Classic Thrillers

Emile Gaboriau first introduced the young police officer and detective Monsieur Lecoq in his novel L'Affaire Lerouge. He based his character on an actual thief who later became no less than the head of the Paris police -- Eugine Francois Vidocq. As a character, Lecoq would later influence Arthur Conan Doyle in his creation of Sherlock Holmes. In this, his first foray into detection, Lecoq reveals his mastery of the art of disguise and his zeal for detection. Monsieur Lecoq: Volume I is the first of a two-part novel and details the crime and ensuing investigation.

In an elaborate house known as the Cloisters, Maud Wainwright rules supreme. The queen of society in the small town of Beverly, she has a table long enough to seat 100, and she keeps an iron grip on the guest list. Her right-hand woman is Pat Abbott, a local girl who is beautiful, innocent, and kind. Pat has no idea how cutthroat high society can be, but she's about to get a deadly first lesson.

When New England's premier powerbroker dies, his 28-year-old son, Jason, is surprised to find he is the sole heir. At first, Jason angrily rejects this billion-dollar bequest. But he's gradually seduced by the very power and prestige he despises. When he finally starts to right past wrongs, however, a series of murders sends him fleeing for his life.

An ancient secret hidden in a forgotten city holds the key to modern riches in this exhilarating sequel to Blood and Treasure. Once you've made your first ten billion, what's more money? What any billionaire really wants isn't money, it's power, and Shan Zhang has the perfect plan to achieve...

A missing photographer. A megalomaniacal millionaire. A drag queen hellbent on saving her club. The latest glittering mystery from the author of Murder in the Dressing Room… Misty Divine is bold, beautiful and back in action. She’s barely settled into her new role as the glamorous hostess of...

The daughter of an automotive magnate escapes to an artistic retreat that holds more secrets—and more intrigue—than she could have ever imagined, in this Prohibition-era novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Salt to the Sea. Detroit, 1927. A city of smoke and ambition, where...

Set in a small Cotswold town, Inspector Hobbes and the Blood is a fast-paced comedy cozy mystery fantasy about the adventures of Andy, an incompetent reporter, when he is reluctantly working with Inspector Hobbes, a police detective with a reputation. Andy soon finds himself immersed in a world where not everyone is human, and a late-night visit to a churchyard nearly results in grave consequences, and a ghoulish outcome. An accidental fire leads to Andy having to doss in Hobbes's spare room.

Bob Boyd is a geologist, as resilient as the British Columbia timber country where he works for the powerful Matterson Corporation. But his real name and his past are mysteries - wiped out by the accident that nearly killed him. Then Boyd reads a name that opens a door in his memory - Trinavant - and discovers that Bull Matterson and his son will do almost anything to keep the Trinavant family forgotten forever....

Inspired by an actual terrorist attack on Greenwich Laboratory in 1894 ‘The Secret Agent’ is arguably Conrad’s greatest work. Mr. Verloc, the spy, is roused to action by his masters. He is to instigate an act ‘of destructive ferocity so absurd as to be incomprehensible, inexplicable, and almost unthinkable; in fact, mad’. All does not run smoothly however and leads to Mr Verloc’s wife, Winnie, demonstrating how quickly rational equilibrium can change to frenzied destruction.

There are hours of listening pleasure in The Legendary Detectives: 9 Classic Novelettes Starring the World's Greatest Super-Sleuths. You'll find gathered together a clutch of classic mysteries starring nine of the world's most famous fictional sleuths: The Thinking Machine, the Old Man in the Corner, Max Carrados, Morris Klaw, Sanders of the River, Reggie Fortune, Father Brown, Craig Kennedy, and, of course, the greatest and most famous of them all - Sherlock Holmes.

Over a 25-year period, author Maurice Leblanc wrote of the exploits of gentleman thief and master of disguise Arsène Lupin, to the delight of readers on the continent and elsewhere. Often referred to as France's version of Sherlock Holmes, Lupin in this early appearance is wrongfully accused of the death of a prominent German millionaire with nefarious plans. The thief and the mysterious killer find themselves in a race to find an incriminating bundle of letters that, in the wrong hands, could change the political map of the world.

I’ll admit, I’m struggling to adjust to my new role as the Keeper of Stories while raising a stubborn toddler. Plus, the missing persons case at Bay Side Media has fallen into my lap and there are a lot of fairy tales that involve kidnapping. Everything is piling up fast, making me want to rip my planner to shreds and quit adulting. But when my mother vanishes to the mysterious Cygnus Island, I’m forced to face the fairy tales and their villains. Can I kill two birds with one stone?

Zilla Trott is pouring her cat some chamomile tea when the drifter appears in her kitchen. He is grubby and crude - not at all the kind of person you'd usually find in the pleasant town of Lobelia Falls - but something about him intrigues the aging widow. Perhaps it's his rugged good looks, or the way he seems to come from another time and place. Or perhaps it's the fact that he's been dead for nearly a century.

Mencken Cassie is a passionate reporter on a mission to save Baltimore from an organized crime ring and a brutal hitman who is terrorizing the city. When Mencken declares war on the organization, he enters a world of monsters more terrifying than anything he could ever imagine. To save the city he loves, Mencken must unmask the true threat to Baltimore by finding new sources of strength in the community around him.

The Big Bow Mystery is a masterpiece of the form, as compelling a story today as when it was first published. The author has produced a seminal crime novel - the original "locked room" mystery. With a flair for storytelling and a literate style comparable to his contemporary, Charles Dickens, Israel Zangwill concocts a heady satire of Victorian England, setting his scene in London's picturesque Bow district.

killer is hounding the seaside town of Old Tornwich. Residents are gripped by fear and suspicion, and the finger of blame is pointed in all directions. But the bodies keep falling, and the crimes remain unsolved, the culprit at large. No mere whodunit, The Suburbs of Hell - its story inspired by a real-life serial killer - is a profoundly disturbing psychological drama with a devastating conclusion, the final work of one of Australia's greatest writers.

Michael Shayne, "the reckless, redheaded Irishman", was a popular hard-boiled detective created by crime novelist Brett Halliday. In the novels, Michael Shayne settled in Miami just after WWII, making crime pay by fighting it with a license and an attitude. Like Mike Hammer and Philip Marlowe, Shayne was a loner. The backstory on Mike is that he was happily married, but it hit him hard when his wife was tragically murdered. Grief stricken, Shayne loses himself in his work as a private eye, prowling the dark streets of the city.

As war between Alden and Oridia intensifies, King Erik must defend his kingdom from treachery and enemies on all sides - but the greatest danger lurks closer to home. When the war began, Lady Alix Black played a minor role, scouting at the edge of the king's retinue in relative anonymity. Though she's once again facing an attacking Oridian force determined to destroy all she holds dear, she is now bodyguard to the king and wife to the prince. Still, she is unprepared for what the revival of the war will mean.

The gallows, the rack, and angry mobs are part of the menace in this horrific novel set in 15th century Paris. Quasimodo, the kind-hearted, hunchbacked bell ringer and the lovely La Esmaralda struggle to survive the brutality that surrounds them.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson continue their astounding adventures in this second chronicle of short-story mysteries. Notable are two characters here introduced that prove themselves invaluable to the Sherlock Holmes canon: Mycroft Holmes (Sherlock's older brother) and the nefarious Professor Moriarty.