The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes


John Joseph AdamsTanith Lee - 2009
    This reprint anthology showcases the best Holmes short fiction from the last 25 years, featuring stories by such visionaries as Stephen King, Neil Gaimen, Laura King, and many others.

The Mouse in the Mountain


Norbert Davis - 1943
    Doan & Carstairs SeriesHumor, Pulp, Mystery/Detective, Post-1930Doan is a detective and Carstairs his enormous canine companion (don't call him a "pet"), and in this first hard-boiled adventure they travel to Mexico, along with an heiress, a revolutionary, an artist, and more than a few mysteries.All ebook formats.

James Moriarty, Consulting Criminal


Andy Weir - 2017
    He solves cases with the able assistance of his close friend and confidant. And, one day, he will become the arch enemy of Sherlock Holmes.Meet Professor James Moriarty - consulting criminal.In these three original tales - collected for the first time - Andy Weir brings to life a Moriarty worthy of the Great Detective himself.1. The Adventure of the Dishonor Among Thieves2. The Adventure of the Unscrupulous Assassin3. The Adventure of the Sealed Room

Manhattan Noir


Lawrence BlockThomas H. Cook - 2006
    We have chosen the same principle here, and the book's contents do a good job of covering the island, from C.J. Sullivan's Inwood and John Lutz's Upper West Side, to Justin Scott's Chelsea and Carol Lea Benjamin's Greenwich Village. The range in mood and literary style is at least as great; noir can be funny, it can stretch to include magic realism, it can be ample or stark, told in the past or present tense, and in the first or third person. I wouldn't presume to define noir - if we could define it, we wouldn't need to use a French word for it -- but it seems to be that it's more a way of looking at the world than what one sees.The good Samaritan / Charles Ardai --The last supper / Carol Lea Benjamin --If you can't stand the heat / Lawrence Block --Rain / Thomas H. Cook --A nice place to visit / Jeffrey Deaver --The next best thing / Jim Fusilli --Take the man's pay / Robert Knightly --The laundry room / John Lutz --Freddie Prinze is my guardian angel / Liz Martínez --The organ grinder / Maan Meyers --Why do they have to hit? / Martin Meyers --Building / S.J. Rozan --The most beautiful apartment in New York / Justin Scott --The last round / C.J. Sullivan --Crying with Audrey Hepburn / Xu Xi

King Death


Toby Litt - 2010
    A heart - a human heart - slithering down outside the window of a train travelling between London Bridge and Blackfriars. Someone must have thrown it out from a carriage in front. Kumiko is determined to find out who - and why. But Skelton was sitting next to Kumiko on the train and he saw it too, so he also wants to get to the bottom of the mystery. Or he says he does, but really he just wants Kumiko back, because she's walked out on him, just like that, and left him heartbroken. Each for their own reasons, Kumiko and Skelton set out - separately - on a bizarre trail of discovery. Darting between dingy student pubs, the roofs of Borough Market and the corridors and car-parks of Guy's Hospital, they become embroiled in the seedy world of young medical students, until eventually the gossip and the stories lead them both to the hospital's infamous dissection lecturer - known behind his back as 'King Death'...

The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu


Sax Rohmer - 1913
    A time of shadows, secret societies, and dens filled with opium addicts. Into this world comes the most fantastic emissary of evil society has ever known… Dr. Fu-Manchu. Denis Nayland Smith pursues his quarry across continents and through the back alleys of London. As victim after victim disappears at the hands of the Devil Doctor, Smith must unravel his murderous plot before it is too late.  Includes a special feature by Leslie S. Kilnger

The Gun Seller


Hugh Laurie - 1996
    Within hours Lang is butting heads with a Buddha statue, matching wits with evil billionaires, and putting his life (among other things) in the hands of a bevy of femmes fatales, whilst trying to save a beautiful lady ...and prevent an international bloodbath to boot.

A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion


Ron Hansen - 2011
    Based on a real case whose lurid details scandalized Americans in 1927 and sold millions of newspapers, acclaimed novelist Ron Hansen’s latest work is a tour de force of erotic tension and looming violence. Trapped in a loveless marriage, Ruth Snyder is a voluptuous, reckless, and altogether irresistible woman who wishes not only to escape her husband but that he die—and the sooner the better. No less miserable in his own tedious marriage is Judd Gray, a dapper corset-and-brassiere salesman who travels the Northeast peddling his wares. He meets Ruth in a Manhattan diner, and soon they are conducting a white-hot affair involving hotel rooms, secret letters, clandestine travels, and above all, Ruth’s increasing insistence that Judd kill her husband. Could he do it? Would he? What follows is a thrilling exposition of a murder plan, a police investigation, the lovers’ attempt to escape prosecution, and a final reckoning for both of them that lays bare the horror and sorrow of what they have done. Dazzlingly well-written and artfully constructed, this impossible-to-put-down story marks the return of an American master known for his elegant and vivid novels that cut cleanly to the essence of the human heart, always and at once mysterious and filled with desire.

Bored to Death: A Noir-otic Story


Jonathan Ames - 2009
    As a rank amateur who just thinks he can help, this Ames alter ego quickly becomes embroiled in the search for a missing NYU coed. He moves from one scrape to the next, all while trying to escape a life of periodic alcoholism, dead-end relationships, writer’s block, and hours of Internet backgammon. Bored to Death was originally published in McSweeney’s Issue 24 and is the centerpiece of Ames’s collection of essays and fiction, The Double Life Is Twice as Good. Bored to Death Artwork © 2009 Home Box Office, Inc. All rights reserved. HBO® and related channels and service marks are the property of Home Box Office, Inc.

Ordinary Thunderstorms


William Boyd - 2009
    There is a reward for his capture. A hired killer is stalking him. He is alone and anonymous in the huge, pitiless modern city. Adam has nowhere to go but down - underground. He decides to join that vast army of the disappeared and the missing that throng the lowest level of London's population as he tries to figure out what to do with his life and struggles to understand the forces that have made it unravel so spectacularly. His quest will take him all along the River Thames, from affluent Chelsea to the sink estates of the East End, and on the way he encounters all manner of London's denizens - aristocrats, prostitutes, priests and policewomen amongst them - and version after new version of himself.William Boyd's electric follow-up to Costa Novel of the Year Restless is a heart-in-mouth conspiracy novel about the fragility of social identity, the scandal of big business, and the secrets that lie hidden in the filthy underbelly of every city.

Bulldog Drummond Collection, Volume 1


Sapper - 1926
    A collection of four books in the "Bulldog Drummond" series, written by "Sapper", (a pseudonym of Herman Cyril McNeale) in the early 1920s.The stories follow the adventures of Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond, D.S.O., M.C., a wealthy former WWI officer of the Loamshire Regiment, who, after the war, spends his new-found leisure time as a private detective.Drummond is a James Bond-like figure and a rougher version of the adventurers depicted by the likes of John Buchan and Rider Haggard.Included in this volume: Book One: Bulldog Drummond; Book Two: The Black Gang; Book Three: The Third Round; Book Four: The Final Count.

The Best American Mystery Stories 2011


Harlan CobenRichard Lange - 2011
    Each volume’s series editor selects notable works from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected—and most popular—of its kind. The Best American Mystery Stories 2011 includes Lawrence Block, Brendan DuBois, Loren D. Estleman, Beth Ann Fennelly and Tom Franklin, Ed Gorman, Richard Lange, S. J. Rozan, Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins, and others

Life on Mars: Blood, Bullets and Blue Stratos


Tom Graham - 2012
    I’m going right up them stairs to nail me a villain – and that, Sammy-boy, is called law enforcement!”When detective Sam Tyler was catapulted into the alien world of 1973, he could think of nothing but getting home. It was a world where men swigged scotch before breakfast, smoked fifty Embassy No. 6’s day and where birds put the kettle on.But when at last Sam got home, he realized he’d left his heart back in the seventies amongst the fly-wing collars and pints of Skol. And he missed Annie Cartwright, the woman he had fallen in love with, and perhaps – just perhaps – he even missed The Guv, that nicotine-stained, sexist, homophobic caveman who was his DCI.Now Sam is back in ’73 for good, but is this the greatest mistake he’s ever made? The creepy little girl from the TV test card seems to think so. As Sam dodges bullets, deals with what appears to be a IRA bombing campaign, and clashes with the irrepressible Gene Hunt, the test card girl keeps warning him, “you should never have come back here, Sam. It’s all going to end in tears. You’ll see… you’ll see…”

Fantômas


Marcel Allain - 1911
    Three appalling crimes leave all of Paris aghast: the Marquise de Langruen is hacked to death, the Princess Sonia is robbed, and Lord Beltham is found dead, stuffed into a trunk. Inspector Juve knows that all the clues point to one suspect: the master of disguise, Fantômas. Juve cleverly pursues him in speeding trains, down dark alleys, through glittering Parisian salons, obsessed with bringing the demon mastermind to justice. As thrilling to read now as it was when first published in 1915, Fantômas is not a puzzle but an intoxicant” (The Village Voice).