McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales


Michael ChabonNick Hornby - 2003
    Includes:Jim Shepard’s "Tedford and the Megalodon"Glen David Gold’s "The Tears of Squonk, and What Happened Thereafter"Dan Chaon’s "The Bees"Kelly Link’s "Catskin"Elmore Leonard’s "How Carlos Webster Changed His Name to Carl and Became a Famous Oklahoma Lawman"Carol Emshwiller’s "The General"Neil Gaiman’s "Closing Time"Nick Hornby’s "Otherwise Pandemonium"Stephen King’s "The Tale of Gray Dick"Michael Crichton’s "Blood Doesn’t Come Out"Laurie King’s "Weaving the Dark"Chris Offutt’s "Chuck’s Bucket"Dave Eggers’s "Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly"Michael Moorcock’s "The Case of the Nazi Canary"Aimee Bender’s "The Case of the Salt and Pepper Shakers"Harlan Ellison’s "Goodbye to All That"Karen Joy Fowler’s "Private Grave 9"Rick Moody’s "The Albertine Notes"Michael Chabon’s "The Martian Agent, a Planetary Romance"Sherman Alexie’s "Ghost Dance"

The Time Machine and The Man Who Could Work Miracles


H.G. Wells - 1953
    - Norman NicholsonThe Time Traveller knew that Time was only a kind of Space. The fantastic story of his adventures in a machine which could travel in any direction of Space and Time has captured the imagination of millions.H.G. Wells, one of the giants of twentieth-century literature, in this brilliant forerunner of today's SF did something which had never been done before and which has never been done since with the same vitality and bright inventiveness.The Time Machine...that little masterpiece - J.B. PriestleyAlso included is one of H.G.Wells' most popular and enduring short stories The Man Who Could Work MiraclesCover Illustration: Alan Lee

Jack Daniels Stories


J.A. Konrath - 2010
    On the Rocks - Suicide or murder? Lt. Jack Daniels solves a locked room mystery.Whelp Wanted - P.I. Harry McGlade becomes a dognapper in order to stop a dognapper, or something like that.Street Music - Phineas Troutt hunts a prostitute through the dangerous streets of Chicago. Are his intentions pure?The One That Got Away - The Gingerbread Man (the villain from WHISKEY SOUR) hunts one final victim.With a Twist - It looked like the man fell from a great height, but the body is in his living room. Jack Daniels solves another impossible crime.Epitaph - Phin Troutt takes on a Chicago street gang with vengeance on his mind.Taken to the Cleaners - Harry McGlade tries to solve a difficult mystery, but mostly just goofs off.Body Shots - Jack Daniels faces her most challenging case yet; a school shooting. But does she know more about the perp than she realizes?Suffer - Phineas Troutt has taken some questionable jobs, but will he murder a man's wife?School Daze - P.I. Harry McGlade investigates a private school, but he's not entirely sure why.Overproof - While shopping on the Gold Coast, Jack Daniels notices traffic has come to a stand-still. When she realizes what the problem is, she's confronted with her own mortality, and the possible deaths of hundreds.Bereavement - How badly does Phineas Troutt need a fix? What is he willing to do?Pot Shot - Detective Herb Benedict just wants a home cooked meal. But his plans get interrupted by a very determined sniper.Last Request - Phineas Troutt picks up a hitchhiker, with deadly results.The Necro File - Harry McGlade investigates some bizarre murders in this hilarious, gore-filled mini-epic. (Author's note: This is easily the funniest thing I've ever written, but it's also very offensive. Let the reader beware...)That's about 65,000 words of Jack Daniels and friends. Also included in this collection are excerpts from some of Jack's other adventures, including:An excerpt from Truck Stop by J.A. Konrath and Jack Kilborn, where Jack finds herself dueling with two serial killers at once.An excerpt from Floaters by J.A. Konrath and Henry Perez, where Jack joins forces with Chicago reporter Alex Chapa to solve a bizarre disappearance.An excerpt from Planter's Punch by J.A. Konrath and Tom Schreck, where Jack travels to NY and befriends professional boxer Duffy Dombrowski to break an extortion ring.And excerpt from Suckers by J.A. Konrath and Jeff Strand, where Harry McGlade reluctantly teams up with Andrew Mayhem. Hilarity ensues.

American Indian Myths and Legends


Richard Erdoes - 1984
    From all across the continent come tales of creation and love, of heroes and war, of animals, tricksters, and the end of the world. Alfonso Ortiz, an eminent anthropologist, and Richard Erdoes, an artist and master storyteller, Indian voices in the best folkloric sources of the nineteenth century to make this the most comprehensive and authentic volume of American Indian myths available anywhere.With black-and-white drawings throughoutPart of the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library

The Book of Fate


Brad Meltzer - 2006
    None of us knew it was coming."So says Wes Holloway, a young presidential aide, about the day he put Ron Boyle, the chief executive's oldest friend, into the president's limousine. By the trip's end, a crazed assassin would permanently disfigure Wes and kill Boyle. Now, eight years later, Boyle has been spotted alive. Trying to figure out what really happened takes Wes back into disturbing secrets buried in Freemason history, a decade-old presidential crossword puzzle, and a two-hundred-year-old code invented by Thomas Jefferson that conceals secrets worth dying for.

The O. Henry Prize Stories 2015


Laura Furman - 2015
    Henry Prize Stories 2015 gathers twenty of the best short stories of the year, selected from thousands published in literary magazines. The winning stories span the globe—from the glamorous Riviera to an Eastern European shtetl, from a Native American reservation to a tiny village in Thailand. But their characters are universally recognizable and utterly compelling, whether they are ex-pats in Africa, migrant workers crossing the Mexican border, Armenian immigrants on the rough streets of East Hollywood, or pioneers in nineteenth-century Idaho. Accompanying the stories are the editor’s introduction, essays from the eminent jurors on their favorite stories, observations from the winning writers on what inspired them, and an extensive resource list of magazines. Finding Billy White Feather PERCIVAL EVERETT The Seals LYDIA DAVIS Kilifi Creek LIONEL SHRIVER The Happiest Girl in the Whole USAMANUEL MUÑOZ  A Permanent Member of the Family RUSSELL BANKS A Ride out of Phrao DINA NAYERI OwlEMILY RUSKOVICH            The Upside-Down World BECKY HAGENSTON The Way Things Are Going LYNN FREED The History of Happiness BRENDA PEYNADO The Kingsley Drive Chorus NAIRA KUZMICH Word of Mouth EMMA TÖRZS Cabins CHRISTOPHER MERKNER My Grandmother Tells Me This Story MOLLY ANTOPOL The Golden Rule LYNNE SHARON SCHWARTZ About My Aunt JOAN SILBER Ba Baboon THOMAS PIERCE Snow Blind ELIZABETH STROUT I, Buffalo VAUHINI VARA Birdsong from the Radio ELIZABETH MCCRACKEN For author interviews, photos, and more, go to www.ohenryprizestories.com

The Nightwatchman's Occurrence Book: And Other Comic Inventions


V.S. Naipaul - 2002
    S. Naipaul’s legendary command of broad comedy and acute social observation is on abundant display in these classic works of fiction–two novels and a collection of stories–that capture the rhythms of life in the Caribbean and England with impressive subtlety and humor.The Suffrage of Elvira is Naipaul’s hilarious take on an electoral campaign in the back country of Trinidad, where the candidates’ tactics include blatant vote-buying and supernatural sabotage. The eponymous protagonist of Mr. Stone and the Knights Companion is an aging Englishman of ponderously regular habits whose life is thrown into upheaval by a sudden marriage and unanticipated professional advancement. And the stories in A Flag on the Island take us from a Chinese bakery in Trinidad–whose black proprietor faces bankruptcy until he takes a Chinese name–to a rooming house in London–where the genteel landlady plays a nasty Darwinian game with her budgerigars. Unfailingly stylish, filled with intelligence and feeling, here is the work of a writer who can do just about anything that can be done with language.

Relics and Omens


Margaret Weis - 1998
    New and ever more fantastical creatures and monsters. Banished gods and lost magic. Dragon overlords are taking over the world of Krynn. The Chaos War is ending. The Fifth Age is beginning. A collection of fantastical short stories exploring the new Fifth Age setting from the best known Dragonlance writers.

Elric: Tales of the White Wolf


Richard GilliamE. Gary Gygax - 1996
    He is one of just a handful of characters in sword-and-sworcery fiction who have had a seminal impact on the entire genre, and his compelling tale and tortured conscience have inspired countless rendering by artists both famed and unknown. Elric has even inspired songs from groups as diverse as Hakwind and Blue Oyster Cult to Cirith Ungol and the Tygers of Pan Tang.

The Mammoth Book Of Pulp Fiction


Maxim Jakubowski - 1996
    Action-packed stories featuring hit men, underworld bosses, rogue cops, private dicks, and shady ladies are assembled here, written by such renegade authors as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Ed McBain, Jim Thompson, James Ellroy, Robert Bellum, and Ed Gorman.

Big Red Tequila


Rick Riordan - 1997
    Ten years ago Navarre lefttown and the memory of his father's murder behind him. Now he's back, looking for answers. Yet the more Tres digs, trying to put his suspicions to rest, the fresher the decade-old crime looks: Mafia connections, construction site payoffs, and slick politicians' games all conspire to ruin his homecoming. It's obvious Tres has stirred up a hornet's nest of trouble. He gets attacked, shot at, run over by a big blue Thunderbird--and his old girlfriend, the one he wants back, turns up missing. Tres has to rescue the woman, nail his father's murderer, and get the hell out of Dodge before mob-style Texas justice catches up to him. The chances of staying alive looked better for the defenders of the Alamo...."A standout...A crooked construction company, corrupt cops, oldenemies--you can almost feel the summer storms rolling over South Texas." "---Publishers Weekly (starred review)"

An Ensuing Evil and Others: Fourteen Historical Mysteries


Peter Tremayne - 2005
    An Ensuing Evil collects for the first time fourteen of his historical mysteries ranging in time and place from 7th-century Ireland (featuring his best known sleuth, Fidelma of Cashel) and 8th-century Scotland (featuring the real-life Macbeth) to the recent history of Victorian England and beyond. These fourteen tales of murder, mayhem and mystery each display Tremayne's usual mix of compelling historical detail about the time period and a baffling puzzle that will delight and confound his ever-growning legion of fans.

Like a Charm


Karin SlaughterPeter Robinson - 2004
    In Like A Charm, the cream of British and American crime writers combine for a must-have collection. From nineteenth-century Georgia, where the bracelet is forged in fire, to wartime Leeds, a steam train across Europe, the violent backstreets of 1980s Scotland, present-day London, a Manhattan taxi, the Mojave desert and back to Georgia, each writer weaves a gripping story of murder, betrayal and intrigue.

The Best American Mystery Stories 1999


Ed McBain - 1999
    Compiled by the best-selling mystery novelist Ed McBain, this year's edition boasts nineteen outstanding tales by such masters as John Updike, Lawrence Block, Jeffery Deaver, and Joyce Carol Oates as well as stories by rising stars such as Edgar Award winners Tom Franklin and Thomas H. Cook. The 1999 volume is a spectacular showcase for the high quality and broad diversity of the year’s finest suspense, crime, and mystery writing. "Keller's Last Refuge" by Lawrence Block, "Safe" by Gary A. Braunbeck, "Fatherhood" by Thomas H. Cook, "Wrong Time, Wrong Place" by Jeffery Deaver, "Netmail" by Brendan DuBois, "Redneck" by Loren D. Estleman, "And Maybe the Horse Will Learn to Sing" by Gregory Fallis, "Poachers" by Tom Franklin, "Hitting Rufus" by Victor Gischler, "Out There in the Darkness" by Ed Gorman, "Survival" by Joseph Hansen, "A Death on the Ho Chi Minh Trail" by David K. Harford, "An Innocent Bystander" by Gary Krist, "The Jailhouse Lawyer" by Phillip M. Margolin, "Secret, Silent" by Joyce Carol Oates, "In Flanders Fields" by Peter Robinson, "Dry Whiskey" by David B. Silva, "Sacrifice" by L. L. Thrasher, "Bech Noir" by John Updike

Kipling: A Selection of His Stories and Poems Volume I


Rudyard Kipling - 1956
    Includes Kim; The Jungle Book; Just So Stories; and Puck of Pook's Hill.