Crime Thriller Short Stories

Joyce Carol Oates, a queenpin of the noir genre, has brought her keen and discerning eye to the curation of an outstanding anthology of brand-new top-shelf short stories (and poems by Margaret Atwood!). While bad men are not always the victims in these tales, they get their due often enough to satisfy listeners who are sick of the gendered status quo, or who just want to have a little bit of fun at the expense of a crumbling patriarchal society. This stylistically diverse collection will make you squirm in your seat, stay up at night, laugh out loud, and inevitably wish for more.

The best of the golden age crime writers, praised by all the top modern writers in the field including P. D. James and Ruth Rendell, Dorothy L. Sayers created the immortal Lord Peter Wimsey. This book of short stories is his ninth appearance and introduces another detective, Montague Egg. Poisoned port, pet cats in peril, purloined pearls... Lord Peter Wimsey solves the mysteries of the man who was blown into the fourth dimension and the murder in fancy dress.

Berlin does not make it easy to write noir fiction - or perhaps Berlin makes it too easy. Noir tradition casts a long, influential, and even daunting shadow. Neither Döblin nor Benn, Brecht nor Lang, catered to any crime fiction traditions. They merely steeped their literary projects in a great deal of noir. And so it is with most of the stories in our anthology: they do not necessarily follow the usual patterns of crime fiction, but regard noir as a license to write as they wish, a certain way of approaching the city, and a prism through which its nature is viewed....

The system called them "unaccompanied minors." Maria made them familia. They threatened her residency. She hijacked their bus. Maria built a quiet life from the ashes of her own traumatic border crossing, but when she learns two terrified orphans will be sent back to the hell she barely escaped, she refuses to let it happen. Official bureaucracy offers a system designed to process, not protect. So she does what her enigmatic employer, Sam Harper, would do: get creative and take matters into her own hands, no matter the potential cost. The Feds have protocols. She has a toy gun, an ATV, and ...

Exit Wounds is a thrilling anthology of crime stories written by masters of the genre, including Dean Koontz, Val McDermid, Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, Elly Griffiths, Dennis Lehane, Joe R. Lansdale, and others.

CAUTION! This isn’t for the faint of heart. Keep away from bodies of water while reading this novel. Or not, if you're courageous enough. Ghosts. Hidden mysteries. A world of silence awaits. Eric has returned to Swanton. His goals? Discover what happened to his childhood friends and get peace for their souls. His problems? No one wants to talk about what happened, the local sheriff doesn’t want anyone to talk about what happened, and Eric may or may not know how to… investigate. Yeah. The echoes of the past and supernatural sights of the now are dragging him to the brink of insanity....

Short Story for Adults; Romance, Espionage, Sexpionage, International Crime Mystery. Jennifer, for the first time in her career working on sexpionage cases, is allowed to work on U.S. soil and with good reason. Political sanctions create a vacuum for money laundering. An International Money Broker becomes a person of interest when he brokers deals for foreign countries, raising money for guns and weapons. However, as it turns out, the foreign government is not the problem. It becomes clear the danger stems from someone in the U.S. government. Copying the target's cellphone data which is ...

In a city full of police controversies, hippie artist punk houses, and overzealous liberals, Portland, Oregon, is a place where even its fiction blurs with its bizarre realities. Brand-new stories by: Gigi Little, Justin Hocking, Christopher Bolton, Jess Walter, Monica Drake, Jamie S. Rich (illustrated by Joelle Jones), Dan DeWeese, Zoe Trope, Luciana Lopez, Karen Karbo, Bill Cameron, Ariel Gore, Floyd Skloot, Megan Kruse, Kimberly Warner-Cohen, and Jonathan Selwood.

Investigative reporter Nora Hesper spends her nights cloaked in shadows. As Indigo she's become an urban myth, a brutal vigilante who can forge darkness into weapons and travel across the city by slipping from one patch of shadow to another. Her primary focus both as Nora and as Indigo has become a murderous criminal cult called the Children of Phonos. Children are being murdered in New York, and Nora is determined to make it stop, even if that means Indigo must eliminate every member.

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.

It starts with a few near-accidents: A car almost swipes Mike Hammer when he’s crossing the street. A junkie robs the notoriously hardboiled detective at knifepoint. A fight on a subway platform comes close to pushing him in front of a train. While any one of these could be a coincidence, together they make a conspiracy—one that Hammer will have to end in order to survive. And when it comes to finishing something—or someone—nobody does it better than Hammer.

The Rules have allowed Andrew Phillips to commit the most heinous of crimes for decades. He meticulously plans and executes kidnappings, murders, and other unspeakable acts to children. No one has ever come close to solving the atrocities he perpetrates every few months. Phillips thinks he's successfully committed the perfect crimes. And then he meets Asher Benson.

Disappearing wasn’t going to be enough…they needed a plan. It’s the middle of the twenty-third century and while there have been staggering technological and environmental advances, human nature is still very much the same as it has always been. One woman unexpectedly finds herself thrust into the middle of a long simmering struggle between power, greed, and an overwhelming effort to keep long hidden secrets buried.Luckily she isn’t on her own. A childhood friend that she hasn’t seen in years is proving once again that he can be trusted even as they just barely avoid one near miss...

There is something of both the absolutely spectacular and positively disgraceful about Tehran. But most writers around the world are inclined to think that their own sprawling metropolis is the capital of every imaginable vice and crime, of impossible love and tenderness and cruelty and malice in measures that seldom exist anywhere else. For me, Tehran's case is no different - except that there really is a difference here. The city may be a hothouse of decadence, a den of inequity, all that. But it still exists under the watchful eye of a very unique entity, the Islamic Republic.

All'officina di Nando Iaccarino facevano la fila gli appassionati di auto e moto d'epoca, perché lui riparava sempre l'irreparabile. Ora spetta ai Bastardi di Pizzofalcone scoprire chi lo ha ucciso. E per farlo, ciascuno di loro deve mettere da parte le proprie angosce, i propri dolori, i propri segreti. E difendersi dai grandi capi della questura che non vedono l’ora di assistere alla loro caduta. Spettacolare come quella degli Angeli.

In the idyllic backdrop of Ballycross, County Cork, Seren once reveled in the bliss of marriage to Frenchman André while managing their quaint wine shop. A perfect world, it seemed, until an unforeseen tragedy shattered everything. Determined not to be a mere pawn in the game of fate, Seren takes charge of her destiny. In this journey, she discovers the stark difference between fate and faith—realizing that control is a powerful force. The revelation of an enigmatic email destined for her husband propels Seren into a harrowing mystery. Abandoning the comforts of Ballycross, she ventures ...

Sherlock Holmes is one of the most iconic and lasting figures in literature. In this new edition of Baker Street Irregulars, authors present the iconic detective in over a dozen wildly entertaining new ways. In Keith DeCandido's "Six Red Dragons", Sherlock is a young girl in modern New York City. In Sarah Stegall's "Papyrus", Sherlock is a female librarian in ancient Egypt. In Daniel M. Kimmel's mesmerizing "A Scandal in Chelm", Sherlock is a rabbi. Derek Beebe sends Sherlock to the moon, while Mike Strauss, in "The Adventure of the Double Sized Final Issue", casts him as a comic book character.

When Captain Kellen Adams receives a job offer that sounds too good to be true, she finds herself balanced between fascination and fear. All she has to do is break a code and find a long-lost fortune...or die trying. New York Times bestselling author Christina Dodd kicks off her Cape Charade suspense series with Hard to Kill, a short story of treasure, treachery...and murder.

For some, Barcelona is a European enchantress of nouveau architecture, fusion tapas, and fine cava. To others, it’s a Gothic labyrinth of tiny streets to lose oneself in; hashish-clouded after-hours bars to forget the time; dimly lit plazas with global bohemians squatting, prostitutes tempting. But come morning, its cold cobblestones and misty beachfronts have even darker stories to tell.

AFTER the SUNRISE, a short story introducing Kat Martin's Maximum Security series, plus an excerpt from her new novel, THE CONSPIRACY.They Called Him the Hero of St. Andrew'sWhen an active shooter in full body armor strides down the center aisle of St. Andrew's church, Kurt Layton knows he’s the congregation’s only hope of survival. As petite, auburn-haired Erin McCallum looks into the barrel of an assault rife wielded by a ruthless gunman, she knows she is going to die.But sometimes, in the instant between life and death, a connection is forged between two strangers—as strong as ...