fb2A new Murder League mystery involving those three reprobate ex-detective writers — Carruthers, Simpson, and Briggs.
This time around the redoubtable rogues fall prey to two totally unsuspecting kidnapers — Messrs. Clarence Alexander and Harold Nishbagel of Cicero, Illinois. Needless to say the tables are quickly turned, and the kidnapers soon find themselves at the mercy of their captives especially when the trio enlists the aid of England’s leading criminal lawyer, Sir Percival Pugh, a man who knows just how to implement the chicaneries of Carruthers, Simpson and Briggs... and mete out his own brand of justice at the same time.
A high-spirited, lighthearted caper that showcases the peculiarly charming talents of three elderly Englishmen who continue to dedicate their lives to making crime pay.
The bizarre set of circumstances surrounding the case of “the handy death” presents attorney Hank Ross with the nearly impossible job of defending a man who is to all appearances guilty. Billy Dupaul, one-time bonus baby for the New York Mets, is serving time in Attica State Prison for shooting a man. Eight years after the incident, the victim of the assault dies and Dupaul is faced with a trial for first-degree murder. What makes Ross’s task even more difficult is the fact that Dupaul is implicated in a prison riot organized to cover up an attempted escape. Ross must prove that Billy was the victim of a carefully planned and executed setup; he must locate the mysterious “lady” who Billy claims was present at the time of the shooting... and all he has to go on is an eight-year-old trail.
Otto Penzler rounds up the most cunning, ruthless, criminals in mystery fiction.
The best mysteries — whether detective, historical, police procedural, cozy, or comedy-have one thing in common: a memorable culprit. For all the heroes in earnest pursuit, there are malefactors on the loose, determined to outfox their efforts and sow trouble in their wake. These are the rogues and villains who haunt our imaginations, but they often have more in common with their heroic counterparts than we might expect (and, as we shall see, some even moonlight as detectives or do-gooders themselves). The seventy-two handpicked stories in this collection introduce us to the miscreants who have schemed and slashed their way through the mystery canon over the past hundred and fifty years, captivating and confounding readers in the process.
MEET DELINQUENT PSYCHES OF ALL STRIPES, INCLUDING
gentleman thieves, calculating crooks, fearsome body snatchers, masters of disguise, morally-challenged lawyers, deceitful doctors, heinous hit men. charismatic con men, amoral adventurers, supernatural suspects, deviant detectives, vile villainesses, and cold-blooded killers
IN UNFORGETTABLE TALES BY
Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Washington Irving, Jack London, L. T. Meade, 0. Henry, Sinclair Lewis, Edgar Wallace, Leslie Charteris, Erle Stanley Gardner, Edward 0. Hoch, David Morrell, Loren D. Estleman, and countless others.
The small man woke sharply, the ever-present trembling slowly subsiding, the deep throb of the huge motors returning through the flightening dreams to his consciousness. His head had fallen against the window frame: the briefcase chained to his wrist had twisted and the latch was cutting into the back of his hand... Sunlight crept in through the half-closed curtains, but the other passengers still slept soundly. A dead planet, in orbit, high in the thin air: a satellite morgue... He glanced at his watch. Five A.M.: four hours to Rio de Janeiro...
He knew, moments later, that somebody had acted too soon. He could picture the startled looks on the faces of the crew bunched in the eerily lit nose as the message came clattering in over the air — the report that Hans Busch had boarded the plane at Idlewild with $2,000,000 in cash.
More important, he still had to clear customs, and the Brazilian authorities would be most interested in examining the briefcase of the man in seat 6B. He was right. Captain José Da Silva was very interested.
Da Silva, in fact, knew a lot about Mr. Busch already — a lot that Busch was sure no one could possibly know. He even knew the number tattooed on Hans Busch’s arm...
A collection of suspense stories, puzzle stories, whodunits and tricky whydunits involving police detectives, private eyes, talented and sometimes lucky amateurs, armchair detectives, and ethnic detectives.