Showing results for "Writing Mysteries" in Literature & Fiction

When Jack’s car breaks down in the middle of a cross-country road trip, the mysterious house at the top of the hill is a beacon of hope. If he can borrow a phone to call for help, he’ll be on his way in no time. But someone - or something - has other plans. Soon, Jack finds himself trapped in a nightmare that defies logic, where a depraved killer on the loose is the least of his problems. Will Jack escape before it’s too late?

Nightshift clerk and high-functioning insomniac Jack is back to work, trying his best to keep out of trouble. But when his chain-smoking coworker discovers a mysterious radio signal revealing the guarded secrets of their town, Jack will learn that an annoying new dayshift manager is far from the worst of his problems. In this second installment of the Gas Station saga, Jack finds himself entangled in his most harrowing adventure yet.

'Clever and twisty' Jackie Kabler 'I loved this intriguingly unique and dark tale. It has everything I need as a reader' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ An unmissable psychological dark academia thriller: Saltburn meets Lucy Clarke's The Hike WHO WILL BE THE FIRST TO BREAK? Tess enters the prestigious and...

Charles Willeford was a man of letters in all senses of the word. Poet, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and raconteur, his early paperback novels with their existential/immobilized heroes were the creations (to paraphrase Chandler) of a man not himself immobilized - a man who, instead, with his trademark black-humored prose, doggedly examined the mind-thrumming banalities of our materially sated but intellectually befuddled postwar world, crafting a body of work that is only now, 50-some years after his first appearance in print, beginning to be widely appreciated.

“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...

Two patients in comas, not expected to live: when they both recover, sharing the same bizarre symptom of blue urine, it’s a medical miracle that Dr. Roger Clark cannot explain. One of the patients happens to be Sharon Wilder, a beautiful Hollywood starlet. When she offers Dr. Clark the chance to accompany her to the private Caribbean island called Eden, he has to accept—if only to learn more about the bioengineering company Advance, Inc., and their promise to make your wildest dreams come true.

When Daily Telegraph correspondent Tim Butcher was sent to cover Africa in 2000, he quickly became obsessed with the idea of recreating H. M. Stanley's famous expedition - and travelling alone. Despite warnings that his plan was suicidal, Butcher set out for the Congo's eastern border with just a rucksack and a few thousand dollars hidden in his boots.

In this book of essays, over forty successful writers in varied fields―poetry, science, the performing and visual arts, psychoanalysis, journalism, literature, and more―explore what drives them to write, and to work at their craft. In contributions arranged under three headings―"Models and Mentors," "Urges and Traumas," and "Evidence and Experiences"―each writer explores their personal understanding of writing as a psychological necessity. In varying ways, these candid, often emotional essays reveal a range of intimate, mysterious, and unpredictable purposes and motivations.

Pete's dead and Gwennie's life will never be the same. How could Pete, a young, fit man, leave her now? Their lives together were only just beginning. And pneumonia? It was insane, unthinkable, unbearable. Somehow she struggles through the funeral in a daze, and the mysterious mourner in the tight-fitting red dress barely registers in her consciousness. It's only later, when spotting a discrepancy in Pete's tax records, that she begins to wonder. Who was that woman?

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.

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.

In a pawnshop alleyway, James Hawker finds a body mutilated beyond recognition. She was beautiful once, he knows, but life in this hardened Los Angeles neighborhood took its toll. Starnsdale was once a working-class community, but now it is a battlefield ravaged by warring gangs who kill without thinking and care nothing for the ordinary citizens crushed beneath their feet. The toughest gang is called the Panthers - and Hawker has come to hunt them down.

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.

It's just past six a.m., and the Rutledge family is gathering for breakfast, unaware of the two bombs that have been planted outside their home. They're about to start eating when a fireball bursts through the windows, and the house is blasted to dust, leaving only one survivor. In the last six weeks, the Rutledges are the seventh family to be attacked - and the onslaught is just beginning. A terrorist group is intent on bringing the citizens of Washington, D.C. to their knees.

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.

When the police department told him to hold his fire, Hawker pulled the trigger anyway - and killed a dangerous terrorist. Since losing his badge, this hardnosed vigilante has been exiled from Chicago, the city he loves more than any other. He returns for the sake of one man: Saul Beckerman, a friend from the old neighborhood who has become one of the richest people in the city. Since Hawker began his nationwide war against organized crime, Beckerman has gotten into trouble with the wrong people.