Short Mystery Collection

Money is the root of all evil.... Twin brothers dig up a buried treasure, only to discover a chilling secret from their past. A down on his luck loser is confronted with dark moral dilemma that could turn his life around. And a haunted coin seeks revenge on the thieves who stole it. Scare Street is proud to present the best in bone-chilling supernatural horror. This volume contains three spine-tingling tales for your reading pleasure. A treasure trove of fear and horror, locked in a vault of nightmares beyond your imagination.

The description “consulting detective” was often a reference to Sherlock Holmes, but that was inadequate to tell about his unusual characteristics. He was a loner who preferred to keep to himself and kept many secrets from others, including the few friends he had. Holmes did have a constant professional relationship with Dr. Watson, and it was the faithful Watson who once said, “I had no idea that such personalities exist outside of stories.”

The Innocence of Father Brown is the first collection of short stories featuring G.K. Chesterton's beloved detective, Father Brown, a humble and unassuming Catholic priest with a sharp mind for solving mysteries. Unlike the typical detectives of his time, Father Brown relies on his deep understanding of human nature, morality, and logic to unravel even the most perplexing cases. This complete collection includes classic stories such as The Blue Cross, where Father Brown first crosses paths with the brilliant thief Flambeau, and The Secret Garden, a dark and puzzling murder mystery.

Three compelling Sherlock Holmes mysteries in one book, including "The Game of Cat and Mouse": "The interior was dark, and neither of us searched for a lamp or switch. There came a ticking of some clock or another. And the sound of a dripping faucet somewhere in the house was like a hammer to an anvil. Our breaths were loud, but my heart sounded louder to me...."

Step into a world where reality is fractured and nothing is as it seems. In this chilling collection of seven short stories, you’ll encounter mysterious shadows, broken relationships, and eerie forces that defy explanation. Each story explores the thin line between what’s real and what’s imagined. Brace yourself for a journey through the unexpected, where every ending leaves you questioning everything.

A collection of seven cautionary short tales find characters in unnerving situations, all dealing with strange and sometimes supernatural events.

Many of the greatest Russian authors, including Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Pushkin, produced crime and mystery fiction, a type of literature that was largely suppressed during the Soviet era because it did not glorify the state, but rather, gave significance to individual characters. With the fall of the Soviet Union, mystery writers have become some of the most successful novelists in Russia, and there is a renewed interest in, and appreciation of, the great crime classics of an earlier era. This volume is the first collection ever devoted entirely to Russian crime fiction.

It’s dreaded news for actress Lyla McCord and her husband, Nolan. Their eight-year-old daughter has vanished. To find her, Nolan reaches out to a psychic gifted with uncanny visions about the lost girl. But Lyla thinks she sees right through him. Is he a con artist or the real thing? Either way, he might be telling the truth. And that’s too frightening for Lyla to bear.

The crime fiction canopy's a broad one, with room to give shelter to writing of all sorts, as editor Lawrence Block shows with At Home in the Dark.

Her demonic Angel is a collection of all of Joy Mutter's short stories written thus far. The stories have been written in a variety of genres so hopefully there should be something for everyone. Some tales are stranger than others, but all could be said to be different shades of dark. Despite its somewhat suggestive title, Her Demonic Angel is not erotic fiction. Narrated by the author, Joy Mutter.

In an attempt to reclaim his stolen oil fields, Bob Sherman secretly hires on as a deckhand aboard the yacht of Herbert Marmion, the man who ruthlessly stole them. When a hurricane sends the yacht to an uncharted island, the entire crew is captured by pirates—including Marmion’s beautiful daughter.

It is one of the greatest conflicts - and a pivotal turning point - in history...the Chinese civil war. On one side stands Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists. On the other, Mao Zedong and the Communists. And their forces are about to meet in a decisive battle...the outcome of which is in the hands of one American pilot, John Hampton, a man who couldn’t care less....

Eighteen-year-old Lee Thompson has a chip on his shoulder and a mission in his heart to save his dad, an aging sheriff who’s lost control of his town. Old Diehard’s lost control of his town, and it seems every outcast and outlaw west of the Mississippi is on the prowl in Wolf River, Montana. Now Lee’s come all the way from Texas to stand up for his father, a man who hasn’t seen him since he was a boy and who doesn’t know him from Adam.

Drilling for oil is a dirty business, and for Bill Murphy, it’s about to turn positively filthy. But Murphy’s as big and tough as his home state of Texas and he’s more than a match for everything the oil-rich land of Venezuela can throw at him. Everything, that is, except for one woman. Her name is Marcia Stewart. She’s fiery, she’s brave, and she’s beautiful...and she’d like nothing better than to see Bill Murphy dead. Her oilman father’s been killed, and Marcia tags Murphy as the murderer.

US Navy Lieutenant Steve Craig is in one hell of a mess. Being accused of murder is bad enough, but the local police are convinced he’s killed his own father. And now, for Steve Craig, the plot is about to get down and dirty. Steve’s safe from the cops as long as he stays aboard his Navy ship - but the word safe isn’t in his vocabulary. He slips off the vessel and vanishes into the seamy underside of the city, determined to find out who took his father's life...even if it means risking his own.

After a run-in with the Sebring Beach Police Department where a vampire’s servant ended up dead, Helena Graves is offered two choices: Help the local PD chase down wanted monsters, or spend the next 10 years in prison. Since she has a teenage daughter to raise, it was an easy decision for her to make. Between running a somewhat controversial business, tense teacher conferences, and killer supernaturals on the loose, there's never a dull moment in Sebring Beach or Helena’s life. And for the first time in decades, her love life is about to get very interesting.

Insurance investigator Brent Calloway may be too hard-boiled to crack a smile, but he’ll go to any length to crack a case. Calloway’s about to go to extremes to see to it that one ship makes it safely from Hawaii to the mainland. Going undercover and posing as ruthless killer Spike O’Brien Calloway quickly discovers that on this ship nothing is what it seems, and no one can be trusted. With so much insurance money at stake, and the whole crew apparently in on the scam, this could end up being a voyage to the bottom of the sea....

If Lars Marlin had three wishes, two have already been granted: he has escaped from Devil’s Island . . . and he has come face to face with the man who put him there - Paco Corvino. But the third wish - putting a bullet in Corvino - will have to wait. They’re off to sea, and not since Fletcher Christian and Captain Bligh set sail on the Bounty have two more heated enemies been in the same boat.

From tales of chilling horror, to heart-stopping stories of suspense, Warped is best-selling author Jeff Menapace's ultimate collection of short fiction. Warped contains currently published tales of the macabre like "Princess" and "The Straw Man and a Murder", the currently out of print and award-winning "Sugar Daddy" and its sequel, "Sugar Daddy 2", and the author's preferred version of his controversial "Torment".

In the third installment of his acclaimed anthology series, master of crime fiction Lawrence Block has gathered together the best talent from popular fiction to produce an anthology of short stories based on masterpieces of American art. Among the star-studded lineup of writers you'll find Jerome Charyn, Jane Hamilton, Christa Faust, John Sandford, Sara Paretsky, Walter Mosley, Charles Ardai, Barry Malzberg, and Janice Eidus.