Short Crime Thriller

Christmas in Paris… What could possibly go wrong? Ava Sext, an amateur sleuth and transplanted Londoner who sells books from an outdoor stand that overlooks the Seine, has vowed that this Christmas will be the best Christmas ever. It has to be! It's her first Christmas in Paris as a Parisian. But when someone pushes a book dealer in the Seine at a Christmas Fair leaving him between life and death, Ava, with the help of her fellow bookseller, Henri DeAth, a former notary in a country where notaries are a powerful caste, sets out to solve the crime before someone else dies. A little Paris ...

Colter Shaw is a career ‘reward-seeker’, making his living travelling the country and locating missing persons. So when a woman disappears, he quickly takes the case. As he investigates, he suspects that she was fleeing a bad marriage, and he follows her trail to a secret retreat in Indiana. As events take one surprising turn after another, Shaw begins to wonder if there's more to this mysterious woman than meets the eye.

New York Times best-selling author Sara Paretsky is the master of twisting suspense and propulsive plot. She has been hailed by the crime community as "a legend" (Harlan Coben) and "one of the all-time greats" (Karin Slaughter). Her acclaimed novels featuring detective V.I. Warshawski rank among the most celebrated crime series in modern fiction. Now in this spellbinding collection, Paretsky showcases her extraordinary talents with 14 short stories, eight of which feature the indomitable detective - and a new V.I. story.

The Rise is a gleaming residential tower, newly constructed from steel and blackened glass, that stands on some of London’s most prestigious real estate. Looming imposingly over Hyde Park, only multi-millionaires need apply for one of its sumptuous apartments. But when the young night concierge is found murdered in the building’s lobby, the elite residents quickly find their gilded lifestyles under unwelcome police scrutiny.

A collection of four critically acclaimed, gripping short novels that explore the darkness lurking within ordinary lives. Black Canyon Twelve-year-old Brian Garrett embarks on a weekend camping trip in Colorado’s Black Canyon of the Gunnison, hoping to reconnect with his distant parents. But when his father suffers a brutal accident deep in the chasm, survival takes a sinister turn. Over the next twenty-four hours, Brian will face a horrifying truth about his father—and himself. Rewind A man wakes in a decaying apartment, hooked to a mysterious machine, a dead body in the next room—...

Seventeen-year-old Amish boy Noah Kline is struck by a car as he walks alongside a dark country road late one night in Painters Mill. Seriously injured, he lapses into a coma. Initially, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder believes it’s a straightforward hit-and-run, a driver that panicked and fled. But evidence soon emerges that the incident wasn’t accidental at all - and Kate uncovers a story of teenage passion and jealousy that may have led to attempted murder.

‘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 ...

A ruthless outlaw private eye sets off on an unrelenting quest to recover a stolen baby. Blood will be shed. Recovering from the events in Las Vegas, Nevada, brutal ex-cop Joe Beck is in Daytona Beach, Florida. He's resting up and laying low, sitting in an open-air bar on the city's main street. A woman walks by with a baby in her arms and a black van screeches in beside her to a halt. In broad daylight, the unthinkable happens. A masked man emerges from the van and rips the baby from her mother's arms. He bundles the child into the back before the van speeds off. It all goes down right ...

Carl Weber brings the best of urban street lit authors together, all telling their own dramatic tales of life in the streets in known cities across the USA. The second installment continues with Treasure Hernandez telling the tale of the Dirty South.

When these mocha beauties catch the eye of a wealthy white man, their lives will never be the same. Can the girls accept their lovers' seed and make him a black baby, or will the passion be too much to handle? These two stories are packed full of hot, naughty action. 1. My Body Is His by Sandra Bosslin 2. A Black Baby For My Billionaire by LaShaunda Brown Warning: These books might be too hot for you to read without a change of panties. Adult readers only.

Addie To say the opening night of The Gilded Cage was a success is an understatement. I'm reeling over the success, thinking that the Kingsley Family is finally accepting me as their Don... but I was wrong. Someone is plotting against me and is hellbent on taking me down. When I awaken in the middle of the night to gunshots, it's confirmed. It's clear that someone wants me dead. Not only me, but the heads of the Sky and Gold families, as well. But all of this is taking its toll on mine and Eli's relationship, becoming more clear that we are stronger together than apart. But will our ...

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.

Are you a crime show junkie? A law and order fanatic? A real-life who done did it grand master who uncovers the clues and solves the case before any of your family or friends? Then take the challenge and solve each of the thirteen cases before the end of every chapter. Become one of the elite and earn the title of a professional couch detective.

Three thrilling stories of the law from the master of the legal thriller: Homecoming takes us back to Ford County, the fictional setting of many of John Grisham's unforgettable stories. Jake Brigance is back, but he's not in the courtroom. He's called upon to help an old friend, Mack Stafford, a former lawyer in Clanton who three years earlier became a local legend when he stole some money from his clients, divorced his wife, filed for bankruptcy, and left his family in the middle of the night, never to be heard from again. Until now.

Two hitmen in a depressed rust belt town struggle with a job gone wrong. A girl witnesses a horrifying accident and carries it with her for the rest of her life. Medical students bring a severed foot to a college party. Five-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Joyce Carol Oates has made a career of exploring the forbidden corners of human experience, and the stories collected here, spanning her first three decades as a writer, are among her most unsettling and unforgettable works to date.

In one of London's most elegant shops, a decorative doll in green velvet adopts some rather human, and sinister, traits.... A country gentleman is questioned about a murder that has yet to be committed.... While summoning spirits, a medium is drawn closer to the world of the dead than she ever imagined possible.... In a small country church, a dying man's last word, sanctuary, becomes both an elegy and a clue to a crime.

When the body of a young man is pulled from a submerged car in Roque Harbor, rookie Game Warden Mike Bowditch is shocked when the man’s driver’s license identifies him as none other than...Mike Bowditch. For weeks, Mike and his colleagues have been fielding reports of a man terrorizing the locals while posing as a game warden, wielding a plastic pin-on badge and claiming to be “Warden Bowditch”. Who is the imposter, and how did he end up dead in the bottom of a harbor? Mike must uncover the truth in order to clear his own name.

Though the lives of Mexico's characters are effected by the corrupt and dangerous subculture of their country, these are much more than simple "crime stories". They are complicated and deeply moving tales that tap into universal and enduringly powerful themes: love and loss, religion, family relationships, government abuse, sexual identity, professional ambition, cancer; they introduce us to characters that feel fully realized in their humanity.

Mystery Writers of America is proud to present Deadly Anniversaries, a collection of crime and mystery stories from some of the best contemporary authors, all of whom have been invited to put their own unique spin on what it means to recognize a certain day or event every year. An anniversary can take many forms, and by the time this group of best sellers and award winners is through, none of us will ever look at anniversaries the same way again. Edited by Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini, this collection features original stories from 20 industry giants.

From the New York Times best-selling duo comes a gripping and suspenseful short story about a blind detective who uses her heightened senses to discover life-threatening secrets.