Short Stories Mystery Thrillers

Here for the first time are three never-before-published mysteries by Edmund Crispin, Ngaio Marsh and Leo Bruce. Together with a newly unearthed short story by Ethel Lina White that inspired Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes, and a complete short novel by Christianna Brand, this diverse mix of tales by some of the world’s most popular classic crime writers contains something for everyone.

A magical French island. A dead contestant. An aspiring baker must clear her name before she gets burned. Imogen Banks has dreamed her entire life of opening her own bakery in Seattle. But when she accidentally sets fire to her apartment and loses all her possessions, her dreams get toasted. Still coping with her loss, she receives a cryptic invitation she can't possibly refuse: Entry into a mysterious baking competition on a beautiful French island.

Seichan is ripped out of the Sigma series for an adventure all her own - but can she survive? The beautiful and elusive assassin wakes in a hotel in Paris with a deadly electronic collar fastened to her throat. Joined by a boy who is similarly threatened, she must rescue the son of a hated enemy, who has fallen under the sway of the nefarious leader of an apocalyptic cult. To survive she must venture into the dark world beneath the City of Lights, into the infamous catacombs of Paris.

C. J. Box, #1 New York Times best-selling author of the hugely popular Joe Pickett series, selects the best short mystery and crime fiction of the year in this annual “treat for crime-fiction fans” (Library Journal).

The description “consulting detective” was often a reference to Sherlock Holmes, but that was inadequate to tell about his unusual characteristics. He was a loner who preferred to keep to himself and kept many secrets from others, including the few friends he had. Holmes did have a constant professional relationship with Dr. Watson, and it was the faithful Watson who once said, “I had no idea that such personalities exist outside of stories.”

Scare Street is proud to present a collection of best-selling horror author Ron Ripley’s most blood-curdling ghost stories. Four delightfully diabolical tales have been summoned from beyond the grave, and are certain to make your skin crawl. Haunted houses, vengeful spirits, ancient curses - everything you crave in a classic ghost story lurks within this ghastly collection. And as you devour one terrifying story after another, pay no attention to the chill in the air.

The hit BBC series Sherlock has introduced a whole new generation of fans to Arthur Conan Doyle's legendary detective. In this unique collection, Sherlock co-creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss have selected their all-time favorite Sherlock Holmes adventures, providing listeners a curated masterclass in crime fiction. Each of these 19 tales, from Sherlock's first appearance in A Study in Scarlet to the late classic The Dying Detective, is a potent mix of murder, suspense, cryptic clues, red herrings, and revenge.

The handpicked stories in this collection introduce us to the most determined of gumshoe gals, from debutant detectives like Anna Katharine Green's Violet Strange to spinster sleuths like Mary Roberts Rinehart's Hilda Adams, from groundbreaking female cops like Baroness Orczy's Lady Molly to contemporary crime-fighting PIs like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone, and include indelible tales from Agatha Christie, Carolyn Wells, Edgar Wallace, L. T. Meade and Robert Eustace, Sara Paretsky, Nevada Barr, Laura Lippman, and many more.

Just as World War I is drawing to an end, the prime minister is kidnapped. It is down to Hercule Poirot to locate him before a crucial conference, to avert an international crisis.

Someone is trying to ruin Christmas. Two of the town’s annual traditions have gone sideways so far. Now it’s starting to get personal for Zara Riddle, a witch who’s just trying to enjoy the season with her family. In a small town full of supernaturals, it’s going to be tricky to figure out who or what has been causing such a calamity. Zara has a list of suspects in mind, and the one at the top of the list happens to live under her own roof. Can the Riddle family’s first Christmas in Wisteria be saved?

Filled with eerie surprises and dark delights, Night and Day takes us from the dusty shelves of an uncanny library filled with fictional characters to a bunker deep beneath the earth where scientists seek revenge on old Nazis; from an English marsh haunted by a mother and her son to a country house where a grieving widower finds comfort from a most unlikely source. Concluding with the author’s account of how an obscure horror film brought him closer to his lost father, and how nostalgia can help to keep us sane, this is a collection that will move, entertain, and keep you listening.

Tis the season for trimming the tree, caroling, baking cookies, and curling up by the Yuletide waiting for Santa to drop down the chimney. But in this festive collection of holiday whodunits, murder is also paying a visit.

Under the Great British Baking Contest tent, the competition's heating up to be crowned Best Baker in all of Britain. For amateur baker Poppy Wilkinson, there are mysteries, secrets, and lies, even murders to solve. As a fledgling witch, Poppy's having enough trouble controlling her sponge cake, never mind trying to control her powers. Besides solving crime, Poppy's also trying to uncover the mystery surrounding her own background. Will she discover who she really is before she gets sent home? Or worse?

In his first collection of short fiction, New York Times best-selling author John Connolly offers a selection of dark, daring, and utterly haunting tales. Here are lost lovers and missing children, predatory demons, and vengeful ghosts.

Tragiquement connue pour son histoire violente et chaotique ainsi que pour la catastrophe qui l’a frappé en 2010, Haïti est le pays le plus pauvre des Amériques - et l’un des plus riches sur le plan littéraire. Cette anthologie de dix-huit nouvelles, projet lancé avant le tremblement de terre, réaffirme le talent des auteurs contemporains haïtiens, aussi bien francophones qu’anglophones, qu’ils vivent sur place ou qu’ils soient issus de la diaspora, sur un terrain où ils ne sont pas forcément attendus : le genre noir.

Cold. Heartless. Deadly. Whispers of his name alone bring fear to fae and mortals alike. The Prince. There is nothing in the mortal world more dangerous than him. Haunted by a past he couldn’t control, all Caden desires is revenge against those who’d wronged him, trapping him in never-ending nightmare. And there is one person he knows can help him. Raised within the Order, Brighton Jussier knows just how dangerous the Prince is, reformed or not. She’d seen firsthand what atrocities he could be capable of. The last thing she wants to do is help him, but he leaves her little choice.

Nothing makes Portland detective Archie Sheridan happier than knowing that Gretchen Lowell - the serial killer whose stunning beauty is belied by the gruesome murders she’s committed - is locked away in a psych ward. Archie can finally heal from the near-fatal physical and emotional wounds she’s inflicted on him and start moving on with his life. To this end, Archie throws himself into the latest case to come across his desk: A cyclist has discovered a corpse in Mount Tabor Park on the eastern side of Portland. The man was gagged, skinned, and found hanging by his wrists from a tree....

A thriller writer is embroiled in a real-life whodunit when a friend drops dead with her hatpin impaled in his back. The violation of a sealed West Bank tomb, its rock walls intact, provides a Thebes investigator with a mystifying conundrum. Two sisters take shelter in a shuttered old house at the end of a country road . . . only to discover they're not alone. And the author's most beloved characters, Amelia Peabody and Radcliff Emerson, make an appearance in a newly uncovered tale with a witty nod to Sherlock Holmes.

Here is the precursor to Jurassic Park. Victorian explorers have heard there is a remote plateau where dinosaurs still survive, and a group set outs on a dangerous mission to find out more about it.

From Italy in 1733 to Edinburgh in 1831 to a series of chilling murders in London in 1870 and a lethal game of revenge decades later, a watch touches lives with misfortune - until it comes into the hands of one young woman who might be able to stop it for good. This outstanding collaboration between four outstanding novelists follows characters who are irrevocably linked by fate, each one playing a key role in breaking the curse once and for all.