DEADLY MESSENGERS Nobody's listening, so he'll just keep killing.Three massacres in the same city, the same month. Two detectives discover a link that can't possibly exist. One journalist unwittingly holds the answers. Zero clues to a killer who sends a deadly message.Kendall's usual freelance work consists of fluff magazine pieces until she scores an interview with the survivor of a horrific mass killing. Seven people brutally murdered with an axe at a cafe, with the killer left dead at the scene. She’ll soon discover these killings are part of a plan far greater than just these crimes. Someone is sending a message and soon many more will die. BEHIND THE FIRE What if all that stood between us and hell was a match?An ordinary couple stand accused of a heinous crime. They're the last people you'd expect to save the world. Are they criminals, heroes or completely insane? Or maybe all three?Something terrifying has led Bobby and Emily to leave their two young children with a sitter while they embarked on a crazy fire-bug spree. That something was an incredible secret they'd promised to protect. Inspired by true-life headlines, this is the tale of the random appearances of frightening black things, and one couple's battle to protect their town from these dangerous and hellish creatures. BACK AGAIN Between life and death lies fate and one hell of a fightA single mom struggles with unexplained lost time. An angry young woman makes a fatal mistake, taking them on a collision course that will shatter their lives to pieces.Since childhood, Dawn has "lost time." She awakens in strange places, far away from her last memory. Now she's just trying to be a good mom to her son while fearing another blackout episode. Kylie is over her dead-end job and has just been fired. As she drives from the supermarket lot, she picks up her cell to send a text. In the next terrifying moment, she’ll realize the gravity of her mistake when Dawn’s and her destinies collide.

    Not being happy all the time makes them stressed out of their tights. Carol practises uninhibited sex which ends with her panty liner stuck to the bottom of someone's shoe. Donnie, after a mystery bite in a third world country, thinks he's incubating a nest of spiders up his bum. Daphne gets fat. She makes soup all the time and wonders if Woolworth's sell a hose pipe to fit a Vauxhall Vectra. Pierce is a poet; a fat balding womaniser who's only steady relationship is with a cup at the sperm bank. He's the only one not on anti-depressants, and he's the hero.

    Set in the 1920s, it’s the first of a series of traditional murder mysteries featuring the amiable Detective Inspector Miles Felix of Scotland Yard and his shrewd but prickly assistant, Sergeant ‘Teddy’ Rattigan. It’s the spring of 1926. Following a macabre discovery, the Inspector investigates a fading aristocratic family where everyone seems to have a secret, even the servants.

    A new, handsome police chief with his own shadowy past. The last thing Port Stirling Chief of Police Matt Horning needed on day one of his new job was for the mayor’s daughter to turn up dead - stabbed to death - in a mysterious tunnel on a remote Oregon beach. Horning, escaping professional troubles in Texas, accepts the vacant job in Port Stirling, Oregon, looking for a fresh start in what he thought would be a peaceful coastal town where the far west meets the mighty Pacific Ocean. Nothing much ever happens here…or does it? The crime doesn't make any sense, and there is no apparent motive for the murder of little Emily Bushnell. She wasn't sexually assaulted, her family is respected in the small community where everyone knows everyone, and there doesn't appear to be a reason for her death. Human bite marks on Emily's body discovered by the medical examiner during the autopsy add an even stranger twist to the puzzling homicide. With only a ragtag county crime team to assist him, Horning must match wits with a diabolical killer, the likes of which this quiet village has never seen. An aggressive county district attorney with political ambitions, who doesn’t fancy relinquishing the limelight to the new chief of police, makes Horning's job even more difficult. Will Matt be allowed a new beginning in his life, both personally and professionally. or will the forces in play be too many obstacles to overcome? For one week in the wild and stormy month of January, Horning calls on all of his detective skills to investigate the unlikely murder. As soon as he starts asking questions, Port Stirling begins to unveil its dark underbelly amid stunning revelations. From the 300-foot bluffs ringing the white-sand pristine beach, to the posh golf resort at odds with the blue-collar town, Chief Horning and his new team work at break-neck speed to uncover the facts. Without a murder weapon and very little physical evidence, will Matt and his new colleagues find the killer before he – or she – strikes again? Will a psychopath ruin Matt Horning’s new life before he can even start it? In this shocking story set in a beach town not unlike where she grew up, native Oregonian Kay Jennings introduces a thrilling new mystery series set alongside Oregon’s rugged Pacific coast. Shallow Waters combines an intriguing police procedural with a spooky murder mystery, in a remote part of southwest Oregon you aren't likely to forget.

    

    He discovers a quiet village deep in the countryside and settles there. He makes new friends and finds a new love, but there are undercurrents; events that threaten his newfound peace. Then a murder occurs and he finds himself drawn into the investigation, unsure of who among his new friends he can trust. How will he overcome this without losing all he has gained?

    Miles from the nearest town, nestled far out in the English countryside, it's the perfect place for visitors who want to get away from the world for a while. And then one morning the cottage's latest tenant, Deborah Dean, is found brutally murdered. After several months of police inactivity, the cottage's owner Lord Martin Chesleford decides to take matters into his own hands. Hiring former police officer Joanna Mason, who now works alone as a private investigator, he demands that Deborah's murderer is brought to justice. But while Deborah had tried to isolate herself at Skellin Cottage, she'd already begun to attract attention. Terrified of her own past, Deborah lived a life of fear, desperately afraid that the truth would one day be revealed. And as the ongoing investigation uncovers old secrets and new rivalries, another murder is right around the corner.

    Introducing Detective Erika Foster - she’s fearless, respected, unstoppable, and she will catch a killer, whatever it takes. The Girl in the Ice: Her eyes are wide open. Her lips parted as if to speak. Her dead body frozen in the ice…She is not the only one. When a young boy discovers the body of a woman beneath a thick sheet of ice in a South London park, Detective Erika Foster is called in to lead the murder investigation. The victim, a beautiful young socialite, appeared to have the perfect life. Yet when Erika begins to dig deeper, she starts to connect the dots between the murder and the killings of three prostitutes, all found strangled, hands bound and dumped in water around London. What dark secrets is the girl in the ice hiding? As Erika inches closer to uncovering the truth, the killer is closing in on Erika. The last investigation Erika led went badly wrong… resulting in the death of her husband. With her career hanging by a thread, Erika must now battle her own personal demons as well as a killer more deadly than any she’s faced before. But will she get to him before he strikes again? The Night Stalker: If the Night Stalker is watching, you’re already dead… In the dead of a swelteringly hot summer’s night, Detective Erika Foster is called to a murder scene. The victim, a doctor, is found suffocated in bed. His wrists are bound and his eyes bulging through a clear plastic bag tied tight over his head. A few days later, another victim is found dead, in exactly the same circumstances. As Erika and her team start digging deeper, they discover a calculated serial killer – stalking their victims before choosing the right moment to strike. The victims are all single men, with very private lives. Why are their pasts shrouded in secrecy? And what links them to the killer? As a heat wave descends upon London, Erika will do everything to stop the Night Stalker before the body count rises, even if it means risking her job. But the victims might not be the only ones being watched… Erika’s own life could be on the line. Dark Water: Beneath the water the body sank rapidly. She would lie still and undisturbed for many years but above her on dry land, the nightmare was just beginning. When Detective Erika Foster receives a tip off that key evidence for a major narcotics case was stashed in a disused quarry on the outskirts of London, she orders for it to be searched. From the thick sludge the drugs are recovered, but so is the skeleton of a young child. The remains are quickly identified as seven-year-old Jessica Collins. The missing girl who made headline news when she vanished twenty-six years ago. As Erika tries to piece together new evidence with the old, she discovers a family harbouring secrets, a detective plagued by her failure to find Jessica, and the mysterious death of a man living by the quarry. Is the suspect someone close to home? Someone doesn’t want this case solved. And they’ll do anything to stop Erika from finding the truth.

     WIRED ROGUE: An untouchable cult deep in the jungle has a leader who might be a stone-cold wife killer, and his children slave labor. Only Sophie can get them out and find their missing mothers—and along the way, solve the puzzle of The Ghost. WIRED HARD: A buried royal Hawaiian island in Lahaina on Maui attracts mysterious burglary attempts, and gets deadly fast once Sophie’s on the case. As she solves a twisted murder with ties to the archaeological dig, she must also tangle with a nightmare from her past. WIRED DARK: Tech security specialist Sophie Ang returns to Maui, working alongside dynamic partner Jake Dunn to solve a series of bizarre and escalating threats against a rocker with a beach mansion. But soon, catching a crazed stalker becomes the least of Sophie’s problems. A deadly enemy is hell-bent to take her down, along with anyone she cares about. WIRED DAWN: Sophie Ang goes “off the grid” into the remote valley of Kalalau on Kaua`i, where she stumbles across the disappearance of a young boy. As she races against time to save him, uncovering ugly secrets hidden in the heart of the jungle, the events she tried to flee on Oahu gather momentum. Special Agent Marcella Scott wades in to deal with what a cyber vigilante left behind, trying to clear her friend from a murder charge. WIRED JUSTICE: Sophie Ang’s lovable dog Ginger has a nose for murder and leads her tech sleuth mistress through perilous lava fields on the Big Island to a terrible discovery. Sophie is plunged into a new investigation with dynamic partner, Jake Dunn, searching for a missing young woman who is just one of many. Sparks fly between the two as they dig into layers of deception and darkness, rousing the attention of true evil. WIRED SECRET: Palm trees, volcanoes, and black sand beaches are the backdrop for murder when security specialist Sophie and her dog Ginger are swept up in a multi-layered case on the Big Island, working with a US Marshal to protect an important witness. WIRED FEAR: Tech sleuth Sophie, her lovable dog Ginger, and her partner, Jake Dunn, tackle a case involving Hawaii’s famous hula festival even as the return of a deadly relative threatens to tear apart the fragile life Sophie’s trying to build. WIRED COURAGE: Sophie’s darkest fears come to pass as what’s most precious to her is snatched away. She must dig deep and travel far to defeat an enemy close to home.

    During and after dinner he had nothing to excite him save the receipt of a letter which somewhat annoyed him, and that his wife consumed rather more wine than he considered to be good for her health. Immediately after retiring to his room he was seized with symptoms of irritant poisoning, and despite every effort made on his behalf, he succumbed to its effects. An inquest was held, which vexed the minds of the Coroner’s jury to a degree without precedent in Coroners’ Inquest Law, and an open verdict was returned. However, the matter will not rest there, for after questions in Parliament, a second inquest has been called under suspicion that Mr Charles Petrie was murdered. * * * Who poisoned Charles Petrie? Dr James Collymore, a man familiar with poisons, a man harbouring a dark secret that, if exposed, would ruin his career; Florrie, the maid who supplied Charles with his bedtime drink; Bert Kemp, a disgruntled groom, who used poisons in his work, who four months previously had predicted Charles’ dying day; Mrs Jennet Quinn, a lady’s companion with a deep knowledge of poisons, and a deep fear of dismissal; or Grace Petrie, Charles’ wife of four months, a woman with a scandalous past, a woman shunned by polite society. With crowds flocking to the courtroom and the shadow of suspicion falling upon Grace in the shape of the hangman’s noose, could dashing young advocate, Daniel Morgan, save her?

    Ever since that awful day, as he climbed the ranks, Raymond vowed to protect his city, his police force, and citizens. For Raymond this means an uncompromising dedication to his duties, while at the same time juggling the political demands of his office – the grandstanding mayor, the ever-questioning press, and oh yes, his torrid (but secret) romance with District Attorney Sheilah Dannis.During the aftermath of a shooting in Times Square that left on cop dead and one gravely wounded, Raymond finds himself at the center of the drama when he confronts and takes out cop killer. When the cop killer is revealed to be a radical Islamic terrorist, Raymond’s vow takes him on a dangerous mission to save and protect New York City from another devastating attack – a mission that will take a very personal toll.

    The search for Ellen's errant husband leads Elvis into the seamier side of Hollywood. He soon learns that Mort Lang is a down-on-his-luck talent agent who associates with a schlocky movie producer, and the last place he was spotted was at a party thrown by a famous and very well-connected ex-Matador. But no one has seen him since - including his B-movie girlfriend. At the same time the police find Mort in his parked car with four gunshots in his chest - and no kid in sight - Ellen disappears. Now nothing is what it seems, and the heat is on. It's up to Elvis Cole and his partner Joe Pike to find the connection between sleazy Hollywood players and an ex-Matador. FREE FALL Read by James Daniels (Sandra Burr, Jill Sovis) Elvis Cole is just a detective who can't say no, especially to a girl in a terrible fix. And Jennifer Sheridan qualifies: Her fiance, Mark Thurman, is a decorated LA cop with an elite plainclothes unit, but Jennifer's sure he's in trouble - the kind of serious trouble that only Elvis Cole can help him out of. Five minutes after his new client leaves his office, Elvis and his partner, the enigmatic Joe Pike, are hip-deep in a deadly situation as they plummet into a world of South Central gangs, corrupt cops, and conspiracies of silence. And before the case is through, every cop in the LAPD will be gunning for a pair of escaped armed-and-dangerous killers - Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. LULLABY TOWN Read by James Daniels (Joyce Bean, Russell Byers) Hollywood's newest wunderkind is Peter Alan Nelson, the brilliant, erratic director known as the King of Adventure. His films make billions, but his manners make enemies. What the boy king wants, he gets, and what Nelson wants is for Elvis to comb the country for the airhead wife and infant child the film-school flunkout dumped en route to becoming the third biggest filmmaker in America. It's the kind of case Cole can handle in his sleep - until it turns out to be a nightmare. For when Cole finds Nelson's wife in a small Conneticut town, she's nothing like what he expects. The lady has some unwanted - and very nasty - mob connections, which means Elvis could be opening the East Coast branch of his P.I. office . . .at the bottom of the Hudson River.

    Fifteen-year-old Grace Kirby kisses her mum and heads off to school. It’s a day like any other, except that Grace will never return home.Fifteen years have passed since Grace went missing. In that time, Stephen Baxley has made millions and now he’s lost millions. Suicide seems like the only option, but Stephen has no intention of leaving behind his wife, son and daughter. He wants them all to be together forever, in this world or the next.Angel is on the brink of suicide too. Then she hears a name on the news that transports her back to a windowless basement. Something terrible happened in that basement. Something Angel has been running from most of her life. But the time for running is over. Now is the time to start fighting back.At the scene of a fatal shooting, Detective Jim Monahan finds evidence of a sickening crime linked to Grace Kirby. Then more people start turning up dead. Who is the killer? Are the victims also linked to Grace? Who will be next to die? The answers will test to breaking-point Jim’s faith in the law he’s spent his life upholding.

    Although these stories are not all mysteries, they all are suspenseful and very enjoyable. They already show the creative mind that devised later so many complex plots as well as Stout’s gift for creating characters with a few quick strokes. The stories, which are presented here in order of publication, are: “Excess Baggage,” “The Infernal Feminine,” “A Professional Recall,” “Pamfret and Peace,” “A Companion of Fortune,” “A White Precipitate,” “The Mother of Invention,” “Méthode Américaine,” “A Tyrant Abdicates,” “The Pay-Yeoman,” “Secrets,” “Rose Orchid,” “An Agacella Or,” “The Inevitable Third,” “The Lie,” “Target Practice,” “If He Be Married,” “Baba,” “Jonathan Stannard's Secret Vice,” “Sanétomo,” “The Strong Man,” “It's Science That Counts,” “The Rope Dance,” “An Officer and a Lady,” “Heels of Fate,” and “Annuncio's Violin.”