American Mysteries

“While a single sentence can turn a novel, a single word can turn a short story,” writes guest editor Don Winslow. The pieces featured in this collection hinge on those small, exacting moments that shock, spook, delight, and change a story entirely. A disgraced ex-cop approaches a crossroads...

When an American party of intellectuals, who boast of knowledge of a rare slug species, ask Lady Darriby-Jones to stay at Darriby Hall, she hesitantly agrees. She is in for a rude awakening when one of them is found dead with a gunshot wound. She thought it would be a matter that might be swept under the carpet until she's identified as a suspect. It leads her to wonder:Who's the trigger-happy culprit? When did they turn into a slug-slayer? How on earth did they pull off this shocking slug-icide? And . . . Why, oh why, would anyone shoot a slug savant?

In perhaps his most important literary feat, Norman Mailer fashions an unprecedented portrait of one of the great villains - and enigmas - in United States history. Here is Lee Harvey Oswald - his family background, troubled marriage, controversial journey to Russia, and return to an "America [waiting] for him like an angry relative whose eyes glare in the heat."

Charlie Hudson, an autistic 17-year-old, is determined to leave Sawyer, PA, as soon as she graduates high school - in the meantime, she works as many hours as she can at a sandwich shop called The Triple S to save money for college. But when shop owner Clay Cooper - a man who is both respected and feared by many in this economically depressed community - is found dead, each member of his staff becomes a suspect in the perplexing case. Charlie must work to protect herself and her friends, and uncover the danger that may still be at large in their tightknit community.

New York Times Bestseller Now a Netflix Film With an Afterword and New Epilogue by the Author The bestselling account of the lives of five young women whose fates converged in the perplexing case of the Long Island Serial Killer. “Rich, tragic...monumental...true-crime reporting at its...

Gordon Tilson is a lonely widower who befriends a young woman online. When her sister is injured in a car accident, he sends her thousands of dollars to cover the hospital bill and runs off to Ghana to surprise his new love. But he soon disappears without a trace. Frustrated by the inadequacies...

When a Western star is gunned down at a rodeo, Ellery Queen saddles up to solve the mystery.

Buck Horne has roped thousands of cattle, slugged his way out of dozens of saloons, and shot plenty of men dead in the street - but always on the back lot. He's a celluloid cowboy, and his career is nearly kaput. The real box-office draw is his daughter, Kit, a brawling beauty who can out shoot any rascal the studio has to offer. Desperate for a comeback, Buck joins Wild Bill Grant's traveling rodeo for a show in New York, hoping to land one last movie contract.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An Amazon “Best Book of 2019” A Washington Post “10 Books To Read in July” A Los Angeles Times “Seven Highly Anticipated Books for Summer Reading” A USA Today “20 of the Season’s Hottest New Books” A New York Post “25 Best Beach...

On a tour through history that's both whimsical and startling, we'll encounter 17th-century children flying around inside their New England home "like geese". We'll meet a father-son team of pious Puritans who embarked on a mission that involved undressing ladies and overseeing hangings. And on the eve of the Civil War, we'll accompany a reporter as he dons a dress and goes searching for witches in New York City's most dangerous neighborhoods.

A collection of the year’s best mystery and suspense short fiction selected by New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger and series editor Steph Cha. “This form has a special kind of magic, the ability to transport you quickly, intensely, to capture character, time, place, and story with...

England, 1819. Two enigmatic Americans arrive in London and soon after, a bank collapses. A man is found dead on a building site; another goes missing in the teeming stews of Seven Dials. A deathbed vigil ends in an act of theft and a beautiful heiress flirts with her inferiors. A strange destiny links each of these events to the American boy Edgar Allen Poe, brought to England by his foster father and sent to the leafy village of Stoke Newington to be educated.

Fifteen suspenseful tales from the Golden Age of the mystery genre. The art of the suspense story is incredibly varied. Rarely classified as whodunits, these narratives can be more accurately described as "when-will-it-be-dones." From hungry tigers stalking their prey to jealous lovers plotting...

Wink, au Nouveau-Mexique, est une petite ville idéale. À un détail près : elle ne figure sur aucune carte. Après deux ans d’errance, Mona Bright, ex-flic, vient d’y hériter de la maison de sa mère, qui s’est suicidée trente ans plus tôt. Très vite, Mona s’attache au calme des rues, aux jolis petits pavillons, aux habitants qui semblent encore vivre dans l utopique douceur des années cinquante.

During Fiesta, three desperate men converge in a perilous New Mexico town. It takes four days for Sailor to travel to New Mexico by bus. He arrives broke, sweaty, and ready to get what's his. It's the annual Fiesta, and the locals burn an effigy of Zozobra so that their troubles follow the mythical character into the fire. But for former senator Willis Douglass, trouble is just beginning.

Detective Fiona Fitzgerald is an unlikely force for justice in Washington, D.C.'s predominantly male police force. As a senator's daughter and top investigator in the homicide division of the Metropolitan Police Department, Fiona maneuvers between two vastly different worlds, moving quickly from opulent state galas to gritty crime scenes. Former Washington Post reporter Jason Martin knows there's something secretive going on in the high echelons of politics, and he wants to prove it.

The Desert Keeps Its Secrets. In the silent of Nevada desert, where the wind moves like a whisper across endless sand and dry lake beds, there exists a place that officially did not exist for decades. A place erased from maps. A place denied, dismissed, and quietly protected. That place is Area 51.

A collection of the year’s best mystery and suspense short fiction selected by New York Times bestselling author S. A. Cosby, author of Razorblade Tears, and series editor Steph Cha. In his introduction, guest editor S. A. Cosby observes that writing short stories is “a special skill that...

Unsolved Mysteries of American History re-creates the most mystifying events of our past, following some of our greatest historians as they search for the elusive answers. Spanning more than five centuries - from Leif Ericsson and Columbus through Watergate and Iran-Contra - Aron makes sense of all the latest discoveries and speculations. Here is everything you could ever want from a detective story: dramatic twists and turns, intellectual challenges, frustrating dead-ends, murderous mayhem, and thrilling espionage. 

“Crime fiction has always been outsider fiction, and this anthology, too, is a safe harbor for misfits and outcasts,” writes guest editor Megan Abbott. Full of wacky, peculiar, and eccentric characters, The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2026 features an enterprising dental hygienist who...

The reason we need sleep has long mystified scientists, but it’s crystal clear that we do need it. In fact, the more we learn about what happens while we snooze, the more we discover new benefits for multiple processes including hormone balance, immune function, emotional health, learning, and memory. Studies show that even one night of disturbed rest leads to measurable impairments, and for this mini-collection, we’ve gathered the most recent research on the mechanisms of sleep.