Mystery/Crime

Private detective Richard Dick is back, fresh from his sleuthing success in the runaway international bestseller BITE THIS! In his latest case, Dick finds himself once again mixed up in wacky trouble including magical onions, a mouse who won't kiss him, a witch who loves to turn people into frogs and, of course, a gorgeous woman. Can Dick solve the case without getting hexed himself? This is #2 in the Richard Dick short story series.

If you thought the holidays were stressful, rest assured you have it much easier than private investigator Richard Dick. In this outing in the worldwide bestselling series, Santa Claus enlists Dick's help to whittle down his naughty-or-nice list. A discovery of ambiguities in the life of one child may mean a stocking full of coal. Dick's got only one shot at making this kid's Christmas be merry, but his efforts are about to unveil a terrible, dark secret at the North Pole. A new, hilarious short... more info>>

Detective Richard Dick is hired to look into mysterious disappearances in the town of Wareville. His client is enormous, the suspects are bizarre and the situation is turning critical. This isn't Dick's typical case but, then again, this laugh-out-loud story isn't your typical mystery either!

One rain-soaked evening, John Ray Horn runs into an old flame. Rose Galen played the female lead in his second movie. Young, beautiful and improbably talented for her B-movie surroundings, she had a shining quality to her. Now, years later, Rose is a shattered creature, drink-sodden and heavy with sadness. Something happened to her years ago, before Horn first knew her, something so terrible that it would eventually leave her broken. Hoping to uncover her long-held secret, Horn goes to visit Ro... more info>>

In this first outing of a new short story series by Staff Sergeant Robert Evans, Sergeant O'Quinn finds himself battling in an underground mixed martial arts fight in Iraq. Is the fight really just two men battling, or is it a setup for something far more dangerous for the American soldiers involved?

If you thought standing in line at your local warehouse store was murder, then you haven't been to Megamart. These flash fiction tales of superstore madness and mayhem will make you think twice the next time you hear "clean up on aisle 13." This anthology contains works by: Patricia Abbott, Sophie Littlefield, Kieran Shea, Chad Eagleton, Ed Gorman, Cormac Brown, Fleur Bradley, Alan Griffiths, Laura Benedict, Garnett Elliot, Eric Beetner, Jack Bates, Bill Crider, Loren Eaton, John DuMond, John... more info>>

What do you do when it appears you may be gaining a bimbo sister-in-law who stands to inherit a family heirloom? You take advantage of some of the worst gravy ever made to commit the perfect crime. This story appears in the Thanksgiving mystery anthology THE KILLER WORE CRANBERRY.

Volumes 1 and 2 of the award winning tween series. Emmy Budd and the Hijacked Train Emmy Budd is a twelve-year-old tomboy who finds her adventurer's match in the new boy in town, Thomas John Blake, T.J. It is a hot summer in the small Mid-Western town of Jerseyville, Ohio. With no money and lots of time on their hands, Emmy and T.J. ferret out every freebie in town, from sailing kites off the tower in the local stadium to building a raft out of discarded lumber and sailing the old swimming hol... more info>>

Felicity Canaday and Lazarus are back, and this time they team up with librarian Jo Caldwell and builder Max Todd to track down whoever is stealing rare books from the Canaday Collection before it can be installed in its new home. Mystery by Justine Wittich; originally published by Belgrave House

A human hand is unearthed at the property of Hank Turner, a local farmer in Jerseyville, Ohio, where Emmy Budd and her adventurous friend T.J. Blake, live. Hank Turner, a good friend of Emmy and T.J.'s, is under suspicion for murder and mutilations of a hired man whom he threatened and fired several weeks earlier. A developer and a newcomer has purchased the Turner farm with plans to turn it into a roadside tavern. Emmy and T.J. keep their ears to the ground as they pretend to help out while... more info>>

"She walked into my office smelling like a meadow of flowers and looking like one long night of trouble." Myron Foote is a private investigator who has seen better days ... but he drank them away. Now he's in a dumpy office working bottom-of-the-barrel divorce cases ... until a gorgeous redhead named Cynthia Thacketer walks into his life and offers him $105,000 to pose as her uncle Percy. It sounds simple. Too simple. But Foote is a man in need. The job takes him down a dark path littered wit... more info>>

Agent Mickey Flannery is finally going to take his wife Terese on the honeymoon they missed five years ago. The plans are made, the plane has landed and they arrive to the news they've been chosen for an upgraded holiday--a week on a private island all amenities included. The private beach soon turns into paradise lost when they learn their gracious host is none other than Rafael Lesandro Rivera, the son of a dead drug lord, and he's out for blood. Can Mickey keep Terese and himself alive lo... more info>>

Jockey Nikki Latrelle gets the chance of a lifetime -- to ride the favorite in a stakes race -- only to have her dream destroyed when a mysterious intruder kills her mount the night before the race. Evil people are working at Maryland's Laurel Park race track, and when Nikki stumbles over the body of a gunshot victim, she quickly becomes the prime suspect in a murder case. Framed and facing a possible murder rap, Nikki is ruled-off the track. Even deprived of job and income, she cannot abandon... more info>>

Stuart S. Stuart his come to Paris to find artistic inspiration. Instead, he falls for a Mafiosa's wife, becomes a murder suspect, gets beat up by criminals searching for millions worth of diamonds, and learns that some of his student works have been fradulently sold to another Mafia boss...with the promise that they're genuine old masters. Stuart seemingly becomes a magnet for murder. How long, though, before he's the one who ends up dead? Then there's the beautiful, but truth-challenged Maryse... more info>>

In one of the most dangerous cities in the world over two-hundred women are murdered and no one cares. Except that is for Detective Camacho of Juarez, who refuses to give in to local indifference and corruption. It is victim 213 that leads him to the shocking reason government officials are covering up the murders.

Key Lime Squeeze follows Buffalo P.I. Joe Banks as he answers a plea from a mob princess to locate her runaway husband, insurance executive, Robert Boothby. Saddled with the crime family's enforcer for a traveling companion, Banks tracks Boothby to the Florida Keys, and soon learns he is not the only one interested in locating the missing Insurance mogul. Allies become enemies in a cat and mouse game of murder and deceit as Banks discovers who to trust, and who's in on the squeeze.

He thinks it's his story, the man I have just killed, but it is my story. Let him tell it first though, as he has already written it? Struggling journalist and aspiring author Y is looking for a real-life multiple murder case to write about just like Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. At a mystery/crime-writing festival in London his old friend DCI Dave Lennon rushes in announcing that the festival's star turn, an American bestselling author, has just been killed. More murders swiftly follow in a ma... more info>>

The time is 1953. The world has changed. Richard Curtis Van Loan has been forced to hang up his mask. But The Phantom Detective is drawn out of retirement by the sudden murder of his longtime friend, publisher Frank Havens; and must then face the greatest challenge in his long career, as he finds himself pursued and hounded by a vicious, unseen assailant, "The Phantom's Phantom." The hot, sunny hills of Southern California present a very different problem from the cold, dark-edged streets of the... more info>>

Carrrie Sinclair's had it with long time love, Jack Jones. That is until he makes her an offer she can't refuse and asks her to meet him in Vegas for a last-minute wedding. This is what she always wanted in her mind and thought would never happen, but shortly after the nuptials, Carrie discovers you can know someone for years and not know them at all. Jack has a secret he's been keeping and now that they're married, he can't hide it any longer.

In April 1945, The Nazis, reeling and near defeat, frantically work to hide the huge store of art treasures that Hitler has looted from Europe. Truck convoys loaded with the cultural wealth of the Western world pour in an unending stream into the compound of the vast Altaussee salt mine high in the Austrian Alps. But with the Allies closing in, the vaunted efficiency of the Nazis has broken down. At Altaussee, all is tumult and confusion. In the commotion a single truck, its driver, and its pri... more info>>

Enjoy solving these four mysteries: Caller ID by Douglas Allan Dean High profile civil rights firebrand, Reverend Gil Tartlot, slumps dead upon his desk. His letter opener is the weapon and his bloody finger (and matching phone keypad) leads researcher Addison Craig, girlfriend Jennifer Lu, and detective Sal DeNunzio to Tarlot's last living act: dialing a phone extension. With more 'un-subs' than the Million Man March, Addison and the NYPD must discover the link between a string of numbers and ... more info>>

A small-time bookie is overcome by greed, lust, and extraordinary circumstances. Eddie Ryan operates in the rough-and-tumble East End section of Houston, and just lost a bundle on the World Series. For him, there's only one way out: a phone call to a local loan shark. This triggers a sequence of events which soon send him running to save his own skin. Complicating matters is the presence of two strong women. One is Felina, the Mexican beauty he has always desired. The other is Linda, his older ... more info>>

Ferreting out the reason for a deliberate hit-and-run was complicated enough for the detectives of Sunset Investigations, as was finding a stolen show horse before threats of mutilation could be carried out. Far worse, however, was learning the identity of a territorial werewolf before he slaughtered another hapless person.

Shell Scott is not an easy guy to mistake for someone else, with his blondish hair, whitish eyebrow, grey eyes, broken nose, and missing ear tip. He's a sucker for a damsel in distress, a guy with a pistol in his pocket and a murder on his mind. When Shell is in the state of Denmark, he finds that he is dodging bullets and it seems like everyone is holding a smoking gun. Somebody is doing his best to make him the late, lamented Shell Scott, six feet under. But who would want to take a shot at su... more info>>

It's 1693, and Boston's dancing master is found dead with a fencing foil through his gut. Two nosy Puritans, Hetty Henry and Creasy Cotton, are asked to investigate. The young minister who found the body has been arrested for the murder but Hetty and Creasy discover there are many other suspects including the town's ministers who preached forcefully against him, the magistrates who harassed him with fines, angry husbands, and jealous women who contended for his affections. Hetty interviews the ... more info>>