Ripped from the pages of the Fall, 1949 issue of "The Phantom Detective" magazine, here is the complete lead novel (including illustrations) – The Black Ball of Death! Marked for murder, the Phantom tackles the puzzling “eight-ball” mystery – in which a sinister clue at the feet of slain Arthur Arden is a harbinger of further violence! Exciting pulp action!

Could a twelve-year-old boy and his friend uncover a horrifying secret on their own?Cody Roberts and his friend decide to investigate further into an incident that happened on the way to school one morning. Full of twists and turns, The Black Cadillac takes you on a nail-biting, roller-coaster ride with the two boys. Is it a feel-good, happy ending, or are darker days ahead?This must-read novel will hit home for people with children of their own. Follow one boy’s obsession with trying to find out who the man is in The Black Cadillac.

The inimitable Richard Jury returns in a thrilling tale of mystery, madness, and mistaken identityThree months have passed since Richard Jury was left bereft and guilt- ridden after his lover's tragic auto accident, and he is now more wary than ever. He is deeply suspicious when requested on a case far out of his jurisdiction in an outlying village where a young woman has been murdered behind the local pub. The only witness is the establishment's black cat, who gives neither crook nor clue as to the girl's identity or her killer's.Identifying the girl becomes tricky when she's recognized as both the shy local librarian and a posh city escort, and Jury must use all his wits and intuition to determine the connection to subsequent escort murders. Meanwhile, Jury's nemesis, Harry Johnson, continues to goad Jury down a dangerous path. And Johnson, along with the imperturbable dog Mungo, just may be the key to it all.Written with Martha Grimes's trademark insight and grace, The Black Cat signals the thrilling return of her greatest character. The superintendent is a man possessed of prodigious analytical gifts and charm, yet vulnerable in the most perplexing ways.

The untold story behind Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat."Philadelphia, 1843: All is not well in Spring Garden. Fresh from her Glass Eye Killer adventure, Cattarina is once again thrust into mystery when she makes a ghastly discovery - a dead black cat hanging from a tree. Human authorities are uninterested in feline affairs, so Cattarina takes it upon herself to find the culprit.With the help of her new Green Street Troop and her human companions, she ferrets out the murderer. But her plan to exact justice unleashes a new set of horrors. Now, much more than Eddy's unfinished story is at stake. If she fails to thwart these events, a dear friend may suffer the black cat's end.Full of Victorian wit and rich detail, this cozy novella is a fictional account of Edgar Allan Poe's real-life animal companion. Fans of historical and animal mysteries are sure to like this series.

"Anne Holt is the godmother of modern Norwegian crime fiction." – Jo NesbøFrom the internationally acclaimed author of 1222 comes the suspenseful tour de force that started it all – the unforgettable debut of Inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen in a stunning literary skein of corruption, drugs, and murder.Norwegian author Anne Holt has become one of the hottest writers of dark, sophisticated mystery fiction in the world today. Blind Goddess is the international bestseller that introduced readers to the brilliant and enigmatic Inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen, whose fascinating evolution over eight books lies at the heart of the series' success.Blind Goddess opens with the discovery of a dead drug dealer on the outskirts of the Norwegian capital of Oslo. Within days Hansa Larsen, a lawyer of the shadiest kind, is found shot to death, and police officers HÅkon Sand and Hanne Wilhelmsen establish a link between the two crimes. The case is soon complicated by seemingly unrelated developments, including a coded message hidden in the murdered lawyer's apartment, ominous rumors from the drug underworld, and a Dutch suspect found wandering confused and bloodied in central Oslo who refuses to talk to anyone but an obscure civil lawyer. As the officers investigate, they uncover a massive network of corruption involving the highest level of government whose exposure may well get them killed.

Ross Craddock was just the type to be murdered. The new landlord of Craddock house, he begins by giving eviction notice to his aunt Lucy. He threatens the doorman with dismissal. He makes a violent and unwelcome pass to his cousin Mavis. He is vindictive and spiteful and ends up dead. The suspects include Lee who may have walked in her sleep and killed him out of unconscious fear. Or Peter who may have found Ross' advances to Mavis unbearable. Or aunt Lucy who unexpectedly came back. Or possibly Bobby who was still in love with Mavis and furious that she was seen with Ross. The answer is yet another Wentworth twist. I love her characters and she weaves their personal lives in with the mystery and gives us a treat.

It's midsummer in Sweden-when the light lingers through dawn and a long, isolating winter finally comes to an end. In this magical time, a brutal killer has chosen to strike. A female priest-who made enemies and acolytes in equal number-has been found hanging in her church. And a big-city lawyer quite acquainted with death enters the scene as police and parishioners try to pick up the pieces…Not long ago, attorney Rebecka Martinsson had to kill three men in order to stop an eerily similar murder spree-one that also involved a priest. Now she is back in Kiruna, the region of her birth, while a determined policewoman gnaws on the case and people who loved or loathed the victim mourn or revel in her demise. The further Rebecka is drawn into the mystery-a mystery that will soon take another victim-the more the dead woman's world clutches her: a world of hurt and healing, sin and sexuality, and, above all, of sacrifice.In prose that is both lyrical and visceral, Ã…sa Larsson has crafted a novel of pure entertainment, a taut, atmospheric mystery that will hold you in thrall until the last, unforgettable page is turned.

Hunted, alone, she went out on her dreadful mission — to find a little white stone of death — the one thing that could save her from the chair!

The desert air is hot with sex and betrayal, death and madness and only Archer can make sense of a killer who makes murder a work of art.Finding a purloined portrait of a leggy blonde was supposed to be an easy paycheck for Detective Lew Archer, but that was before the bodies began piling up. Suddenly, Archer find himself smack in the middle of a decades-long mystery of a brilliant artist who walked into the desert and simply disappeared. He left behind a bevy of muses, molls, dolls, and dames-each one scrambling for what they thought was rightfully theirs.

He's big and brash. His beat is the underbelly of Los Angeles vice-a world of pimps, pushers, winos, whores and killers. He lives each day his way-on the razor's edge of life. He was a damn good cop and LAPD detective. For fifteen years he prowled the streets, solved murders, took his lumps. Now he's the hard hitting, tough talking best selling writer who tells the brutal, true stories of the men who risk their loves every time a siren screams.

Chief Inspector Michael Haggerty asks Richard Jury to prove brewing magnate Oliver Tynedale's granddaughter is an impostor. Excavation of Tynedale's bombed London pub, the Blue Last, has turned up two skeletons – was the child found his real granddaughter? Meanwhile Melrose Plant reluctantly poses as an under gardener to investigate the nanny who purportedly saved the baby's life.

"An astonishing talent." – Jeffery DeaverWhen a bomb destroys Stockholm's new Olympic stadium, worries erupt about a terrorist on the loose, but when journalist Annika Bengtzon investigates, she uncovers a secret source that could reveal the truth behind the bombing.

Special Agent Sydney Fitzpatrick, forensic artist to the FBI, returns to Quantico to help identify a brutally murdered young woman. But when Sydney's friend and colleague, the forensic anthropologist who assisted her, is killed in a hit-and-run, a covert government team takes over the investigation, and Sydney is suddenly removed from the case. Certain her friend's murder is connected to the first case, Sydney investigates. She discovers that the first victim was not only an archeological student, but also the daughter of the ambassador to the Holy See. Just before she was killed, the ambassador's daughter claimed to have found one of three keys that just might lead to a map of the long lost Templar treasure. Sydney's search for answers takes her to the streets of Rome, and into the underground crypts and caverns in Naples, one step ahead of a ruthless killer. Time is running out for Sydney as a fellow government agent is kidnapped. And the ransom demanded? The Templar map.

An ancient volume of philosophical heresy provides a motive for murder in this haunting, lyrical novel of forensics, archeology, and history—the fourth in an acclaimed suspense series. What sort of book is worth a man’s life? After a year away from working in the field, archaeologist Cormac Maguire and pathologist Nora Gavin are back in the bogs, investigating a ninth-century body found buried in the trunk of a car. They discover that the ancient corpse is not alone—pinned beneath it is the body of Benedict Kavanagh, missing for mere months and familiar to television viewers as a philosopher who enjoyed destroying his opponents in debate. Both men were viciously murdered, but centuries apart—so how did they end up buried together in the bog?While on the case, Cormac and Nora lodge at Killowen, a nearby artists’ colony, organic farm, and sanctuary for eccentric souls. Digging deeper into the older crime, they become entangled in high-stakes intrigue encompassing Kavanagh’s death while surrounded by suspects in his ghastly murder. It seems that everyone at Killowen has some secret to protect.Set in modern-day Ireland, The Book of Killowen reveals a new twist on the power of language—and on the eternal mysteries of good and evil.