Historical Mystery Humor

Summer 1989: Gunther Fahnstiel, once a tough cop who wasn't averse to taking a little side money from a certain madam, has just escaped the dementia ward of his Wichita nursing home. He's not exactly sure where he wants to go, but wherever it is, it has to do with the bag full of cash belonging to the man he accidentally backed over with his RV in 1979. During his search, Gunther begins to relive the violent fallout of that madam's sex lottery 40 years ago. As Gunther's memories unravel, his past and present will collide in a devastating reckoning.

Resourceful Bingo Riggs and his partner, Handsome Kusak, are in the sucker-bait business, snapping candid pics of tourists off Central Park. Their fly-by-night enterprise can be irresistible to souvenir lovers, but with one camera in a pawnshop and their developing room in the bathtub of a two-room dump near Hell’s Kitchen, their venture is wretchedly underexposed - until they stumble upon an insurance fraud scheme between the allegedly dead eccentric Mr. S. S. Pigeon and his business partner and beneficiary.

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 ...

Harry Flashman: the unrepentant bully of Tom Brown's schooldays, now with a Victoria Cross, has three main talents - horsemanship, facility with foreign languages, and fornication. A reluctant military hero, Flashman plays a key part in most of the defining military campaigns of the 19th century, despite trying his utmost to escape them all. If only Flashman had got on with his dinner and ignored the handkerchief dropped by a flirtatious hussy in a Calcutta hotel....

When a woman yearns to be reunited with an aviator she met in WWI, fun-loving 1920s detectives and their cool cats pounce on the case. Praise for Magical Cool Cats Mysteries: “FUN! Step back into the days when you needed a password to get that drink, veterans had come home from the Great War, and the electric double decker trolley was the Bee's Knees of public transportation. Travel along with a well polished debutante, a rough hewn veteran pilot, and the deaf Persian cat, who is actually the brains of this detective agency, as the humans try to keep up! “The Magical Cool Cats Mystery ...

Harry Flashman: the unrepentant bully of Tom Brown's schooldays, now with a Victoria Cross, has three main talents - horsemanship, facility with foreign languages and fornication. A reluctant military hero, Flashman plays a key part in most of the defining military campaigns of the 19th century, despite trying his utmost to escape them all. When all other trusts fail, turn to Flashman' Abraham LincolnIn China in 1860, a lot of people mistakenly put their trust in Flashman.

Policeman Nick Rhea has been posted to the country with his wife, Mary, and their three small children. They move into the police house, high on a ridge overlooking the moors. It sits on the edge of the village of Aidensfield - 'probably the most beautiful site in the country'. In the beautiful North Yorkshire countryside of the 1960s, Constable Nick's roles are as varied as the eccentric villagers. He handles every encounter with his characteristic humour, humanity and professionalism.

On November 9, 1989, Bernd Zeiger, a Stasi officer in the twilight of his career, is deteriorating from a mysterious illness. Alarmed by the disappearance of Lara, a young waitress at his regular café with whom he is obsessed, he chases a series of clues throughout Berlin. The details of Lara’s vanishing trigger flashbacks to his entanglement with Johannes Held, a physicist who, 25 years earlier, infiltrated an American research institute dedicated to weaponizing the paranormal.

There is very little that Lizzie Patterson wouldn’t do for those she cares about. That is especially true for her two neighbors in the quiet corner of the canyon that’s been her home for over fifty years and her refuge since she retired from the profession she loved but was more than ready to walk away from. Recently she’s accepted a role in a movie her first husband is producing after years of turning down all the other offers that came her way since her retirement. Many believe that her reason for doing so is because Clay Tobin has agreed to play the lead character in the same movie...

Richard Milhous Nixon lived one of the most improbable lives of the 20th century. He faced down the Russians, the Chinese, and, ultimately, his own government. The man went from political mastermind to a national joke, sobbing in the Oval Office, leaving us with one burning question: How could he have lost it all? Here, for the first time, is the tale told in his own words: the terrifying supernatural secret he stumbled upon as a young man, the truth behind the Cold War, and the truth behind the Watergate cover-up.

A pretty but spiteful young actress with a talent for destroying men's lives is found dead in a college room just yards from the office of the unconventional Oxford don Gervase Fen. Anyone who knew the girl would gladly have shot her, but can Fen discover who did shoot her and why?

Flying into action, daredevil photojournalist Johnny Brice is always looking for trouble...and more often than not, finding it. But he doesn’t know what real trouble is until he rescues the beautiful woman he calls Jinx from a sinking ship. They’re made for each other - even if they are a dangerous mix.

A stolen heirloom. A secret vault. A quiet town built on buried lies. Magda Lane’s antique shop was locked. The display case was sealed. Yet her grandmother’s pocket watch is gone, no break-in, no trace, just a lingering chill and the feeling she’s being watched. When more heirlooms vanish, Magda’s antique expertise and her knack for noticing what others miss makes her the town’s reluctant liaison. With Ivy’s quick wit and Deputy Hank’s skeptical eye, Magda starts asking questions someone doesn’t want answered. An outsider with a mysterious interest. A historian with too ...

Every Christmas Eve, a family make a short pilgrimage to the summit of the extraordinary and mesmerising hill that dominates their small East Lothian town. They celebrate this delightful festive occasion with food, beverages, and shadowy tales of the town’s historical past. But behind these seemingly innocent stories of whale bones, witchcraft, and retribution from times gone by, lies a tragic family secret that links to the present day. Will this be the Christmas Eve that the family can be reunited, and find the love and happiness that they once held so dearly? Christmas on The Law is a ...

When local baseball player Junior Jones receives death threats over the color of his skin, the team's wealthy owner hires Sam Rockwell to solve the case and stop a murder before it happens. Sam goes undercover as a minor league pitcher to strike out the culprit. Follow the clues along with Sam's curmudgeonly ghost of a father Frank Rockwell, and Sam's wife Amelia, who holds a secret that will forever change the lives of the entire Rockwell family. It's another laugh-filled, madcap mystery in the warm, witty 1950's Hollywood-style of author Jason Anspach.

Blandford Candy is sent to London, after an illicit affair, and joins the Roundhead army to fight against the King, taking part in the Battle of Edgehill. A reluctant hero if ever there was one, he becomes a spy for the cause - and, through luck or judgement, uncovers more than one Royalist plot. His love of wine and the fairer sex prove both a curse and a blessing for the agent. Blandford soon earns the enmity of the King’s spy mistress Jane Whorwood, and patronage of the great parliamentarian leader John Hampden.

As inventive as Agatha Christie, as hilarious as P. G. Wodehouse - discover the delightful detective stories of Edmund Crispin. Crime fiction at its quirkiest and best. Holy Disorders takes Oxford don and part-time detective Gervase Fen to the town of Tolnbridge, where he is happily bounding around with a butterfly net until the cathedral organist is murdered, giving Fen the chance to play sleuth.

Autumn, 1989. The waning days of the Cold War. A rogue Stasi colonel has acquired a nuclear bomb and threatens to level Berlin if and when the Wall comes down. CIA Agent Nick Harper is called in to foil the plot. Soon after arriving, however, Harper discovers his identity has been compromised. To stay alive, he must go along with a group of passionate young East Berliners who mistake him for their idol, American superstar David Hasselhoff.

Una sola lettera e anche il terzo segretario bellanese del partito finirebbe nel ridicolo. Le rive del lago di Como sono punteggiate di paesi e paesini accomodati ai piedi delle montagne dove non succede granché. Tranne a Bellano. Nell'ultimo anno e mezzo circa, il Federale del fascio ha dovuto sostituire già due segretari della sezione locale del partito. Il primo a saltare è stato Bortolo Piazzacampo, detto Tartina, per una vicenda legata alle bizzarrie di un toro chiamato Benito in cui il Tartina si è distinto per insipienza.

The collected short stories of the great Victor Canning, originally written and published in the 1950s and 1960s—full of humor, charm, and in true fashion of classic crime writing. Canning’s heartwarming vignettes and clever mysteries take us from a Welsh valley to a far-off island and across the French countryside—introducing unforgettable characters and stories along the way.