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.

Richmond Noir


Andrew BlossomDavid L. Robbins - 2010
    Atkins, Meagan J. Saunders, Anne Thomas Soffee, Clint McCown, Conrad Ashley Persons, Clay McLeod Chapman, Pir Rothenberg, David L. Robbins, Hermine Pinson, and Dennis Danvers.FROM THE INTRODUCTION TO RICHMOND NOIR:"In The Air-Conditioned Nightmare, Henry Miller tosses off a hard-bitten assessment of the City on the James: 'I would rather die in Richmond somehow,' he writes, 'though God knows Richmond has little enough to offer.' As editors, we like the dying part, and might point out that in its long history, Richmond, Virginia has offered up many of the disparate elements crucial to meaty noir. The city was born amid deception, conspiracy, and violence . . ."These days, Richmond is a city of winter balls and garden parties on soft summer evenings, a city of private clubs where white-haired old gentlemen, with their martinis or mint juleps in hand, still genuflect in front of portraits of Robert E. Lee. It's also a city of brutal crime scenes and drug corners and okay-everybody-go-on-home-there's-nothing-more-to-see. It's a city of world-class ad agencies and law firms, a city of the FFV (First Families of Virginia) and a city of immigrants--from India, Vietnam, and Africa to Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey. It's a city of finicky manners (you mustn't ever sneeze publicly in Richmond) and old-time neighborliness, and it's a city where you think twice about giving somebody the finger if they cut you off on the Powhite Parkway (that's pronounced Pow-hite, not Po-white, thank you very much) because you might get your head blown off by the shotgun on the rack . . ."

Calendar of Crime


Ellery Queen - 1952
    Contents: The inner circle --The President's half disme --The ides of Michael Magoon --The Emperor's dice --The Gettysburg bugle --The medical finger --The fallen angel --The needle's eye --The three r's --The dead cat --The telltale bottle --The dauphin's doll.

The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime: Forgotten Cops and Private Eyes from the Time of Sherlock Holmes


Michael Sims - 2010
    She rides those new- fangled bicycles and doesn't like to be told what to do. And, in crime fiction, such female detectives as Loveday Brooke, Dorcas Dene, and Lady Molly of Scotland Yard are out there shadowing suspects, crawling through secret passages, fingerprinting corpses, and sometimes committing a lesser crime in order to solve a murder. In The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime, Michael Sims has brought together all of the era's great crime-fighting females- plus a few choice crooks, including Four Square Jane and the Sorceress of the Strand.

No Time Left


David Baldacci - 2010
    When Becker takes a mysterious job, he has no idea that it will force him to delve deeply into his own past. Undeterred by obstacles he is determined to complete his assignment. But he may realize too late that his success will permanently alter his future.

Stephen King Goes to the Movies


Stephen King - 2009
    1408 starred John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson and was a huge box office success in 2007. The short story "Children of the Corn" was adapted into the popular Children of the Corn. The Mangler was inspired by King's loathing for laundry machines from his own experience working in a laundromat. Hearts in Atlantis (based on "Low Men in Yellow Coats," the first part of the novel Hearts in Atlantis) starred Anthony Hopkins. This collection features new commentary and introductions to all of these stories in a treasure-trove of movie trivia.

The Best American Mystery Stories 2017


John Sandford - 2017
    Number-one New York Times best-selling author John Sandford Entertainment Weekly—selects the best mystery writing of the year.

Tiny Crimes: Very Short Tales of Mystery and Murder


Lincoln Michel - 2018
    This anthology gathers leading and emerging literary voices to tell tales of crime and intrigue in only a few hundred words. From the most hardboiled of noirs to the coziest of mysteries, with diminutive double crosses, miniature murders, and crimes both real and imagined, Tiny Crimes rounds up all the usual suspects, and some unusual suspects, too. Benjamin Percy, Amelia Gray, Adam Sternbergh, Yuri Herrera, Julia Elliott, Carmen Maria Machado, Elizabeth Hand, Brian Evenson, Charles Yu, Laura van den Berg, and more scour the underbelly of modern life to expose the criminal, the illegal, and the depraved.

Killer in the Rain


Raymond Chandler - 1964
    Here then, from the well-thumbed pages of 'Black Mask' and 'Dime Detective Magazine', are eight of his finest stories including 'The Man Who Liked Dogs', 'The Lady in the Lake' and 'Bay City Blues'. Sharper than a hoodlum's switchblade, more exciting than an unexpected red-head and stronger than a double shot of whisky, they are packed full of the punchy poetry and laconic wit that makes Chandler the undisputed master of his genre.'Anything Chandler writes about grips the mind from the first sentence' Daily Telegraph 'One of the greatest crime writers, who set standards others still try to attain' Sunday Times'Chandler is an original stylist, creator of a character as immortal as Sherlock Holmes' Anthony BurgessBest-known as the creator of the original private eye, Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler was born in Chicago in 1888 and died in 1959. Many of his books have been adapted for the screen, and he is widely regarded as one of the very greatest writers of detective fiction. His books include The Big Sleep, The Little Sister, Farewell, My Lovely, The Long Good-bye, The Lady in the Lake, Playback, Killer in the Rain, The High Window and Trouble is My Business.

Christmas in Absaroka County


Craig Johnson - 2012
    In these four stories—“Ministerial Aid,” “Slick-Tongued Devil,” “Toys for Tots,” and “Unbalanced” (three of which have been sent to Johnson’s fans over the years in the author’s “Post-it” e-mails)—Walt is alternately at his best and his worst. He helps a somewhat delusional elderly victim of domestic abuse while sporting a bathrobe and a mean hangover on New Year’s Day. He’s sidelined by grief when his wife’s obituary reappears in the paper and there’s an unexpected knock on his door two days before Christmas. He strives to help even those who don’t want it when he picks up a young female hitchhiker, and he’s forced into some last-minute Christmas shopping by the Greatest Legal Mind of Our Time, during which he might just end up saving a young Navy chaplain’s Christmas.Full of Longmire’s dry wit and good heart, Christmas in Absaroka County is a holiday must-have for every Longmire and Craig Johnson fan, and it also includes the first chapter of The Cold Dish, the first novel in the Walt Longmire Mystery Series. Amazon review

Time of Death


J.D. Robb - 2011
     J. D. Robb's In Death novels have been praised as "Law & Order: SVU-in the future" (Entertainment Weekly). Now, together for the first time in one volume, are three stories that spotlight Lieutenant Eve Dallas doing what she does best: solving crime with skill, integrity, and passion. Eternity in Death A seductive killer is luring in victims with a promise of the impossible-immortality. Eve Dallas must strip away the fantasy to catch the coldhearted madman. Ritual in Death Eve is plunged into the violent aftermath of a ritualistic murder-and into the mind of an alleged witness who can't remember a thing to save his life. Missing in Death When a woman disappears from a New York City ferry, it's a case that only Eve Dallas can solve- because the woman didn't jump, and yet she's not on board.

Weird Detectives: Recent Investigations


Paula GuranDana Cameron - 2013
    Occult detectives. Ghost hunters. Monster fighters. Humans who unravel uncanny crimes and solve psychic puzzles; sleuths with supernatural powers of their own who provide services far beyond those normal gumshoes, shamuses, and Sherlocks can. When vampires, werewolves, and things that go "bump" in the night are part of your world, criminals can be as inhuman as the crimes they commit, and magic can seep into the mundane - those who solve the mysteries, bring justice, or even save the world itself, might utter spells, wield wands as well as firearms, or simply use their powers of deduction. Some of the best tales of the last decade from top authors of the 21st century's most popular genres take you down mean streets and into strange crime scenes in this fantastic compilation.Contents (alphabetical by author):“Cryptic Coloration” by Elizabeth Bear“The Key” by Ilsa J. Blick“Mortal Bait” Richard Bowes“Star of David” by Patricia Briggs“Love Hurts” by Jim Butcher“Swing Shift” by Dana Cameron“The Necromancer’s Apprentice” by Lillian Stewart Carl“Sherlock Holmes and the Diving Bell” by Simon Clark“The Adakian Eagle” by Bradley Denton“Hecate’s Golden Eye” by P.N. Elrod“The Case of Death and Honey” by Neil Gaiman“The Nightside, Needless to Say” by Simon R. Green“Deal Breaker” by Justin Gustainis“Death by Dahlia” by Charlaine Harris“See Me” by Tanya Huff“Signatures of the Dead” by Faith Hunter“The Maltese Unicorn” by Caitlín R. Kiernan“The Case of the Stalking Shadow” by Joe R. Lansdale“Like a Part of the Family” by Jonathan Maberry“The Beast of Glamis” by William Meikle“Fox Tails” by Richard Parks“Imposters” by Sarah Monette“Defining Shadows” by Carrie Vaughn

First Thrills


Lee ChildSean Michael Bailey - 2010
    Showcasing many of the organization’s bestselling authors as well as rising stars in the genre, here are twenty-five brand-new, never-before-published stories packed with murder, mystery, and mayhem.• A cunning criminal thinks he can use a child to take the rap for his crimes.• A hospital intern turned body snatcher• A priest who comes face-to-face with his wife’s murderer on death row• A Confederate soldier comes home to his love, but changed by more than just the war . . . he comes back wrong.• The discovery of a flying saucer in the ocean depths brings one man to the brink of a massive revelation.• A dying man’s last request proves to his ex-wife that he’s still rotten to the core.• A clandestine operative finds himself caught in a wicked game of confusion . . . but who is calling the shots? No matter what type of thriller you listen to, you’ll find something here that will entertain you . . . and perhaps a new writer you’ll cherish for years to come.

The Bone Collection: Four Novellas


Kathy Reichs - 2016
    "The Bone Collection" presents her trademark artistry in this collection of thrilling short fiction. In "First Bones, " a prequel to Reichs s first novel, "DejaDead," she at last reveals the tale of how Tempe became a forensic anthropologist. In this never-before-published story, Tempe recalls the case that lured her from a promising career in academia into the grim but addictive world of criminal investigation. (It all began with a visit from a pair of detectives and a John Doe recovered from an arson scene in a trailer.) The collection is rounded out with three more stories that take Tempe from the low country of the Florida Everglades, where she makes a grisly discovery in the stomach of an eighteen-foot Burmese python, to the heights of Mount Everest, where a frozen corpse is unearthed. No matter where she goes, Tempe s cases make for the most gripping reading. Praise for Kathy Reichs and the Temperance Brennan series Nobody does forensics thrillers like Kathy Reichs. She s the real deal. David Baldacci Kathy Reichs writes smart no, make that brilliant mysteries that are as realistic as nonfiction and as fast-paced as the best thrillers about Jack Reacher or Alex Cross. James Patterson Every minute in the morgue with Tempe is golden. "The New York Times Book Review""

A Question of Death: An Illustrated Phryne Fisher Treasury


Kerry Greenwood - 2007
    This audiobook is a compendium of Phryne short stories, recipes, and other miscellany and packs a wallop for Phryne fans. Daniels' flinty, elegant voice perfectly captures Phryne's wisdom and wit, and true fans will delight in these short stories (the original basis for the future novels), recipes for Phryne's favorite cocktails, and fashion tips from the beautiful sleuth.