Showing results by publisher "Phoenix Books" in Mystery

This collection of the finest short story mystery fiction by the most acclaimed writers, past and present features Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Burke, Harry Kemelman, and everyone in between. Edited by multi-award-winning mystery connoisseur Otto Penzler, it offers a delightful mixture of mystery and suspense.

The hardworking single mother of young daughter, Joanna Brady still feels the acute pain of loneliness and loss, the hole that was left in her heart when her policeman husband was murdered. But Sheriff Brady is the law in Cochise County, and murder has shattered the small town's fragile peace. A local gun dealer has died violently, and his stock of high-powered weapons has been cleared out. When two more slayings follow soon after, suspicion falls upon rancher Alton Hosfield.

Julia Lang is a winner—she' s beautiful, vivacious, and the publicity director of London's top hotel. Robert Brand is charismatic and handsome—with his vast fortune he can work magic. Julia and Robert make a golden couple, but when Robert tragically dies, Julia's world suddenly shatters. When his Swiss bank denies the existence of her inheritance, Julia realizes that her perfect life with Robert may have been built on a lie.

In the expert hands of two of the mystery world's top storytellers, being a housewife takes on a whole new meaning. These original stories explore the dark side of the housewife psyche and are guaranteed to delight. But be cautioned: These stories—"GDMFSOB" by Nevada Barr (author of the Anna Pigeon series) and "Acid Test" by Sara Paretsky (author of the V.I. Warshawski novels)—are meant to be listened to alone while sipping a glass of wine.

Beaufort, South Carolina is home to the Smallwoods, a family closely knit but fiercely at odds. Georgie, the youngest, is tormented by worry for her son, who vanished two years earlier, and by her anger at her father. An unforgiving patriarch and ex-Marine, Georgie's father neglects her mother, belittles her brother Ashby, and denies her sister Claire the financial support she needs after a trying divorce.

Back in Pickax, Jim Qwilleran expects to resume a quiet life, but the people and animals of Pickax have other ideas. A noisy cardinal wakes him every morning, nosy neighbors drop by uninvited, and the Siamese cats—Koko and Yum Yum—misbehave, even sneezing on guests. As if they weren't bad enough, Qwill's long-time companion, Polly Duncan, acts as though she is in love—with another man. Worst of all, Qwill finds a body in his apple orchard. When his friend, Dennis Hough, becomes the chief suspect, Qwill embarks on a crusade to clear Hough's name and win back Polly's heart.

Author David Morrell is a consummate storyteller, investing his tales with passion, sympathy, and narrative drive. From this master of literate, high-adrenaline novels of action comes three suspenseful short stories that will keep listeners guessing.

When the philanthropic, genial Dr. Jekyll becomes intensely submersed in the problems of good and evil and their affects on the nature of man, his deliberations soon drive him into his laboratory. There, he pursues to answer a question that has become his obsession: can the two opposing forces be separated?

Arriving home after another failed burglary, John Dortmunder is shocked to find his apartment occupied by a notorious cellmate that everyone had supposed (and hoped) had been jailed for life. Tom Jimson needs Dortmunder's help. Thirty years before his last prison stretch, Tom had pulled a big job up near Albany, one that left a cool $700,000 in cash buried under a water reservoir near Albany, New York. Tom's plan is to blow up the dam, flood the surrounding countryside, and grab the cash.

After a holiday trip to the Big Apple, Midnight Louie, a hard-boiled, hairy-chested, 19-pound black tomcat detective, returns home to death on the Nile. Two battling Egyptian barges outside the Oasis hotel cause a dead body to rise to the surface. The soggy victim is well known to Temple Barr—Louie's redheaded, high-heeled human companion—and her two best beaux both have reasons to want him dead.

Midnight Louie, the hugely popular jet-black feline sleuth who thinks he’s Sam Spade with hairballs, returns for an eleventh outing in this cozy-noir series. This time his human partner, Temple Barr, learn that the remodeling of the Crystal Phoenix Hotel is being held up by a ghost: the workmen swear its Elvis.

Creator and first host of The Tonight Show, entertainment legend Steve Allen is asked to stand in for Terry Cole, a late night talk-show host. Easy enough to be a substitute, thinks Allen, but little does he know that the vodka from the on-stage refrigerator is poisoned. Allen is not harmed, but his guest drops dead on the stage! Was the intended target Terry Cole or Steve Allen? Cole does have an extensive list of enemies, but when Allen himself becomes the suspect, he must solve the crime or spend a lifetime in lock-up.

Following the success of Malice Domestic 1—recipient of the Agatha Award for Best Short Story and called "outstanding" by Publishers Weekly— acclaimed author Mary Higgins Clark serves a feast of original traditional mystery stories in classic Agatha Christie style. Featured writers include Amanda Cross, Frances Fyfield, and K.K. Beck.

Regan Reilly, is a young PI who has come from L.A. to ski and celebrate with her parents and their rich Aspen friends. It ends up being a busman's holiday for Regan, who gets swept up in art theft intrigue after some multimillion-dollar paintings are stolen from her parent's friends. The thieves continue to elude capture, but Regan is on their trail. She's up agaist time, though, as the clock ticks down to Aspen's biggest party of the season—at which the town's most valuable painting of all will be unveiled.

When Abe Ringel takes the case of Joe Campbell, the "White Knight" of the New York Knicks who stands accused of rape, he thinks he's found the perfect easy victory to get his career on track. But when Ringel's investigations suggest that Campbell is guilty and dangerous, the defense attorney must confront the conflict between his courtroom responsibilities and his ethics as a human being.

What if you were offered a gig by some shadowy and well-financed interests to funnel five million dollars to rebels holed up in the Philippine mountains? They need to fund a revolt against the Aquino government and a resourceful and gutsy team to engineer it.

Nuala Anne McGrail has twice before amazed her faithful suitor, Dermot Coyne, with her psychic ability to "reach back" to the past and discover a wrong that needs righting. With their wedding only a few weeks away, Dermot's not a bit surprised when, while paying respects to his grandparents in Chicago's Mount Carmel Cemetery, Nuala points to the grave of the famous bootlegger Jimmy "Sweet Rolls" Sullivan .

After the double murder of his wife and child, Jake Sands gave up his lucrative career recovering stolen objects and missing people. Hoping to escape his past ties to Los Angeles, he moves to Santa Barbara, spending his days avoiding past friends and future decisions. Jake is not the sort of man who can stay retired for long, though.

Dermot Michael Coyne of Chicago goes to Ireland to uncover the true story of his grandparents, who left Ireland under a veil of mystery in the 1920s. There, Coyne meets Nuala Anne McGreal, a college student who helps him translate his grandmother's diaries. His grandparents, the O'Riadas, and the bloody history of Ireland from 1919 to 1923 are mysteriously linked to present-day peace talks between the Irish and English.

Louise Towers, one of the most powerful and celebrated women in the world, is brutally attacked in her New York mansion. Founder of a mighty cosmetics empire, she is known as one of the most well-guarded, inaccessible people, so both the public and press alike believe that the attack could have only been planned by someone close to her. The investigation to find the perpetrator uncovers an intricate web of family, friends, business associates, and lovers—any one of whom could have been motivated to harm Louise.