Short Thrillers

Under the Great British Baking Contest competition tent, there's more at stake than winning the title of Best Baker in All of Britain. For amateur baker Poppy Wilkinson, there are mysteries to solve, secrets and lies, even murder. As a fledgling witch, Poppy's having enough trouble controlling her sponge cake, never mind trying to control her powers.

Janie is the last person Hannah and Christopher Bauer want to see again. But Janie’s moved back to Clarksville. She’s no longer the frail child Hannah and Christopher adopted over eleven years ago. The child who destroyed their lives. Now Janie is out of juvenile detention—a beautiful, confident young adult—and publicly promoting her new tell-all memoir.

Nathan Tyler is an unassuming professor at a middling American university with a rather obscure specialty in mathematics—in short, a nobody from nowhere. So why is the White House calling? Summoned to Washington, DC, for a top-secret briefing, Nathan discovers that he’s the key to a massive foreign intelligence breakthrough. Reading between the lines of a cryptic series of equations, he could open a door straight into the heart of the Kremlin and change the global balance of power forever.

Suddenly I’m neck-deep in a world that I’ve never really believed in, no matter what my crazy great-aunt Mabel used to say. Seriously, I have more than enough drama in my life already, without adding an irresistibly mesmerizing nightclub owner to the mix. My boss - a man with a penchant for trouble and the echo of tragedy lurking behind his dark gaze. My new coworkers appear to be universally insane. My deadbeat ex is in trouble with a capital “T”, and if history is any indication, he’ll do his best to drag my son and me right along with him.

Jack's a retired ex-cop from New York, seeking the simple life in Cherringham. Sarah's a Web designer who's moved back to the village to find herself. But their lives are anything but quiet as the two team up to solve Cherringham's criminal mysteries. This compilation contains episodes 34 - 36. "The Secret of Brimley Manor": Brimley Manor, home to an eccentric museum of oddities from its owner's lifetime of exotic travels also holds dark secrets. When a suspicious fire breaks out, the biggest question is... was it just an accident?

In early spring of 2059, Lieutenant Eve Dallas is called off planet to face a grueling ordeal - giving a seminar at the largest police conference of the year, to be held in a swanky resort. A resort which just happens to be owned by her husband, Roarke, of course.

Dogwalker Olivia has her hands full trying to build a life with her long-time love, Andrew. If only she could stop stumbling into mysteries, murders, and mayhem.

When club-hopping bad girl Tiara Kent is found dead in her plush Manhattan apartment, the killing has all the earmarks of a vampire attack. The ever-practical Lieutenant Eve Dallas has to deal with superstitious cops carrying garlic and stakes, as well as the ever-hysterical press.

Now, for the first time, Herron’s short fiction has been collected into one volume. In Dolphin Junction, devoted fans and future converts alike will find much to amuse, delight, and terrify them. Five stand-alone nerve-racking and thrilling crime fiction stories are complemented by four mystery stories featuring the Oxford wife-and-husband detective team of shrewd Zoë Boehm and hapless Joe Silvermann. The collection also includes a peek into the past of Jackson Lamb, irascible top agent at Slough House.

This bundle includes books four, five, and six of the Cupcake Bakery Mystery series: Book Four: Red Velvet Revenge, Book Five: Going, Going, Ganache, and Book Six: Sugar and Iced.

When an elderly, world-famous magician is found dead in his Cherringham mansion, there is nothing suspicious about the passing. According to the doctor, it was a heart attack - plain and simple. But the performer's long-time assistant suspects something sinister and she asks Jack and Sarah to investigate. And like the great magician's amazing tricks, it soon becomes clear that his death is anything but simple: in the world of magic, nothing is ever what it seems, and sometimes even illusions can turn deadly.

Joey Morales was the last recruit of the government's full black operation, the Orphan Program. Trained to be an assassin until she washed out, she was rescued by Evan Smoak, the former agent known as Orphan X. Now Joey, a world-class hacker, starts training for one of her biggest challenges yet...

Just when things have finally cooled down for 88-year-old Maud after the disturbing discovery of a dead body in her apartment in Gothenburg, a couple of detectives return to her doorstep. Though Maud dodges their questions with the skill of an Olympic gymnast a fifth of her age, she wonders if suspicion has fallen on her, little old lady that she is. The truth is, ever since Maud was a girl, death has seemed to follow her....

Constance is a fiercely independent high school senior living in rural James City County, Virginia. After their father abandons the family, she and her sister Abigail move into their late cousin's home with their mother, Delilah. Constance quickly becomes frustrated by her new life and her mother’s obsession with their family’s legacy. In defiance, she aspires to make a new life for herself and leave this place forever. But when a life-altering tragedy strikes, Constance is thrust into adulthood and a fight for survival against unimaginable forces.

The irrepressible, audacious defence barrister Horace Rumpole whose court scenes are proverbial, and whose home is ruled by Mrs Rumpole, is back in these short stories by John Mortimer. The much loved stories were adapted from his scripts for the hugely popular TV series of the same name.

Miss Marple meets Oscar Wilde in this new series of cosy mysteries set in the picturesque Cotswolds village of Bunburry. Here, fudge-making and quaffing real ale in the local pub are matched by an undercurrent of passion, jealousy, hatred and murder - laced with a welcome dose of humour. This compilation contains episodes 4 - 6.

Gina Gambino wants revenge. Her life has been turned upside down with the murder of her two hoodlum sons, but she knows who's done it. Her target is Don Francini, leader of one of the most powerful mafia families in Palermo. Using her brain and her body, Gina worms her way into his household, becoming first his housekeeper then his mistress, weaving a complicated web of poison and murder. It seems her plans are going well until one disastrous night.

Ten years ago, Craig Johnson wrote his first short story, the Hillerman Award-winning "Old Indian Trick". This was one of the earliest appearances of the sheriff who would go on to star in Johnson’s best-selling, award-winning novels and the A&E hit series Longmire. Each Christmas Eve thereafter, fans rejoiced when Johnson sent out a new short story featuring an episode in Walt’s life that doesn’t appear in the novels; over the years, many have asked why they can’t buy the stories in book form.

Martin Lorensen is a twenty-three-year-old counselor for disturbed teenagers. He’s bright, compassionate, attractive, and outgoing. He’s also—and this is the most interesting thing—not dead. Martin has improbably survived not one but two deadly disasters that claimed dozens of lives. The kid is riding one hell of a lucky streak. Two federal agents think there is something darker at play. Now that they’ve arranged to interview Martin, they want answers. Martin is ready to share everything he knows. One thing is for certain: when it comes to escaping death, luck doesn’t figure into it at all.

A beautiful young girl was walking down the street - when suddenly …Julia Carroll knows that too many stories start that way. A beautiful and intelligent nineteen-year-old college freshman, she should be carefree. But instead she is frightened - because girls are disappearing without a trace. Fellow student Beatrice Oliver and a homeless woman called Mona-No-Name are missing, both gone after being snatched off the street. Julia is determined to discover the reason behind their disappearances - before she's next.