Fourteen impossible mysteries from the masters of the Golden Age detective story.‘Lock your door and enjoy’ – KirkusLocked-room mysteries have baffled and delighted readers for generations. They present the reader with a seemingly impossible crime – a body found inside a windowless room that’s been locked from the inside, for example – before revealing an ingenious and satisfying solution.This unique collection features fou...

Although “The Drugstore Cowboy” (published in 1927 and unrelateld to the movie of the same name) has some crime elements, including a stolen car and a high-speed police chase, it is primarily a Jazz Age tale. Filmed, it would have made a terrific screwball comedy in the right director’s hands—imagine young actors Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn in the starring roles as you read. If you are a fan of Woolrich's mysteries, this is a worthy addition to his oeuvre, showcases elements he would ...

An injured, housebound man believes he might have witnessed a murder and must uncover the plot without leaving his apartment. An accidental killer hides the corpse of his neighbour in a fold-down bed - just as his landlord decides to start holding viewings. An innocent youth accused of murder goes on the run, only to discover he has an unexpected aptitude for crime. In this new selection of his best short stories - including the one that inspired Alfred Hitchcock - Cornell Woolrich shines ...

In this collection of Golden Age mysteries, crime strikes in the world of books...'If much of the action is set in a bookshop or a library, it is a bibliomystery, just as it is if a major character is a bookseller or a librarian' – Otto PenzlerOf crime fiction's many sub-genres, none is as intriguing as the ‘bibliomystery’: stories that involve crimes set in the world of books.This volume collects the finest of such stories. From the murder...

What if you woke up to discover everyone thought you were somebody else?Pregnant and abandoned, all Helen Georgesson has is five dollars and a one-way ticket to San Francisco. Then she is involved in a train crash, and regains consciousness only to discover that she has given birth – and, in a bizarre twist of fate, has been mistaken for somebody else. Helen decides to claim this opportunity to make a new life for herself and her son. But eventually her past will c...

"REAL NOIR... A GROTESQUELY MEMORABLE RIDE." - WALL STREET JOURNALTWO OF THE GREATEST AUTHORS OF NOIR FICTION IN AN UNFORGETTABLE COLLABORATION.An innocent woman lies dead in the street, felled by a stray bullet. Now it's up to the woman who killed her to investigate the dead woman's life and pick up its cut-short threads, carrying out a mission of vengeance on her behalf against the man she loved and lost – and the nightclub-singing femme ...

This hypnotic thriller by the father of noir exposes its heroine to a waking nightmare.A panic-stricken young wife races against time to prove that her convicted husband did not murder his mistress. Writing in first person from her viewpoint, Woolrich makes us feel her love and anguish and desperation, as she becomes an avenging angel to rescue her husband from execution.

In this collection of mysteries, the greatest detectives of the Golden Age investigate the most puzzling crimes of the era.The investigators in these stories are from all walks of life – retired magicians to schoolteachers, Broadway producers to nuns. Whether professional or amateur, these keen-eyed detectives must get to the bottom of the most baffling cases of their careers.Edgar Award-winning Otto Penzler has hand-picked some of the most...

A dark tale of the destructive power of love and obsession from 'The supreme master of suspense' NEW YORK TIMES'The father of the modern suspense story' LA TIMESWhen Louis Durand first meets his bride-to-be after a months-long courtship by mail, he's shocked that she doesn't match the photographs sent with her correspondence. But Durand has not exactly been truthful, either, concealing the details of his wealth. Mostly, he feels fortunate s...

When a long-distance romance leads to betrayal, an obsessed man descends into madness in a chilling classic from "the supreme master of suspense" ( New York Times).When New Orleans coffee merchant Louis Durand first meets his bride-to-be after a months-long courtship by mail, he's shocked that she doesn't match the photographs sent with her correspondence. But Durand has told his own fibs, concealing from her the details of his wealth—so he mostly feels fo...

CRIME AND MYSTERY STORIES BY20 VENDORS OF VILLAINYMystery Writers of America is pleased to present this sinister volume of larceny, deception, and murder, brought to you by the very finest purveyors of perfidy.Donald E. Westlake tells a tale of a cheating wife who tries to turn the tables on her blackmailer, only to find herself caught in a bigger web of lies than she could have imagined. From Robert Bloch comes a story of a man whose ve...

NOTHING'S WHAT IT SEEMS IN THIS SLYLY SINISTER COLLECTION OF DAMES DONE WRONG...AND DOING THE SAME!Shocking surprises, chilling comeuppances, and mercies that are anything but tender are just part of what to expect from these memorable stories of women's wills...and wiles. Choosing them with an eye to the dangers ever lurking in our everyday lives, acclaimed editor Michele Slung very clearly wants to play with her readers' comfort levels-and succeeds. Amon...