Short Stories

Set in nineteenth-century Edinburgh, The Body Snatcher follows two medical students, Fettes and Macfarlane, who become entangled in the grisly world of grave robbing to supply cadavers for their studies. As the moral cost of their actions grows, the pair descend further into darkness as Fettes begins to suspect Macfarlane of more than just stealing bodies… A profoundly haunting and suspenseful tale of ethical decay, Stevenson's iconic short story remains a classic work of psychological and gothic horror.

When the White family come into the possession of a supposedly mystical talisman – a mummified monkey's paw – they are at first sceptical. According to the previous owner, the paw can grant three wishes, but only with a hellish cost. Mr. White, following encouragement from his son, flippantly wishes for £200, which will enable him to pay off the mortgage for his house. But when Mr. White's innocent wish comes true, a series of tragic and horrifying events ensue, changing the family forever.

First published in 1906, The Four Million consists of twenty-five moving short stories based in New York. Each tale showcases the lives of seemingly ordinary people – clerks, waiters, con artists and more – with irony, humour and warmth. From a charming exploration of love with 'The Gift of the Magi' to a tragic tale of friendship in 'After Twenty Years', The Four Million compellingly conveys the unique breadth of the human experience. A brilliant collection of character sketches, O. Henry reminds us how everyone has a story worth telling.

Accomplished critic Hannah Gold makes her fiction debut in this funny, wise, curious collection of stories exploring the glorious absurdities of life in New York City “People suffering extreme emotional states can so easily fly under the radar in this city, don’t you find?” Across the nine...

Step into the fire… if you dare. From the haunted depths of England’s most cursed woods to the shadow-filled corners of the everyday world, Hell’s Collection gathers J. Gomez’s most chilling and twisted short stories into one unforgettable volume.

On a photography trip in Siem Reap, Cambodia, Ryan Jordan hears the low drone of Buddhist voices chanting up the street. Hundreds of monks are streaming across a bridge. To investigate, and wanting to photograph the procession, he engages a local tuk-tuk driver to drive him to monks’ destination. With streets blocked, they detour through various alleys and side streets, eating up time, and leaving Ryan to wonder if he is being taken for a ride. Skeptical but determined, he stays with the driver despite the obstacles. Has he made the right choice?

Over the years, Ian Rankin has amassed an incredible portfolio of short stories. Published in crime magazines, composed for events, broadcast on radio, they all share the best qualities of his phenomenally popular Rebus novels. Brought together for the first time, and including brand-new material, this is the ultimate Rebus short-story collection and a must-have book for crime lovers and for Ian's millions of fans alike. No Rankin aficionado can go without it.

This audiobook, read by Audie award-winning narrators, includes unabridged recordings of all Fyodor Dostoyevky's greatest works: 15 novels and novellas, 18 short stories, a short study of Dostoyevsky by Virginia Woolf, and two books of non-fiction - his Letters and European travel journal.

A big, brilliant, spooky collection of classic and contemporary ghost stories that will make you hesitate before turning off that light.

Selected from the best of the world's short fiction, 50 Great Short Stories brings together writings by great masters of the genre. Carefully picked for their timeless quality, listeners are sure to be delighted by the inclusion of such favourites as 'The Gift of the Magi', 'The Lady with the Dog', 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button', 'Rain' and 'Mrs Packletide's Tiger', to name but a few.

This language learning audiobook uses engaging narratives to help beginners to intermediate learners naturally build their Spanish skills. With more than 50 bilingual stories in Spanish and English, listeners expand vocabulary and comprehension naturally through context rather than memorization. The stories progress sequentially in difficulty, starting with present-tense situations and gradually adding past and future tenses. Repeated vocabulary and sentence patterns reinforce learning, while the English translations provide quick support when needed.

As the days grow shorter and the temperature drops, Halloween approaches. Come, brave listener, pull up a chair, and spend some time with master storyteller Stephen Fry as he tells us some of his favourite ghost stories of all time, in truly terrifying spatial audio. From the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow to the tortured spirits of M.R. James, from Edgar Allan Poe’s terrifying tale of a doppelganger to Charlotte Riddell’s Open Door that should definitely stay shut, join Stephen as he tells you some truly terrifying tales.

This edition encompasses the best short fiction ever written for children. The beloved, enchanting fairy tales, such as of Cinderella and the Sleeping Beauty, thrilling stories packed with the adventures of Sindbad and Aladdin, excerpts from iconic works such as Oliver Twist and Gulliver’s Travels—all this and many more stories that inform, educate, entertain, and enthral children and fill them with wonder and fire up their imagination, have been included in this covetable collection.

When acclaimed mystery writer Dorothy L. Sayers first began compiling anthologies of the best crime stories in the 1920s and ’30s, the genre was in the flush of its first golden age. While it is hard to imagine today - after every possible mystery plot has been told, retold, subverted, and played straight again by hundreds of writers over nearly a century - in Sayers’s day there were still twists that had never been seen, and machinations of crime that would shock even jaded Jazz Age fans.

A collection of 98 enthralling and pulse-quickening stories, spanning five decades, venerates the remarkable imagination of J. G. Ballard. With a body of work unparalleled in twentieth-century literature, J. G. Ballard is recognized as one of the greatest and most prophetic writers in the world. With the much-hailed release of The Complete Stories of J. G. Ballard, readers now have a means to celebrate the unmatched range and mesmerizing cadences of a literary genius.

Sherlock Holmes and Lucy James have become a formidable family crime-fighting team. But one murderous woman has evaded their grasp. And when they’re called to London’s Olympia Theatre to investigate the strange death of a circus clown, they quickly discover their cunning foe has struck again. Tracking the enigmatic killer through London Zoo, a fancy-dress ball, and a sinister occult organization, the erudite duo stays hot on her heels. Each time they close in, a powerful criminal mastermind intervenes, and she slips through their fingers.

The Complete Short Stories is a collection to be loved and cherished, from one of the finest short-story writers of the twentieth century. From the cruel irony of A member of the Family to the fateful echoes of The Go-Away Bird and the unexpectedly sinister The Girl I Left Behind Me, in settings that range from South Africa to the Portobello Road, Muriel Spark coolly probes the idiosyncrasies that lurk beneath the veneer of human respectability, displaying the acerbic wit and wisdom that are the hallmarks of her unique talent.

H.H. Munro (Saki) is one of the undisputed masters of the short story. In this complete compendium, the full gamut of his subjects and themes is experienced. His stories are imbued with humorous satire, biting irony, and often the macabre, all of which have one target: the stupidities and hypocrisies of Edwardian upper-class society.

Paige Barrett was living her dream as a journalist in New York City, racking up bylines as a staff writer at The Razor, a cutting-edge online magazine. But when she’s suddenly fired from her job and dumped by her boyfriend, she finds herself back home in the quaint seaside town of Shoreham, Florida, waiting tables and living in her sister’s guesthouse. Restless and itching for something meaningful to occupy her time, she decides to launch a true-crime podcast about the death of Jessica Cady, a beloved teacher who died mysteriously 20 years earlier.

Season Two, Volume One. Four cryptic cases involving murder, mayhem, and mysterious disappearances. Is one mastermind behind them all?