A collection of the year's best mystery and suspense short fiction selected by Edgar-winning author Megan Abbott.

Detective Yoshitaro Katayama is afraid of many things: heights, dark spaces, blood and ... women. He is not best-suited to investigate a series of murders that begins with that of a young female student. But soon Katayama has a surprise on his hands: a calico cat named Holmes, orphaned when the college dean himself falls victim, and who begins to display some uncanny investigative instincts of her own ...

On the rugged Isle of Hoy, a wealthy couple's dream of building a stunning eco-home becomes a waking nightmare when the peat yields a grisly secret - the remains of a young mother and her baby. For DI Erling Flett, the discovery is a personal haunting. He spent years running from Orkney, only to be pulled back to the islands he once fled. As he fights to identify the nameless dead, the community pushes back - and his own troubled history begins to surface.

The Christmas season is underway in Caerphilly. The members of the Hollingsworth clan, Meg's mother's family, are beginning to arrive in force, and Mother has several special projects, including the playhouse she's having built for Brynn, her two-year-old granddaughter. But someone vandalizes the playhouse and sets a dangerous trap that injures and could have killed Mother. She reveals that she has been getting nasty anonymous letters, and it's obvious that someone is targeting her.

Armistice Day 1918. Two children are born on the same day, hours - but worlds - apart. One the son of a shepherd, the other the daughter of an Earl. Adam and Eve. Their births mark the end of one war. Their love will change the outcome of another.

Travis Devine travels to Seattle to aid the FBI in escorting orphaned, 12-year-old Betsy Odom to a meeting with her uncle, who is under investigation for RICO charges. He's hoping to lie low and keep off the radar of an enemy that he evaded on a train in Switzerland and who has been after him ever since - the girl on the train. But as Devine gets to know Betsy, questions begin to arise around the death of her parents. Betsy is adamant that they had never used drugs, but the police in the small rural town where they died insist the Odoms died of an overdose.

Agatha Raisin's Cotswolds village is in an uproar when word spreads that their beloved Red Lion pub is set to close. Meanwhile, Sir Charles Fraith attempts to wheedle his way back into Agatha's affection, crossing swords with James - Agatha's other paramour - who is determined to thwart his efforts. As the two attempt to woo Agatha at a local reenactment of a 17th-century battle, a body is discovered in a copse of trees just off the battleground.

1966, Caribbean Sea. The Queen is touring the islands of the West Indies aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia. Her schedule is packed with official visits, but when her new diary secretary, young Pamela Sinclair, is found dead in her cabin, the whole trip threatens to be thrown off course. Pamela's death from an overdose of prescription pills is surrounded by details that don't add up. It looks as though she was afraid of someone on board, and Joan McGraw - the Queen's loyal sidekick and assistant private secretary - is the leading suspect.

How can DS Declan Miller catch a killer when the man confessing to the crime is clearly innocent? Things rapidly escalate when the murder that isn't really a murder at all attracts the unwanted attention of a drugs Queenpin, a deranged ex-squaddie and a lovesick gangland enforcer. Then a student is kidnapped... Throw in a wobbly dog, a pair of ceramic leopards and the distracting smell from a local biscuit factory.

Ruby Young is slowly adjusting to her new life in Boston. A big part of that is her unexpected roommate - the ghost of Cordelia Graves, the woman who lived there before. They're both happy they've managed to become friends, which is a miracle considering they struggle to communicate with each other. But when Ruby discovers the body of a delivery guy at work, the new life she's been building hangs in the balance.

Georgie absolutely despises the strict nanny who was foisted upon her by her meddlesome sister-in-law. In search of a new one, Georgie travels to London to see her old friend ZouZou only to find her about to depart for a funeral, after the unexpected death of a young man in her social circle. It quickly becomes clear there's more than one mysterious death around town, all young men. Georgie is certain it can't be a coincidence, despite the lack of any connection among the victims.

1963, Guatemala. The country is in turmoil, with a presidential election looming and a charismatic, left-wing ex-priest and trade union leader predicted to win. Neither United Fruits, the giant American corporation, nor the CIA, is pleased. Travel writer/MI6 agent Gabriel Dax arrives and meets the local CIA agent. But when riots erupt, Dax returns to Europe, and is dispatched to West Berlin in advance of President Kennedy's upcoming visit.

Lane Holland's crime-solving career ended the day he went to prison. Yet one unsolved case continues to haunt him: the disappearance of Matilda Carver two decades ago. Against the odds, Lane finds a lead - a mysterious farm community where Matilda lived briefly, led by the enigmatic Samuel Karpathy. The farm attracts lost souls. But some of those who go to the farm seem to vanish without a trace.

While Agatha Chrstie is happily back home at Mallowan Hall, wrestling with her Belgian detective's dilemma on board the Orient Express, her housekeeper Phyllida is finding her local renown as a sleuth has put her in high demand. A distraught Vera Rollingbroke suspects her husband of infidelity and has invited Phyllida to a dinner party to observe his behavior, particularly in regard to one Genevra Blastwick.

Ella Chambers didn't kill Liam Montgomery. If she had, she certainly wouldn't have done it outside his family's mansion during the Christmas party of the year. She definitely wouldn't have loaded his body into the trunk of her car. And she absolutely would not have announced to the town that the boy who ruined her life ten years ago was "so dead to her." But now Liam is missing - nothing but a bloody spot on the drive and a host of unanswered questions - and Ella is the only person who knows he's still alive.

Washington DC. General Susan Turner needs help from the only guy she knows will get the job done right. Finding Reacher won't be easy. He's a wanderer. His trail will be faint. But it won't be impossible either. Reacher gets an invitation to a meeting with the general. Unnamed general, unnamed agency. Not the most attractive offer. But he's curious. Buckle up for a ride like no other...

Hazel and Marc were paired together on a revolutionary new reality TV show Love Synced, in which sophisticated AI matches hopeful lovers based on its perceptive algorithms. But when it came time to say "I Do" on camera, Hazel couldn't go through with it, leaving her perfect match at the altar, his family furious and the whole TV production in jeopardy. Now all she wants to do is fly home.

Detective Matthew Venn is called in to investigate a puzzling death. The body of a young woman has been found in the swimming pool of a lavish holiday home in North Devon, and her best friend is missing. The property, Tide House, belongs to Paul Armstrong - a rising political star, a fact that quickly draws intense media scrutiny. As a scorching heat wave rages and further tragedy strikes, Venn and his team begin questioning a community brimming with secrets.

When 15-year-old Brynn Hagen and her 5-year-old sister Eveleigh vanish from their uncle's home in the Montana mountains, the search for them becomes a race against time. Because the girls weren't reported missing for three days. Detective Alyssa Wyatt of the Albuquerque PD and her partner, Cord Roberts, travel to Montana to assist the Bozeman PD, joining forces with FBI Special Agent Ryker Newlin. But the deeper Alyssa digs, the more she realizes the Hagen family is hiding something.

Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw are enjoying their new jobs as private detectives. When a teenage girl walks into their office, looking for the mother she has long believed to be dead, they agree to take the case. As Poe and Tilly investigate the girl's claims, they find themselves drawn into a murky world of trafficking, pornography and prostitution. Will they be able to help the girl find her mother or will the dark forces at work, who will stop at nothing to protect themselves, get there first...

D.I. Duncan McAdam is called to a cemetery to investigate a desecrated grave. The deceased was the skipper of a trawler with a chequered past. Its crew all died in mysterious circumstances - one man fell to his death; the second took his own life; the third jumped from a rocky clifftop. Only one crewman remains. When Duncan goes to interview the skipper's widow, he finds her house ransacked, blood on the floor, and a body in the boot of her car.

It's the first anniversary of the mysterious death of Edward Luddenham, found dead at his home on the Yorkshire moors one frosty Christmas Eve. Now nine people gather at his manor house for the reading of the Will. Each has their own motivations for coming: curiosity, duty, unrequited love, desperation, greed. They have been instructed to bring a 'festive mystery story' to share. But all you need is a pencil. Can you solve the puzzles and unmask the murderer before they strike again?

1879. Aristocratic sleuth Charles Lenox makes a triumphant return to London from his travels to America to investigate a mystery hidden in the architecture of the city itself. Strolling around London, he begins mapping odd markings on some buildings he encounters, clues that lead him to some unpleasant secrets.

New York, 1920. Zelda Fitzgerald is at loose ends while Scott works on his next novel. Meanwhile, Atlanta journalist Morris Markey has arrived in New York. Recently returned from the war and without connections, he is looking for his first big story. When notorious man-about-town Joseph Elwell is found shot through the head in his swanky townhouse, the fortunes of the two southerners collide when they realize they were both among the last to see him alive.

A lone walker on the Pennine Way finds a parcel in the snow, addressed to her. But there's no festive treat inside. Instead? A severed limb. DI Tom Stonem is called in to investigate as more gruesome packages appear under the trees. Each is wrapped like a Christmas present, with tags addressed to local residents. Are the intended recipients of these sinister gifts involved in the bloodshed? Or victims of a killer's cruel game?

She kissed her daughter, turned out the light and entered her own room. Too late to run, she stood frozen as a figure stepped out from behind the door and a hand covered her mouth. Fear was a bomb in her chest ready to explode. Her children. They'd already lost their daddy; they couldn't lose her too. When young widow Eilis disappears in the middle of the night, it is a chilling case for Detective Lottie Parker.

A notorious crime boss is found murdered, the latest in a series of brutal killings targeting the most powerful men in the opium trade. To track down the culprits and prevent more blood from being shed, Ben is sent out to the newly-founded British colony of Hong Kong: a lawless frontier town on the southern shores of China's Great Qing Dynasty. All the victims have had ties to the prominent trading firms that use the Pearl River and the South China Sea as their base of operations.

Mark Randall lay dead in a field near Lowacre long before Smith had done what he had to do in Belfast. By the time he went back to work, the investigation was well underway. "It's not my case," he says more than once, and he really doesn't need it to be; he has enough to think about as it is. But soon Smith begins to suspect that the investigation might be heading in entirely the wrong direction.

Returning to Marfa, Texas, after her father's death, Detective Leanne Everhart is called to a fresh crime scene at the edge of the desert. A nameless woman was found murdered, with no clues as to her identity. As Leanne digs into the crime scene evidence, she grows convinced this latest murder case is linked with a local teenager's murder. And to multiple cold cases, all unnamed female victims, that have all been shelved by her department without leads.

After Paul and Chelsea Tanner's fairytale wedding, their future is full of promise. But their honeymoon to Paris takes a dark, shocking turn when they are kidnapped while on a day trip to the French countryside. The search for clues soon stretches across borders, with the FBI, CIA, and French Intelligence trying to work together to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Struggling to find answers, a young lawyer is recruited to be the bait in an elaborate CIA operation.

1920. In London, Olivia and Tamsin, two young women happy to be overlooked by society, discover unexpected freedom, but also that male cruelty is not so easily left behind. Meanwhile, 26-year-old Constable Lillian Fox is one of the few women in London's Metropolitan Police Force. She believes a recent string of murdered men might be connected, and the work of a woman--a theory dismissed by her male colleagues. Lillian's investigation leads her deeper into the glittering circles of London's Bohemian class, the unconventional world in which Olivia and Tamsin have taken harbor.

Mayu has just moved back to her hometown to plan her wedding when tragedy strikes. Her father is murdered. Her uncle, Takeshi, a former Las Vegas marquee magician, impulsively decides that he'll catch the culprit himself. Who needs the police? When Mayu's former classmates emerge as the prime suspects, it takes a conjurer's dazzling sleight of hand to unravel this teasing pandemic-period puzzle. Who's next? The murderer holds the high cards, always one step ahead.

Hayley and her husband are snuggled into a secluded spot on Maine's rocky shoreline to take in the big fireworks display on Frenchman's Bay. But when they find Hank Desmond's body floating in the darkness, it looks like summer is ending with a bang - from a gun registered to a rival BBQ chef. Despite the evidence, Hayley thinks there's more to the story than a gunshot from a disgruntled pit master.

Brighton Pride is the biggest date on the city's calendar. Roy Grace is already pushed to the limit, coordinating the city's massive security operation amid whispers of a potential terrorist attack. But Dritan Dervishi, the cold-blooded consigliere for Albanian mob boss Roel Albazi, has arrived at the Royal Courteney Hotel with a beautiful woman on his arm and a lethal secret in his suitcase. He has specifically requested Room 321 - a room with a perfect view of the sea, and a deadly proximity to a target he's been dreaming of for years.

Genie St. Onge's heart is broken more often than it's not--but that doesn't stop her from diving in head-first when she meets Jacob Ford. Their connection is instantaneous and consuming, and they agree to meet again in Paris. In a heady mix of sugared pastries and rumpled bedsheets, they begin plotting their future together. Until Jacob disappears. Genie knows Jacob would never leave her. She swears has no idea what happened to Jacob - so why doesn't her story align with anyone else's?

Maggie and Ryan weren't expecting to find a dead body in the castle on St Michael's Mount, a famous island known for its causeway that disappears under water at high tide. Already searching for a local youth, Mitch, who's been missing for three weeks, Maggie and Ryan fear the worst. Then when a fishing boat is stolen, the detectives begin to suspect that all three mysterious events are somehow connected.

When two husbands are brutally murdered by their seemingly loving wives, DS Mumtaz 'Moomy' Ali and DCI Sarah Heaton of the Met police have to solve a complex case and expose a dark conspiracy involving some very powerful - and wealthy - players, putting their own lives on the line.

In the wilderness bordering Afghanistan, an American soldier dies in a devastating explosion. Across the world, in a withering Pennsylvania factory town, his father is stabbed to death and left in the surrounding woods amidst colonial ruins known as Nowhere. The Recruiter wants retired assassin Cameron Winter to find out why.

Hap Collins and Leonard Pine have called the detecting business quits, but when a prop plane holding the bodies of several kidnapped women crashes into their favorite watering hole, the boys know they're in for one last effort. With the help of a victim's sister, they learn that a network of men has stolen vulnerable young women on behalf of a horrifying, charismatic villain known as the Artist, a sculptor of living things, including his own body, and protected by the elite of the South.

Once a fearless SAS hero, Andy "Deadman" Bird now battles the harsh streets of London after a catastrophic mission stripped him of his hearing, career, home and marriage. His only solace is Tyson, his fiercely loyal and battle-tested dog. When fate thrusts them into the path of a chilling alleyway murder, Andy and Tyson become the next targets. Who are these relentless hunters, and what dangerous secrets are they willing to kill for?

Henry Jekyll and Muriel Carew infiltrate a Christmas artists' retreat to investigate a series of death threats. Though the country manor is filled with festive cheer, stage rehearsals and jolly games, its colourful guests harbour dark secrets. Henry's transformations into the brutish Edward Hyde are more frequent than ever, and Edward is as likely to create new problems as he is to aid the investigation.

A Hitchcock movie screening turns fatal when Audrey Sullivan--recent transplant to New England--discovers a dead body on opening night of the movie palace she's just inherited.

In 1939, boys' adventure writer Richard Halifax vanishes in the Pacific while sailing from Hong Kong to San Francisco as part of the World's Fair festivities. Hildegard Rauch, an emigre painter and the daughter of Germany's greatest living writer in exile, finds her twin brother in a coma after an attempted suicide, leaving behind a mysterious note that sends her searching for the truth about her brother's relationship with Richard Halifax and the dangerous secret he entrusted to the writer before his voyage.

A new US administration has taken office, installing a brash and unconventional CIA director skeptical of old alliances and determined to disrupt the Agency. When the axe falls on the chief of London Station, the agency veteran decides to spy for the Brits - a betrayal uncovered by his replacement, Artemis Aphrodite Procter. When assets begin dying, Procter and her team in London Station must find out who is leaking the sources' identities - and why - before both agencies go blind.

Grace's life is turned upside down when she finds her boss's dead body at his desk. After being questioned by the police, Grace takes it as a sign to declare her recent move to Philadelphia a bust and move back to Florida, until her boss's widow, Jo, shows up and offers Grace a job as her assistant. The catch? Jo only wants assistance with one thing: solving her husband's murder. Jo believes that the police can't be trusted, and that two amateur millennial women will have much better luck cracking the case.

Christmas, 1953. Grasby and Juggers are in the remote village of Uthley's Bay. A fisherman has been found dead on the beach, with a stocking wound tight round his throat. Hundreds of pairs of stockings, in neat cellophane bags, soon wash up on the shore. A blizzard cuts off Grasby and Juggers from help, and the local innkeeper is murdered. To make matters worse, Grasby can't stop thinking about stockings. Why does everyone seem to be enjoying strangely high standards of hosiery, even beneath their oilskins?

When Anna decides to take her family away for Christmas to avoid a repeat of the 'dead man in the larder' debacle, she finds herself plunged into another festive fiasco when a body turns up in the library of their supposedly 'idyllic' rural retreat. With a dubious double booking, an unexpected snowstorm and the mysterious Mrs Haddock to contend with, can Anna and her unlikely allies save Christmas or will this holiday be their last?

King finds himself accepting (again at his grandmother's request) a case from Arman Babylon, a powerful Los Angeles gangster now dying from cancer. Babylon's granddaughter, Twyla Mann, has been missing for years, and he's desperate to find her before he passes. The search pulls King into the Babylons' stained past and the cold case of Dalia Shorts, a torch singer who vanished without a trace and whom Arman was once suspected of killing.

Sainte-Catherine, in Provence, is preparing for the May bank holiday. The cobbled village square will be packed with stalls of the French market, selling wines, cheese, and other local products. Zoe Pascal, who runs the bookshop, is ready for a busy weekend recommending books to tourists and locals alike. But the festivities have barely begun before Zoe and her loyal companion, Russell the dog, discover a body in an abandoned house behind her bookshop.

When DS Lucy Golden discovers an abandoned car showing signs of a recent and bloody escape, the race is on to find the injured occupant, who must be somewhere close by on the Irish island of Achill. But when an anonymous threatening note is found in a pool of blood, the search team is briefed to look for a body, rather than a survivor. Once the victim is revealed as a retired police officer, Lucy and her team are on edge...

When a body is found in a bog in northwest England, Agnes, an American forensic anthropologist, is called to investigate. But this body is not like any she's ever seen. Though its bones prove it was buried more than two thousand years ago, it is almost completely preserved. Soon Agnes is drawn into a mystery from the distant past, called to understand and avenge the death of an Iron Age woman more like her than she knows. ____Penny, Louise. MISS WOLCOTT'S GHOST. [CHIEF INSPECTOR GAMACHE #21]. Minotaur, 42.00 hc. A late night phone call alerts Gamache to a dead body in Lost Nation. The head of homicide for the Surete du Quebec has no idea where Lost Nation is, or who woke him. When he and his team find Lost Nation and the body, they are faced with tracking down not just the legend of Lost Nation, but a lost ship, lost documents belonging to an eccentric Victorian botanist, and a mysterious plant not seen in a century, that might save, or take, countless lives.

August 1915: Alma Timperley is fully settled in the bustling coastal town of Falmouth with her fiance Alan. In her new role as owner of the extraordinary Timperley Spiritualist Hotel, Alma offers residents the chance to contact the dead -- and since the start of the war, the hotel has never been busier. But when a guest is found dead in their bed, talking to ghosts is suddenly the least of Alma's worries.

Brand new FBI agent Pendergast pulls a stunt that gets him and his mentor, Special Agent Chambers, suspended. Pendergast and Chamber take the opportunity to head for Mississippi, where they uncover a string of grisly, ritualistic killings that defy any known serial killer profile. Thanks in large part to Pendergast's brilliance and unorthodox methods, they solve the case and find the killer... and that is when the true horror begins.

The Rise is a gleaming residential tower, newly constructed from steel and blackened glass, that stands on some of London's most prestigious real estate. Looming imposingly over Hyde Park, only multi-millionaires need apply for one of its sumptuous apartments. But when the young night concierge is found murdered in the building's lobby, the elite residents quickly find their gilded lifestyles under unwelcome police scrutiny. Investigating officer DS Gish has her work cut out. The only suspects, those who live in the building, aren't accustomed to police interrogation. But it seems horribly certain that one of them must be the killer.

One night in 1932, after a ruthless storm battered all of Maple Bay, the MacLeary family disappeared from Breakneck Island without a trace, leaving behind only whispers of a missing fortune. Now three people are drawn to Breakneck Island and its perplexing past: Peter Barnett, a recent Maple Bay transplant who is piecing his life back together; Dandy Feltzen, a wistful teenage girl searching for new beginnings while juggling the arrival of an unexpected visitor; and Cass Jones, a successful author given a cryptic tip for a haunting new story.

Leonard Summers, a former high-ranking Russian intelligence officer who defected to the U.S., and his family are going into the Witness Protection Program. The Summers are received in Minneapolis by Lucas Davenport and fellow marshal Shelly White. Unbeknownst to them, the WPP group has been tracked by a Russian hit team. And while nobody in the WPP has ever been attacked...Leonard might be the first victim.

The Metropolitan Police have an unsolvable problem.'Lachy' Wilson is a ruthless and obscenely rich British drugs lord who has bought off dozens of their officers. Thanks to these informants, no one can lay a glove on Wilson and he is considered 'untouchable'. Wilson is dreaming of one last, game-changing shipment of heroin into the UK. The Met turn to the outside for help. Jonas Merrick is an MI5 officer, unspectacular in his own right, but spectacular in the success he's had in dangerous counter terrorist operations. Can he thwart the drugs plot?

A group of young professionals travel to the Westmann Islands off the coast of Iceland to attend an old friend's wake. Their reunion soon turns into a living nightmare, as the memories of a party they attended at university, and desperately tried to forget, come rushing back. When two bodies are found on a rocky beach close to the refurbished lighthouse that the group had stayed in, medical examiner Idunn is sent to provide the local police assistance.

When Damaris "Charm" Wilburn, a new daytime erotic dancer, is missing for her shift at Boom Town, Atlanta's most notorious gentlemen's club, former headliner Michah "Lyriq" Johanssen suspects something more than a "no call, no show." As Lyriq's former headline partner and lover - Felice "Lucky" Carothers - also vanished under similar circumstances, Lyriq decides she's going to find them.

A creepy holiday novella, featuring a young writer sent to a seaside mansion to help a famous novelist finish his next book - only, when two dead bodies turn up, he must uncover the killer before the clock ticks down to Christmas Day.

673. Fidelma accompanies Eadulf to his hometown, Seaxmund's Ham in the Kingdom of the East Angles, to be greeted with the shocking news that Eadulf's uncle, Athelnoth, the lawgiver, has been murdered and his house burnt down. And Eadulf's younger sister is missing. The locals accuse Fidelma and Eadulf of the crimes, and Fidelma's safety is threatened by the first council of the bishops and kings of the Angles and Saxons, who wish to expel all Hibernian missionaries and teachers from the kingdoms.

All eleven stories, all in one volume, of the 88 year old killer.

When 18-year-old Christian Shaw is found dead in a park, the city of Edinburgh is stunned - and the shock only deepens when police charge her best friends, Eliza Lawson and Isobel Smyth, with the murder. As the trial unfolds - and the girls' lawyers offer a surprising and unsettling defense - a juror finds himself questioning everything: the motives, the evidence, even his own judgement. Then he begins to have strange visions of terrifying things - hallucinations he tells himself. After all, witchcraft isn't real...

It is Christmas Eve, 1943, when Anthony and Elva Pratt arrive at a snowy English country house to host a murder mystery game, but instead find themselves solving a real murder. The Pratts had planned on a festive game to liven up the dreary wartime atmosphere, where guests using prop weapons as clues would explore the house to solve the whodunnit. It is all fun and games until Anthony discovers the cook's sister Miss Silver beaten to death, leaving the sleuthy couple to solve an all-too-real murder.

Madame Viola Starbloom is an internet sensation. She offers palm readings, tarot card deciphering and of course, the ability to contact loved ones passed. She is also a fraud. But on Halloween night, when streaming one of her popular spooky season episodes, she gets a real call from the dead. This time she has no option to decline, someone wants to speak to her and their unfinished business can't wait for voicemail...

Disgraced socialite Viola Bellman is found barefoot in a snowy New York alleyway. There is no sign of how she got there, and she is too traumatized to speak. The only clue is the twelve-word note scribbled in the King James Bible she's clutching: "The Arcane Society of New York holds close the fortune you seek." Young Dr. Clara Mendel takes Viola on as her first official patient, and is determined to help her speak again - with or without the assistance of her old sparring partner, Professor James Moriarty.

When fearless war correspondent Theresa Lee is shot on a storm-swept Manhattan street and the man she was meeting, Bill Walker, vanishes, the 6:20 Man, aka former Army Ranger turned federal investigator Travis Devine, is called in. Theresa is an investigative journalist, Walker a legendary analyst for the Five Eyes alliance that gathers intelligence that could topple governments around the world. A professional hit team has tried to silence one and snatched the other--and Devine has to find out why.

From the master of Filipino crime fiction, a genre-bending collection that documents murders, disappearances, and acts of violence in stories that range from procedural crime to horror to near-future noir.

The wildest corner of Puglia, home to potent saints, fearsome mafia clans, hidden catacombs and sinister ceremonies, does not willingly surrender her secrets, but when Bologna's English detective Daniel Leicester heads south for a family visit, old grudges are resurrected and fresh life is breathed into ancient superstitions. Daniel soon finds himself and his Italian father-in-law, the Comandante, drawn into a search for missing artefacts, while his daughter's camping trip with Daniel's colleague Dolores does not turn out precisely as planned.

It is 1964, and Cold War Moscow is smoldering with secrets. Travel writer-turned-spy Gabriel Dax has been tasked with delivering a mysterious Blanco drawing to Kit Caldwell, the triple-agent and celebrated "defector" now leading the well-heeled life of a Hero of the Soviet Union. But Caldwell is convinced that the KGB suspects him of treachery. He wants Gabriel to do the impossible and smuggle him over the Russian border to Finland.

hc. In the cloisters of Golgotha House, a mere binocular's-squint away from Buckshaw, a nun lies dead. When her fellow Sisters prepare her corpse for burial, they discover that their companion has been living a shocking lie for years. The truth about her past, and the dark reasons she harboured for escaping it, are impossible to fathom. Charged with cracking this mystery is the inimitable young Flavia de Luce herself and her faithful partner-in-detection, Dogger.

Three newlywed couples have disappeared from an exclusive resort in Florida, only to turn up dead soon after. With the location and the similarities between the female victims as their only leads, it's up to the FBI Mobile Response Team to catch a serial killer before anyone else ends up dead. And they have the perfect bait - Detective Kara Quinn, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the targeted women.

Munich, 1936. All eyes are on the Bavarian capital for the upcoming Olympic Games. But a famous actress has disappeared and Detective Sebastian Wolff has been ordered to find her, fast. Elena Lang is no ordinary film-star: she is the mistress of Joseph Goebbels - Hitler's right-hand-man in the party that Wolff despises. But this is a country on the brink of war, and corruption runs deep.

Quarry returns to the town in Ohio where he grew up, before his tour of duty in Vietnam and his even bloodier experiences Stateside. An old high-school girlfriend summons Quarry for his 50th reunion - but old times take a back seat when bullets start to fly.

September, 1815. Lady Petra is to be a judge for Queen Charlotte's inaugural patisserie contest for the best bakers employed by England's finest houses. But upon arrival, Petra encounters a frantic housemaid pointing to a body of one of Her Majesty's guests - and to the valet still tugging at the silk ribbon used to strangle the victim. What's more, the valet turns out to be Oliver Beecham, the ne'er-do-well brother of Petra's own lady's maid, Annie.

December, 1815. Lady Petra is assisting the Lady Patronesses of Almack's Assembly Rooms with a series of bachelor-auction dances in the fortnight leading up to Christmas Eve. Over five nights, the families of unmarried ladies will each bid for their daughter to be the evening's hostess and dance with the five eligible bachelors - called the Merry Gentlemen in a nod to the season. However, after only the first evening, Petra discovers the dead body of one of the bachelors, splayed below the ballroom's balcony.

When Harry Bosch was eleven he became a ward of the state, housed in MacLaren Children's Center, a notorious facility where abuse was rampant. Now his memories are awakened of a place he had hoped never to revisit, and a boy named Chops, a fellow inmate who wound up dead. Chops's body was found in a hidden space under a staircase that the staff used to discipline their charges. The kids knew it only as "the hollow." But Chops's death was covered up and never solved. Now Bosch knows he must reopen the investigation and learn the truth, even if the killer is long dead.

Summoned to an unnerving, abandoned theme park to retrieve a body, Dr Kay Scarpetta is devastated to learn that the victim is a man she once loved. While teaching in Rome during the early days of her career, Scarpetta had an intense love affair with Sal Giordano that led to a lifelong friendship. The murder scene is bizarre, with a crop circle of petals around the body,and Giordano's skin is strangely red.

Lily Marigold and her sisters were adopted by Nan, their godmother and matriarch of the notorious Marigold Crime Family. Here, Lily became a monster, forced to torture, maim, and murder - partly due to the drugs Nan gave her to keep her conscience at bay, and partly because of her natural affinity for killing. But eventually Lily escaped her role as henchwoman for the twisted family. Now, seven years later, Lily is thriving. She's sober, she has a beautiful family, and she's moved on from the past. Until bouquets start showing up at her house.

When a harrowing arson in Manhattan burns a building to the ground, Rhyme and Sachs are called to investigate, only to discover in the rubble a package of clues that teases where the perp will strike next. Rhyme and Sachs work feverishly to unravel the mystery, turning to an unlikely source for help: one of the nation's most popular history podcasters.

In the week before Christmas, Dr Watson convinces an unwilling Sherlock Holmes to accompany him into the centre of London to go shopping for a gift for Mrs Hudson. Unwilling to trail around lots of smaller establishments among the seasonal crowds, Holmes insists they leave early and go to only a single shop, Whitley's, the capital's first 'department' store. There they fiund a dead body suspended in the branches of the large decorated Christmas tree just inside the entrance way.

In need of some care after a new hip, 84 year old former government operative Martin Maxwell finds himself at Twilight Lodge on the English coast. When popular resident Elsie dies unexpectedly, Martin suspects foul play. With his wheelchair-bound sidekick and former nemesis Albie in tow, he begins questioning the residents.

A mummified body has been discovered, hidden behind a wall, during the renovation of nearby Sycamore House. The body is that of Dr Aleric Donnal, an academic with a special interest in Devon's medieval history. Donnal was last seen over a decade ago, around the time that Sycamore House belonged to a new age commune who believed that the house occupied an ancient sacred site. While Wesley is seeking potential suspects for Donnal's murder, Dr Neil Watson is investigating the ruins of an ancient chapel nearby; a building once decorated with grotesque carvings of mythical creatures.

At Krissy's Death by Coffee bookstore cafe in Pine Hills, Ohio, she's trying out a new red velvet latte, which she also plans to serve at her wedding along with a red velvet cake. Krissy and her fiance Paul meet with two competing cake decorators at the same time, who seem more interested in going at each other than baking her cake. The next day, when Krissy walks into the bakery to make her choice, she finds both bakers dead with a red velvet cake splattered on the floor.

Someone wants Stephanie dead. Disturbing packages, threatening notes, and near misses. And bond jumper Greb Tusi also wouldn't mind getting rid of Stephanie. Lacking Anonymous Enemy #1's creative flair and strong work ethic, Tusi has chosen a more minimalist approach to dealing with the annoyingly still-breathing Plum. Trying to push her off roofs, bridges, in front of trucks, and any place else where a little push can go a long way.

When a snowstorm cuts off the remote Scottish village of Cape Wrath, Sammy arrives home at New Year to find her mother dead and every other house eerily silent. There are no signs of forced entry, no surviving witnesses, and no clear murder weapon. Everyone in the village is gone. As Luc Callanach and Ava Turner race to piece together the final moments of the dead, they uncover a chilling truth: the killer knew the village, knew the storm was coming, and planned every step.

In the spring of 1881, Lenox is caught up in the whirl of London life when his brother arrives to tell him that there's been a murder in the House of Commons. Robert Baddeley, a charismatic, womanizing Member, has been found poisoned in the hallowed chamber itself. Suspicion immediately falls on the women in his life, including his wife and mistress, but as Lenox digs deeper, he realizes that there were more than a few people who might have wanted Baddeley dead.

A thoroughly unpalatable character is found murdered with a weapon so unspeakable that the police will not reveal what it is to the press. By an extraordinary web of circumstance, suspicion falls on a closeted scion of Turin's high society and his friend, the wife of a rich capitalist, much to the embarrassment of the local police.

Dawn, Stockholm's Hammarby neighborhood. A naked young woman is spotted by the side of the road. Later, she shows up outside piano technician John Gideon's apartment, unable to tell anyone who she is or what has happened to her. But John Gideon is not opening his door. An already-puzzling case for Hammarby detective Conny Sjoberg and his team soon becomes even more intricate with a fatal assault and the discovery of a dead infant.

Charlie Hills, former desk sergeant at Kings Lake Central, is in trouble. He hasn't told DC Smith, his old friend and sparring partner, but someone has, and now the two former policemen are about to embark on a difficult and potentially dangerous search for the truth. For one of them, it could be life-changing.

When Phryne Fisher is invited to Bendigo to witness the investiture of her old friend Lionel, who is being made a Bishop, her expectations of the solemn and dignified ceremony do not include a murder in its midst. Phryne is soon working with local Constable Watson and eagle-eyed Inspector Mick Kelly to identify the perpetrator. It becomes quickly apparent the murder victim had been an overzealous deacon with a nose for trouble.

Detective Ali Dawson leads a unit that investigates cases so cold her team must travel back in time to solve them. But ever since their technical expert, Jones, got stuck in Victorian London, Ali and her team have been forbidden from time travel. Instead Ali Dawson dives into a present-day case - an apparent suicide of a young man who fell to his death from a high building. Ali believes the death is linked to a bad-news psychic medium, Barry Power, who convinced the boy he could fly. Suspicious, Ali attends one of Power's shows, where he claims to be in contact with none other than Jones.

At 65, Hornclaw is beginning to slow down. She lives modestly in a small apartment, with only her aging dog, a rescue named Deadweight, to keep her company. But Hornclaw is not like other people - she is an assassin. And now, nearing the end of her career, she has just slipped up. An injury leads her to an unexpected connection with a doctor and his family. But emotions, for an assassin, are a dangerous proposition.

Estonia, 1419. What links a tower watchman, a prostitute, and a Flemish painter? All 3 claim to have seen a ghost on the same street in 15th-century Tallinn. And all of them have been found dead soon after. In the aftermath of these seemingly supernatural events, Melchior Wakenstede, the town's pharmacist and bailiff, takes it upon himself to unearth the truth.

1965. The Circus, home of British intelligence, has one formidable clandestine asset in Moscow: a senior officer in the Red Army who is privy to deep Soviet secrets. But after a British agent is shot on a routine visit to Helsinki, George Smiley uncovers a counter-intelligence operation which puts all that in jeopardy. The trail leads to Los Angeles, where Smiley's nemesis, the Russian master spy known only as Karla, may have a long-term, low profile agent - a Taper Man - poised to expose London's man in Moscow.

In the frying pan of a drought-scorched 1890s Southwest, an old man shows up at the region's only prosperous spread, the Callahan ranch, seeking work. As an incentive to be taken on at his age, he shows the foreman an uncanny skill with one of Mr. Winchester's latest models. But he has his own mission. Aware that a young cowboy on the ranch has died mysteriously, Jack begins to investigate.

Twinkle Winkleman is as tough as nails. A skilled mechanic and certified spitfire, she has a nose for trouble. So when young women from Anchorage begin disappearing after heading to Seattle for "internships," Twinkle is convinced that something dangerous is happening. But both the Anchorage and Seattle authorities dismiss her out of hand. So Twinkle and old friend J. P. Beaumont, investigate and stumble upon a plot more nefarious than they could have imagined.

His native Scotland stands on the cusp of a new era of international expansion under its charismatic new leader, but former top cop Sir Robert Skinner is settled happily in Spain with his family, fully engaged in a new and unexpected career. He is focused on a business issue, only to be drawn suddenly homewards as a family member finds himself a witness to a homicidal attack, and under fire himself.

Professor Eustacia Rose is done with murder cases. After getting dragged into a series of investigations that have threatened her teaching career, her collection of rare poisonous plants, and her relationship, she's ready to settle down with her partner, Matilde, and focus on her work at the university. But then another body is discovered, and this time, the victim was poisoned with one of her stolen plants. A specimen she'd do anything to get back.

When Bergthora, Helgi's ex-girlfriend, is found dead in her home just before Christmas, Helgi is brought onto the case - but this time, he's a suspect in her murder, given his complicated relationship with Bergthora. The timing is suspicious. Just before her own death, Bergthora fatally hit Helgi's new girlfriend, Anita, with her car, ruining the future he'd hoped to build with her.

[Canadian author] An extravagant betrothal ball is being held at Donwell Abbey, the grand Knightley estate where Emma and George will soon permanently reside. Nearly every villager in Highbury revels in the dazzling affair - except Emma's hardworking lady's maid, Prudence Parr. To Emma's horror, Prudence is found dead, sprawled across the stones of the library terrace. Ruled a terrible accident, Emma's instincts tell her that something far more sinister is at play.

Therapist Helena Salve knows that client confidentiality is the number one unbreakable rule of her job. But the constant stories of coercive control and threat she hears from her client Belle about her dangerous husband have been wearing her down. One night over too many glasses of wine, she tells her best friend Tala everything that Belle has told her. The problem is, Tala is a down-on-her-luck novelist who is looking for an idea for her new thriller.

A convicted serial killer has finally agreed to reveal where he buried thirteen women. But when forensic specialists Jayne and Steelie are called in to identify the bodies, they make a horrifying discovery. What should be a cold case has a terrifying connection to a woman who has just gone missing. Jayne and Steelie are in a race against time as their work puts them on a collision course with another killer -- one who will stop at nothing to bury the truth forever.

A perfectly preserved but very dead body is found in a barrel of honey in a small Alabama town. Natalie Link has inherited the family honey farm from her beloved grandmother Lana, who raised Nat after her mother ran off to Los Angeles chasing stardom. But it turns out Nat has no idea what Lana has been hiding in the hives. Suddenly she is caught between her grandmother's very frightening partners and the ex-cop with a grudge who's been looking into her family since she was a kid.

July 1950: Mick Mulligan has just hung out his shingle as a PI in New York's sweaty Hell's Kitchen. A former Hollywood cartoonist whose life fell apart when he was blacklisted during a Communist witch hunt, he is destitute. But now New York City labour leader Duke Rogowski asks Mick to make one last effort on behalf of a cab driver found guilty of murdering his boss - can he find fresh evidence that might buy Harold a stay of execution?

In the hours before dawn at a local summer camp, Bureau of Indian Affairs archeologist Syd Walker receives an alarming call: newly discovered skeletal remains have been stolen. Not only have bones gone missing, but a Native teen girl has disappeared near the camp, and law enforcement dismisses her family's fears. As Syd investigates both crimes, she's drawn into a world of privileged campers and their wealthy parents.

In 1933, a zeppelin leaves Nazi Germany, chartered to cross the Atlantic and land in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It's a modern luxury holiday for travelers who avow loyalty to a radicalizing Germany - until a murder in the airship's washroom exposes the rot beneath the Reich. Police Detective Bruno Bruckner happens to be on board and is drafted to investigate, only to discover that the "Good Nazi" victim was a total fabrication.

On a frigid, windswept day in Scotland's Western Hebrides, Eleanor Bruton's body is discovered on the shore. To her family Eleanor was an ordinary middle-aged woman. Little did they know she was harbouring a dark and all-consuming secret. A scrap of fraying embroidery that seems worthless at first glance. For over a century, two rival organizations of women have gone to deadly lengths to secure the valuable artifact in the hopes of finding the original medieval manuscript from which it was torn.

After Defense Attorney Karen Wyatt exposed corruption in the police force and the District Attorney's office while getting her client exonerated in court, Wyatt is interested in finding out who ordered her to be set-up on a fake drug charge - but the key figures were either killed or are in Witness Protection. In the meantime, Wyatt is a practicing defense attorney, whose current client is either guilty of a heinous murder, or is a too-trusting patsy...

On an icy morning in January, a body is discovered at the bottom of the Wishing Steps at Blarney Castle, seemingly the tragic death by falling of a young tourist. Jessie DeMarco had travelled to the Cork village in search of the father she'd never known. Her bereft mother Dani arrives from America to identify her daughter's body. Convinced that her daughter's death was not accidental, Dani sets about uncovering evidence, as the local community begins to take sides.

With his best investigative team around him, Scotland Yard's DCI Jack Hawksworth resorts to some unconventional methods to disprove or find a link between some gruesome deaths. One involves a notorious serial killer from his past, and the other, a smart and seductive young journalist who'll do anything to catch her big break. Discovering he's following the footsteps of a vigilante and in a race against time, Jack will do everything it takes to stop another killing.

When eco-architect Olivia Parkes unveils her latest project - a cliffside Cornish manor reborn as a luxury eco-hotel - she expects acclaim, not chaos. Then her partner Jago Trevithick KC, a brilliant but broken barrister, returns seeking peace by the sea. But peace is short-lived. A waitress is found dead in the hotel pool. Who wanted her gone - and why?

14 years ago, one hot Dublin summer, a little boy was snatched from his garden. 6 weeks later, a girl was abducted from her mother's car. The case of these stolen children has haunted DS Lucy Golden ever since. But now, a breakthrough. DNA recovered from a recent robbery is matched to the missing boy. Lucy begs to reopen the case, even though it means returning to Dublin, which she left in disgrace over a decade ago.

Two women are found dead in Istanbul. One in the slum quarter of Kustepe, the other at one of the most prestigious addresses in the city. Are they connected? Inspector Mehmet Suleyman and his team are assigned to a complex case involving a chic modest fashion house and adherents of an ancient eastern Turkish religion. Meanwhile ex-inspector Ikmen is helping his friend Umit place a collection of dazzling sculptures, created by Umit's deceased neighbour, at one of the city's many art galleries.

In the shadowy underbelly of Cold War Moscow, Mae Pierce, once a formidable OSS agent, has found herself once again thrust into a perilous mission that could spell redemption--or ruin. Tasked with posing as a model at the American Exhibition, Mae is haunted by the ghosts of her past. Her plan had been simple: lie low, collect her paycheck and get home. Instead, she must navigate the treacherous waters of deceit, betrayal, and the ruthless Russian Mafia.

Lily Sedako is an unexceptional retiree - a seventy-something single woman living in Chicago, her days filled with the routine tasks of normal life. Then she receives an anonymous package containing a magazine with an article about Hayalistan - an article with a previously unknown photo showing Lily in the background. In 2002 she was a CIA field agent in the former USSR territory. Her connections to the mountain tribes resulted in her being moved to a new post and Rani, the tribal leader and first democratically elected President was removed, presumed killed, in a coup back in 2002. Now someone is trying to expose her.

Elin Warner's estranged brother Isaac and his fiancee Laure have chosen to celebrate their engagment at an abandoned sanatorium converted into a five-star minimalist hotel - an isolated getaway high up in the Swiss Alps. Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge. And when they wake the following morning to discover Laure is missing, Elin must trust her instincts if they hope to find her.

Katelyn Thorsen, known as KT to her friends and enemies, is an independent journalist who receives a very specific death threat. Fortunately, Peter Ash has arrived in town to protect KT at the request of his girlfriend, June Cassidy. From the moment of his arrival, he's thrown into a maelstrom of violence trying to protect KT and her daughter and discover the source of the death threat.

Two women are discovered brutally murdered in a hot tub, their blood staining the water a vivid red. Nicola and Emily, friends taking a holiday break, have become victims of a frenzied attack. With no signs of forced entry and their phones missing, DCI James Walker is stumped. As he delves deeper into the case, James uncovers a tangled web of betrayal. Each new suspect he uncovers has a motive fit for murder, but can James unravel the mystery before there are more victims this holiday season?

Chef Delilah O'Leary is going where no deep dish pizza chef has gone before: catering a swanky wellness retreat. Instead of cashing a fat cheque for an easy gig, though, she encounters a diabolical plot with more layers than one of her signature pies. The exclusive event, hosted by superstar guru Rhiannon Frost, promises inner transformation - but when a spiteful attendee turns up dead during the guided meditation, Delilah smells more than incense in the air.

Notorious serial killer "the Hacker" has escaped prison and kidnapped one of Ryan's best detectives. No one knows the Hacker's brutality like DCI Ryan. He lost his sister and nearly his own life bringing the man to justice the first time around. Will he be able to stop him a second time? Ryan and his team must find the Hacker before he takes another life, but the trail has gone cold and fear spreads like wildfire.

New York State, 1953. Dr. Claire Kendall is a psychiatrist-in-training at Resurrection Kill Hospital, a luxurious private and isolated mental institution for the wealthy. But under her mask of professionalism, Claire has a secret: She was a patient at the hospital when she was fourteen. With gaps in her memory, Claire is determined to discover what really happened the summer she was institutionalized - even if it means uncovering the dangerous secrets hiding at Resurrection Kill.

A human skull unearthed on the outskirts of Reykjavik. A neighbourhood dispute turned deadly. A daughter, trapped at sea, looking for answers. What police officers Tyr and Karo don't know is that these events are all linked through a terrible tragedy, many years ago, when a trawler caught fire on the waves, the crew trapped inside. The answers lie buried at the bottom of the barren Icelandic Sea.

Christmas Eve, 1901. Gabriel Ward KC is hard at work on a thorny libel case involving London's most famous music hall star, Topsy Tillotson, and its most notorious tabloid newspaper, the Nation's Voice, but the Inner Temple (one of the four inns of the Court) remains as quiet and calm as ever. Quiet, that is, until a severed hand arrives in the post.

It's Christmas time in Millers Kill, and Reverend Clare Fergusson and her husband Russ van Alstyne - newly resigned from his position as chief of police - plan to enjoy it with their baby boy. On their list is visiting Santa, decorating the tree, and attending the church Christmas pageant. But when a beloved holiday parade is crashed by white supremacists, Clare and Russ find themselves sucked into a parallel world of militias, machinations and murder.

1890. The New Mexico Territory. In the new city of Montana Roja, Fred Harvey's growing empire is threatened by the robberies plaguing his newest Harvey House restaurant. He needs a skilled detective to go undercover and procure answers to questions the law will not ask. Young Pinkerton agent Clare Wright travels west disguised as one of Harvey's famous hostesses. To get answers - and to get out alive - there are only two things she can trust: her instincts, and her derringer.

Shetland sailing sleuth Cass Lynch is definitely out of her comfort zone when she helps round up a prize-winning stallion escaped from the renowned Klaufister stud. She's even less impressed by its owner, Keith Arthurson, a returned city slicker who has already made enemies in his community. An unexpected visit to the Arthursons' shows Cass the tensions simmering within the family. When Keith's found dead, can she uncover the motive for his murder without putting herself in danger?

London, 1941. In the aftermath of the Blitz, Detective Chief Inspector Archie Penrose supervises the transportation of the National Gallery's most precious paintings to the slate mines of north Wales. Vacationing in the area is Josephine Tey. But when a woman's grave is discovered amid the debris of a collapsed roof in the mines, Archie and Josephine are plunged into a forty-year-old mystery.

August 2010. The Tobins - a happy, well-off family - spend a sunny afternoon at a birthday party with friends. By dawn, most of them are dead. The key suspect, Aidan Tobin, was known as a loving husband and father, but his desperate attempt to take his own life is as good as a confession. August 2021. Chloe Tobin never believed her father was guilty. Only six at the time, she is the sole witness to the brutal attacks. Now, she insists that somebody else was involved. Could she be right? DI Matt Lockyer and DC Gemma Broad of Wiltshire Police's cold case unit aren't so sure.

When a body is found in the woods following a ferocious storm it appears to be an open and closed case. But something doesn't add up, and what seemed a tragic accident soon turns into a murder investigation. The police come under pressure to solve the tragedy and with no witnesses, their case is falling apart. Then they find their suspect: an outsider with no alibi. When the suspect confesses to the crime, the police are happy to close the case. But what if there was foul play involved? What if someone is about to get away with murder...

Nobody at the corporate offices of Athletius Japan knows much about the massage therapist Jackson - but rumors abound. He used to work as a model. He likes to party. He's mixed race - half-Japanese, half-somewhere-in-African. He might be gay. Fueling the gossip is the sudden appearance of a violent pornographic video featuring a man who looks a lot like Jackson. When Jackson serendipitously meets three other queer mixed-race guys, he learns he's not the only one being targeted.

It's 1985. 14-year-old Peter Bennett is convinced his mom's new boyfriend is a Russian agent. Peter thinks Gary only wants to get close to his mom because she works at Scientific Atlanta, a lab with big government contracts. But who is going to believe him? But after another woman who works at the lab is killed, Peter recruits an unlikely pair of allies - a has-been pulp writer and muckraker named Dennis Hotchner and his drag performer buddy and heavy, Jackie Demure. Both soon become the target of an unhinged Russian hitman (Is it Gary? Maybe!) with a serious Phil Collins obsession. Meanwhile, Sylvia Weaver, a young, black FBI agent, investigates Scientific Atlanta in the wake of the employee's murder.

After Liberation, spring 1945: 17-year-old Huguette Faure is a survivor. The war has taken everything from her - both her parents and her sense of safety. Now, pregnant and on the lam, she cannot return to her childhood home in Paris. Forced to reinvent herself, she must outrun her father's enemies, who want her dead. After narrowly avoiding jail time - thanks to the help of a kindhearted police officer named Claude Leduc - Huguette lands a job assisting a legendary film director.

It is the summer of 1970, and Nicoletta Sarto carefully juggles the challenges of being the women's editor at Dublin's Irish Sentinel with the demands of motherhood, raising twin baby girls at home. But that uneasy balance is upended when she's approached by a barrister named Louise Leonard, whose aunt has just died. Was Helen Leonard murdered, as her niece believes?

Emma Hatcher has all that Rose Wilks lacks. Effortless beauty. A loving husband. A healthy son. Until tragedy strikes, leaving Rose the only suspect. After nearly five years in prison, Rose is just weeks away from freedom. If she is granted parole. Probation officer Cate Austin must decide whether Rose is remorseful for the shocking crime that put her behind bars, or whether she remains a threat to society. As Cate is drawn in, she begins to doubt her own judgement.

Ten new original Sherlock Holmes stories, featuring Anthony Horowitz, S. A. Cosby, Janice Hallett, Joe Hill, Vaseem Khan, Abir Mukherjee, Steve Cavanagh and Kate Mosse

When 14-year-old Zoe Johnson doesn't come home on a Monday night in early December, the alarm bells in Kings Lake Central police station do not ring straight away - after all, she's from the Dockmills, one of the toughest estates in the town. But for DC Smith, due to retire in just three weeks' time, there are some strange echoes of the case that has haunted him for the past thirteen years.

12-year-old Emma Graham can't seem to stay out of trouble in the small town of Spirit Lake. But how can she when her small town is besieged by murder, a disappearance, and savage attacks? But nothing will stop her from asking questions and relentlessly pursuing the truth - even if the sheriff is less than enthused. When two men are accused of murder, Emma dives headfirst into the case, convinced there is a third suspect, a missing piece of the puzzle.

Set in present-day, a disgraced former Secret Service officer and a Jesuit professor join forces to delve into the mysteries surrounding the events of November 22, 1963. Fixated on deciphering the conspiracies behind the history-changing assassination, they are oblivious to the fact that the cabal is still active - and may face an end as bloody as the carnage in Dealey Plaza.

1597, London. When Beatrice's husband returns from exploring the New World, he comes home with unexpected company: a mysterious woman, and an enormous painted globe. As Hugh refuses to explain who their female guest is, Beatrice's foreboding grows. The unwieldy globe now strikes her as sinister. Then one night, the great, hulking globe begins to turn of its own accord. Terrifying new illustrations appear on its face - and when untimely deaths ensue, Beatrice is convinced that the drawings are connected.

India, 1951. As India's first post-Independence election looms, and tensions rise across the country, Persis finds herself banished to the Victoria Hotel, a crumbling colonial-era relic, her career in ruins. But when a prominent local politician is murdered in his locked room at the Victoria Hotel, his head missing - a case appears quite literally on her doorstep.

Eilean Eadar is a barren, windswept rock best known for the unsolved mystery of the three lighthouse keepers who vanished back in 1919. But when a young man is found dead at the base of that same lighthouse, two detective inspectors are sent from Glasgow to investigate.

In a post-COVID Britain, investigative reporter Shona Sandison is seeking meaning and the next big story. Her reclusive contact inside the government has promised her something huge, but she has no idea what kind of danger she's in. Meanwhile, her old journalist friend Hector Stricken has taken on a position in communications for a new state agency, where he stumbles across a sinister, top-secret project code-named Grendel. Finally, an aging former MI6 director now living in seclusion grieves for his murdered son and ponders revenge.

Cornwall, 1910.On a remote tidal island, the Viscount of Tithe Hall is absorbed in feverish preparations for the apocalypse that he believes will accompany the passing of Halley's Comet. The Hall must be sealed from top to bottom - every window, chimney, and keyhole closed off before night falls. But what the pompous, dishonest Viscount has failed to take into account is the danger that lies within... By morning, he will be dead in his sealed study, murdered by his own ancestral crossbow. All eyes turn to Steven Pike, Tithe Hall's newest under-butler. His unlikely ally? Miss Decima Stockingham, the foul-mouthed, sharp as a tack, eighty-year-old family matriarch.

New York, 1925: Freddie Archer is Manhattan's sharpest fashion and nightlife columnist. When a family friend goes missing--a judge with a Tammany Hall pedigree and friends in low places--his disappearance seems as crooked as a poorly hemmed evening gown. Her friends and family warn her off. But Freddie follows the loose threads, straight into the company of folks like Dutch Schultz and Lucky Luciano, the sort of men whose acquaintance leads a girl to sleep with one eye open.

Figman's life has taken a much-needed one-eighty since he retired from the spy business. He now spends his days at his B&B in the Berkshires, grilling on the deck with his faithful dog, Rufus, and warning birdwatchers off the pristine lawn. But his newfound peace goes up in smoke when he discovers the former president of the local birder's club floating facedown in the lake.

Lew Gale, a former Marine sniper, now an Orange County California Sheriff's detective, is assigned to track and shoot a mountain lion that has killed a man in Caspers Park, located in the rugged country east of Laguna Beach, California. The victim is Bennet Tarlow, a rich developer and man-about-town in upscale coastal Orange County. The investigation takes a chilling turn when Lew and his new partner, Daniela Mendez, discover that Bennet was dead long before the lion got to him.

Deputy Sheriff Eli North has spent the last year getting his life back together. He hasn't touched a drop of alcohol, he's working through his PTSD from his military deployment, and he's repairing his most important relationships. When an undercover informant disappears and all signs point to murder, Eli must expose the dark underbelly of his idyllic Wisconsin small town while safeguarding his newfound stability.

Otto Penzler has compiled an anthology that features the greatest authors in the series to date, including such names as Ellery Queen, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Cornell Woolrich, Phoebe Atwood Taylor, and many more.

[BC author]. Over one terrible weekend, two teenage girls are found dead in a wealthy Chicago suburb. As the community mourns, Abby Rosso, the girls' high school counselor, begins to suspect that her son, Benjamin, was secretly involved in their lives - and possibly their deaths. Abby doesn't want to believe Benjamin would hurt anyone. But she's seen the warning signs before. Two decades ago, her brother was imprisoned for a disturbing crime and he was only a little older than Benjamin is now.

PI Evander "Andy" Mills' next case takes him out of his comfort zone in San Francisco, and much to his dismay, back home to Los Angeles. After a secretive queer rights organization called the Mattachine Society enlists Andy to find some missing members, he must dodge not only motorcycle gangs and mysterious forces, but his own mother, too. Avoiding her proves to be a challenge when the case leads Andy to the psychiatric clinic she works at.

The disgustingly rich and grossly dysfunctional Morland siblings are throwing one of their infamous parties before it's decided which one of them will take over their ancestral family home. But by the morning, one of their guests isn't just hungover: they're dead. While all of them suspect the others, the siblings face a choice to call the police (but risk investigation into their other illegal dealings) or work together to hide the body in the wine cellar. They choose badly.

Big changes are coming to Gravigna, the Italian village ex-NYPD officer Nico Doyle now calls home, and not all of them are welcome. When Sergio Macchi is found dead in his butcher shop, stabbed with his favorite knife, the whole town is affected. The locals gather to commemorate Macchi by drinking grappa, but the cheers soon turn into ugly accusations as people begin to point fingers.