Detective Short Stories Mysteries

This bundle includes Basil and the Lost Colony, Basil and the Big Cheese Cook-Off, Basil and the Royal Dare, and Basil and the Library Ghost.

‘Tis the Season… for a Christmas Crime Thriller Short Story. A late-night shootout erupts over stolen cigarettes and leaves a Good Samaritan wondering, “Did I do the right thing?” JoJo is a repeat offender who grew up in foster care. His sister was adopted by a man named Davey, his only connection to family life. When JoJo is released after a short stint in county jail, Davey agrees to pick him up and drive him to a motel near his home. But when JoJo asks to stop for cigarettes, Davey’s in for the fight of his life. JoJo swipes a pack of smokes causing a fast-moving chain of ...

Poirot Investigates is the enthralling third book in the Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot mystery series. In this collection of classic whodunit stories, Christie takes the listener down a dark and lonely road to solving some of the most exciting mysteries in the Poirot series. Although Poirot Investigates is listed as the third book in the series, this is a collection of short stories, each focusing on a different case, ranging from a robbery at sea to pharaoh’s curse. If you like mysteries, this book will keep you entertained for hours.

Behind the stage lights and word-perfect soliloquies, sinister secrets are lurking in the wings. The mysteries in this collection reveal the dark side to theatre and performing arts: a world of backstage dealings, where unscrupulous actors risk everything to land a starring role, costumed figures lead to mistaken identities, and on-stage deaths begin to look a little too convincing. This expertly curated thespian anthology features 14 stories from giants of the classic crime genre.

Mr. Davenheim, a wealthy financier, leaves his home to mail a letter, then fails to return. The story fills the newspapers and intrigues Hercule Poirot, who challenges Inspector Japp with the claim that he can solve the case before the police, and without leaving his flat.

This anthology of rare stories of crime and suspense brings together 13 tales from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction for the first time in book form, including a newly discovered Gervase Fen novella by Edmund Crispin that has never previously been published. With the Golden Age of detective fiction shining ever more brightly thanks to the recent reappearance of many forgotten crime novels, Bodies from the Library offers a rare opportunity to read lost stories from the first half of the twentieth century by some of the genre’s most accomplished writers.

Maria Packington suspects her husband of having an affair. In an attempt to revitalise her marriage, she responds to an ad from Mr. Parker Pyne - who promises to provide solutions to unhappiness. Maria's life soon undergoes a rapid transformation....

It's the start of a new year, full of possibilities and potential, but Annabella is stuck at home with flu and Leger is happy to sleep on her lap while she recovers - but when he finds two crimes are committed within minutes of each other, his detective instincts kick in. While Hugh braves blizzard conditions to help out at the scene of a hit and run, Leger finds an elderly man has been beaten and left for dead. Wondering if the two crimes could be linked, Leger struggles to piece the events of that day together and is hindered by meddling humans, freezing conditions and the disappearance ...

Now that Amber has been located, it's time to bring her home. The residents of Creamery Crescent and Livingstone Avenue gather together at the Goldsworthy home to hold a surprise welcome home party for Amber. However, the guest of honour has not arrived. Flooding in Kilmarnock has meant that Nicole and Peter couldn't reach her and they are left devastated when Amber's new human refuses to meet them to hand her over. However, in the middle of the night, Amber mysteriously turns up at her old home, with apparently no recollection of how she got there and who was responsible for bringing her ...

Let Ellery Queen clue you in on his special brand of high tension, brain-teasing mystery! This collection consists of novelettes and short stories from Queen's many escapades.

‘A bloody confrontation at a massage parlor leaves a customer fighting for his life as a masseuse flees into the night. Detective Tom Stone swings into action, searching for the suspect while monitoring reports on the victim’s condition. He investigates a nearby bar where the owner, Jasmine, is closing for the night and wants nothing to do with the police. A shadowy figure huddles at a back table and Stone approaches to question her, but she escapes to the back parking lot and takes off in her car. Jasmine, fearful of the power that law enforcement wields, offers to show Stone where the...

Roger Riccard, one of the most respected Sherlock Holmes authors, has again taken pen in hand to bring forth a third set of five adventures in a new series of short stories. Sit back and enjoy this third volume of A Sherlock Holmes Alphabet of Cases....

Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, a screenplay writer, and political activist. Among his enduring character creations are Sam Spade, Nick and Nora Charles, the Continental Op, and P. I. Rush, introduced in this book, who is ugly, mean, focused, and "works for pay". Hammett is widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time and was called, in his obituary in The New York Times, "the dean of the...'hard-boiled' school of detective fiction." Ths short novellette is a crime story with an intricate plot and characters, and a surprise twist at the end.

Kellyn had always loved Elias Stratton with all her heart and probably always would. She'd trusted him...but never again. Elizabeth had always believed there was nothing more magical than the precious gift of love...even now in the heart of danger, she still believed it...she always would. After telling the story of Simon's magical cowboy ranch for more years than she cared to count, Elizabeth Fountaine wondered if there might be more to the fanciful fairy-tale than being an elaborate bedtime story to tell children. More than ever before, she very much needed for even just a small piece of ...

Upon opening a time capsule from 1968, the author finds a letter written by a condemned insurance agent from Texas only minutes before his arrest on capital murder charges. The letter relates this agent's downfall at the hands of a crooked police detective and a twisted woman. Though he was undoubtedly innocent of the crime, history long ago recorded his apprehension, trial and execution. By the time you read his letter, fifty years will have passed, and nothing can be done to save its author. His tale is a cautionary one, however, and so well worth reading. Beware of dames, dives, and death.

Bryce’s fellow attorney and partner in their firm, Tom Middleton, experience the death of his son who is found out to be a mule for a drug cartel trading arms for drugs. The boy is killed in a violent way, and Middleton finds out that one of the firm’s biggest clients is involved. Middleton confronts the owner and later is accused of his murder. Bryce begins to investigate the murder. As he investigates, he discovers that lots of other people had the motivation to kill the deceased. This is the Series 2 of Bryce Palmer Mysteries. First, recommended reading The Gateway series.

This electric short story begins in October on the island of Rhodes, a veritable paradise of privacy, beauty and calm, or so Hercule Poirot has imagined. The reality is quite startlingly different. The idyll is disturbed by the arrival of famed Chanel beauty Valentine Chantry, and a ripple of malice is felt across the island. Captivated by her wiles and immaculate good looks, one young married man falters, closely watched by Valentine’s brooding husband and the watchful eye of Poirot.

Gus has traveled out of state and up to the city of Seattle to visit his daughter. She’s sharing an apartment with two criminology majors. Naturally their thoughts turn toward talking about crime and they ask Gus to talk about one of his cases. Since he doesn’t want to discuss anything too recent or else his daughter might know the people involved, he digs down deep into his memory banks for the perfect case from his first year as a sheriff. It also just so happens to be the first case he crossed path with Father Xavier. As he remembers it, Gus was called in to investigate an apparent ...

The second of the Leger Hotel Mysteries Series sees an unexpected visitor with a massive grudge against Leger arrive - his son, August. Confused when August first arrives at the hotel, Leger asks how the young tomcat made the journey from Glasgow. He learns that August travelled with Verity, the sister of the man who attacked Hugh almost two years ago. Unaware who Verity is, Annabella and Hugh give her a job at the hotel but alarm bells ring when the young girl falls victim to one crime after another. Leger suspects she is conning her trusting employers and friends out of money. August is ...

Queen's Bureau of Investigation is now open for business - and in each department of this new enterprise Ellery finds ample opportunity to exercise the brilliant, ingenious, and at times startling talents of his crime-lab mind. For to the bureau come some of the most plaguey cases in Queen's career.