But before he can dig into this latest case, he comes face to face again with Arrington Calder, the one woman who still holds a key to his affections. Stone and his partner, Dino, comb the glittering streets of Palm Beach and begin to suspect that more than one person might be after Allison: one so clever he manages never to show his face, but even more frightening, another man everybody has long forgotten. The Short Forever: Stone's new client, John Bartholomew, asks Stone to fly to London in search of a young woman whom he suspects has taken up with a mysterious character. Bartholomew asks Stone to see what he can find to discredit the man, Cabot. What Stone finds is more bizarre than he had expected. The woman in question isn't related to Bartholomew in quite the way he had implied. And it appears that Bartholomew and Cabot, who once worked together on a secretive assignment, now have very different versions of what went wrong. When Stone himself is implicated in a shocking double murder, he and his partner, Dino, know they have stepped into a strange case unlike any other.

    A short story.

    Simon & Schuster has a great book for every reader.

    Today, he discovers she was murdered. Tomorrow, he will learn her most guarded secrets, leaving him to wonder: Who was the woman I married? Why was she murdered? And, above all . . . Who murdered her? Revenge is not sweet: It is essential. COLD VENGEANCE: Devastated by the discovery that his wife, Helen, was murdered, Special Agent Pendergast must have retribution. But revenge is not simple. As he stalks his wife's betrayers--a chase that takes him from the wild moors of Scotland to the bustling streets of New York City and the darkest bayous of Louisiana--he is also forced to dig further into Helen's past. And he is stunned to learn that Helen may have been a collaborator in her own murder. Peeling back the layers of deception, Pendergast realizes that the conspiracy is deeper, goes back generations, and is more monstrous than he could have ever imagined--and everything he's believed, everything he's trusted, everything he's understood . . . may be a horrific lie. Nothing is what it seems. TWO GRAVES: For twelve years, he believed she'd died in an accident. Then, he was told she'd been murdered. Now, FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast discovers that his beloved wife, Helen, is alive. And Pendergast must embark on a furious cross-country chase to rescue her. But all this turns out to be mere prologue to a far larger plot: one that unleashes a chillingly--almost supernaturally--adept serial killer on New York City. His pursuit of the murderer will take Pendergast deep into the trackless forests of South America, to a hidden place where the evil that has blighted both his and Helen's lives lies in wait . . . a place where he will learn all too well the truth of the ancient proverb: Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.

    "Passion Killers" will make your toes curl for the hapless Mrs Palmer, and "The Odstock Curse" may well induce goosebumps as a Gypsy curse is repeated in the present. Among the fifteen tales are two featuring Peter Lovesey's forthright police detective, Peter Diamond, and two with the amateur sleuth, Bertie, Prince of Wales, in rumbustious form. The collection also include "The Pushover," winner of the Mystery Writers of America's Golden Mysteries short story prize, and "Quiet Please—We're Rolling," both nominated for Britain's Crime Writer's Association Short Story Dagger. **

    

    

    The journey, however, takes longer than expected thanks to their inability to continue driving past any liquor store en route. Not to mention the fact that the men have no idea which hospital their friend is in. After a variety of shootings, and a strip club brawl, it seems as though these men will not just be visiting their friend in the hospital.Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection Ford County.

    So popular did Polchak become that author Tim Downs has now published five Bug Man novels. And now for the first time: the first two Bug Man novels under one cover.Shoofly PieWithin minutes of a murder, the first fly arrives at the scene. Soon there are hundreds, then thousands, and each one knows the victim's story...Thirty-year-old Kathryn Guilford turns to Dr. Nick Polchak, the Bug Man, to help her learn the truth about the apparent suicide of her longtime friend and onetime suitor. Polchak introduces her to a mysterious world of blood-seeking flies and flesh-eating beetles. But there's a problem...Kathryn Guilford has a pathological fear of insects.Now she must confront her darkest fears to unearth a decade-long conspiracy that threatens to turn her entire world upside down.Chop ShopYoung Dr. Riley McKay has worked hard toward her career in pathology. But her promising future is threatened when suspicious activities -- bungled autopsies, concealed evidence, and unexplained wounds -- incriminate her supervising pathologist at the Allegheny County Coroner's Office in Pittsburgh, Dr. Nathan Lassiter. When Riley is ignored by her seniors and threatened by Dr. Lassiter, she turns in desperation to Dr. Nick Polchak, the Bug Man, to help her uncover the truth.From a handful of tiny maggots, Nick and Riley begin to unearth the facts...The flies on the wall can talk.Forensic entomologist Nick Polchak is listening.

    Woken one night when the body of a young woman is found torn apart, that peace is shattered as it dawns on him that a predator is among them.EVERYONE A SUSPECT...With little to go on, all the men in the town are potential suspects and Jesse begins an investigation that spans across the social spectrum. Unable to find the killer, the mayor goes against Jesse and decides to bring in bounty hunters. But the cure may be more dangerous than the disease.A WINDOW INTO THE DARKNESS OF MEN...As another murder occurs under their noses, Jesse realizes he is outmatched and facing an evil he has never encountered. He enlists the help of an alienist from Harvard University. Someone trained in the new science of the mind. Together they are about to journey into the darkest recesses of the human soul, and they may not make it out alive...

    Four physicians have failed to bring the young lad back to health, and his nurses seem unable to bring him comfort. Sir Robert decides that he and Elizabeth Lady Carey should have the keeping of the child – despite the disgrace that will come to them if he dies in their care. It’s not long before Sir Robert begins to suspect that foul play lies behind the young Duke’s condition. Is there a poisoner at Court? If so, will Sir Robert find the miscreant in time to save the Duke? Patricia Finney is the author of six novels featuring Sir Robert Carey, all of them written under the pseudonym P F Chisholm and all available on Kindle. Patricia Finney’s latest Elizabethan crime novel, Do We Not Bleed?, features the ambiguous James Enys, his elusive sister, and a young playwright, Will Shakespeare. Do We Not Bleed? is also available on Kindle.

    Each volume helps the reader to encounter the original more fully by placing it in historical context, focusing on the important aspects of the text and posing key questions.

    For the past five years, Emily Case has lived in Italy as companion to a wealthy aristocrat. She tells Sarah an incredible tale of being entrusted with a package by a stranger dying of a stab wound. Soon afterward, on the train to London, Sarah discovers the selfsame package in her own handbag. The next day, she learns Emily has been murdered.   The police are asking all potential witnesses to come forward, but Sarah is afraid to lose her position as secretary to the president of the New Psychical Society. Then she makes an alarming discovery. Forced to rely on a seductive stranger she isn’t sure she can trust, Sarah must outwit someone who will do anything to retrieve the contents of the mysterious package . . . someone who has killed before and won’t hesitate to strike again.   Beloved crime writer Patricia Wentworth layers romance, adventure, and gothic intrigue in this exciting thriller.

    Before he can find the answer, he’s nearly killed himself—by a politically motivated car bombing targeting his activist daughter. With the inspector in the hospital, the case falls to his partner, Mike Burden. But when a strange mother and son are suspected, Burdon’s trail leads him down a very twisted road.  An Unkindness of Ravens: When a neighbor’s husband vanishes, Chief Inspector Wexford suspects the cad most likely ran off with one of his girlfriends. However, there are a few nagging concerns, like the man’s suspicious letter of resignation and his abandoned car. And is it just a fluke that his disappearance coincides with a rash of stabbings—all straight through the heart, all with male victims? Behind the seemingly placid domesticity of Wexford’s Sussex neighbors, there’s a growing web of tangling secrets, double lives, and triple-crosses.