American Mysteries

Nobody ever gave Jamil Rock anything - much less hope. To survive a rough home life and one bad break after another, he became his hood's most successful drug dealer. With loyal friends at his back, Jamil coolly takes care of business and never thinks too far ahead - until Gia Ellis walks into his life. Suddenly, ruling the streets is nothing compared to the instant heat, and alluringly innocent aura, Jamil can't resist....

#1 New York Times best-selling, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Anthony Doerr brings his“stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors” (San Francisco Chronicle) to selecting The Best American Short Stories 2019. Doerr and the series editor, Heidi Pitlor, winnow down twenty stories out of thousands that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year.

A mail-order bride struggling to overcome grief, and the cowboy determined to help her heal by lassoing her heart... Eliza Jane Ferrell can’t bear the thought of marrying any man besides the beau she lost in the war. Poverty, however, along with the pickpocket who’s been hounding her, ultimately convince her to become a mail-order bride. The letter from Rancher Keegan Ford's sassy bride-to-be sounds promising, with one exception. She makes it clear from the start that her heart will never belong to him. It’s a challenge he can’t resist. How hard can it be for one hat-wearing, horse-...

Small-town lawyer Bocephus Haynes comes home late one night to find District Attorney General Helen Lewis waiting for him. Her ex-husband has just been killed. She’s about to be arrested for his murder. And she wants Bo to represent her. There’s a lot working against them. Just before his death, Helen’s ex-husband threatened to reveal a dark secret from her past. Bo has been in a tailspin since his wife’s death.

To dodge a group of ruthless debt collectors, an impoverished southern belle agrees to become the mail-order bride of a rugged cowboy in this sweetly suspenseful historical romance! After refusing to marry the cruel new owner of her childhood home, Annabelle Lane finds herself on the run from the scoundrels he hires to change her mind. In desperation, she signs a mail-order bride contract and hops on the next train, praying the groom she is matched with is a man worth running toward. The most sought-after range rider in the west, Ethan Vasquez is highly skilled at protecting livestock from ...

There can be only one: one man with two loyal friends and secrets from the past that will ultimately shake up the entire hood in Chicago; one man on a mission to destroy anyone who doesn't abide by his rules, including tricky bitches who drop to their knees behind closed doors yet stand tall against him when the time comes to collect the almighty dollar; one man with enough swagger in his walk and confidence in his talk and the skills and mindset to build an empire.

Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of a fresh start at college, but when family tragedy strikes, Daunis puts her future on hold to look after her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team. Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug.

Originally released under the pseudonym “Nia Wilson,” a fictitious name that’s merely a collection of talented writers, “One Night with an Irish Billionaire” quickly rocked to the coveted #1 position on Amazon, making it the best-seller for its genre. Finally, this critically acclaimed thrill ride is being released with proper credit given to the actual author whose work deserves to be recognized. Follow Vivian Clark as she embarks on a journey to the Emerald Isle. There, a chance encounter with a charming businessman leads to an unexpected romance that sweeps her off her feet. ...

At the height of the Bloods gang epidemic of the 1990’s plaguing New York City, Spade meets Sue Blue, a female Crip from the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. Forging a tight bond, the two eventually create an epidemic of their own, adding to the city’s already existing gang problem. As Sue Blue completes a short stint in the city’s notorious juvenile lockup, Spofford, Spade becomes a dominant force in his neighborhood, a leading figure. However, he never forgets his friend, Sue Blue, and, outside of her presence, places her at the top tier of a gang he organizes in Brooklyn, giving ...

Nate Noble has it all--a thriving business, a loving fiancée, and a bright future. But his world takes an unexpected turn when he crosses paths with Marvin Waters, the childhood best friend he hasn't seen in thirty years. Marvin is a man beaten down by life, haunted by a troubled past and barely scraping by. Driven by guilt and a desire to do the right thing, Nate extends a helping hand, offering Marvin a job and a fresh start.

It was supposed to be a fancy, intimate dinner party by the pool. Instead, Lana Lee’s first-ever catering event turns into full-course madness when a domestic worker is found dead. Is the party’s host Donna Feng, the sweet-and-sour owner of the Asia Village shopping plaza where Ho-Lee is situated, somehow to blame? That’s what Lana―whose plate is already plenty full with running the restaurant, pleasing her often-disapproving mother, and fretting over her occasionally serious boyfriend Detective Adam Trudeau―must find out.

Just when Aja and Ro were starting to heal and fall in love; the unthinkable happened and they are torn apart. Aja is missing and Ro is devastated and driven into an unstable condition. Can he find Aja in time before he loses himself? Ace has been in love with Kyra since they were young. He had given up on her and moved on with Camille. When circumstances start to lead him back to Kyra, her secret comes out devastating him. Will he forgive Kyra and choose her? Or will her secret lead him to stay with Camille? Akia and Ray have always been the perfect couple. But cracks start to form when ...

Set in a beautiful but economically devastated Pennsylvania steel town, American Rust is a novel of the lost American dream and the desperation-as well as the acts of friendship, loyalty, and love-that arise from its loss. From local bars to train yards to prison, it is the story of two young men, bound to the town by family, responsibility, inertia, and the beauty around them, who dream of a future beyond the factories and abandoned homes.

Valentine Miller’s heart doesn’t live up to her name. She was burned by love and has made a career out of destroying others’ relationships. She is a media queen (known as the Queen of Mean) that hosts a show that exposes cheaters to their significant others. She has made a lot of enemies, and now, one of them wants her dead. In steps Arkell (Ark) Watson, a former savage turned legit. After watching the woman that he loved die because of his profession, he decides to run a security service that becomes one of the best in the country. After a run in with Valentine and subsequently ...

In 1998 Spade established the United Gangster Crips in his neighborhood to combat the nefarious Bloods gang holding the city siege. His brainchild blossomed into an iron rose; UGC had become a force to be reckoned with. He’d played a major role in changing the urban status quo in Brooklyn. When Spade is arrested for a firearm, Sue Blue takes control of UGC. She builds a tight bond with a subordinate, Royal, who opens her eyes to many things about being a real Crip, given her an entire new outlook on gang banging. Implementing new rules among UGC members, Sue Blue’s actions creates a ...

The Best American series, launched in 1915, is the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction, and it is the most respected—and most popular—of its kind. Don Winslow, the Raymond Chandler Award-winning author of City in Ruins, picks the best twenty mystery and suspense stories from the previous year.

Mystery matchmakers strike again in the town of Bethany Springs Elizabeth comes to Texas to care for an orphaned girl abandoned by her mother. The child has never known a mother’s touch. While Elizabeth isn’t her mother, she knows how to care for children. She’s a governess, after all. A famous one, at that! According to the letters sent to the matchmaking firm, the plan is for Elizabeth to marry the child’s father. On arrival to Texas, however, Elizabeth discovers that the father has vanished. The little girl is being cared for by her Uncle Dalton, a wealthy, surly rancher. Right ...

Im Dezember 1988 kommen beim Lockerbie-Bombenanschlag alle 259 Passagiere einer Boeing 747 ums Leben, darunter auch Maureen, die Verlobte des US-Collegestudenten Mitch Rapp. Ein Jahr nach ihrem Tod wird Mitch von der CIA rekrutiert und schließt sich dem geheimen Orion-Team an, das gegen den weltweiten Terror in den Kampf zieht. An Krisenherden in Europa, im Nahen Osten und Asien bewältigt er den Verlust seiner großen Liebe und sucht nach einem neuen Sinn für sein Leben.

Eat Pray Love meets American Psycho in a seductive and sinister debut literary thriller. Food critic Dorothy Daniels indulges in her homicidal urges by murdering her lovers and devouring their organs in this intense, visceral, and lushly told tale of food, sex, power, and the pursuit of a very particular taste set between New York and Italy. Please Note: A Certain Hunger contains adult language and depictions of violence. Discretion is advised.

Lana Lee runs her family’s Chinese restaurant in Cleveland’s Asia Village like nobody’s business. When it comes to actual cooking, however, she’s known to be about a step up from boiling rice. So Lana decides to go to culinary school on the sly―and prove that she has what it takes in the kitchen after all. But when course instructor Margo Chan turns up dead after class, Lana suddenly finds herself on the case, frying pan in hand.