Showing results for "Writing Fiction" in Crime Fiction

Doing Time: For the prison writers whose work is included in this anthology, it means more than "serving a sentence"; it means staying alive and sane, preserving dignity, reinventing oneself, and somehow retaining one's humanity. For the last quarter century the prestigious writers' organization PEN has sponsored a contest for writers behind bars to help prisoners face these challenges. The contest honors the best short stories, plays, essays, and poems among hundreds submitted annually by men and women nationwide.

For American radiologist Peter Ross, it sounded like the perfect vacation: deliver one study in Spain and then spend the rest of his time on a Mediterranean beach. But he wasn't planning on meeting Angela Locke, a dark-haired beauty with a big problem—she's on the run from two warring gangs, each dead set on finding a mysterious artifact, and they'll kill anyone who stands in their way. It's a desperate fight for survival across the European continent as Peter and Angela race to uncover a centuries-old secret before they become its next victim.

Julia Malmros is thriving. A former police officer making her way in the world of crime fiction, she’s turning popularity into fame by writing the next book in a world-renowned suspense series. To help her research, Julia connects with Kim Ribbing. More hacker than man, Kim bears a dark past that’s the very antithesis of the promising future she has planned for herself. They share an undeniable spark—yet it’s likely to implode. That’s the least of Julia’s worries. Hounded by publicity, Julia retreats to her cottage in the Stockholm archipelago.

Playboy Roger Carr is handsome, wealthy, and connected. As an occasional lawyer, he’s the right man to send to the French Riviera to secure a villa for an important client. It’s the perfect assignment, complete with fast cars and fast women, until strange things begin to happen and Roger realizes that someone is trying to kill him.

“This brilliant anthology of short stories by some of the most outstanding women now writing mysteries and crime fiction...is a truly glorious collection” — Globe and Mail New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth George has gathered nearly two dozen chilling, boldly original stories...

'Clever, pacey, compulsive' Sunday Mirror ******** One family. One night. Ten years of lies. It's June 2008 and twenty-one-year-old Adam Lattimer vanishes, presumed dead. The strain of his disappearance breaks his already fragile family. Ten years later, with his mother deceased and siblings...

'A deeply satisfying read' Sunday Times Christmas Day, and DCI Tom Reynolds receives an alarming call. A mass grave has been discovered on Oileán na Caillte, the island which housed the controversial psychiatric institution St. Christina's. The hospital has been closed for decades and onsite...

Kids can be so cruel. They'll call you names. Hurt your feelings. Push you to your death. In the garden of an abandoned house, Luke Connolly lies broken, dead. The night before, he and his friends partied inside. Nobody fought, everybody else went home safely. And yet, Luke was raped and pushed...

'Will keep you guessing and guessing' Cara Hunter ******** He jumped to his death in front of witnesses. Now his wife is charged with murder. Five years ago, Erin Kennedy moved to New York following a family tragedy. She now lives happily with her detective husband in the scenic seaside town of...

Steven Jencks has planned the perfect crime. Working with two skilled associates, he will hit the Reina, a super-luxury hotel off the coast of Spain, and then walk away with the haul of a lifetime. As the ultimate pro, Jencks has even run his plan through a complex computer simulation to account for every possible variable … Except three. Their names are Annette, Cynthia, and Jenny. And no computer could ever simulate what these three femmes fatales have up their sleeves.

A missing federal agent, suitcases full of cash, a secluded cabin in the woods. Spider Lake is no longer the peaceful retreat John Cabrelli needs to recover from his gunshot wounds and start a new life. Knowing Cabrelli is a former law enforcement officer, the new chief of police recruits him to help untangle a string of strange events in the little town of Musky Falls. Cabrelli and a colorful team of local residents land in the center of a fast-paced action thriller with a surprise ending that’s sure to make your head spin.

James Hawker finds her in the Yellow Pages, listed under "P" - for prostitution. This is Las Vegas, after all, where the world's oldest profession is just another business. Vegas has been a wide-open town for more than a century: a place where respectable Americans can indulge their darkest fantasies. But an unpleasant new attraction has been added to this paradise of gambling and perversion - the forbidden vice called murder. Hawker isn't a gambling man, but murder is his business.

Outside the cabana, an assassin waits for James Hawker, the country's most dangerous vigilante. Hawker's nationwide crusade against organized crime has led him to the Fister Corporation - one of the most corrupt businesses on the planet - and for that, he has been targeted for death. The assassin draws a .38 and screws on a silencer, planning a quick and quiet kill. But it won't be so easy. He bursts into Hawker's room, gun drawn, but Hawker is waiting. The gunman is dead within seconds, and Hawker is safe - for now.

The CIA wants James Hawker dead. For years, his one-man campaign against organized crime has struck fear into America's most corrupt politicians, and now they're striking back. Hawker escaped the United States by the skin of his teeth, and has spent the last months living the life of a glamorous expatriate in Latin America: fast cars, lovely women, and all the champagne his Swiss bank account can buy him. For some men, it would be paradise. For Hawker, a life without action is a living hell.

If they hadn't come to the cabin, Lomela and her children would be dead by now. Evil men want something from Lomela's father, and they'll hurt his family to get it, so the young mother has taken refuge far from civilization, in a remote patch of the Rocky Mountains. She believes she's safe. She's wrong. The sniper focuses his scope on Lomela. He squeezes the trigger, and his crossbow bolt flies across the mountains, passing Lomela - and striking dead the man who was about to shoot her in the back.

For Con Ye Cwong, the Vietnam War will never be over. Head of the North Vietnamese secret police during the brutal conflict, he has built himself an empire selling cocaine and heroin to the West. Even after the war, American servicemen remain his favorite targets. He relishes nothing more than getting a soldier hooked, and then upping the price until the junkie has no choice but to reveal military secrets for the next fix. He's one of the most powerful men in the world, and James Hawker is going to take him down.

Brenda Paulie is fresh out of law school, newly married, and recently pregnant. She's also marked to die. In an affluent neighborhood of Detroit, three masked men burst into Brenda's house, beat her husband senseless, and take her captive - their 13th victim this year. Only one man can save her: James Hawker, America's deadliest vigilante. And when he comes to Detroit, the city will never be the same.

A struggling writer battles constant interruptions during his day, until a final visit from unexpected guests pushes him to his breaking point. A tongue-in-cheek nod to Edmund Crispin’s own troubles as a writer, this short story is both an ironic commentary on what it means to ‘work for yourself’ and arguably one of Crispin’s most personal pieces of crime fiction.