It's the Autumn of 1666, and the Great Fire is still burning, the ashes of hundreds of houses and shops and St. Paul's Cathedral choking the air. The people, too, are choking, raging at the French, the Dutch, at the foreigners who—they are certain—lit the torch. Lord Arlington, the Secretary of State, might conceivably be interested in harnessing this anger; it can be so useful, at times, to have the population united in loathing of a common enemy. But this is not one of those times. And i...

In this mystery by the author of Crooked Herring, a lawyer in Cromwell's England receives dangerous info that could stop a murder—or get him killed.John Grey is a newly minted lawyer and would-be ladies' man with a bad habit of poking his nose into other people's business and getting tangled up in intrigue. That's unfortunate, because a mis-delivered letter from royalists has left Grey with more information about a murderous plot than it's entirely safe to ...

This anthology draws together some of the best new stories of mystery and murder—compiled by the Anthony Award–winning crime fiction editor.This anthology collects the most original stories of murder by some of mystery fiction's most inventive talents from the United States and United Kingdom. With innovative new takes on locked-room mysteries and impossible crimes, these short stories are full of vexing conundrums and reality-defying puzzles. A murder has been comm...

Edgy, twisted, and disturbing, the first Crime Writers’ Association Daggers Award retrospective anthology features bestselling authors Ian Rankin, Jeffery Deaver, John Connolly, Denise Mina, John Harvey, and more.Keep your secrets close and your daggers drawn.This first retrospective of the CWA’s Dagger Award winners brings together some of the greatest names in crime fiction to deliver a cutthroat collection of serial killers, grizzled detectives, drug dea...

A politically sensitive murder is detected amid the chaos of a deadly plague in this "stellar . . . well-crafted" mystery set in Restoration London ( Publishers Weekly, starred review).It's 1665, and the Black Death has London in its hideous grip. It's bad news for everyone . . . almost. For a mysterious killer, it presents an opportunity to hide a dead body among a city full of them. But as corpses are collected and brought to the burial pit, one of the b...