Showing titles in Short Stories

A thriller writer is embroiled in a real-life whodunit when a friend drops dead with her hatpin impaled in his back. The violation of a sealed West Bank tomb, its rock walls intact, provides a Thebes investigator with a mystifying conundrum. Two sisters take shelter in a shuttered old house at the end of a country road . . . only to discover they're not alone. And the author's most beloved characters, Amelia Peabody and Radcliff Emerson, make an appearance in a newly uncovered tale with a witty nod to Sherlock Holmes.

Ten years ago, Craig Johnson wrote his first short story, the Hillerman Award-winning "Old Indian Trick". This was one of the earliest appearances of the sheriff who would go on to star in Johnson’s best-selling, award-winning novels and the A&E hit series Longmire. Each Christmas Eve thereafter, fans rejoiced when Johnson sent out a new short story featuring an episode in Walt’s life that doesn’t appear in the novels; over the years, many have asked why they can’t buy the stories in book form.

Yuri Kozlov is well known as the “Russian James Bond.” So when he defects to the United States during Putin’s war on Ukraine, suspicions arise around his loyalties. To prove he’s turned over a new leaf, he’ll have to convince his handlers—and the CIA’s rigorous debriefing and analysis—that his intentions are as honorable as he claims.

The Lady of the Lake (job description: hand out mystical swords to youngsters with potential) has her first dissatisfied customer. This humorous fantasy tale will appeal to anyone who has ever landed a glamorous job, only to find out that the gig has grueling requirements (in this case, confinement in a swamp and the company of wise-cracking toads.)

ATTENTION, SHOPPERS: Please hide at the back of the store immediately. I'm at a Bluemart, on a diaper run with my kids, when I hear the message over the loudspeakers. The other shoppers descend into a panic. And so do I. There was a tornado warning earlier--is it about it hit us? But as more messages come over the speakers, it seems to be something else entirely. Attention, shoppers: please stay out of sight of security cameras. Attention, shoppers: please hide all food and open wounds. My husband, kids, and I scramble for a hiding place. But I hear something coming down the aisle, and I ...

She’s the city girl looking for a story. He’s the grumpy mountain man hurting from his past… Only bad things happen on Valentine’s Day, and this year looks to be no exception. I’ve been sent to the middle of nowhere mountain to write a story on a reclusive ex-military artist who doesn’t want to talk. My job’s on the line, I’ve got a pile of debt, and Mom needs me back in the city. But if I don’t get Marcus to talk, I’m fired. I’ve seen the way he looks at me, and I’m not above using my feminine curves to lure the mountain recluse out of his lair. But once he’s out,...

He’s a wounded ex-soldier, and she’s the older woman who’s off limits… Mel’s confident and smart with curves for days. But there’s no way this sophisticated city girl would want a damaged veteran like me. I’m rough around the edges, damaged from the military, and working as a bartender for the Wild Riders MC. I’m a bearded, tattooed biker and she’s used to suave city men. There’s no way I even stand a chance. Until she climbs into my bed and takes control, taking what she needs from me and driving me wild. When Mel goes back to the city, she takes a part of me with her, ...

Four ridiculously silly stories with Henry, Lassie, Murdock, and some surprise guests.

In the wilds of a jungle planet, the Legion fights in brutal combat as Republic marines fly their SLICS from one tragedy to the next. H292, a repurposed warbot, shows the heart of a hero as he wades into the battle not to destroy - but to save.

The collection that established O’Connor’s reputation as one of the American masters of the short story. The volume contains the celebrated title story, a tale of the murderous fugitive "The Misfit", as well as “The Displaced Person” and eight other stories.

Jennifer Egan’s spellbinding interlocking narratives circle the lives of Bennie Salazar, an aging former punk rocker and record executive, and Sasha, the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Although Bennie and Sasha never discover each other’s pasts, the listener does, in intimate detail, along with the secret lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs, over many years, in locales as varied as New York, San Francisco, Naples, and Africa.

Agatha Christie was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies. Most of Christie's books and short stories have been adapted for television, radio, video games, and graphic novels. More than 30 feature films are based on her work.

Fairy Godmothers aren’t just for the young! A solitary, middle-aged woman’s self-appointed Fairy Godmother leaves her a strange and sulfurous inheritance. In this mysterious and off-beat speculative fiction short story, KJ Zimring shows why she is a master of the super-short listen. Her work has delighted fans of Asimov’s, Analog, Hitchcock, and Daily Science Fiction.

From USA Today bestselling author Claudia Burgoa comes the fourth novella in the Kentbury Tales series.

Impossible. I can't fall for this man. He's the type that women want to brag about taming. But I don't believe in urban myths and fairy tales and have no desire to waste time on a man who doesn't know the meaning of fidelity. Especially when that man is my brother's best friend.

Charlie knows he’s not the main character in his own story. He’s just another schmuck in the Ivy League looking to be somebody. He plays in a terrible jazz band, falls in love too easily, and struggles with the human being business. Written in a wry, comedic style, A Comedy of Nobodies: A Collection of Stories traces one fall semester in the lives of four typical but unforgettable university students who, as compensation for their existential anxieties, just want to feel understood.

A judge’s first murder trial. A defense attorney in over his head. A prosecutor out for blood and glory. The accused, who is possibly innocent. And the killer, who may have just committed the perfect crime.

Using, or rather mimicking, traditional forms of storytelling, Gogol created stories that are complete within themselves and only tangentially connected to a meaning or moral. His work belongs to the school of invention, where each twist and turn of the narrative is a surprise unfettered by obligation to an overarching theme.

Martin Walker presents his first collection of Bruno stories featuring all the familiar characters from the novels, the glories of the Périgord, and ample helpings of food and wine.

A grieving mother calls out to her faraway son. A student forgoes the lurid appeal of dating apps in exchange for a painter’s love. The anonymous voices of queer native men converge amid violent eroticism. A man just out of prison balances the uneasy weight of family and freedom, while a professor returns home to conduct research only to be haunted by a dark specter. The stories and voices in Billy-Ray Belcourt’s debut story collection are buoyed by philosophical undergirding, poetic demand, and the complex relationship between aesthetics and ethics.