The Christmas season is one of comfort and joy, sparkling lights and steam rising from cups of mulled wine at frosty carol services. A season of goodwill, as families and friends come together to forget their differences and celebrate.Unless, of course, you happen to be harbouring a grudge. Or hiding a guilty secret. Or you want something so much you just have to have it - whatever the cost. In A Very Murderous Christmas, ten of the best classic crime writers come together...

In the thick of the Cold War, a British spy will do anything to keep the peaceFather Howard steps off the plane in Albania, relieved to be out of China at last, but knowing that until he reaches Paris, he is not safe from the Communists. As he makes his way across the tarmac, two bullets strike him in the back of the head. The missionary is no more. The incident prompts an unprecedented meeting between C. Jeffery Rand, fixer for the British secret service, and his c...

Wie lernen wir die Ordnungen des Schöpferischen erkennen und mitgestalten? Der Garten ist ein begrenzter Ort im Freien, von Menschen gestaltet und gepflegt: ein Ort von Kultur und Natur. Könnte es solche "Orte" der Zeit geben, so wie es in der Natur Gärten als Orte des lieblichen Zusammenwirkens mit dem Menschen gibt? Welchen Sinn können wir den Worten "Im Garten der Zeit" verleihen?

When a government official dies on the operating table, the president calls in the computer copsOn Venus, a radical exile escapes from a maximum-security prison, pledging to return to Washington and assassinate the president. Transport between Earth and the solar colonies is tightly regulated, but the exile knows a shortcut: the top-secret transvection machine, an experimental device that could theoretically be used to teleport men from planet to planet. Vander Defo...

Edward D. Hoch was and is the undisputed master of the mystery short story. His total output of published short fiction hovers just under 1,000 stories (estimates are in the neighborhood of 960 stories). Hoch (pronounced "Hoke") is best remembered for his fair-play and impossible crime short stories, particularly the series featuring Dr. Sam Hawthorne, a small-town physician who unraveled seemingly impossible "problems" in 1920s New England. His other popular series characters included Bri...

On a remote jungle island, a scientist toys with cryogenics and brain transplantsHorseshoe Island lies just a few miles off the coast of Baja California, Mexico—impossibly far from the laws of the United States. Here, a doctor named Hobbes has built his labs to perform experiments on bodies cryogenically frozen for two decades or longer. He plans to heal those whom the medicine of the past was helpless to save, and his experiments may hold the key to endless life—or...

From the Edgar Award–winning author: A collection of short detective stories featuring baffling crimes and the brilliant sleuthing of Captain Leopold.On his way to the circus, a young boy named Tommy pauses for fifteen minutes in a grassy vacant lot. It begins to rain, and by the time the storm has passed, Tommy is dead in the tall grass, strangled with a strong piece of rope. Police suspicion falls on a shifty ex-con employed by the circus, but Captain Leopold isn...

Thirteen stories of outrageous heists starring one smooth thief from the Edgar Award–winning author of The Shattered Raven.The dictator of the island of Jabali wants a baseball team, and he doesn't care how he gets it. He has assembled nine of the finest players on the island, and is about to hire Nick Velvet to steal him some competition. Ordinary thieves might not be up to pinching a whole ball club, but Velvet specializes in lifting seemingly worthless ...

A dozen marvelous tales of deduction, featuring history's most famous detective, by Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Edward D. Hoch.In a heavily mortgaged country house, an heiress's sinister guardian attempts to trap her in a bedroom with a rare Indian swamp adder—a murder averted only by the timely intervention of Sherlock Holmes. Five months after the events of "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," Holmes and Watson are called back to Stoke Moran by a frig...

At a gathering of the nation's foremost mystery authors, death takes the stageDozens die each year for the sake of the annual Mystery Writers of America banquet. Heiresses are poisoned, captains of industry are stabbed, and private detectives are gunned down in the street. To mystery authors, these fictional murders are nothing but good fun. But at the annual presentation of the MWA's prestigious Edgar and Raven awards, real-life death is about to intrude.R...

Holmes is visited by a young girl from the circus industry. She fears for her life and is deeply troubled that two attempts on her life have already been made. Vittoria believes it is Edith Everage, an acrobat who desires to be the circus belle who is attempting to kill her. Holmes sets out to investigate her claims, only to find his efforts may be too little, too late.

A VERY SPECIAL MYSTERY ANTHOLOGY FEATURING THE BEST BY THE BEST…In 1984, Mystery Writers of America brought together a roster of authors that has rarely been equaled before or since. Every living MWA President (including several who were also Grand Masters) was asked to select one of their own published stories and write a brief introduction as to why it was their favorite one. The resulting volume, edited under the keen eye of author and screenwriter Brian Garfiel...