Israel Armstrong – the hapless duffle coat wearing, navel-gazing librarian who solves crimes and domestic problems whilst driving a mobile library around the north coast of Ireland – finds himself on the brink of thirty. But any celebration, planned or otherwise, must be put on hold when a troubled teenager – the daughter of a local politician – mysteriously vanishes. Israel suspects the girl's disappearance has something to do with his lending her American Pastoral from the library's special "Unshelved" category. Now he has to find the lost teen before he's run out of town – while he attempts to recover from his recent breakup with his girlfriend, Gloria, and tries to figure out where in Tumdrum a Jewish vegetarian might celebrate his thirtieth birthday.
Frances Silver, a girl of 18, was charged in 1832 with murdering her husband. Lafayette Harkryder is also 18 when he is accused of murder and he is to be the first convict to die in the electric chair. Both Frances and Lafayette hid the truth. But can the miscarriages of justice be prevented?
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley. The folk song, made famous by the Kingston Trio, recounts a tragedy in the North Carolina mountains after the Civil War. Laura Foster, a simple country girl, was murdered and her lover Tom Dula was hanged for the crime. The sensational elements in the case attracted national attention: a man and his beautiful, married lover accused of murdering the other-woman; the former governor of North Carolina spearheading the defense; and a noble gesture from the prisoner on the eve of his execution, saving the woman he really loved. With the help of historians, ...
There's trouble on the rise when the "Diva of Dough" arrives in Quincy's Gap to make the wedding cake for Milla and Jackson's Christmas Eve nuptials. The famous chef and television personality is Milla's sister, but while her confections are sweet and beautiful, the Diva herself is demanding and rude, and she makes enemies faster than you can say praline pecan bundt cake. When the Diva is done in, her body found covered in cake batter, James and the other supper club members find themselves up to their elbows in suspects.
Two children are found dead in a basement. Four years later their murderer escapes from prison. The police know if he is not found quickly, he will kill again. But when their worst fears come true and another child is murdered in the nearby town of Strengnas, the situation spirals out of control. In an atmosphere of hysteria whipped up by the media, Fredrik Steffansson, the father of the murdered child, decides he must take revenge. His actions will have devastating consequences. As anger spreads across the whole country, the two detectives assigned to the case – Ewert Grens and ...
Taken in by her two great-aunts, Candida Sayle fears she may become the next victim of the Benevent Treasure, which is said to bring death to anyone who touches it, while Miss Silver investigates the death of a former Benevent employee.
A sterling collection of the year's most shocking, compelling, and gripping writing about real-life crime, the 2006 edition of The Best American Crime Writing offers fascinating vicarious journeys into a world of felons and their felonious acts. This thrilling compendium includes:· Jeffrey Toobin's eye-opening expos? in The New Yorker about a famous prosecutor who may have put the wrong man on death row· Skip Hollandsworth's amazing but true tale of an old cowboy bank robber who turned out to be a "classic good-hearted Texas woman"· Jimmy Breslin's stellar piece about the end of the Mob as we know it
The 2005 edition of The Best American Crime Writing offers the year's most shocking, compelling, and gripping writing about real-life crime, including Peter Landesman's article about female sex slaves (the most requested and widely read New York Times story of 2004), a piece from The New Yorker by Stephen J. Dubner (the coauthor of Freakanomics) about a high-society silver thief, and an extraordinarily memorable "ode to bar fights" written by Jonathan Miles for Men's Journal after he punched an editor at a staff party. But this year's edition includes a bonus – an original essay by James Ellroy detailing his fascination with Joseph Wambaugh and how it fed his obsession with crime – even to the point of selling his own blood to buy Wambaugh's books. Smart, entertaining, and controversial, The Best American Crime Writing is an essential edition to any crime enthusiast's bookshelf.
In his introduction to the The Best American Noir of the Century, James Ellroy writes, 'noir is the most scrutinized offshoot of the hard-boiled school of fiction. It's the long drop off the short pier and the wrong man and the wrong woman in perfect misalliance. It's the nightmare of flawed souls with big dreams and the precise how and why of the all-time sure thing that goes bad.' Offering the best examples of literary sure things gone bad, this collection ensures that nowhere else can readers find a darker, more thorough distillation of American noir fiction....
An anthology of storiesFollowing the huge success of the previous BBM collections comes the latest batch of stories from the UK's top-flight crime writers. Alongside an "Inspector Morse" story from Colin Dexter and a "Rumpole" tale from John Mortimer, is Jake Arnott's first short story and a wealth of exclusive stories from some of Britain's most exciting up-and-coming young crime writers. An ideal present for anyone who has ever enjoyed a good murder-mystery, "The Best British Mysteries 2006" will cause many sleepless nights of avid page turning!
A Detective Chief Inspector Wexford novel. The fatal car accident involving the stockbroker Fanshawe couldn't possibly be connected with the murder of a cocky little lorry driver. But was it a coincidence that the latter died the day after Mrs Fanshawe regained consciousness?
An anthology of storiesParanormal crime stories by bestselling fiction writers like Anne Perry, Michael Stackpole, Laura Resnick, and more.Paranormal crime stories by bestselling fiction writers like Kelley Armstrong, Anne Perry, Simon R. Green, Patricia Briggs, and more. A massive, monumental volume of paranormal crime fiction by bestselling authors. Gripping tales of mayhem include both novellas and short stories like 'Stalked by,' by Kelley Armstrong, 'The Judgment' by worldwide bestselling author Anne Perry, 'Appetite for Murder' by Simon R. Green, ', 'Road Dogs' by Norman Partridge, 'The Hex Is In' by Mike Resnick, 'Doppelgangster' by ...
Ripped from the pages of the Fall, 1949 issue of "The Phantom Detective" magazine, here is the complete lead novel (including illustrations) – The Black Ball of Death! Marked for murder, the Phantom tackles the puzzling “eight-ball” mystery – in which a sinister clue at the feet of slain Arthur Arden is a harbinger of further violence! Exciting pulp action!
The inimitable Richard Jury returns in a thrilling tale of mystery, madness, and mistaken identityThree months have passed since Richard Jury was left bereft and guilt- ridden after his lover's tragic auto accident, and he is now more wary than ever. He is deeply suspicious when requested on a case far out of his jurisdiction in an outlying village where a young woman has been murdered behind the local pub. The only witness is the establishment's black cat, who gives neither crook nor clue as to the girl's identity or her killer's.Identifying the girl becomes ...
"Anne Holt is the godmother of modern Norwegian crime fiction." – Jo Nesb?From the internationally acclaimed author of 1222 comes the suspenseful tour de force that started it all – the unforgettable debut of Inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen in a stunning literary skein of corruption, drugs, and murder.Norwegian author Anne Holt has become one of the hottest writers of dark, sophisticated mystery fiction in the world today. Blind Goddess is the international bestseller that introduced readers to the brilliant and enigmatic Inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen, whose fascinating evolution over eight books lies at the heart of the series' success.Blind ...
Ross Craddock was just the type to be murdered. The new landlord of Craddock house, he begins by giving eviction notice to his aunt Lucy. He threatens the doorman with dismissal. He makes a violent and unwelcome pass to his cousin Mavis. He is vindictive and spiteful and ends up dead. The suspects include Lee who may have walked in her sleep and killed him out of unconscious fear. Or Peter who may have found Ross' advances to Mavis unbearable. Or aunt Lucy who unexpectedly came back. Or possibly Bobby who was still in love with Mavis and furious that she was seen with Ross. The answer is yet another Wentworth twist. I love her characters and she weaves their personal lives in with the mystery and gives us a treat.
It's midsummer in Sweden-when the light lingers through dawn and a long, isolating winter finally comes to an end. In this magical time, a brutal killer has chosen to strike. A female priest-who made enemies and acolytes in equal number-has been found hanging in her church. And a big-city lawyer quite acquainted with death enters the scene as police and parishioners try to pick up the pieces…Not long ago, attorney Rebecka Martinsson had to kill three men in order to stop an eerily similar murder spree-one that also involved a priest. Now she is back in Kiruna, ...
The desert air is hot with sex and betrayal, death and madness and only Archer can make sense of a killer who makes murder a work of art.Finding a purloined portrait of a leggy blonde was supposed to be an easy paycheck for Detective Lew Archer, but that was before the bodies began piling up. Suddenly, Archer find himself smack in the middle of a decades-long mystery of a brilliant artist who walked into the desert and simply disappeared. He left behind a bevy of muses, molls, dolls, and dames-each one scrambling for what they thought was rightfully theirs.
He's big and brash. His beat is the underbelly of Los Angeles vice-a world of pimps, pushers, winos, whores and killers. He lives each day his way-on the razor's edge of life. He was a damn good cop and LAPD detective. For fifteen years he prowled the streets, solved murders, took his lumps. Now he's the hard hitting, tough talking best selling writer who tells the brutal, true stories of the men who risk their loves every time a siren screams.
Chief Inspector Michael Haggerty asks Richard Jury to prove brewing magnate Oliver Tynedale's granddaughter is an impostor. Excavation of Tynedale's bombed London pub, the Blue Last, has turned up two skeletons – was the child found his real granddaughter? Meanwhile Melrose Plant reluctantly poses as an under gardener to investigate the nanny who purportedly saved the baby's life.
"An astonishing talent." – Jeffery DeaverWhen a bomb destroys Stockholm's new Olympic stadium, worries erupt about a terrorist on the loose, but when journalist Annika Bengtzon investigates, she uncovers a secret source that could reveal the truth behind the bombing.
Special Agent Sydney Fitzpatrick, forensic artist to the FBI, returns to Quantico to help identify a brutally murdered young woman. But when Sydney's friend and colleague, the forensic anthropologist who assisted her, is killed in a hit-and-run, a covert government team takes over the investigation, and Sydney is suddenly removed from the case. Certain her friend's murder is connected to the first case, Sydney investigates. She discovers that the first victim was not only an archeological student, but also the daughter of the ambassador to the Holy See. Just before she was killed, the ambassador's daughter claimed to have found one of three keys that just might lead to a map of the long lost Templar treasure. Sydney's search for answers takes her to the streets of Rome, and into the underground crypts and caverns in Naples, one step ahead of a ruthless killer. Time is running out for Sydney as a fellow government agent is kidnapped. And the ransom demanded? The Templar map.
A gripping tale of revenge and rivalry from the author of The Oxford MurdersArgentinean author Guillermo Mart?nez's work appeals to fans of both literary fiction and mysteries. Now, with this new tale of psychological suspense, Mart?nez is poised to expand on the success of The Oxford Murders.The narrator is an up-and-coming young writer who has little in common with Kloster – a literary giant whose disturbing crime novels dominate the bestseller lists. However, they have both, at one time, employed the secretarial services of the alluring Luciana B. Out of the past, Luciana makes ...
