DA Rachel Knight is convinced otherwise: Melissa Gibbons has been murdered. So begins the confounding case that Rachel must present before a disbelieving jury. A dissatisfied heiress and her philandering husband - what really happened?

While staying with the Kingston Bruce family, Mrs. Hamilton Betts discovers that her valuable pink pearl is missing. Presuming it to have been stolen by another houseguest, the concerned host contacts the Beresfords for help.

Mystery writer Anthony Eastwood is lured to the crime scene of a faked murder, where two individuals masquerading as police officers arrest him and charge him with murder. As the phony police officers escort Mr. Eastwood home, the true goal of the masquerade becomes apparent.

We've all been there. Some punk with a beater car creates a road rage situation, but being that your car is a new Mercedes-Benz, you don't want to take any chances so you let it slide. But the kid's not done playing with you. He raises the stakes but pointing a revolver at you. To hell with the car, that's what insurance is for. Go get him.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. You've lost your job and your family needs money. You've exhausted all other options. Your last chance to bring home the bacon is to holdup a tavern and its patrons. As you wait in their restroom, trying to muster up the courage, two other robbers come in and proceed to rob your tavern. This is the last straw. Time for action.

Get a real job? Not on your life. You'd rather keep pulling the same cons on unsuspecting rubs. Your latest con involves selling TV boxes with just a picture tube in it to the gullible public. It keeps you in money and your cost is zero. But what happens when you unkowingly sell one of these useless boxes to Anthony Vonetti, crime underworld hit man? Well, you did and when they see what's in the box, your life won't be worth a plug nickel. You have to get it back before that happens. Good luck.

Your Aunt Grace is dying and you are her only living relative so you would be the logical choice as sole heir to her fortune. However, Aunt Grace has nine cats that also figure into the equasion. Will you split the fortune 10 ways? Or will that plan you've hatched help you keep it all? What will you do?

Penelope is a meter maid who also does double duty emptying the parking meters and counting/sorting the change. This is how she first got interested in coin collecting. She started out by finding a Liberty dime, then a couple of buffalo nickels and finally several wheat pennies. While sorting her find at home one night, she discovers that someone had dropped a rare coin into a parking meter and she ended up with it. Could she keep it? Probably not after the original owner was killed. What to do, what to do.

After her parents died in their home from a house fire nine years ago, Skylar Holmes returns to Ashtons Island for her childhood friend’s surprise party. She was sent to New York to live with her only family, Uncle Nate, after the horrific fire. Skylar thought it was time to put all of her nightmares and fears aside and return to the island where family and friends are gathering for the weekend to celebrate her friend’s party.

New owners of a dream cottage on a remote Maine lake find themselves taunted, then menaced by an unknown figure. When the local authorities refuse to help, they turn to retired Maine game warden Charley Stevens and his young protege Mike Bowditch for protection. But Charley begins to suspect there is more to the mystery than the couple is letting on—and if he and Mike don’t act fast, the situation will explode into violence.