Ex-con Chance Winston has been out of prison and on the straight-and-narrow for one thousand days, now making ends meet driving for a ride-sharing company. So, when he picks up a fare who threatens to upend his entire life, he's a bit skeptical. But a family member is in trouble-serious, kneecapping trouble-and he reluctantly gets sucked back into the family business. Can he and his band of grifters pull off one last job to save the day? Or is Chance the one being scammed? In a family of c...

Motel proprietor Mess Hopkins is more interested in helping others than turning a profit, so he opens the doors of the Fairfax Manor Inn to those seeking refuge from a bad situation. But when his cousin Finn shows up in trouble, his world is rocked, because Mess had thought Finn was dead, having run away six years earlier.Unfortunately, Finn was in the wrong place at the wrong time and saw the wrong thing-an incident with deadly consequences.It's up to Mess, his girlfriend/...

Sometimes a pool noodle is just a pool noodle. Other times...In two short weeks, Nick Carlin will be old enough to get his driver's license, but there's a catch-a huge one. His mom says he must first pass a swimming test, and Nick takes to the water as well as a flying fish pilots a jumbo jet. It's one more challenge as the Summer From Hell comes to an August crescendo: his slacker friend Miller is worried about "failing life," and the older girl Nick's crushing on-his robo-hottie ...

Can former bestselling novelist Mathias King—now a rumpled, grizzled English professor—save America from a terrorist of his own making?In the shadow of the Pentagon, a secret DoD brain research experiment goes terribly wrong, and an ex-Special Ops soldier escapes, believing he is Viktor Dragunov, the Russian operative from the 80's thriller novel, Attack on America. To capture him, the Feds turn to the person uniquely qualified to predict his next moves, t...

Alan Orloff is one of the most popular emerging mystery writers. His work has been nominated for Derringer and Agatha Awards, and one of his stories was selected for The Best American Mystery Stories (2018). For his debut appearance in the Black Cat THRILLOGY series, he has selected three of his best short stories:"House Call""Stormy, With a Chance of Murder""The Last Loose End"Previous volumes of the Black Cat THROLLOGY series included work by Reginald Bretno...

Mess Hopkins, proprietor of the seen-better-days Fairfax Manor Inn, never met a person in need who couldn't use a helping hand-his helping hand. So he's thrown open the doors of the motel to the homeless, victims of abuse, or anyone else who could benefit from a comfy bed with clean sheets and a roof overhead. This rankles his parents and uncle, who technically still own the place and are more concerned with profits than philanthropy.When a mother and her teenage boy seek refuge fr...

When Daniel Brickman returns home to visit his ailing father, he discovers that an old family friend has bilked his father out of his entire retirement savings. His first thought? Call the cops. But Daniel’s vengeful father would rather handle things on his own than let the whole world know about this Jew-on-Jew crime, and it falls on Daniel to try to set things right before everything goes very wrong.The Barb Goffman Presents series showcases the best in modern mystery and crime s...

After selling his company for millions, Colby Walker takes his family—and his son's friend Jess—on vacation, wanting nothing more than to unwind in the sun and surf. But he spots the alarming signs in short order: Jess's downcast eyes, a familiar passivity, and angry red welts marching across the boy's bare back. Walker understands what they mean because he'd been that boy, many years ago. He'd suffered in silence, too.Can Walker stand by and let the torment continue? Does he trust...

This original collection of sports-themed mystery stories features felonies and foul play across a range of athletics. Readers will find riveting stories involving baseball, biathlon, boxing, cycling, figure skating, swimming, tennis, and more. These clever tales—some penned by award-winning authors—offer something for everyone. From traditional whodunits to historical mysteries from noir tales to cozies, Three Strikes, You’re Dead! is the collection both mystery and sports fans h...

This is one of our darkest issues, with the world’s first eco-disaster novel (Nordenholt’s Million, by J.J. Connington, from 1923) depicting a world ravaged by a bacterial plague that destroys food supplies and leads to worldwide catastrophe. We also have our first story with a trigger warning (Darren O. Godfrey’s powerful “I Used to Live Here”). Alan Orloff has a unique take on a very hungry plant (shades of Little Shop of Horrors!), and there’s plague in space from Andr...

This issue, we have a triple-play of original mysteries, with new works by John M. Floyd, Alan Orloff, and Pam Barnsley, plus a winter-themed solve-it-yourself puzzler, and something special: the first English-language appearance of a Raffles story by Theo von Blankensee and Kurt Matull. (See my introduction before the story.) We have more of their Lord Lister—Alias Raffles series coming up soon.On the science fiction side, we have Anna Tambour’s “Murder at the Tip,” featuring a we...

Deadly mushrooms in the souffle, toxic leaves in the tea... villains have been killing in culinary ways for as long as there have been knives in kitchens. And when Death dons the chef's hat, your first bite might be your last!In COOKING UP DEATH, we've whipped up a menu of sixteen cozy mysteries featuring toxic treats and lethal luncheons sure to leave the other characters worrying about the contents of their own plates while the amateur sleuths search for clues.As a specia...