John H. Watson is arrested and imprisoned at Coldbath Fields penitentiary. Writing from a cramped and dimly lit cell, Watson describes the mysterious events leading up to his arrest. Someone has been mailing him a series of cryptic warnings. His lifelong friend Sherlock Holmes has vanished in the raging waters of Reichenbach Falls. And Professor Moriarty’s criminal empire is expanding across Europe and throughout America.   In a desperate attempt to clear his good name, Watson has compiled twelve clues that may prove his innocence, including:        •  The front page of a newspaper from Thousand Oaks, California      •  A catalog of Victorian fashions and merchandise      •  An empty matchbook containing cryptic handwritten notes      •  The complete text of “The Final Problem,” Watson’s famous account of the death of Sherlock Holmes      •  Plus a theater ticket, an arrest report, a railroad timetable, and more   All twelve clues have been painstakingly reproduced for this volume, along with the complete text of Watson’s manuscript and specially commissioned illustrations by Homes aficionado Clint Hansen.

    Here are the best stories and every major writer who ever appeared in celebrated Pulps like Black Mask, Dime Detective, Detective Fiction Weekly, and more. These are the classic tales that created the genre and gave birth to hard-hitting detectives who smoke criminals like packs of cigarettes; sultry dames whose looks are as lethal as a dagger to the chest; and gin-soaked hideouts where conversations are just preludes to murder. This is crime fiction at its gritty best.Including:• Three stories by Raymond Chandler, Cornell Woolrich, Erle Stanley Gardner, and Dashiell Hammett.• Complete novels from Carroll John Daly, the man who invented the hard-boiled detective, and Fredrick Nebel, one of the masters of the form.• A never before published Dashiell Hammett story.• Every other major pulp writer of the time, including Paul Cain, Steve Fisher, James M. Cain, Horace McCoy, and many, many more of whom you’ve probably never heard.• Three deadly sections–The Crimefighters, The Villains, and Dames–with three unstoppable introductions by Harlan Coben, Harlan Ellison, and Laura LippmanFeaturing:• Plenty of reasons for murder, all of them good.• A kid so smart–he’ll die of it.• A soft-hearted loan shark’s legman learning–the hard way–never to buy a strange blonde a hamburger.• The uncanny “Moon Man” and his mad-money victims.

    private eye Elvis Cole is hired by popular television star Jodie Taylor to delve into her past and identify the biological parents who gave her up for adoption thirty-six years before. But when Cole gets to Louisiana and begins his search, he finds out there's something much darker going on. Other people are also looking for Taylor's parents, and some are ending up dead. Sunset Express Elvis Cole, wisecracking private eye, finds himself embroiled in a controversial L.A. murder case. A wealthy WASP entrepreneur appears to have murdered his wife. A hot-shot defense attorney takes the case and hires Elvis to find proof that the L.A. detective—rumored to be dirty—fooled around with the evidence. But as Elvis investigates, he becomes more suspicious of the media-loving lawyer than the cops. Indigo Slam When a 15-year-old girl shows up to plead with Elvis to find her errant father, his first impulse is to hand the case over to Social Services. But he sees how hard the kid is working to keep her two siblings together and afloat. As Elvis investigates, he finds the dad seems to be a mover in the criminal underworld who is on the verge of a grand scheme. Events are set in motion that will pit Elvis and Joe Pike against a scary group of counterfeiters—and the even scarier U.S. Marshals.

    Now there is a killer on the loose. Scotland Yard′s brightest talent is chosen to head up the high-profile taskforce, a DCI who must confront his own past as the body count rises.There are few leads and Jack Hawksworth can only fall back on instinct and decades-old cold cases for any clue to the killer′s motive ... and identity.With his most loyal team member threatening to betray him, a Chief Inspector pushing for results, a hungry British media clamouring for information, and a restless public eager for a conviction, the high-pressure operation can only end in a final shocking confrontation ...

    But we're only going on one condition: If a case crops up, you'll leave it to one of the security guards. Just this once, Nancy? So we can actually listen to the music?""Where's the mystery in that?"One rock concert. One big crime.Three of the best teen detectives of all time.

    Two years ago he achieved brief notoriety for rescuing a local actress from a robbery attempt while making a delivery to her apartment. Now he is back in the spotlight - this time as the main suspect in the assassination of a newly elected prime minster who had come to Sendai for a hometown victory parade. Set in a near-future Japan modeled on the United States, Remote Control follows Aoyagi on a forty-eight-hour chase, in a dramatic retelling of the Kennedy killing with Aoyagi in the role of a framed Lee Harvey Oswald. A massive manhunt is underway. As Aoyagi runs, he must negotiate trigger-happy law enforcement and Security Pods set up throughout the city to monitor cell-phone and email transmissions and keep a photo record of street traffic. Can he discover why he has been set up and who is responsible? Can he find the real assassin and prove to the world his innocence - amidst media pronouncements of his guilt - before the conspirators take him out? Isaka's style and worldview are such that he is often compared to Haruki Murakami; but he defies an easy label as a writer, with a voice, a sense of humor, and an imagination that are truly unique. Now, with this excellent translation by Stephen Snyder, readers everywhere can enjoy one of Japan's finest literary talents. Winner of the Shugoro Yamamoto Prize and the Japan Booksellers' Prize No. 1 in Japan's 2009 "This Mystery is Amazing " rankings

    The novella explores the origins of the mysterious Sisters of The Saint order of nuns. They have been described as what the A-Team would be like if they were made up of arse-kicking nuns. The novella finds the sisters in Colombia in 1985, with nooses around their necks, having upset the local drug baron. With the end so close, they each look back on the chain of events that lead them to this place, while also arguing as to who exactly is to blame for their current predicament.

    

    " Macdonald (born Kenneth Millar) also wrote several novelettes and short-stories involving Southern California private-detective Lew Archer. "The Archer Files" for the first time collects all the brief Archer fiction: the stories from Macdonald s 1955 paperback-original "The Name Is Archer," the additional tales included in the Otto Penzler-edited 1977 volume "Lew Archer: Private Investigator," and the three then-unknown novellas presented in Crippen & Landru s 2001 book "Strangers in Town." Also included in "The Archer Files" are several lengthy, never-before-published fragments of unfinished Macdonald stories: case notes, as it were, from the files of Lew Archer. Edited by Macdonald biographer Tom Nolan, "The Archer Files" is prefaced with Nolan s biographical sketch of Lew Archer himself -- the character Eudora Welty described as "a champion" and "a distinguished creation ... As a detective and as a man he takes the human situation with full seriousness. " Jeff Wong s cover is adapted from the 1955 paperback original, but depicting Ross Macdonald rather than Lew Archer.

    The Three Investigators 10 - The Mystery of the Moaning Cave. The Three Investigators 11 - The Mystery of the Talking SkullThe Three Investigators 12 - The Mystery of the Laughing ShadowThe Three Investigators 13 - The Mystery of the Crooked Cat.The Three Investigators 14 - The Mystery of the Coughing Dragon. The Three Investigators 15 - The Mystery of the Flaming Footprints The Three Investigators 16 - The Mystery of the Nervous Lion.The Three Investigators 17 - The Mystery of the Singing Serpent.The Three Investigators 18 - The Mystery of the Shrinking House. The Three Investigators 19 - The Mystery of the Phantom LakeThe Three Investigators 20 - The Mystery of the Monster Mountain.The Three Investigators 21 - The Secret of the Haunted Mirror.The Three Investigators 22 - The Mystery of the Dead Man Riddle. The Three Investigators 23 - The Mystery of the Invisible Dog. The Three Investigators 24 - The Mystery of the Death Trap Mine.The Three Investigators 25 - The Mystery of the Dancing Devil. The Three Investigators 26 - The Mystery of the Headless Horse. The Three Investigators 27 - The Mystery of the Magic Circle. The Three Investigators 28 - The Mystery of the Deadly Double. The Three Investigators 29 - The Mystery of Sinister Scarecrow. The Three Investigators 31 - The Mystery of the Scar-faced Beggar.The Three Investigators 32 - The Mystery of the Blazing Cliff. The Three Investigators 33 - The Mystery of the Purple Pirate.The Three Investigators 34 - The Mystery of Wandering Caveman.The Three Investigators 40 - The Mystery of the Rouge Reunion.The Three Investigators is an American juvenile detective book series first published as "Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators" but also expanded in Germany. It was created by Robert Arthur, Jr., who believed using a famous figure such as movie director Hitchcock would attract attention. Random House, which is owned by Bertelsmann AG, is the U.S. publisher and still holds some of the rights to the books. Other rights are held by the heirs to Robert Arthur, Jr. and the German publisher Kosmos. The "three investigators" are: Jupiter Jones (German name: Justus Jonas), Pete Crenshaw (German: Peter Shaw) and Bob Andrews.

    Trooper Blake, the hero of “Alaska Justice,” comes alive as a character with wisdom, compassion, excitement, and gentle humor. Author Mike Kincaid weaves the story of Blake’s life with engrossing action, exciting adventure, and sweet romance.

    Now you can meet them too in this frolicking, rollicking little library - a perfect introduction to the many adventures of Hairy Maclary and friends and just right for tiny fingers and little hands!

    Then a hail of bullets destroyed the lives of two fellow cops, and Carl—who didn’t draw his weapon—blames himself. So a promotion is the last thing he expects. But Department Q is a department of one, and Carl’s got only a stack of Copenhagen’s coldest cases for company. His colleagues snicker, but Carl may have the last laugh, because one file keeps nagging at him: a liberal politician vanished five years earlier and is presumed dead.But she isn’t dead … yet.Darkly humorous, propulsive, and atmospheric, The Keeper of Lost Causes introduces American readers to the mega-bestselling series fast becoming an international sensation.

    Within the police rapid strides are being made in the direction of professionalizing the criminal investigation process, and it has been a particular focus as a means of improving police performance. A number of important reports have been published in the last few years, highlighting the importance of the criminal investigation process not only to the work of the police but to public confidence in this. Each of these reports has identified shortcomings in the way criminal investigations have been conducted, and has made recommendations for improvement .The Handbook of Criminal Investigation provides a rigorous and critical approach to not only the process of criminal investigation, but also the context in which this takes place, the theory underlying it, and the variety of factors which influence approaches to it. It will be an indispensable source of reference for anybody with an interest in, and needing to know about, criminal investigation. Contributors to the book are drawn from both practitioners in the field and academics.

    Speeds life cant get much better. Hes booked into the French Quarters most luxurious guesthouse, and his day job as convenience store manager is 104 miles behind him in Catherine, Mississippi. Hes already taken care of one pro-bono missing persons job since hes been in New Orleans, and his paying clients cheating wife is a beautiful and very accommodating exhibitionist. Are things too good to be true? Of course they are. Jonny starts to worry when his client turns up dead, but when the suspects start dropping, Jonny and his crack team of beauty queens, recovering addicts, professional athletes, computer hackers, and pampered dogs find themselves caught in a twisted scheme of revenge that threatens to turn the town of Catherine inside out.

    Although she now has a life that most would envy, she's not happy. But her life takes a sudden, unexpected turn when she starts a new assignment--protecting Steven Stokes, a well-known Black minister who's also a Democratic presidential candidate.Determined to turn a new leaf and establish a relationship with God, Christian goes to Atlanta, where the Stokes's campaign is based. But when she finds herself falling for the Reverend's sexy son, Christian is confronted with a tough choice and must turn to a greater power to see her through this latest challenge...

    His investigation plunges him into the shadow world behind the fashionable facade of Shepherd's Bush, among the victims of the welfare state and the crime barons who prey on them; a world where no one is who he says he is, and lying to the police is second nature. Slider's thankless task is to convince the witnesses, against all available evidence, that honesty really is the best policy. And with his lover Joanna away, fate seems suddenly determined to strew his private life with temptations. In Dear Departed, it looks as though Slider has a serial killer in his territory. The Park Killer, as the media so innovatively labels him, attacks his victims in London's public parks, and when Chattie Cornfield is murdered while out jogging, the pattern fits. But as Slider and Atherton investigate, it is Chattie's life, rather than the killers, that poses questions. What was she involved with? Where did she spend the last day of her life? And was it love or hate that drove the hooded figure to kill her?

    Considering that she's still under psychiatric care, the police are skeptical. Gina insists on filing a formal complaint and the police are obligated to investigate. Two detectives, assigned to the case, run the composite picture of Gina's stalker through the criminal database. But when a baffled technician asks them how is it possible that the stalker matches up with a female victim of a bank robbery that occurred thirty years ago in Nebraska, they believe the young woman should not have been released yet from the maximum security psychiatric institution.

    Both vanish. Notorious Dublin criminal Patric York arrives from Holland to investigate his missing haul. The heat is on, particularly for his son Vinnie and for Patrick's longtime cohort Edward Naughton, father of Ashley. Rookie detectives Sarah Kenny and John Quigley are called in by the missing girl's mother. As fears grow for Ashley, they must piece together a dangerous puzzle—and try to dodge the bullets. Would Edward Naughton sacrifice his own daughter to keep ahead of a multimillion-euro industry? And why, just when they're getting somewhere, does their client call off the search?

    What they don't expect is to face a twisted web of conspiracy which includes shadows from Daniel's past and the ominous beat of voodoo drums.Nor do they expect to fall in love with each other. Life is full of surprises.

    New York is ruled by corruption and crime, and people take refuge in the day-to-day pleasures of life, turning in after listening to the jazz masters in clubs — surrounded by smoke and the flow of bourbon — in the early mornings.Mike Winowsky — a tough and cynical private eye with an immense love for jazz and bourbon — is hired by Duke Ellington to threaten a guy who is blackmailing his good friend Billy Strayhorn, the composer of Mike’s favorite jazz song Take The "A" Train.The case seems simple, but when the blackmailer is found dead under suspicious circumstances only hours after meeting Mike, things gets complicated. In his search for the truth and to prove his own innocence, Mike becomes involved in a shady corruption case which leaves a long string of bodies in its wake and links the alleys of Harlem with the offices of those representing the city’s upper circles.Music for the Dead pays tribute to the classic hardboiled novels of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald and is ideal to read with the soothing sound of Duke Ellington's piano in the background. And of course with a good bourbon in hand.

    First it was the army and the military police, then the police in St. Paul, and finally Lucas Davenport had brought him into the BCA, promising him, "We'll only give you the hard stuff." He'd been doing the hard stuff for three years now — but never anything like this.In the small town of Bluestem, where everybody knows everybody, a house way up on a ridge explodes into flames, its owner, a man named Judd, trapped inside. There is a lot of reason to hate him, Flowers discovers. Years ago, Judd had perpetrated a scam that'd driven a lot of local farmers out of business, even to suicide. There are also rumors swirling around of some very dicey activities with other men's wives, of involvement with some nutcase religious guy, and of an out-of-wedlock daughter. In fact, Flowers concludes, you'd probably have to dig around to find a person who didn't despise him.That wasn't even the reason Flowers had come to Bluestem. Three weeks before, there'd been another murder — two, in fact, a doctor and his wife. The doctor was found propped up in his backyard, both eyes shot out. There hadn't been a murder in Bluestem in years — and now suddenly three? Flowers knows two things: this wasn't a coincidence, and it had to be personal.But just how personal is something even he doesn't realize, and may not find out until too late. Because the next victim... may be himself.Librarian's note: as of 2021, there are 13 volumes in the author's Virgil Flowers series. The last was published in April 2021. It is in the "Prey" series but Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers share the billing - "Ocean Prey."