Our 57th issue opens with an original tale by Mark Thielman, courtesy of acquiring editor Michael Bracken. It does triple-duty as a crime story, a science fiction story, and a dystopian story. All with a great punch. As for our other acquiring editors—Barb Goffman has selected a great tale by Dee Long, and (not to be outdone) Cynthia Ward has a real winner from Chris Willrich. We will have a contribution from Darrell Schweitzer next issue.As if that’s not enough (when is it ever fo...

A Double Barreled Detective Story is a short story/novelette by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), in which Sherlock Holmes finds himself in the American west.The story contains two arcs of revenges. In the primary arc, a woman was abused, humiliated and abandoned by her fiancé Jacob Fuller, while she bore his child. The child was born and named Archy Stillman and when he got older, the mother discovered that the child possessed an incredible ability of smell, like a bloodhound. The moth...

The story of the poor policeman who saw a house numbered thirteen where no thirteen ought to be and a murdered man where no one has been murdered. Lord Peter helps him prove that he wasn't drunk nor delusional.

Gertrude Barrows Bennett, known by the pseudonym Francis Stevens, was a pioneering author of fantasy and science fiction. In spite of a short career of seven years between 1917 and 1923, which ended suddenly for unknown reasons, Stevens produced original and startling fantasies, leading many to name her the creator of dark fantasy. Her highly imaginative tales went on to inform the works of prominent weird and horror writers, including H. P. Lovecraft and A. Merritt. For this first...

The Thrill Book Collection is a four volume collection of all fiction, non-fiction, and art published in The Thrill Book, the legendary "Holy Grail" of pulp magazine collectors. The Thrill Book is widely regarded as the first of the "fantastic fiction" pulps, and is very rare and hard to find (a complete run of all 16 issues would cost $30,000 or more...if you can find them for sale). Shellysbooks is proud to bring the complete collection to everyone for the first time since publication in...

Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, Miss Emily and Mandalay the cat return in this new mystery novella!Once again, Miss Emily Jackson’s brown Burmese cat, Mandalay, returns from his wanderings with a prize—an old leather bag containing… a bar of soap. But the soap hides a secret that proves dangerous. Miss Emily calls in Holmes and Watson, and the mystery turns into murder.A family tragedy and a series of burglaries and assaults spark a desperate hunt to find the killers. Can Miss...

For this week's Black Cat Weekly, Michael Bracken has acquired an original mystery by Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier, Barb Goffman found a tale by SJ Rozan that will surely satisfy crime fans, and Cynthia Ward tracked down a Matthew Hughes story. Plus, for the sheer silliness of it all, there’s a Mickey Spillane parody from 1954 (which manages to be both a mystery and fantasy…but wasn’t everything of Spillane’s?) and classics from R. Austin Freeman (a Dr Thorndyke story), a Nick ...

ContentsA Romance in Transit (1897)The King of Arcadia (1909)Stranded in Arcady (1917)The Wreckers (1920)The City of Numbered Days (1914)Branded (1917)The Price (1911)The Master of Appleby (1902)A Fool For Love (1905)The Quickening (1906)The Real Man (1915)Empire Builders (1907)The Grafters (1906)The Taming of Red Butte Western (1910)The Honorable Senator Sage-Brush (1913)A Roma...

Classic short story collection, including O. Henry's most famous story -- The Ransom of Red Chief. According to Wikipedia: "O. Henry was the pseudonym of the American writer William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910). O. Henry's short stories are well known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings... O. Henry's stories are famous for their surprise endings, to the point that such an ending is often referred to as an "O. Henry ending." He was ca...

Excerpt: ""It seems to me," said a philosopher once, "that there are no entirely good men in the world, and none completely bad. Single out your best man, and you will find that he lacks perfection in some part of him; and examine your worst, and you will see that he has at least one redeeming quality." In this book the men mostly verge towards bad: but some are better than others. Because they are merely human, they act according to their lights. You may meet others like them any day if y...

In "The Intriguers," Harold Bindloss masterfully intertwines themes of adventure and human relationships against the backdrop of the Canadian wilderness. This novel showcases Bindloss's signature literary style, marked by vivid imagery and an engaging narrative that reflects the socio-political dynamics of early 20th-century Canada. The story delves into the lives of characters grappling with moral dilemmas, ambition, and the intricate balance between personal desires and social responsibi...

"Born to Good Luck; or The Boy Who Succeeded" masterfully chronicles the journey of a self-made protagonist whose ambitions and tenacity propel him toward success against a backdrop of societal constraints and familial expectations. The author employs a vivid narrative style that harmonizes realism with an inspirational tone, mirroring the literary zeitgeist of the late 19th century, which celebrated individualism and the triumph of the human spirit. The story is rich with themes of persev...