The Deadly Jigsaw Puzzle


Book Description

My patient, Veronica Vail, was murdered in her Park Avenue apartment. Lt. John Franklin asks my help in finding the killer. We interview her husband Roland, his daughter by a former marriage who never liked Veronica, and Carlos de la Cuesta, a handsome, black-haired drag queen in love with Roland. Lt. Franklin hypothesizes that a stranger broke into the Vail apartment to steal a painting. Roland confirms that an expensive painting has disappeared. A maid named Lottie Lobell tells us that while looking out the window on the day of the murder, she saw a black-haired man run away from the building carrying a painting. He is found and brought in for questioning. Using purely psychological clues, I confront all the suspects with the truth. The killer collapses under my inquisition, and confesses.




Murder Most Puzzling


Book Description

Murder Most Puzzling is a gorgeous and witty book that invites readers to play detective and solve a series of absorbing, murder-mystery-themed puzzles. Readers are cast as the faithful sidekick to amateur sleuth Medea Thorne in order to solve 20 puzzling cases. Meet a cast of colorful characters—from ghost hunter extraordinaire Augustin Artaud, to Leonard Fanshawe, a competitor in the Annual Perfect Pickled Foods Festival. • A witty riff on the classic whodunit that brings out everyone's inner detective • Each mystery is sumptuously illustrated. • The mysteries require different deductive tactics, making them a good brain exercise A body in the topiary garden, a death at a clairvoyants' convention, and the mysterious accident of the boating lake—prepare for a whirlwind adventure, laced with humor and a dash of the macabre. This book will delight fans of Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Edward Gorey. • This is a collection of darkly humorous puzzles. • Features illustrations in a gorgeous gothic style by Stephanie von Reiswitz • Perfect for Edward Gorey fans, mystery buffs, puzzle addicts, and fans of true crime podcasts and TV shows • You'll love this book if you love books like The Gashlycrumb by Edward Gorey, File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents by Lemony Snicket, and The Composer Is Dead by Lemony Snicket.




Overwatch Anniversary Puzzle


Book Description

Overwatch may have disbanded after the Omnic Crisis, but you can help piece them together again with this gorgeous Anniversary puzzle.




A Deadly Affair


Book Description

“[We] can’t get enough of Christie’s plush and murderous thrills.” —Entertainment Weekly From the Queen of Mystery—this all-new collection of stories about love gone horribly wrong will get your heart racing. Love can propel us to our greatest heights . . . and darkest depths. In this new compendium of Agatha Christie short stories, witness the dark side of love—crimes of passion, games of the heart, and deadly deceits. This pulse-pounding compendium features beloved detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, master of charades Parker Pyne, the enigmatic Harley Quin, and the adventurous Tommy and Tuppence, all at the ready to solve tantalizing mysteries. In “The Face of Helen,” a night at the Royal Opera could reach a fatal crescendo for a woman caught in a dicey love triangle; “Finessing the King” delivers a curious ad in the personals that could mask sinister intentions; who’s in danger of getting stung in “Wasps’ Nest” depends on rounding up suspects and solving a murder—before it even happens. These are just a few of the tales in this collection featuring essential reading that Christie fans old and new will simply love to death.




Creepy Archives Volume 25


Book Description

Another volume packed with classic collaborations, hideous creatures, and bizarre settings! Stories by Budd Lewis, Len Wein, Carmine Infantino, Pablo Marcos, Val Mayerik, and many others are collected in this terrifying tome, featuring issues #117 to #122 of Warren Publishing’s groundbreaking horror title. Includes a foreword by The Goon’s Eric Powell! * A New York Times best-selling series!




Who Killed Marcia Maynard?


Book Description

Dr. Marcia Maynard, famous child psychoanalyst and infant researcher, was murdered in her bed at the El Dorado Apartment House in Manhattan by an unknown killer. Psychoanalyst Mary Wells helps solve the mystery with her astute analytical and psychological skills. In conjunction with her lover Detective John Franklin, they are an almost unstoppable team. Dr. Wells and Lt. Franklin are devastated to hear that his "Auntie Marcie" and Well's colleague and former analyst has been murdered. The pair, who are both in mourning for Maynard, need all their wits about them as they question her colleagues, staff, and friends. Finding someone angry enough to kill Maynard was not difficult, as many people had been mistreated by the doctor. The suspects included her beautiful Indian housekeeper, Asha Rupashi, whom Maynard continually abused and who was a beneficiary in Maynard's will, her chief associate for 30 years, Dr. James Whirter, a man her colleagues said she treated "like a lapdog," Rogerio Chavez, a Chinese restaurant delivery man, whom Maynard had insulted and infuriated, and several suitors whom she had rejected. The book ends with the killer opening up under ingenious psychological questioning by Dr. Wells, who then falls into Lt. Franklin's arms.




Creepy Archives Volume 17


Book Description

Alex Toth, Al Williamson, Wally Wood, John Severin, Russ Heath, and Bernie Wrightson construct weird and wonderful stories, steeped in supernatural dread and nuclear paranoia, populated by tragic characters, and riddled with deadly, ironic twists. This volume also features an interview between comics historian S.C. Ringgenberg and cover artist extraordinaire Ken Kelly! Collecting issues #78 to #83 of Creepy. * Contains original stories written and drawn by Alex Toth! * Featuring "In Deep," Richard Corben's devastating full-color tale of survival at sea.




Mortal Jigsaw Puzzle


Book Description

The Mortal Jigsaw puzzle follows the struggles of a heroic urban vice principal, as he attempts to control a large high school teetering on the verge of chaos. During the course of an infamous day known as Fat Lip Friday, the ghetto principal tries valiantly to keep control of his school in the midst of a full blown gang war. Immersed in an environment replete with urban music, violence, verbiage, and dress, the reader is bombarded with shocking images of life in the modern hood. As the visceral educational conflagration unfolds, the protagonist, Jose Perez, unexpectedly catches glimpses of a diabolical conspiracy of which street gangs are just a small part. Thanks to his keen senses, Mr. Perez slowly collects the pieces to a profoundly disturbing global puzzle comprised of codes, lyrics, art, and symbols of Egyptian, Masonic, and satanic origin. While attempting to place the gratuitous carnage and depravity of the inner city into perspective, Mr. Perez accidentally stumbles upon an interdisciplinary mind control plan which draws upon religion, politics, economics, psychology, marketing, history, and the occult. Alarmed by his findings, Mr. Perez warns his community of their pending doom, only to be hunted down by the very debt cattle whom he tries to save from oblivion. In the end, both his community and his nation are condemned to fall under this nefarious plot, as this educators quixotic mission abruptly ends with an ominous knock on his front door.




Ryan Baker


Book Description

Enchanted sand castle, brilliant winged fish hemabies, a flight of creepy birds called Dark Choppers, glistening sea plants called air-pockets, nasty little sea monsters called light-devils, a swarm of teeny tiny flying fish, a mysterious silver castle in a hidden domed land, and infamous Harfhas in search of the wondrous silver scales... This is about the secret world beneath the ocean floor where the sky is the hemisphere mineral layer filled with countless sparkling bubble balls. And that is where Ryan Baker lands. There, Ryan meets a remarkable fellow Leinad in a weird and wonderful way. By all means Ryan is determined to help Leinad who falls into miserable difficulties, but at the same time Ryan strives to overcome the great fears before him. Be brave, be strong, Ryan! Your challenge begins!




Containing Balkan Nationalism


Book Description

Containing Balkan Nationalism focuses on the implications of the Bulgarian national movement that developed in the context of Ottoman modernization and of European imperialism in the Near East. The movement aimed to achieve the status of an independent Bulgarian Orthodox church, removing ethnic Bulgarians from the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. This independent church status meant legal and cultural autonomy within the Islamic structure of the Ottoman Empire, which recognized religious minorities rather than ethnic ones. Denis Vovchenko shows how Russian policymakers, intellectuals, and prelates worked together with the Ottoman government, Balkan and other diplomats, and rival churches, to contain and defuse ethnic conflict among Ottoman Christians through the promotion of supraethnic religious institutions and identities. The envisioned arrangements were often inspired by modern visions of a political and cultural union of Orthodox Slavs and Greeks. Whether realized or not, they demonstrated the strength and flexibility of supranational identities and institutions on the eve of the First World War. The book encourages contemporary analysts and policymakers to explore the potential of such traditional loyalties to defuse current ethnic tensions and serve as organic alternatives to generic models of power-sharing and federation.