Collection: Mystery, Thrillers, & Crime

Alex Rider is now an IMDb TV/Amazon Original Series!

Alex Rider is an orphan turned teen superspy who's saving the world one mission at a time--from #1 New York Times bestselling author!

Alex Rider's life changed forever with the silent pull of a trigger.

Every story has a beginning. For teen secret agent Alex Rider, that beginning occurred prior to his first case for MI6, known by the code name Stormbreaker. By the time Stormbreaker forever changed Alex's life, his uncle had been murdered by the assassin Yassen Gregorovich, leaving Alex orphaned and craving revenge. Yet when Yassen had a clear shot to take out Alex after he foiled the Stormbreaker plot, he let Alex live. Why?

This is Yassen's story. A journey down the darker path of espionage.

Like a James Bond for young readers, international #1 bestseller Anthony Horowitz delivers a blockbuster thrill ride.

From the author of Magpie Murders and Moriarty.

Set in Shanghai and Seattle, Calculated is a gritty, modern day blend of the Count of Monte Cristo and Mission Impossible.

She has many names - Octavia, Double 8, Phoenix, Josephine. She's a math prodigy, a calculating genius and everyone wants her.

In seventeen-year-old Jo River's complicated world of numbers, there's no such thing as coincidence. When she is betrayed by someone she loves, kidnapped by the world's most wanted smuggler, and forced to use her talent to shore up a criminal empire, Jo deems her gift a curse-until she meets Red.

Fellow captive and unlikely sage, Red teaches Jo to harness her true potential, so she can do more than just escape. Before he dies, Red reveals a secret about her enemies and makes her vow to right his wrongs. But Jo has a vow of her own.

With help from Chan, a bitter billionaire, and Kai, his off-limits son, Jo rises into a new role, ready to take down those who ruined her life. Until a mathematical error comes back to haunt her with a threat much more dangerous than the criminals on the loose.

To beat the odds, Jo must decide who she really is and if risking everything is worth it.

After all, history is not made-it's calculated.

With themes of revenge and forgiveness, loss and identity, brainpower versus brutality, and the triumph of right over might, it will resonate with readers everywhere.

"A high-stakes YA tale of betrayal, revenge, and numbers." - Kirkus Reviews

CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF HARD CASE CRIME -
20 UNFORGETTABLE STORIES BY HARD CASE CRIME FOUNDER CHARLES ARDAI
"A MASTER OF THE SHORT STORY." - STEPHEN KING

Since debuting 20 years ago, Hard Case Crime has won acclaim for publishing the best in hardboiled crime fiction - not least of all the work of founding editor Charles Ardai, which has won the Edgar, Shamus and Ellery Queen Awards, been selected for 'Best of the Year' anthologies, and earned praise from everyone from the Washington Post and Chicago Tribune to Megan Abbott and Stephen King.

Collected here for the first time anywhere are the author's 20 finest stories, including his Edgar-winning "The Home Front," about death and repentance during World War II; the Shamus Award finalist "Nobody Wins," about a brutal gangland enforcer searching for the woman he loves; and year's-best selections such as "A Bar Called Charley's," about a traveling salesman's most grueling night on the road. From Brazil at Carnival to Times Square at midnight, from Tijuana, Mexico to history's first gunshot in 11th-century China, Ardai will take you to some of the most dangerous places in the world - and the darkest corners of the human heart.

Someone has murdered the queen bee of Sierton High School. All the dead girl's friends are suspects. And each one has a reason for wanting her to die.

Ella Moore was the most popular girl in school...and also the most hated. When she's murdered at her own party, there are too many suspects to count. And too many people who think she deserved it.

The police's prime suspect is the new girl, Dawn Foster. Dawn was the last to hand Ella a drink on the night she died. Plus, all of Ella's friends with a motive for wanting Ella dead are more than willing to throw Dawn under the bus, if it means keeping the heat off themselves.

But Dawn refuses to go down without a fight. She's determined to clear her name. As she delves deeper into the past, she discovers that Ella and her friends had major enemies, and someone is out for revenge. Dawn must uncover the truth before the police arrest the wrong suspect... and before the next person dies.

The Naturals are faced with their most chilling mysteries yet, in this stunning conclusion to the Naturals series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Inheritance Games.

When Cassie Hobbes joined the FBI's Naturals program, she had one goal: uncover the truth about her mother's murder. But now, everything Cassie thought she knew about what happened that night has been called into question. Her mother is alive, and the people holding her captive are more powerful -- and dangerous -- than anything the Naturals have faced so far. As Cassie and the team work to uncover the secrets of a group that has been killing in secret for generations, they find themselves racing a ticking clock. New victims. New betrayals. New secrets.

When the bodies begin piling up, it soon becomes apparent that this time, the Naturals aren't just hunting serial killers.

They're being hunted.

** For more thrilling Jennifer Lynn Barnes mysteries, check out Little White Lies, Deadly Little Scandals, and The Inheritance Games series! The newest page-turning installment, The Brothers Hawthorne, is on sale now.

The darkest of nights are rife with desire and danger in these two shadow-filled romances.

Night Shift

Her voice was like whiskey, smooth and potent, but it was her contradictions that fascinated Detective Boyd Fletcher--the vulnerability beneath her tough-as-nails facade. Late-night radio announcer Cilla O'Roarke was being threatened by a caller, and it was Boyd's job to protect her no matter what. But the sultry deejay was getting under his skin, and the undeniable attraction that sizzled between them concerned the detective...because anything could happen on the Night Shift.

Night Shadow

They called him Nemesis. He walked the dark alleyways alone, a shadow among shadows--and that's the way he liked it. Until the night he saved Deborah O'Roarke from an attacker and rediscovered the quiet ache of yearning lodged in his heart. It had been a long time since he had wanted to reach out to someone... But Deborah was an idealistic prosecutor who played by the rules and abhorred the vigilantism of her mysterious defender. Could she come to love the phantom who lurked in the Night Shadow?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - An enthralling feat of historical suspense that unravels the extraordinary twists and turns in Anna Anderson's fifty-year battle to be recognized as Anastasia Romanov. Is she the Russian Grand Duchess or the thief of another woman's legacy?

"Tantalizing, surprising, compelling, and utterly fascinating."--Lisa Wingate, New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours

Countless others have rendered their verdict. Now it is your turn.

Russia, July 17, 1918: Under direct orders from Vladimir Lenin, Bolshevik secret police force Anastasia Romanov, along with the entire imperial family, into a damp basement in Siberia, where they face a merciless firing squad. None survive. At least that is what the executioners have always claimed.

Germany, February 17, 1920: A young woman bearing an uncanny resemblance to Anastasia Romanov is pulled shivering and senseless from a canal. Refusing to explain her presence in the freezing water or even acknowledge her rescuers, she is taken to the hospital where an examination reveals that her body is riddled with countless horrific scars. When she finally does speak, this frightened, mysterious young woman claims to be the Russian grand duchess.

As rumors begin to circulate through European society that the youngest Romanov daughter has survived the massacre at Ekaterinburg, old enemies and new threats are awakened. The question of who Anna Anderson is and what actually happened to Anastasia Romanov spans fifty years and touches three continents. This thrilling saga is every bit as moving and momentous as it is harrowing and twisted.

Don't miss Ariel Lawhon's new book, The Frozen River!

Masterfully written and beautifully told, Heather Gudenkauf's debut is a stunning novel of family devotion, honesty and regret that will linger long after the last page is turned.

It happens quietly one August morning. As dawn's shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families awaken to find their little girls have gone missing in the night.

Seven-year-old Calli Clark is sweet, gentle, a dreamer who suffers from selective mutism brought on by a tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler. Calli's mother, Antonia, tried to be the best mother she could within the confines of marriage to a mostly absent, often angry husband. Now, though she denies that her husband could be involved in the possible abductions, she fears her decision to stay in her marriage has cost her more than her daughter's voice.

Petra Gregory is Calli's best friend, her soul mate and her voice. But neither Petra nor Calli has been heard from since their disappearance was discovered. Desperate to find his child, Martin Gregory is forced to confront a side of himself he did not know existed beneath his intellectual, professorial demeanor.

Now these families are tied by the question of what happened to their children. And the answer is trapped in the silence of unspoken family secrets.

Don't miss Heather's upcoming twisty locked-room thriller, EVERYONE IS WATCHING!

And don't miss these other great stories by Heather!


These Things Hidden
Little Mercies
Missing Pieces
Not a Sound
Before She Was Found
This is How I Lied
The Overnight Guest

A Deadly Game in the Heart of a Historic City: Where Shadows Whisper Secrets and Every Corner Holds a Clue.

In the echoing alleys of New Bedford, a city steeped in history and immortalized by Herman Melville's "Moby Dick", a sinister plot begins to unravel. A fire, not just any fire, but one that consumes a commercial scalloper, draws the attention of the world. But as the ashes settle, a crew member's absence ignites a spark of suspicion that quickly turns into a blazing investigation.

Enter Rob Ragusa, a seasoned detective from the Boston FBI Field Office. But for Rob, this is no ordinary assignment. The heart of the mystery, Widows Cove, is a tavern he knows all too well. Thirty years ago, its walls echoed with the chords of his rock band. Now, it's a key piece in a puzzle that threatens to shatter his world.

Navigating a city transformed by time, where old haunts have given way to new-age elegance, Rob finds an unlikely ally in Steve Poole, the tavern's bartender. Steve's vast knowledge of the waterfront and its shadowy figures unravels a massive drug smuggling operation. But the deeper they delve, the murkier the waters become.

Dive into a thrilling tale where the line between the past and present blurs, where romance kindles amidst danger, and where every twist and turn takes you closer to the heart of a city that still whispers tales of its glorious past. This isn't just a murder mystery; it's a journey through time, love, and the very soul of New Bedford.

For fans of gripping narratives and intricately woven plots, this book promises to keep you on the edge, guessing till the very end. The game is afoot, and in New Bedford, everyone's a player. Will you uncover the secrets of the cove?

Paul Rooney, a debut author, holds a PhD in Psychology and runs a private psychotherapy practice in New Bedford, Massachusetts. His rich insights into human behavior and his connection to New Bedford's history vividly come alive in his writing. Residing in Wareham, Massachusetts, Paul is surrounded by his loving family - wife, two children, two stepchildren, five grandchildren, and a loyal dog, Rory. His maiden novel, Widows Cove: A Rob Ragusa Thriller, mirrors his passion for storytelling, psychology, and his city's legacy.

The discovery of a missing woman's bones force Ruth and Nelson to finally confront their feelings for each other as they desperately work to exonerate one of their own in this not-to-be-missed Ruth Galloway mystery from USA Today bestselling author Elly Griffiths.

When builders discover a human skeleton during a renovation of a café, they call in archeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway, who is preoccupied with the threatened closure of her department and by her ever-complicated relationship with DCI Nelson. The bones turn out to be modern--the remains of Emily Pickering, a young archaeology student who went missing in 2002. Suspicion soon falls on Emily's Cambridge tutor and also on another archeology enthusiast who was part of the group gathered the weekend before she disappeared--Ruth's friend Cathbad.

As they investigate, Nelson and his team uncover a tangled web of relationships within the archeology group and look for a link between them and the café where Emily's bones were found. Then, just when the team seem to be making progress, Cathbad disappears. The trail leads Ruth a to the Neolithic flint mines in Grimes Graves. The race is on, first to find Cathbad and then to exonerate him, but will Ruth and Nelson uncover the truth in time to save their friend?

From Simone Van Der Vlugt comes her European bestselling novel of a young woman's rise as a painter in Holland's Golden Age--perfect for readers of The Miniaturist, Tulip Fever, and Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Amsterdam 1654: against the backdrop of Holland's Golden Age, a dangerous secret threatens to destroy a young widow's new life.

Following the sudden death of her husband, twenty-five-year old Catrin leaves her small village and takes a job as a housekeeper to the successful Van Nulandt merchant family. Amsterdam is a city at the peak of its powers: science and art are flourishing in the Golden Age and Dutch ships bring back exotic riches from the Far East. Madam Van Nulandt passes her time taking expensive painting lessons from a local master, Rembrandt van Rigin, and when Catrin takes up a brush to finish some of her mistress's work, Rembrandt realizes the maid has genuine talent, and encourages her to continue.

When a figure from her past threatens her new life, Catrin flees to the smaller city of Delft. There, her gift as a painter earns her a chance to earn a living painting pottery at a local workshop. Slowly, the workshop begins to develop a new type of pottery to rival fancy blue-on-white imported Chinese porcelain--and the graceful and coveted Delft Blue designs she creates help revolutionize the industry. But when tragedy strikes, Catrin must decide whether to defend her newfound independence, or return to the village that she'd fled.

A novel of a father and son in search of each other on the Australian frontier of the 1870s: "Brutal, brilliant, beautiful" (Minneapolis Star-Tribune).

It is the summer of 1874. Launceston, a colonial outpost on the southern Australian island of Tasmania, hovers on the brink of anarchy, teeming with revolutionaries, convicts, drunks, crooked cops, and poor strugglers looking for a break. Outlaw Thomas Toosey races to this dangerous bedlam to find his motherless twelve-year-old son before the city swallows the child whole, but he is pursued by more than just the law. Hindering his progress at every turn is a man to whom he owes a terrible debt: the vengeful Irishman Fitheal Flynn, whose hooded companion hides a grotesque secret . . .
Based on real events, this prize-winning novel of vengeance and redemption, set against the sweeping, merciless grandeur of the frontier, "brings to mind the prose of Cormac McCarthy, Joseph Conrad and William Faulkner [and] catapults us into the vicious, impoverished world of a colonial town in Tasmania" (Minneapolis Star-Tribune).

"Readers who admired the propulsive plotting, atmospheric sense of place, and fierce family loyalty in Patrick DeWitt's The Sisters Brothers and Cormac McCarthy's The Road should be equally taken with Wilson's superb novel. Highly recommended."--Library Journal (starred review)

Winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Award and the Adelaide Festival Award for Best Novel

This novel, the result of extensive research by the author, expands the Jaws universe, and adds crucial backstory that enhances the experience of watching what many still consider to be the greatest movie ever made.

"1100 men went into the water..." So begins the critically acclaimed and haunting monologue by actor Robert Shaw as grizzled shark hunter Quint in the movie Jaws, in which he describes his experience as a survivor of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in the dying days of the Second World War.

The USS Indianapolis was returning from delivering the first atomic bomb to Tinian, and on her way to the Philippines when a Japanese submarine hit her with two torpedoes. The ship sank in twelve minutes, leaving hundreds of crew members floating in the ocean with hardly any food, water, or lifeboats. During the next five days most died from exposure, salt poisoning, dehydration, and the worst mass shark attacks in recorded history. Only 316 of 1195 crew survived. This historic event provides the motivation for the iconic character Quint in Jaws.

As we approach the fiftieth anniversary of Jaws, the first summer blockbuster, author and host of the podcast The Jaw Obsession Ryan Dacko has written the definitive prequel novel to the movie Jaws, telling the story of Quint. Beginning with him adrift in the Philippine Sea after the sinking, and after the end of the war following him first to San Fransisco and then to Amity Island, we read of how and when he acquires his many scars, of how he comes to own his boat The Orca and how he develops his technique for hunting sharks as seen in the movie. Along the way we meet figures from history such as Charles McVay, captain of the doomed Indianapolis, and characters from the movie Jaws such as Larry Vaughan, the slippery Mayor of Amity Island, Ichthyologist Matt Hooper and Quint's mate Herschel Salvatore.

This novel, the result of extensive research by the author, expands the Jaws universe, and adds crucial backstory that enhances the experience of watching what many still consider to be the greatest movie ever made. It is a story of overcoming odds, survivor's guilt, PTSD, one man's quest for justice, and lots of sharks.

Zoinks! A dog show is haunted and being taken over by spooky ghost hounds! Contestants are dropping like flies. Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Inc. gang go undercover to solve the mystery at the famous Liberty Dog Show.

"A legendary hidden treasure, an eccentric guy who collects stuff in a mysterious castle, and five cool kids trying to connect the dots and save the day, all of it brilliantly illustrated. WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE HERE?"
--MAX BRALLIER, author of the NYT bestselling series The Last Kids on Earth

Summer camp just became a whole lot more interesting when five curious kids accept a mysterious project: work together as a team to uncover a series of strange clues, reveal a secret path--and follow its twists and turns to a legendary treasure!

Join in the fun in this lively, clever debut graphic novel sure to appeal to fans of the Last Kids on Earth and Lumberjanes series.

Kyle is a new kid in town who likes to draw. Vic is a cool cheerleader who's secretly a math whiz. Quiet Beth is a history buff, while goofball Harry likes performing magic tricks, with the help of his patient wingman, Nate. Five kids unlikely to form a team, for sure.

But then they're thrown together at summer camp, where they watch a grainy old movie about the history of their town, Windrose, and one of its illustrious citizens of a bygone era: the intrepid explorer-inventor Henry Merriweather. He's the one who established their camp. Merriweather's Camp Pathfinders' motto? Plus Ultra more beyond!

The five kids soon find there is indeed "more beyond" in their pokey town with its weird weather and sudden geysers of smelly air. Deciphering a route of historical markers leads them to Merriweather's old castle, which is lined with ornate, beautiful tiles in hallways that lead to secret rooms full of odd objects--and where time itself is warped!

Kyle, Vic, Beth, Harry, and Nate witness scenes from Merriweather's past and realize his experiments and eccentricities are pointing toward a path--that could lead to the rumored lost treasure of Windrose.

This is the path our heroes are meant to follow, on a journey that will take them back and forth through time, through woods, and across waterways revealed by moonlight, right up to the looming Moon Tower itself--which holds Merriweather's secret . . . and the treasure!