An anthology of storiesAn all-new mystery anthology edited and featuring a new story by #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine HarrisNighttime is the perfect time for the perfect crime. #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris edits and contributes an all-new story-set in her Sookie Stackhouse universe-to this anthology from the Mystery Writers of America. Other authors include:Steve BrewerDana CameronMax Allan Collins and Mickey SpillaneBarbara D'AmatoBrendan DuBoisTerrie Farley MoranJack FredricksonParnell HallCarolyn HartS. W. HubbardToni L. P. KelnerLou KempWilliam Kent KreugerHarley Jane KozakMargaret MahonMartin MeyersJeffrey SomersElaine VietsMike Wiecek

When Joe Boyle delivered the message to Renzo, one of the toughest crime lords in the city, he didn't expect to be beaten to within an inch of his life. But the message was from Vetter, one the most dangerous underworld figures. No one had ever seen Vetter, but all the crime lords knew his reputation―whatever city he came to, he took over to his advantage leaving a pile of corpses in his wake. Joe is going to be lucky to stay alive when they realize that he maybe the only chance the city's underground has of striking Vetter first. Joe's only chance may lie in the arms of the beautiful lounge singer Helen Troy.

A walk on the wild side! In this series of collections of gritty Noir and Hardboiled stories, you’ll find some of the best writers of the craft writing in their prime.

This anthology features some of the most famous authors writing at the peak of their careers!

The master of hard-boiled detective fiction is back — and better than ever — with Something’s Down There, a blade-sharp thriller set among the islands of the Caribbean.To the casual observer, Mako Hooker looks like any other grizzled fishing-boat captain trawling the Bermuda Triangle. He’s content with his nets in the water and a beer in the cooler, but he’s hardly your typical fisherman. Hooker is in fact a retired government operative taking a much-needed respite from his highly secret, highly lethal career in the States. But when local fishermen begin to fall prey to a mysterious sea creature the islanders dub “the eater,” he discovers the truth in that old saw about the spy game: You’re not retired from the Company until you’re dead.Is the monster a prehistoric beast rising from the depths? Or mines from a sunken WWII destroyer, only now shaken loose by the U.S. Navy’s depth charges? Or the work of someone with an agenda even more deeply undercover than Hooker’s?Hooker quietly begins to investigate with the help of his unwitting fishing partner, Billy Bright; a local movie heiress, the seductive Judy Durant; and Hooker’s old nemesis, Chana Sterling. The Company sent her as backup, but Hooker doesn’t trust power-hungry government agents too far — especially Chana, who once put a bullet in him for no good reason. As more boats arc mauled and the islanders begin to panic, the action heats up and the players multiply: a Hollywood film company arrives on the scene, eager to turn live footage of “the eater” into box-office payoff, and the heavyweight film executive in charge looks suspiciously like Tony Pallatzo, a Brooklyn mobster from Hooker’s violent past. As he moves steadily closer to the truth, Hooker realizes that someone (or something) is plotting to stop him, and only his rusty instincts will save him this time.A riveting story of criminal intrigue, greed, romance, and the mysteries of the deep, Something’s Down There showcases Mickey Spillane at his best.

In his introduction to the The Best American Noir of the Century, James Ellroy writes, 'noir is the most scrutinized offshoot of the hard-boiled school of fiction. It's the long drop off the short pier and the wrong man and the wrong woman in perfect misalliance. It's the nightmare of flawed souls with big dreams and the precise how and why of the all-time sure thing that goes bad.' Offering the best examples of literary sure things gone bad, this collection ensures that nowhere else can readers find a darker, more thorough distillation of American noir fiction.James Ellroy and Otto Penzler, series editor of the annual The Best American Mystery Stories, mined one hundred years of writing - 1910-2010 - to find this treasure trove of thirty-nine stories. From noir's twenties-era infancy come gems like James M. Cain's 'Pastorale,' and its post-war heyday boasts giants like Mickey Spillane and Evan Hunter. Packing an undeniable punch, diverse contemporary incarnations include Elmore Leonard, Patricia Highsmith, Joyce Carol Oates, Dennis Lehane, and William Gay, with many page-turners appearing in the last decade.

In his first book in almost nine years, Mickey Spillane proves conclusively that he is still the unequalled master of the style he invented. The Deep has all the elements that made Spillane the bestselling mystery writer of all time: dramatic scenes, splashed with color; a masterful new protagonist; a beautiful and desirable girl; and all the action and violence Spillane’s most ardent fan could ask.Deep was back in town after a twenty-five year exile — to inherit an empire and avenge a death. He and Bennett had made the inheritance pact when they were kids — blood brothers in crime. They had known then that even New York was too small for them both to share, and so they had tossed a coin to determine who would stay and who would build his organization in another town. Deep had lost and gone.But now Bennett has lost — been murdered in his own home — and Deep is ready to prove lie is strong enough to take over. Deep wants Bennett’s killer; the others want Bennett’s job. And all too many of them — including the beautiful Irish — want Deep dead.The Deep is the mastermind in one of the most exciting stories Spillane has ever written — a breathtaking tale of violence in action.

In touristy Peachtree Heights, Georgia, a string of presumably accidental deaths of area physicians rouses the suspicions of Police Chief Blake Cutter. But the former big-city cop’s attempts to warn Dr. Roy Ryan are viewed by his estranged wife as an attempt to muddy the waters of a custody battle over the couple’s young son, Richie.Too late to do anything more, a small, incredibly powerful creature emerges from the night to brave the walls of the doctor’s compound, terrorizing the family and any and all police guarding them. The menace is suddenly real, and those physicians’ deaths are anything but accidental.And when young Richie’s archeologist uncle gives the boy a grisly birthday present — an actual Aztec mummy! — the child begins to think the long-dead corpse is his friend, one who is still-breathing...

Pulp fiction has been looked down on as a guilty pleasure, but it offers the perfect form of entertainment: the very best storytelling filled with action, surprises, sound and fury. In short, all the exhiliration of a roller-coaster ride. The 1920s in America saw the proliferation of hundreds of dubiously named but thrillingly entertaining pulp magazines in America: Black Mask, Amazing, Astounding, Spicy Stories, Ace-High, Detective Magazine, Dare-Devil Aces. It was in these luridly-coloured publications, printed on the cheapest pulp paper, that the first gems began to appear. The one golden rule for writers of pulp fiction was to adhere to the art of storytelling. Each story had to have a beginning, an end, economically-etched characters, but plenty going on, both in terms of action and emotions. Pulp magazines were the TV of their day, plucking readers from drab lives and planting them firmly in thrilling make-believe, successors...

“The Tough Guys” contain three Spillane short stories that came out in men’s magazines in the early sixties. All are solid Spillane high caliber yarns , with a guy ready to tackle injustice with violence, always with a clip in the gun and a broad by his side.