Showing results by publisher "Blackstone Audio, Inc." in Mystery

A routine dig in Kazakhstan takes a radical turn for 32-year-old anthropologist Claire Knowland when a stranger turns up at the site with a bizarre find from a remote section of the desolate Kazakh Steppe. Her initial skepticism of this mysterious discovery gives way to a realization that the find will shake the very foundations of our understanding of evolution and intelligence. Corrupt politics of Kazakhstan force Claire to take reckless chances with the discovery. Ultimately, Claire finds herself fighting not just for the discovery and her academic reputation, but for her very life.

Lawrence Block's 17 Matthew Scudder novels have won the hearts of readers throughout the world - along with a bevy of awards including the Edgar, the Shamus, the Philip Marlowe (Germany), and the Maltese Falcon (Japan). But Scudder has starred in short fiction as well, and it's all here, from a pair of late-'70s novelettes ("Out the Window" and "A Candle for the Bag Lady") through "By the Dawn's Early Light" (Edgar) and "The Merciful Angel of Death" (Shamus), all the way to "One Last Night at Grogan's", a moving and elegiac story never before published.

Madeline Vaughn-Alwin's picture-perfect life fades to gray when her childhood sweetheart perishes in the Great War. The aspiring painter leaves her wealthy New York family behind for Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she's certain she's found her new home amid the striking scenery and inspiring artistic community. To help out around her new adobe cottage, Maddie hires the Anayas, a local Native American family. But when the father is found murdered outside a speakeasy, the police brush off the death as just another inebriated man finding trouble.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned...especially a dead one holding a grudge. Back on Deadwood's list of usual suspects, Violet Parker is hip deep in wild frights and fired-up females. After juggling bitter threats, haunted buildings, and vengeful ghosts, the last thing she needs is a pair of bullheaded detectives trying to pin another murder on her tail. Can Violet find the real killer before she ends up behind bars? Or worse, on a slab at the morgue.

After dozens of Lexington, Kentucky's forgotten - mostly prostitutes and the homeless - swamp local hospitals from apparent overdoses over the Fourth of July weekend, Kentucky cops soon discover a new synthetic form of heroin is infecting their communities, and that gangs - namely the outlaw motorcycle gang Samael's Army - are responsible for using a "disposable" population to test the new drug.

The Crozats feared that past murders at Crozat Plantation B&B might spell the death of their beloved estate, but they've managed to survive the scandal. Now there's a très bigger story in Pelican, Louisiana: the upcoming nuptials between Police Chief Rufus Durand and Vanessa Fleer. Maggie Crozat, inexplicably tasked with being Vanessa's maid of honor, quickly discovers why everyone else refused the assignment when the bridezilla hands her a long list of duties.

Jenny Weston moves home to Bear Falls, Michigan, to nurse her bruised ego back to health after a bitter divorce. But the idyllic vision of her charming hometown crumbles when her mother's little library is destroyed. The next-door neighbor, Zoe Zola, a little person and Lewis Carroll enthusiast, suspects local curmudgeon Adam Cane. But when he's suddenly found dead in Zoe's fairy garden, all roads lead back to her. Jenny, however, believes Zoe is innocent, so the two women team up to find the true culprit.

During the height of a particularly brutal Vermont winter, a woman's body is found one morning hanging high above the interstate. The woman, found with the word dyke carved on her chest, is quickly determined to be the victim of a brutal murder. That alone is enough to bring in Joe Gunther and his Vermont Bureau of Investigation team.

Archaeologist Faye Longchamp-Mantooth has dug herself a deep hole, and she can't make her way out of it. As she struggles to recover from a shattering personal loss, she sees that everyone she loves is trying to reach out to her. If only she could reach back. Instead, she's out digging holes all over her home, the Florida island of Joyeuse.

Jack Doyle, former advertising man, amateur boxer, and Chicago racetrack publicist, undertakes a new job in the world of Thoroughbred horse racing: jockey agent. His client is Mickey Sheehan, a seventeenyearold female riding phenomenon from Ireland, who has decided to try her luck in the States. She and Doyle prove an effective team, until someone secretly begins administering dangerous illegal medications to horses.

Lonely and broke, Cleveland divorce survivor Allie Harper believes all her problems would be solved if she could find a nice, smart, hot guy and enough money to get her car fixed. The hot guy arrives first: He's in a crosswalk clutching a bag of groceries while a blonde in a Hummer is leaning hard on her horn, sending the man's groceries and white cane flying. How has this woman missed the fact that the man is blind? From the curb, an outraged Allie jumps to his rescue, rebagging the groceries as well. The money is in the bag - literally.

As yuletide settles upon Gwenafwy Abbey, the rural Welsh convent's peace is shattered when Tiffany Reese, president of the Village Art Society, is found dead on the floor of the parish hall. Sister Agatha, whose interests lie more with reading and writing mystery stories than with making the abbey's world-renowned organic gouda, is not shy about inserting herself into the case. With the not-entirely eager assistance of Father Selwyn, she begins her investigation.

It has been almost a decade since Duluth said good-bye to its innocence. The city creeps ever closer to the 10th anniversary of the year in which it found itself both gripped by murder and united in terror and during which the pillar of its community, DS Jonathan Stride, had his home and heart torn to ribbons by the claws of cancer. Cat Mateo, an orphan with a knack for landing on her feet, has bid farewell to a life on the streets. This once-stray teenager owes her rescue to Detective Stride, the father figure she holds close to her heart.

As the Christmas holidays begin at Maude Daneson's rooming house, unsuspecting lodgers receive a most unwelcome present from the person responsible for a series of senseless and bizarre murders - a killer much more cunning than they had suspected.

It was a script that could only have come from Hollywood: the wedding of two superstars after a scandal-filled courtship... a wild trip by private plane to a hideaway... a deadly double overdose of drugs... These corpses weren't play-acting. Once again, Ellery was cast in the role of master detective, as he found nothing was quite what it seemed in the never-never land of moviedom - except sudden, violent death...

Faye Longchamp is overjoyed to be paid to do archaeological work she would have done anyway - excavating a site that was once her family's. But that joy ends abruptly when intruders break into a dear friend's house and leave him dead among the scattered remains of Faye's artifacts.

Archaeologist Faye Longchamp and her friend Joe Wolf Mantooth have traveled to Neshoba County, Mississippi, to help excavate a site near Nanih Waiya, the sacred mound where tradition says the Choctaw Nation was born. When farmer Carroll Calhoun refuses their request to investigate a nearby mound on his land, Faye and her colleagues are disappointed, but his next action breaks their hearts: He tries to bulldoze the huge relic to the ground. Faye and Joe rush to protect history - with their bodies, if necessary.

Heavens to Betsy Devonshire! She never intended to get so caught up in this year's antique car race. But as sponsor of one of the entrants, she can't help but keep a close eye on the outcome - and it's not pretty. One of the drivers never makes it to the finish line. His car is found exploded in flames. Now Betsy and her crafty friends must determine if it was an accident or the work of a jealous competitor. The answer may be in a piece of needlework, but pinning down a suspect won't be easy....

The Most Southern Place on Earth: That's what they call the Mississippi Delta. It's not a place Lydia Chin, an American-born Chinese private detective from Chinatown, New York City, ever thought she'd have reason to go. But when her mother tells her a cousin Lydia didn't know she had is in jail in Clarksdale, Mississippi - and that Lydia has to rush down south and get him out - Lydia finds herself rolling down Highway 61 with Bill Smith, her partner, behind the wheel.

At Crewel World - the needlework shop in Excelsior, Minnesota, run by Betsy Devonshire - an array of beautifully hand-dyed yarns are supplied by Hailey Brent, an avid hand-dyer as well as a customer. But shortly after her most recent delivery of yarn, Hailey is found dead in her home, with a gunshot wound to the head. Betsy can't imagine who might have killed Hailey, but she is determined to find out.