Short Stories Mystery Thrillers

Samantha Moon is back and fighting crime! Hired for what seems like another cheating spouse case, Samantha couldn’t be more surprised when the target of her surveillance seemingly walks in on a bank robbery. Is he somehow involved? Sam doesn't know, but a few twists and turns later, she soon finds herself hanging from a helicopter’s landing skid... and heading out to sea. Turns out, this is no ordinary cheating spouse case. Luckily, Sam is no ordinary private eye. Click BUY NOW or READ FOR FREE today!

A shadowy master criminal has been kidnapping experts from the food industry and stealing both food and equipment. The crimes are so unrelated no one in the world had noticed the connections. No one except Albert Smith, that is. He’s got almost nothing to go on, but with every place he visits, he gets just a little closer to the truth. He’s not working alone though, his faithful sidekick, Rex Harrison the former police dog is right there with him. Can the two of them pull off the impossible and find the man Albert chose to dub ‘the Gastrothief’?

It's been said that all great literature boils down to one of two stories—a man takes a journey, or a stranger comes to town. While mystery writers have been successfully using both approaches for generations, there's something undeniably alluring in the nature of a stranger: the uninvited guest, the unacquainted neighbor, the fish out of water. In the newest collection of stories by the Mystery Writers of America, each author weaves a fresh tale surrounding the eerie feeling that comes when a stranger enters our midst, featuring stories by prolific mystery writers.

Killing Me Softly introduces Key West private eye Gideon Lowry, who moonlights as a piano player at a local jazz club. When Virginia Murphy shows up one night to ask him to investigate her sister's death 40 years earlier, Gideon is led down the darker side of memory lane where secrets linger. Some are buried as deeply as the paradise that was once Key West, now entombed in concrete. Key West's Hemingway Days is in full swing in Night and Day, when Gideon is pulled into the world of a famous nightclub singer known only as Asia.

Tis the season for trimming the tree, caroling, baking cookies, and curling up by the Yuletide waiting for Santa to drop down the chimney. But in this festive collection of holiday whodunits, murder is also paying a visit.

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.

What is a crimson trail? Is it blood? Or paint? Or yarn? Why would Sherlock Holmes revisit a previously solved case? How could an open window be important and how can a house be blackmailed? Dr. John Watson reveals the answers to these questions in The Crimson Trail and Other Stories along with cases involving the disappearance of a poet's intended, a Christmas card clue, a missing tiara, a caped murderer, a vampire attack, and a mythical moor creature.

Maxine was made to do one thing: die. Except the minor non-player character in the world Riley is building makes her own impossible decision - veering wildly off course and exploring the boundaries of the map. When the curious Riley extracts her code for closer examination, an emotional relationship develops between them. Soon Riley has all new plans for her spontaneous AI, including bringing Max into the real world. But what if Max has real-world plans of her own?

In this masterful collection of short fiction, Joe Hill dissects timeless human struggles in 13 relentless tales of supernatural suspense, including “In The Tall Grass”, one of two stories cowritten with Stephen King, basis for the terrifying feature film from Netflix.

Some things are best left alone…. When Charlie gets a text inviting her to play a game, her first instinct is to delete it. It’s obviously a scam because nothing in life comes for free. But her world is painfully dull, her future uninspiring. Surely, just looking can’t hurt… right? The rational side of her warns against it. Don’t fall for it. No one hands out opportunities like this. And yet, she goes ahead and clicks ‘yes’ and in that instant, her life veers off course in ways she never could have imagined. And once she’s in, there’s no way out...

Mystery writer Anthony Eastwood is lured to the crime scene of a faked murder, where two individuals masquerading as police officers arrest him and charge him with murder. As the phony police officers escort Mr. Eastwood home, the true goal of the masquerade becomes apparent.

Six months into her marriage, Samantha True she learns her new husband's been killed in a freak accident, she’s inherited his secret PI business, and he had another wife. Broke and devastated, she dives into learning the PI business—how hard can it be? Following a binge-watching how-to session on YouTube, Sam’s ready to take her first case. When mysterious strangers show up at her doorstep demanding information about her dead husband, she realizes she's in over her head. Samantha must discover who he really was. But what if the truth puts her in danger, too?

The hit BBC series Sherlock has introduced a whole new generation of fans to Arthur Conan Doyle's legendary detective. In this unique collection, Sherlock co-creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss have selected their all-time favorite Sherlock Holmes adventures, providing listeners a curated masterclass in crime fiction. Each of these 19 tales, from Sherlock's first appearance in A Study in Scarlet to the late classic The Dying Detective, is a potent mix of murder, suspense, cryptic clues, red herrings, and revenge.

Even if you think you don't know him, you know him. Few in the Hollywood orbit have had greater influence; few have experienced more humiliating failure in their lifetime. Thanks in part to the biopic directed by Tim Burton, starring Johnny Depp, and bearing his name, Ed Wood has become an icon of Americana. Perhaps the purest expression of Wood's théma - pink angora sweaters, over-the-top violence, and the fraught relationships between the sexes - can be found in his unadulterated short stories.

Reflecting a city still divided, Belfast Noir serves as a record of a city transitioning to normalcy, or perhaps as a warning that underneath the fragile peace darker forces still lurk. Featuring brand-new stories by: Glenn Patterson, Eoin McNamee, Garbhan Downey, Lee Child, Alex Barclay, Brian McGilloway, Ian McDonald, Arlene Hunt, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Claire McGowan, Steve Cavanagh, Lucy Caldwell, Sam Millar, and Gerard Brennan.

Sin City. An artificial oasis of pleasure, spectacle, and entertainment, the gambling capital of America has reinvented itself so many times that it's doubtful that anyone knows for sure what's real and what isn't in the miles of neon and scorching heat. Las Vegas is considered the ultimate player's destination, no matter what your game. Las Vegas is the true city that never sleeps, where fortunes are made and lost every day, and where snake-eyes aren't found just on a pair of dice.

In New Orleans' French Quarter, the Tooth Fairy isn't a benevolent sprite who slips money under your pillow at night.... He's a mysterious old recluse who must be appeased with teeth—lest he extract retribution. When young Diogenes Pendergast loses a tooth, however, his skeptical older brother Aloysius is determined to put the legend to the test...with dire consequences.

Working with family is no joke for Jackie Parker. Together with her husband Luke and his brother Logan, Jackie is up against wacky tenants, crazed landlords, and secrets worth killing for.

Fine-art aficionado. Master of disguise. Jewelry expert. Historian. Gentleman. Burglar. Arsene Lupin is all of these and more. In 1905, Maurice Leblanc introduced his gentleman-burglar in the story "L'Arrestation d'Arsène Lupin". Shortly thereafter, the stories were collected as one single volume. In these charming adventures, Lupin orchestrates a myriad of extravagant heists in the very face of the determined Inspector Ganimard.

The latest thrilling collection of “Vampire for Hire” stories featuring vampire private eye, Samantha Moon, including: Silver Hammer - When a silver hammer appears in the hands of one of Samantha Moon’s closest friends―along with a bloodthirsty need to use it―the vampire detective is about to discover just how clever the Universe can be... When Sam Met Santa - When Santa Claus shows up at Sam Moon's door, it's hardly the strangest thing that's ever happened to her. What happens next, however, is another story... One Swallow - A murdered wife. A desperate husband seeking revenge. ...