James Holding enjoys a reputation as one of the more prolific contributors to the mystery magazines of the 1960s and 1970s. (Our bibliography shows nearly 200 stories published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Magazine, etc.) He had series, such as the "Leroy King" stories (which poke gentle fun at "Ellery Queen"). He had standalones. He had mysteries of every sort imaginable -- and this volume includes a selection of 24 choic...

James Holding (1907-1997) was a prolific short story author in the mystery field. (He also wrote children's books -- including the Ellery Queen Jr. series -- but short stories were his true domain.) Among the many series he created, the "Library Fuzz" stories, about detective Hal Johnson who tracks down overdue library books (and often stumbles across bigger crimes) is one of the most unusual...and fun!This MEGAPACK™ collects all the "Library Fuzz" tales, plus several that feature ...

Our 68th weekly issue has several holiday tales to spice up the season, including an original (“Merry Library Murder,” by N.M. Cedeño, courtesy of Acquiring Editor Michael Bracken) and some modern classics by Heather Critchlow (courtesy of Acquiring Editor Barb Goffman) and one of my own favorite authors, Nina Kiriki Hoffman (she’s amazing!) Cynthia Ward has selected an exciting fantasy from Milton J. Davis, plus we have great tales by Ray Bradbury, Lester del Rey, and James Holding, a Sex...

Murder -- it's one of the staples of mystery fiction. One of the unwritten rules of the mystery novel is to start your murder in the first chapter...and on the first page, if possible! Collected here are 22 tales of murder. Some are fiendish. ("The Doorbell" is especially chilling.) Some are exotic. (Egyptian mummy murder? You bet!) Some take place in far-off locations. (The Canadian woods? At sea? In foreign countries? Why not!) What they all have in common, though, is a criminal mastermi...

The Cutthroats and Criminals MEGAPACK® contains 20 great stories by modern and classic authors. Included are:CRIMINAL TYPES, by Vincent McConnorREDHEADS DIE QUICKLY, by Gil BrewerTHE SARDONIC STAR OF TOM DOODY, by Dashiell HammettA HEARING AID FOR CARMODY, by Stephen WasylykA PADLOCK FOR CHARLIE DRAPER, by James HoldingA TRULY HONEST MAN, by Talmage PowellMURDER OF A MOUSE, by Fletcher FloraSUPPLY AND DEMAND, by James Michael Ullman

The Black Cat web site has been around for almost four years now, serving up a weekly buffet of new and classic mysteries—and more recently science fiction—to thousands of readers each week. Rather than continue to release all these novels and stories as individual ebooks, we have decided to bundle them up into a convenient weekly magazine…which is a lot more fun to work on!So here is Black Cat Weekly #1, the September 5, 2021 issue, for your enjoyment pleasure.To ...

At the Metropolitan Museam, a janitor discuses the authenticity of a Bruegel piece with a visiting art-lover. There is more here than meets the eye…

Charles Deschamps, the Paris couturier, was going to bring down necklines in his next collection and one man knew about it six months ahead of time. Foreknowledge of a fact like that is all a good consultant needs to make him dream dreams and see visions: dreams of idleness and sybaritic luxury, and visions tinted uniformly green, like the folding money which alone can make such dreams come true. Even if it's not exactly ethical. Or legal.

An inspector investigating the death of a blackmailer finds a suspect—but the man has an alibi. There's something fishy about it, but the inspector can't quite put his finger on what.

Pacing the streets of the South Side in the dark, dangerous, dragging hours before dawn, Kangaroo Kelly would often feed himself cheerfully this little morale booster: “Any of these mugs rub me out, even by accident, they’re dead, too. And they know it. For there’s six hundred cops in this town who’ll get them for it if it takes a hundred years. I’m a cop. And you don’t kill cops. Unless you want a fast ticket to hell yourself.”

When an old professor of art informs a museum curator that a piece his institution owns is actually half of a full statue—whose other section is housed at the Louvre—an old crime begins to unravel.

Vetuka of the Shark Clan, anging Melanesian fishermen and ,diver is approached by his nephew Likuva and Japanese friend Michiko to find the wreck of the WW II-era Japanese warship Shima Maru, which was carrying 50,000 gold yen. They find the ship and make plans to retrieve the gold, but Vetuka discovers they have something far more nefarious in mind.