Short Stories Crime Suspense

A murder in San Francisco's Tenderloin District is nothing new, but when ex-cop and P.I. Cal Corwin stumbles across the body of a witness she needs to find a runaway teenager, she finds the two cases inextricably entwined - and time is running out. Set against the rich backdrop of the San Francisco Bay Area, Cal Corwin stories brim with intrigue and fully fleshed characters from cops and criminals to hit men, oddball family, and unexpected allies.

New owners of a dream cottage on a remote Maine lake find themselves taunted, then menaced by an unknown figure. When the local authorities refuse to help, they turn to retired Maine game warden Charley Stevens and his young protege Mike Bowditch for protection. But Charley begins to suspect there is more to the mystery than the couple is letting on—and if he and Mike don’t act fast, the situation will explode into violence.

In The Pact a gripping Kate Burkholder short mystery from New York Times bestselling author Linda Castillo, a terrifying disappearance in Amish country reveals the power of friendship. Three days before Thanksgiving, two boys disappear without a trace. Eleven-year-old Aaron Kuhns is Amish. Kevin...

Brigitte had a rough start in life. It all began when her village was bombed when she was just a child. After being sent to the US by a refugee agency, she drifted from one foster home to another for some time. In her pursuit to find the sense of family, she is recruited by the Russian mob, where she meets up with an old friend. The mob offers them everything except freedom. She wants more. She changes her name and makes a new life for herself.

Come sit on the veranda and pour yourself a glass of sweet tea, fortified with a slug of bourbon. Put your feet up and enjoy these stories set in Atlanta, a city sewn from the ashes, where everything that grows is both fertilized and corrupted by the past.

Chief of Police Kate Burkholder confronts a mysterious beast terrorizing the residents of Painters Mill in this new original short mystery from bestselling author Linda Castillo. On a foggy spring night, an Amish man crashes his buggy after a large, unidentified animal spooks his horse. Kate...

A collection of the best and most popular programs from the Golden Age of Radio, digitally remastered, and including performances from some of Hollywood’s most beloved stars, like Humphrey Bogart, Shirley Temple, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, and many more.

Three million dollars, illegal drugs, and a woman with a violent history - what could possibly go wrong? Brian Jeffries is a life insurance agent who's willing to cut corners if he must to sell a policy. It's all fine until the death of a client puts everything he values at risk.

You agree to meet with a hit man, but the person you want him to kill is... YOU. You're dying of bone cancer and this is the only way to make the insurance company pay so you can take care of your family when you're gone. This cat-and-mouse story is not all it seems, but the hit goes down exactly as planned.

Passerby is an anthology of short stories and is the second title in the series. This collection concentrates on stories that demanded a sequel and in some cases, a third part. The stories in this anthology do not fall into any particular genre because I like to "go with the flow" when I write.

Beirut is a city of contradiction and paradox. It is an urban and rural city, one of violence and forgiveness, memory and forgetfulness. Beirut is a city of war and peace. This short story collection is a part of a vibrant, living recovery of Beirut. Beirut Noir recovers the city once again through writing, through the literary visions of its authors....

Complete with fascinating biographies by Tony Medawar of all the featured authors, this latest volume in the annual Bodies from the Library series once again brings into the daylight the forgotten, the lost and the unknown, and is an indispensable collection for any bookshelf.

Be ready for some action, humor, and mystery in this anthology with short stories. You’ll listen about gangsters, witches, magic potions, interrogations, werewolves, and murder. Several stories have a murder victim, while others are all about theft or robberies. But in many cases, they spark the imagination and make up for a great way to sit back, relax, and read or listen to stories from a completely different world.

Two women catch a train and leave Bristol years apart, their destination and fate the same. Both are murdered. DCI Meredith and the cold case review team investigate. But Hodge has left the team and Meredith. With Meredith’s personal life in freefall, the team questions whether he will be around to see the case through, and if their department can survive.

Dror Eytan is a ruthless, heartless, violent extortionist. I am a simple teacher who has never had to deal with people like Eytan. Eytan wants the money. I don't have it. My friend's life is at stake. What have I got myself into? Help.

Steve wants to leave his old life behind, the life of killing and waiting to be killed. But when it's the family business, it can be a hard habit to break.

You wake up one morning with the weight of the world on your shoulders. You just lost your job, your girlfriend dumped you and you're about to be evicted from your apartment. Is it worth even going on anymore? Maybe not, but before you pull that trigger why not give a call to the folks at the suicide hotline. Maybe they can help. How good are these people at their job? Someone's gonna die no matter what. And there ain't a thing you can do about it.

Nothing exciting ever happened to Melissa Berkley. It was time to try to change that, she thought. She stood on the stern of the ship looking out at the horizon. Most of the other passengers stayed inside, or sat on the deck chairs with something to read. Melissa had something to read herself, even if it was just a short note on a post card that read: "To whomever finds this bottle: I dropped it overboard in the middle of Lake Michigan on this, the third day of September 1997. If you find it, please mail this post card back to me and let me know where you found it."

We've all been there. Some punk with a beater car creates a road rage situation, but being that your car is a new Mercedes-Benz, you don't want to take any chances so you let it slide. But the kid's not done playing with you. He raises the stakes but pointing a revolver at you. To hell with the car, that's what insurance is for. Go get him.

Tim Murphy is a television newscaster who specializes in stories from the streets. After a long day on location, his cameraman drops him off at the studio, but it's closed for the day. He heads for his car but finds that someone has stolen it. Now, he has to walk home late at night on the same streets he's been reporting on. Can he make it home safely even though the only weapon in his pocket is a microphone? Let's find out.