Short Thrillers

It’s the perfect time to curl up in front of a crackling fire with these wintry whodunits from the legendary Agatha Christie. But beware of deadly snowdrifts and dangerous gifts, poisoned meals and mysterious guests. This chilling compendium of short stories - some featuring beloved detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple - is an essential omnibus for Christie fans.

There's a body in a trunk; a dead girl's reflection is caught in a mirror; and one corpse is back from the grave, while another is envisioned in the recurring nightmare of a terrified eccentric. What's behind such ghastly misdeeds? Try money, revenge, passion, and pleasure. With multiple motives, multiple victims, and multiple suspects, it's going to take a multitude of talent to solve these clever crimes. In this inviting collection, Agatha Christie enlists the services of her finest - Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and Parker Pyne.

There are stories we tell to pass the time… and then there are stories we never tell, because telling them gives them power. The Witch in the Well: Return of Her is one of those stories. Set in a small town carved into the wilderness — a place where everyone knows your name but no one dares speak of her — this tale unfolds like a nightmare remembered. It follows the slow unraveling of peace when a sinister presence, once banished, makes her return. What happens when you open the door to something you were never meant to find? And what happens when it finds its way back? In this story,...

When a divorced writer is tailed by a Mexican gang member, he and his twelve-year-old daughter are forced to defend themselves. But when it’s discovered that the young lady is capable of some professional grade bad-assness, Dad realizes he not only has a special child on his hands, but that she’s an absolute killing machine. Twists and turns, surprises and thrills from New York Times bestselling, Thriller and Shamus Award winning mystery author, Vincent Zandri.

Sean and Amber are on a weekend getaway when Sean needs to make an emergency restroom stop. But the decision will possibly cost their lives as some killers lie in unexpected places...

In "Presence in Prague", Father Thomas O’Neill is enjoying a solitary evening in his top-floor apartment in Rome when he receives a troubling call from a Cardinal at the Vatican. There's a crisis at St. Bede's College in Prague involving disturbing supernatural phenomena—grotesque manifestations, eerie sounds, and a series of incapacitated priests. As reports reveal walls screaming and strange writing appearing in ancient catacombs, the church's usual methods have failed, necessitating Thomas's unusual expertise in confronting genuine evil. Recalling his own past encounters with ...

A collection of horror/thriller stories for readers who would enjoy a stroll through a graveyard after midnight. Hark! Don’t read this book if a deranged maniac has escaped from the local asylum. Otherwise, enjoy the horror.The creepers include: THE MASQUERADE CURSE: Five master criminals are abducted and brought to a decaying island hotel, where the vengeful son of a ruined tycoon tries to determine which one is responsible. THE IMPOSSIBLE KILLER: A detective discovers a series of brutal murders are the work of a supernatural entity that kills anyone whose name it hears. TWICE DOOMED: ...

Stockings are hung, lights are lit, and the annual Branson Falls holiday tradition of leaving gifts on a neighbor’s doorstep, ringing the doorbell, and running, has begun. When the gifts turn from the usual baked goods to cash and other high value presents, theories about the mystery gift giver range from miracles to magic elves. Kate’s not sure who the secret Santa is, but she has some theories.

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 ...

Lily Young is fighting a war on two fronts. One is against Mussolini's Blackshirts, who hunt her relentlessly, and the other is against her own body, as she carries Luigi's child in the midst of war-torn Italy. Living in hiding at Casa del Sole, Lily is determined to protect her unborn child and maintain her love for Luigi. But when an unexpected accident forces her to deliver her baby prematurely, Lily's world turns upside down. As she navigates the difficulties of motherhood in a war zone, Lily begins to realize that even the innocent are not safe. The horrors of war threaten to consume ...

You've got to feel a bit sorry for veteran attorney Delbert Drunge. Poor Delbert was disbarred by the Iowa Attorney Discipline Board for pooping his pants while trying to close a real estate deal. Delbert was too humiliated to fight the adverse ruling. Then he meets Jake Taalsma who just suffered a similar fate by the same panel of young litigation lawyers. Jake's sin was passing out at his desk and spending a week in hospital. The two old boys join forces and fight the callous legal bureaucracy which determined that a health crisis was grounds for dismissal from the legal profession. ...

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who first appeared in publication in 1887. He is the creation of Scottish born author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A brilliant London-based detective, Holmes is famous for his intellectual prowess, and is renowned for his skillful use of deductive reasoning (somewhat mistakenly - see inductive reasoning) and astute observation to solve difficult cases.

A million problems arise when trying to flip a crumbling old Victorian. But Lyda, a newbie seller, and Dani, a TikTok-trained home stager, are fixated on one: the dead landscaper in the bedroom. The notorious lothario was one of many last-minute contractors swarming around, and now every jilted lover and business competitor is a suspect. It’s up to Lyda and Dani to close the case before the open house.

When Overlook helper Belinda gets a chance to go to a special conference and learn about opening her own business, Thistle volunteers to watch Belinda's daughter Annie. Thistle was the queen of rotten children so she thinks Annie will be easy. That feeling only lasts until Annie disappears into the frigid woods surrounding Hemlock Cove. Answers are never easy, and when clues start rolling in, Thistle and Aunt Tillie are left to piece together a puzzle that is years in the making and could have dire consequences.

Patterson Blake is an FBI Agent on a mission. When she was a teenager, her older sister vanished while on a cross-country road trip and hasn't been seen since. Patterson thought she'd put the trauma of her sister's disappearance behind her, but now there is new evidence, and suddenly the old wounds reopen. Except that Patterson isn't a kid anymore. She has a badge and a gun, and the resources to follow her sister's trail. But it won't be as easy as Patterson thinks.

Set between the events of 'The Siege' and 'The Imperial Banner', this compelling short story follows imperial agent Cassius Corbulo as he investigates a mysterious series of fires. PRAISE FOR NICK BROWN'S 'Agent of Rome' novels: 'Brown has become a master of his trade, serving up thrilling Roman history and mystery courtesy of a band of now hard-bitten combatants and comrades whose adventures in imperial wastelands and far-flung hotspots are becoming the stuff of legend." - Lancashire Evening Post. 'A fast-paced, action-packed novel tinged with humour which brings alive the harsh reality of...

Raised off the grid by survivalists, Mercy Kilpatrick believed in no greater safeguard than the backwoods of Oregon. Unforgiven by her father for abandoning the fold for the FBI, Mercy still holds to her past convictions. They’re in her blood. They’re her secrets—as guarded as her private survival retreat hidden away in the foothills. In a cabin near her hideaway, Mercy encounters a young girl whose grandmother is dying from multiple knife wounds.

In early spring of 2059, Lieutenant Eve Dallas is called off planet to face a grueling ordeal - giving a seminar at the largest police conference of the year, to be held in a swanky resort. A resort which just happens to be owned by her husband, Roarke, of course.

He's in heat and nothing is going to stop him from seeding her When a purebred werewolf catches wind of an untouched and fertile mate in his territory he becomes hellbent on hunting her down and seeding her. When he finds her things get hot and heavy before they're suddenly interrupted. However that isn't going to stop this alpha male in heat from plowing and seeding his fertile and untouched mate. He's going to take his voloptuous new mate hard with without protection as he's determined to not stop until she's carrying their pup. This is a 5000+ word BBW alpha werewolf story full of wild ...

From Italy in 1733 to Edinburgh in 1831 to a series of chilling murders in London in 1870 and a lethal game of revenge decades later, a watch touches lives with misfortune - until it comes into the hands of one young woman who might be able to stop it for good. This outstanding collaboration between four outstanding novelists follows characters who are irrevocably linked by fate, each one playing a key role in breaking the curse once and for all.