Short Stories Crime Suspense

Bill Bernico is the author of more than 200 short stories, including 33 stories featuring his 1940s Los Angeles detective, Matt Cooper. Here are five selected Cooper stories combined in one package.

He looked for payback. She looked for closure. Will they find out what they are looking for? This short story introduces the main character of a new crime series: Josh Aldridge, a former Saskatoon police officer, now turned PI in Toronto. Learn about his past and what makes him tick.

Owen Carlysle's profound sense of place and character pervades this story of inmates struggling to get through their days. What motivates a man whose freedom is compromised?

What would you do if the TSA sexually assaulted your mother? If you're a red-blooded American, you'd do the same thing James Young did. What did James Young do? You'll have to find out. This book really highlights the effects that governmental abuse of power and paranoia can do to individual lives. In this short novel, James Young decides that he has had enough and decides to do something about it. The legal system has failed him. The solution is vigilante justice.

Some art is worth dying for. After Niki Dupre buys a painting at a Starving Artist sale, she learns that the artwork is priceless, and that there are others who also want it in their possession. The church wants it back. Two mobsters want it back. And all of them are willing to kill to get it.

It started with a hostage and an odd ransom demand. After the members of the rescue team are killed trying to overcome the abductor, the real action begins. Bombs start going off in the yard, and when armored tanks fail, Niki is called on to free the hostage. As the hostage crisis becomes a circus of errors and miscalculations, is Niki's skill and expertise enough to keep her alive?

A compilation of five of my latest short stories.

When a self-driving car goes crazy and kills two people, the designer turns to Niki for help. He thinks something else than technology is responsible; his design was beyond fault. Weaving through the falsehoods and misdirections, Niki soon finds herself in danger. On this perilous road, there is a dangerous curve at the end. But is the killer closer than she had thought?

When the sheriff of West Feliciana Parish is found murdered in his own jail, Niki Dupre is called in to investigate. Soon, Niki learns that a local chapter of the infamous MS-13 gang is responsible. But they are hired thugs; gangs do not kill sheriffs without getting paid. The more Niki delves into the murder, the more entangled she gets with the local gang and their leader Juan Valdez. And he doesn't play by the rules.

When a young man with Down syndrome witnesses a bank robbery, Jessica Ramirez discovers that the detectives investigating the case are underestimating the most observant eyes in the room. As she gleans information from Cody Harris, the two perps begin to figure out that Jessica is working with the one witness who could send them to jail.

The Wentworth Asylum, once used to house thousands of people, now lies abandoned. People insist it is inhabited by an ex-inmate who now chops down those who enter with her ax. After two teenagers turn up dead in the asylum, a television crew head to the asylum in the hopes of catching footage of the haunting. And to ensure their safety, Jack Nightingale is sent with them. But is it merely an ax-wielding murderer which awaits them?

Seven short stories compiled here for later availability at ACX audio books. Stories include: "A Rose by Any Other Name", "Wish Me Luck", "I Really Dig Him", "Best Laid Plans", "And Justice for All", "Time Might Tell", and "Million Dollar Smile".

These five stories were previously released as stand-alone pieces. They've been compiled here into one collection.

Once free of the army, Sam Byrne assumed life as a civilian would free and easy. He was wrong. Strapped with a huge gambling debt and wanting to take care of his newly pregnant wife, his life is going in the wrong direction faster than he ever thought possible. Little does he know that a routine traffic accident that resulted in the death of mobster's son is about to change his life and his debt forever.

Four short stories that include: "The Phantom Vigilante", "The Challenge", "Tornado Alley", and "Payback Is a Bitch".

Two short stories previously released as single but combined here in one file to be offered as an audiobook soon. Narrated by Teri Schnaubelt. The two stories are "In for a Penny" and "Snap, Crackle, Kill".

Five Sherlock Holmes mysteries in one book collection. Voiced by Joe Bevilacqua, who has won numerous awards for television documentaries and radio theater.

Tex Larimee is a grizzled Arizona sheriff who’s leaving the deserts of Cactus County behind, blazing a trail east to mix it up with The Slickers in the canyons of Manhattan. Tex’s welcome to New York is a rude one. Robbed of his cash, gun and badge, he’s locked in a room in back of a run-down bar. Breaking out of the bar, he goes looking for his best friend...only to find him dead, his throat cut. And the cops accuse Tex of committing the murder.

A small jet with only one pilot onboard crashes into the Atlantic Ocean. Local authorities are unsure whether the cause of the crash is a bomb or a violent storm. The case seems like it will be an easy one to solve for former NYPD Homicide Detective Lincoln Rhyme to solve. The evidence is inside the cockpit, but there is one problem. The wreckage sits at the bottom of the Puerto Rican Trench, the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean that stretches to 28,000 feet. The plane can't be raised.

A professional pickpocket and accomplished thief ignores his wife's warnings and embarks on an adventure that will change his life - perhaps for the better. A technological marvel of a sports car kills a pedestrian, but no one was at the wheel. A local lunatic admits to murder, but is he crazy - or crazy smart? The life of a researcher with ties to a British spy agency is thrown into chaos when his research goes missing. Injury Time delivers captivating tales of intrigue wrapped in Catherine Aird's tightly woven logic, sealed with the bow of enigma.