Inspector Zhang loves mysteries, but as a Detective Inspector with the Singapore Police Force he knows that mysteries are few and far between. There are relatively few crimes in the city state and those that are committed are usually solved quickly. But that all changes when Inspector Zhang is called to a top Singapore hotel where a guest has been found murdered in a locked room.Washington Irving’s short story of a New England schoolteacher and his chilling encounter with the Headless Horseman is one of the United States’ most celebrated literary works. A classic for Halloween and campfires, the story has been adapted multiple times for stage and screen since its publication in 1820. The following version is a complete edition of the classic tale, including its original spelling and formatting. It is intended to be a free ebook version of Washington Irving’s haunting masterpiece. As a bonus, it contains an exclusive excerpt from "A Soul to Steal," The Sanheim Chronicles, Book One, which features the Headless Horseman in an entirely new mythology. Views: 316
A collection of stories, both early and late, that show how James M. Cain made his name
There is a hungry tiger loose in the house, and that is not good news for anyone. A jealous husband let the animal out of his cage hoping he would eat his wife alive, but tigers aren’t used to taking orders. This jungle cat will get his meal, and he doesn’t care where it comes from.
“The Baby in the Icebox” begins with a murdered wildcat and ends with a dead human—and what comes in between is some of the most striking prose James M. Cain ever put to paper. It is one of the first stories this master of crime fiction ever wrote, and it shows all the hallmarks of the novels that would later make him famous—namely Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice. The tales in this collection are short, but Cain never needed more than a few pages to thrill. Views: 316
Charles Brockden Brown is no longer as well known as some of his American contemporaries, but in his day he was widely lauded and regarded as the most important American novelist before James Fenimore Cooper. Brown\'s specialty was Gothic horror novels, the kind that would become extremely popular across the West during the early 19th century and influence subsequent authors like Poe and Hawthorne. Views: 316
Mob-connected loan shark Chili Palmer is sick of the Miami grind—plus his “friends” have a bad habit of dying there. So when he chases a deadbeat client out to Hollywood, Chili figures he might like to stay. This town, with its dream-makers, glitter, hucksters, and liars—plus gorgeous, partially clad would-be starlets everywhere you look—seems ideal for an enterprising criminal with a taste for the cinematic. Besides, Chili’s got an idea for a killer movie, though it could very possibly kill him to get it made. Views: 315
The North Yorkshire moors are always a magical place, but they're particularly enchanting at the holidays...especially if one gets to travel back in time to a Victorian Christmas. For Bronwyn Dale, it is the stuff of dreams. Fancy-dress balls, quirky small-town traditions, even that classic one-horse open sleigh, complete with jingle bells. There's just the tiny problem of the Butterfly Effect. How does a time-traveler make a difference without disrupting the future forever? Note: this is a holiday novella not a full-length book Views: 315
From New York Times Bestselling Author Wendy Corsi Staub, writing as Wendy Markham. Previously published as Slightly Married. Putting a ring on it is only the beginning... After a two-year relationship, Tracey Spadolini is finally engaged – all she needs now is to get hitched without a hitch! But as her wedding date marches closer, she suddenly finds that she and her fiancé can't agree on anything. From the wedding venue to the guest list to the perfect dress, every little decision seems to blow up in her face, and Tracey starts to question whether she'll even make it to the altar. Meanwhile, Tracey's friends are caught up in their own dramas and can't seem to help. There's newlywed Raphael, newly pregnant Kate, and even Buckley is acting inexplicably strange. When Buckley unexpectedly breaks off his own engagement, all but leaving... Views: 315
Since childhood, Sam Grandy and Roy Courtright have been best friends. They grew up in the same prosperous community, went to the same prep school, and later entered the same university. After Sam's father died, Roy's father looked after him. At one point Sam dated Roy's sister, Robin. As best friends, they share a close and loving bond, often stronger than the relationships other men share with their girlfriends, siblings, or wives.
But in the twenty years since their friendship began, their fundamental differences have become more apparent and their relationship has grown strained. More and more often they realize they are opposites -- one a womanizer, the other a devoted husband; one careless with money, the other frugal; one independent, the other needy. Do these differences threaten their friendship -- or are the dissimilarities what make it possible? Can they escape the ties of their past, or are they intrinsically bound until death? When Sam's health begins to falter, he draws Roy into his life again -- and into a chain of deceit, sex, delusion, death, and love such as only a best friend could.
Thomas Berger has enthralled millions of readers for almost fifty years with his psychologically complex, sharp-sighted storytelling. With exquisite wit and insidious wisdom, Best Friends weaves a powerful tale about friendship -- and the complex loyalties involved. Views: 315
Before he brilliantly traversed the gritty landscapes of underworld Detroit and Miami, the incomparable Elmore Leonard wrote breathtaking adventures set in America's nineteenth-century western frontier—elevating a popular genre with his now-trademark twisting plots, rich characterizations, and scalpel-sharp dialogue.
For every story of inspiring moral courage in America's untamed West, there's one of greed and duplicity, of corrupted souls willingly sacrificed to a merciless deity of ill-gotten gold. The New York Times-bestselling Grand Master brings us seven unforgettable western tales of noble stands and cowardly compromises—and battles of will more devastating than a blazing gunfight. Views: 315
Everybody says the old house at the edge of town is haunted. But Wally has some major doubts. Unfortunately, in exposing the hoax he undergoes some of the craziest catastrophes and mass mayhem of his life. To name just a few, Wally experiences: falling into mirrors that others claim show the future; shorting the sheets on so–called ghosts; and supposedly being turned into a talking hamburger.All this as our young hero learns what God really says about sorcery, ghosts, and the supernatural. Views: 315
Indigo continues Loren D. Estleman's hard-boiled Valentino Mysteries.Film detective Valentino is summoned to the estate of Ignacio Bozel to collect a prized donation to the university's movie library: Bleak Street, a film from the classic noir period, thought lost for more than sixty years.Bleak Street was never released. Its star, Van Oliver, a gifted and charismatic actor with alleged ties to the mob, disappeared while the project was in post-production, presumably murdered by gangland rivals: another one of Hollywood's unsolved mysteries. Studio bosses elected to shelve the film rather than risk box-office failure. UCLA's PR Department is excited about the acquisition, but only if Valentino can find a way to sell it in the mainstream media by way of a sensational discovery to coincide with its release: "We want to know what happened to Oliver."A simple quest for a few hundred yards of celluloid opens a portal into a... Views: 315
September 1938
Hitler is determined to start a war.
Chamberlain is desperate to preserve the peace.
The issue is to be decided in a city that will forever afterwards be notorious for what takes place there.
Munich.
As Chamberlain’s plane judders over the Channel and the Fürher’s train steams relentlessly south from Berlin, two young men travel with secrets of their own.
Hugh Legat is one of Chamberlain’s private secretaries, Paul Hartmann a German diplomat and member of the anti-Hitler resistance. Great friends at Oxford before Hitler came to power, they haven’t seen one another since they were last in Munich six years earlier. Now their paths are destined to cross again as the future of Europe hangs in the balance.
When the stakes are this high, who are you willing to betray? Your friends, your family, your country or your conscience? Views: 315
