Dead Dames Don't Sing


Book Description

The stylish tale of a dead poet, a rediscovered pulp novel, and a lovely lady with a story to sell from the author of the Charles Resnick Mysteries. Ex–Metropolitan Police Officer Jack Kiley spent his career discerning fact from fiction. Now a private detective, Kiley has agreed to investigate the provenance of a newly discovered manuscript. Lost for decades, Dead Dames Don’t Sing is typical pulp fodder: “Hard, fast, and deadly,” according to Daniel Pike, the rare book dealer who hires Kiley. What makes it unusual—and potentially valuable—is that the novel appears to have been written by the late poet William Pierce before he made a name for himself. Pierce’s bewitching socialite-cum-model daughter, Alexandra, insists that it’s genuine, but Kiley isn’t so sure. Something doesn’t feel right, but the deeper he digs, the more he wonders if poetry and pulp really are such strange bedfellows. Hailed as “one of our most accomplished writers” by The Daily Telegraph, John Harvey brings swinging London—both past and present—to life in this gripping novella. The Bibliomysteries are a series of short tales about deadly books, by top mystery authors.




Bookshop Mysteries


Book Description

Five thrilling tales of mystery, mayhem, and murder from an exceptional quintet of Edgar, CWA Dagger, and National Book Award winners. Crime and literature make strange and sinister bedfellows in this winning anthology of book-themed whodunits by five acclaimed masters of mystery and suspense. Multiple award-winning, bestselling authors provide the literary thrills and chills in this masterful collection of five ingeniously puzzling mysteries that belong in the library of every crime fiction aficionado. Dead Dames Don’t Sing by John Harvey: Looking for a big payday but finding big trouble instead, ex-London-cop-turned-private-investigator Jack Kiley attempts to uncover the true origins of a controversial, pseudonymously written pulp novel. The Travelling Companion by Ian Rankin: A young Scotsman in Paris is drawn into a shocking mystery that resides within the pages of an unpublished manuscript allegedly penned by Robert Louis Stevenson. Mystery, Inc. by Joyce Carol Oates: When an obsessive collector of bookstores discovers a charming new shop, he decides he must have it at any cost—even if he has to commit murder. Remaindered by Peter Lovesey: For some nefarious reason, the widow and former associates of a slain gangster are determined to keep the Precious Finds Bookstore open following the unfortunate demise of the shop’s owner. The Book Thing by Laura Lippman: Private investigator Tess Monaghan must help the irascible proprietor of a Baltimore children’s bookstore keep her business afloat by unmasking an elusive and utterly ingenious book thief.




The Traitor


Book Description

A novella that introduces book detective Benny Morgan from the acclaimed, multiple award–winning author of the Lake District Mystery series. Book collecting seems a rather harmless hobby—unless it's someone like Felix de Lisle doing the collecting. He’s rumored to have ties to the mob. What’s been proven is that he has a penchant for the spy novels of Simon Verity. Some might call it an obsession . . . It’s this passion—and a bag of cash—that draws book scout Benny Morgan into his circle. De Lisle has gotten wind of a dust jacket that was commissioned for his favorite Verity title. It was never used and supposedly destroyed, but if there is a copy that exists, de Lisle must have it. As Benny searches for this elusive art in his world of collectors and dealers, he discovers the missing jacket and a dreadful secret that will put his honor—and quite possibly his life—on the line . . . Praise for the mysteries of Martin Edwards “Superb—a pitch-perfect blend of Golden Age charm and sinister modern suspense, with a main character to die for. This is the book Edwards was born to write.” —Lee Child, #1 New York Times–bestselling author on Gallows Court “[A] triumph . . . impressively channels Agatha Christie.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Mortmain Hall “A wonderful, absorbing read: a crime deeply rooted in the past, a beautifully evoked sense of the Lake District.” —Peter Robinson, New York Times–bestselling author on The Coffin Trail “A poignant mystery: atmospheric, haunting, and so tactile you can almost smell the moist air.” —Booklist on The Coffin Trail




Book Club


Book Description

When a bibliophile is murdered, it takes a bookseller to solve the crime. Good Advice, New Mexico, is a sunny town with a gloomy bookshop. The store’s eerie corridors are the province of Avery Sharecross, an ex-cop who has made the transition from chasing killers to tracking rare books. One afternoon, the local sheriff interrupts his book club meeting, and Sharecross’s old career collides with his new one. The area’s premier book collector has been found bludgeoned to death on the floor of his family library. A fifth-generation resident of Good Advice, Lloyd Fister devoted his life to books, accumulating a collection of local history that date backs to the sixteenth century. In his library, a single volume is missing: a Spanish book with a sinister past. Is the missing volume a clue, a motive, or a murder weapon? It will take a collector’s eye to decide. The Bibliomysteries are a series of short tales about deadly books, by top mystery authors.




Every Seven Years


Book Description

Elsa finds a book with strange powers and must face her tortured past. It’s been seven years since Else visited her tiny hometown on an isolated island off the coast of Scotland. After years of suffering bullying at the hands of the few other residents, she left to make a new life. But now that her mother has passed, Else has returned. And when her old tormentor Karen Little hands her the very book that sent her running all those years ago, the cruelties of her past have Else seeing red. The Bibliomysteries are a series of short tales about deadly books, by top mystery authors.




The Hemingway Valise


Book Description

An American spy in Paris solves a legendary mystery as the Pulitzer Prize–winning author’s “thrilling historical series” continues (The Wall Street Journal). Former Chicago journalist turned globe-trotting spy Christopher Marlowe Cobb has already lived many lives—from London to Mexico to Berlin—when he returns to France in 1922. Where better to work on his novel than among such literary expatriates as Ezra Pound and Ford Madox Ford, who convene at the Shakespeare & Company bookstore in postwar Paris? Among them is Ernest Hemingway, fellow lone-wolf war correspondent, new friend, and confidante. Like Cobb, Hemingway is writing a novel. Unlike Cobb, however, Hemingway’s manuscript has just been stolen off a train to Lausanne by what he’s sure were foreign agents. To know what Hemingway knows is risky enough. But to write about it is positively dangerous. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Cobb volunteers to retrieve the manuscript—but he’ll need all of his spycraft skills to infiltrate the compound where it’s cached.




The Last Honest Horse Thief


Book Description

A boy comes of age among a family of grifters in this powerful story from a New York Times–bestselling “master” (Stephen King). Never knowing a real home, Markus Novak’s only constant in life is his passion for paperback westerns. The child of a family of outlaws, he moves through the West town by town with his mother and two uncles, staying in a place just long enough to run a short con and move along. After one job goes south and his mom gets locked up, Markus finds himself in the foster care of a rancher and his wife—with whom he’s strangely comfortable, yet torn by loyalty to the family he’s lost. To distract himself, he spends his days working the farm and his nights fixing a rusty old ’55 Chevy. Then he discovers a note from his uncles hidden in a book at a local pawnshop and learns that they are hiding out in a mountain town near Yellowstone. Restoring the car soon becomes Markus’s only hope of finding them, and maybe finally finding himself, too.




Murder, They Wrote


Book Description

Five novellas about deadly books—and even more dangerous people—from five acclaimed mystery authors. Book Club: Ex-cop Avery Sharecross now spends his days tracking rare books in Good Advice, New Mexico. But his old career collides with his new one when the local sheriff asks him for help on a case of a dead book collector. Seven Years: New York Times–bestselling author Peter Robinson tells of a retired professor who discovers a threatening inscription in a volume of Robert Browning’s poetry. Puzzled by the disturbing message, he can’t resist playing detective. But the professor is about to learn the consequences of reading between the lines. The Final Testament: In this historical tale from New York Times–bestselling author Peter Blauner, a Nazi in 1938 London attempts to blackmail Sigmund Freud into publishing an anti-Semitic book in Freud’s name. Freud retaliates by picking up pen and paper and suggesting his blackmailer sit on his couch. The Pretty Little Box: New York Times–bestselling author Charles Todd presents a story of an Englishwoman’s simple theft of a devotional that sets in motion a dreadful chain of events. Pronghorns of the Third Reich: New York Times–bestselling author C. J. Box brings us to frigid Wyoming, where Lyle and Juan wait outside a lawyer’s house in ski masks and carrying pistols. Lyle is convinced he’s owed something, but he’s about to uncover a mystery that stretches back to Nazi Germany.




The Gospel of Sheba


Book Description

A librarian is tormented by a lethal volume of black magic. When A. Davenport Lomax’s young daughter asks him whether spirits and faeries are real, the Edwardian librarian just pats the little darling on the head. But when a desperate man emerges from the winding passages of the library muttering about demonology, he gets Lomax’s attention. Theodore Grange is a member of the Brotherhood of Solomon, a secret society dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of black magic, and he believes he has found a book written by the Queen of Sheba herself. Said to hold the answers to one thousand demonic mysteries, the tome will poison any man who dares read it. The next time Lomax sees him, Grange is at death’s door. To uncover the truth about The Gospel of Sheba, Lomax agrees to accompany Grange to a meeting of the brotherhood, where he will encounter darkness that threatens his life, his family, and his soul. The Bibliomysteries are a series of short tales about deadly books, by top mystery authors.




Condor in the Stacks


Book Description

Short tales about deadly books, by top mystery authors A thrilling Condor novella from the bestselling author of Six Days of the Condor. Vin, a name of convenience for the agent known as Condor, has been released from psychiatric care and it’s back to work. Unfortunately, he’s been assigned the mundane job of sorting through books meant for the incinerator instead of the high-adrenaline rush of being a covert spy for the CIA. Struggling to separate hallucinations from reality, Condor attempts to immerse himself in the task at hand, but his acute sense of danger soon overwhelms him. While wandering the labyrinth of the Library of Congress’s subterranean tunnels, he encounters a damsel in distress. Someone is following her, and Condor can’t resist the lure of covert ops—or placing his own life in jeopardy. James Grady revolutionized the thriller genre with his CIA analyst codenamed Condor, immortalized by Robert Redford in Three Days of the Condor, and currently portrayed by Max Irons in the all-new TV series Condor. The Bibliomysteries are a series of short tales about deadly books, by top mystery authors.