Short Thrillers

Santa Fe lawyer Ed Eagle fell in love with the seductive Barbara Kennerly, and married her, against his better judgment. He should have listened to his intuition. Ed awakens on the morning after his 40th birthday to find that Barbara has vanished, and Ed's money from his business, his bank, and his brokerage accounts has been wired to the Cayman Islands.

In "Cahoots," a backroom poker game turns deadly when a cheater is exposed. In "Mulholland Dive," a man who deciphers the hidden codes of accident scenes investigates a fatality off L.A.'s most fabled roadway. In "Two-Bagger," an obsessed cop tails an ex-con he believes is about to carry out a contract killing.

From its launch in 1920 until its demise in 1951, the magazine Black Mask published pulp crime fiction. The first hard-boiled detective stories appeared on its pages. Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner, and John D. MacDonald all got their start in Black Mask. The urban crime stories that appeared in Black Mask helped to shape American culture. Modern computer games, films, and television are rooted in the fiction popularized by the magazine.

Even a city that boasts three hundred days of sunshine a year has its sudden, often violent storms—and writers have long taken advantage of that metaphor. Renowned authors Katherine Anne Porter, Jack Kerouac, Stephen King, Rex Burns, Robert Greer, Michael Connelly, and Kali Fajardo-Anstine—among many others—have brilliantly portrayed this picturesque but often merciless city. Today, Denver is home to a thriving literary scene, with writers of all stripes finding inspiration in its people and streets. The authors and stories featured in Denver Noir are no exception....

Unlike the other arts, American literature has been a powerful, influential, and leading aspect of American culture. By turns sedate and mercurial and possessing a moral mind set of various social values, the American short story reveals in its pages the psyche of a growing, sprawling nation whose sense of destiny has always been larger than life. Here are seven masterpieces that will make you smile, make you frown, and leave you pondering the mystery that surrounds the soul of a great nation.

From its launch in 1920 until its demise in 1951, the magazine Black Mask published pulp crime fiction. The first hard-boiled detective stories appeared on its pages. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner and John D. MacDonald got their start in Black Mask. The urban crime stories that appeared in Black Mask helped to shape American culture. Modern computer games, films, and television are rooted in the fiction popularized by “the seminal and venerated mystery pulp magazine” ( Booklist).

Every town hides a few dark secrets. Some dogs track scents. Bentley tracks trouble. And Maggie Shaw has learned to trust him with her life. If you love quick read, small-town suspense, layered mysteries, and strong women who won’t back down, The Shelter Conspiracy is the perfect escape. When a simple volunteer job at a local animal shelter uncovers a chilling secret, Maggie and her intuitive therapy dog, Bentley, find themselves in the crosshairs of a danger no one saw coming. What makes The Shelter Conspiracy impossible to put down? A fearless K-9 handler willing to risk everything for ...

Books Four, Five, and Six in the John Decker Supernatural Thriller series.

What do you do when you find out your entire life is a lie? A strange feeling overtakes Ally Bowen. Her arms shiver. Her hair stands on end. An overwhelming sense of terror seizes her body. It’s like nothing she has ever experienced before. Suddenly, she witnesses the murder of a handsome stranger sitting across from her in the library. Or did she? Realizing this was a premonition of his death, Ally races to warn him. He feels familiar, but why? With demons and "The Conspirators" working against her, Ally must race to uncover the truth about who she really is before it’s too late.The ...

Seven Rooms. Seven Rules. One Book You Won’t Forget. The Seventh Room and Other Hauntings is a chilling collection of modern horror stories where nothing is as it seems, and the echoes of the past refuse to stay silent. From cursed architecture to sentient towns, haunted seas to fractured reflections, these tales explore the places we aren’t meant to go—and the things that wait for us there. Step aboard a derelict vessel that rewrites the names of its crew. Stand beneath a nesting tree that feeds on grief. Explore a collector’s basement where stories aren’t written in ink. Stare ...

You thought that things were crazy in the first series, just wait until you read the sequel. Melissa and August just want some peace in their life, but it doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen with everyone from their past resurfacing. No matter how hard everything becomes between the new couple. Mike and Cassandra were finally in a place in their life that they loved, and they were in a place with each other that they loved even more. Carissa thought that she had lost everyone and felt that she was never going to be accepted again, so she did the only thing she felt was right. Side ...

Savage Trail: a short story in 13 chapters. All action. All Blaze. When the trail turns savage, only warriors survive. A canyon full of secrets. Missing girls. Lurking predators. Blaze and Ninja are on a break. No cell coverage, no command, no civilization. Just the wilds and… silence. But when a terrified kid crosses their path, they follow the trail into a nightmare. Deep in Colorado’s Black Canyon, a trafficking ring is stalking the trails. Three girls taken. One escaped. Desperately fighting to stay alive. The traffickers think they planned for everything. They didn’t plan for two...

Anne is barely keeping it together. A frazzled ghostwriter and aspiring novelist, she juggles nine-year-old twins and a listless marriage from an overcrowded Manhattan apartment, spreading herself thinner each day. Just as Anne is about to give up on her dreams, she lands her biggest client yet: Melody Wells. Melody paints a picture of serenity and empowerment in the lavender haze of her visualization workshops—however, the one thing she can’t manifest are the pages her publisher is demanding for her new motivational book. Enter Anne.

Toni West is a recent college graduate looking to make her way in the big city when she gets a call that her beloved aunt has passed away. Toni must return to a town she hates to say goodbye to the one family member she loved. When she gets there, she's surprised by an enticing new friend, Jenna Styles, and an unexpected inheritance that causes additional unwanted friction within an already broken family. Fire and romance don't always mix - Will Toni and Jenna find a way to be together? Or will their desire for one another not be enough to keep the flames burning? **This book is an intimate...

Zombie, Indiana explores the impact of an invading zombie horde on a trio of Hoosier protagonists…each of whom have some dark secrets to keep. When the governor’s daughter mysteriously disappears on a field trip, IMPD Special Sergeant James Nolan, scholarship student Kesha Washington, and Governor Hank Burleson must all come together not only to find the governor’s daughter, but also to undertake a quest to redeem the very soul of the state itself…all while under constant attack from the living dead.

J Jackson Bentley and others have contributed their American homeland short stories for this anthology. There are thrillers, murder mysteries and feel good dramas. Beautifully written and descriptive they are each a mini novel in the vein of the traditional and much loved short story writers of yesteryear. JJB kicks off the book with a tribute to the Great American Short Story, reminding us all of the great stories we now take for granted and which have spawned films and TV series that we know and love. The essay also pays homage to graphic novels and comics. There are fifteen stories ...

A struggling young Persian artist sends Flynn, one of Sherlock Holmes’ Baker Street Irregulars, out to buy provisions for a celebratory dinner. But when he brings the requested groceries to the artist’s wife, her joy quickly turns to fear. Then Flynn returns to the artist’s studio, only to find that disaster has struck. Meanwhile, the National Portrait Gallery enlists the help of Sherlock Homes to investigate the mysterious theft of The Pink Lady. As Holmes sets out to recover the precious painting, he uncovers a dark web of deceit far more complex than he imagined.

From a secretive jungle-covered island in the Pacific to the sands of the Middle East. From the smog-filled alleyways of China to the passageways of a US Navy destroyer. The War Planners series follows different members of the military and intelligence community as they uncover a Chinese plot to begin the next world war, and attack America.

On the afternoon of July 30, 1975, former Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa left the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox Restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, never to be seen again. In this story by two-time Edgar Award-winning, New York Times best-selling author Steve Hamilton, Alex McKnight - a former Detroit cop - is sitting at the rail in the Glasgow Inn when a local old-timer tells him an unusual story. It’s the kind of small-town mystery that won’t let Alex sleep at night, but when he goes hunting for answers, he stumbles upon the biggest surprise of his life.

In the Florida marshlands, three teenagers uncover a harrowing secret. Val and her brother Shane live a chaotic life with their friend Freddy, distracted from their father's disappearance. After discovering a creature in the marsh, they bring it home, only to realize it craves warm-blooded prey. As a foul odor from a mysterious RV in their trailer park spreads, Val and her friends suspect a connection. During their investigation, they witness a horrific event that sends them scrambling for their lives. With their deadbeat uncle triggering even more danger, the siblings must confront whether...