Mystery Writing Suspense

Beneath the waters of the River Derwent lies a terrible secret. When the submerged body of a woman is discovered, it opens an investigation full of old grudges and dangerous truths. Can Gemma and her friends find the killer and bring calm back to their local town of Belper?

When Jack’s car breaks down in the middle of a cross-country road trip, the mysterious house at the top of the hill is a beacon of hope. If he can borrow a phone to call for help, he’ll be on his way in no time. But someone - or something - has other plans. Soon, Jack finds himself trapped in a nightmare that defies logic, where a depraved killer on the loose is the least of his problems. Will Jack escape before it’s too late?

The Art of Suspense: Mastering Mystery and Thriller Writing is a comprehensive craft guide designed for writers who want to elevate their ability to create tension, deepen emotional stakes, and keep readers turning pages late into the night. Blending psychological insight with practical technique and demystifies how suspense truly works—why it grips us, how it manipulates our expectations, and what separates a predictable story from an unforgettable one. We will explore the core mechanics of suspense, including the psychology of fear and anticipation, the strategic use of foreshadowing, ...

Three charming small-town cozy mysteries set in the heart of Derbyshire — perfect for fans of Richard Osman, M.C. Beaton, and classic British whodunits. Welcome to The Bookworm Bookshop & Café, where the coffee is warm, the friendships are strong, and murder is never far from the next chapter. Join Gemma, Mavis, and the rest of Belper’s quirky residents as they turn amateur sleuths. This collection includes the first three complete novels in The Bookshop Mysteries — over 21 hours of murder, secrets, and small-town intrigue.

Cyrus Shelton has spent the last twenty-three years locked up in the Huntsville State Penitentiary with only one thing on his mind - revenge on the arresting detective, Frank Windom, and his lousy defense attorney, Jonell Simone. Now paroled and having learned Windom had the nerve to die, he sets his sights on Windom's former partner, Jack West.

Introducing Jack West a tenacious Houston Homicide Detective, a man who believes even the dregs of society deserve justice. After solving an exhausting murder case involving teenagers, Jack and his partner, Dawson Luck are assigned a cold case dating back 25 years. One case: an unsolved murder of a woman, found dead behind a seedy motel; the other about a missing prostitute. Digging into the cases, a fresh murder case is called in. A wealthy couple is found dead in an affluent residential area. It appears to be a murder- suicide and this new case takes precedence.

A #1 Amazon Best Seller Mystery Writing in a Nutshell Edgar Allan Poe Award Winner John McAleer & Andrew McAleer Edgar Allan Poe Award winner, Pulitzer Prize nominee, and best-selling author John McAleer, Ph.D. (Harvard), taught crime fiction at Boston College for nearly four decades, nurturing authors like George V. Higgins (The Friends of Eddie Coyle), Chuck Hogan (The Town), Margaret McLean (Whitey on Trial), Edward Hannibal (Blood Feud), James Devlin (Elmore Leonard), James F. Murphy, Jr. (Quonset) and Ted Murphy (the Belltown mysteries). Now, in Mystery Writing in a Nutshell, he and ...

When Penelope, the wife of a bestselling thriller author, walks into the Bookworm Bookshop and Café, she makes Gemma an offer she can’t refuse: to work for her as a private investigator. Penelope suspects that her husband is cheating on her and wants physical evidence before she files for divorce. Gemma agrees to help, but her investigation quickly leads her and her sidekick, the ever-curious Mavis into a web of literary egos and secrets that should have stayed between the pages of a bestseller, and not real life.

Egyptologist Harold Barnaby has just made the discovery of the century. While retranslating some old hieroglyphs, he has found clues to the location of a pharaoh's lost tomb. But this discovery leads him to make the ultimate choice: rather than share his find with the rest of the world, Professor Barnaby is determined to locate the tomb and keep whatever treasure he finds inside for himself. But to pull off the greatest heist in the archaeological history, Barnaby will need help. Enter Robert Pierce, a transient freelance writer looking for excitement.

Gemma loves the quiet life of her bookshop, the Bookworm—a haven for book lovers in a quaint town in the heart of Derbyshire. But everything changes when Gemma discovers the body of local author Dominic Westley during the shop’s latest book signing event. When the police rule the death as an accidental overdose, Dominic’s estranged widow points the finger at one of his past lovers. Gemma and her trusty assistant, Mavis, won’t rest until they uncover the truth. Was it an accidental overdose or something more sinister?

For American radiologist Peter Ross, it sounded like the perfect vacation: deliver one study in Spain and then spend the rest of his time on a Mediterranean beach. But he wasn't planning on meeting Angela Locke, a dark-haired beauty with a big problem—she's on the run from two warring gangs, each dead set on finding a mysterious artifact, and they'll kill anyone who stands in their way. It's a desperate fight for survival across the European continent as Peter and Angela race to uncover a centuries-old secret before they become its next victim.

Do you want to write a thriller, murder mystery, romance or screenplay? Because you can....following this simple, understandable and practical writing guide. Discover the secrets to penning best-selling crime, mystery, romance and thriller fiction, from multi-published crime author Nicola Furlong. Youdunit Whodunit is a popular, clear and concise how-to guide to crafting page-turning fiction, offering many simple tricks and techniques to writing suspense-filled murder mystery and thriller novels. These are supported by concrete examples, which you can apply immediately to your first ...

How to Write a Short Mystery Story: A Comprehensive Guide to Intrigue, Characters, and Clues reveals the secrets of compelling storytelling. This comprehensive guide shows aspiring writers how to create captivating short mysteries. Learn the fundamentals of the mystery genre, how to create an intriguing plot, and how to create complex characters. Learn how to plant clues and red herrings, keep the audience guessing, and deliver satisfying reveals. Explore the editing process to improve your narrative, develop your writing style, and successfully navigate the publishing process. Not only ...

Gemma never expected to be invited to a total stranger’s will reading, and she’s even more baffled when she receives a vintage set of encyclopaedias and a letter with strict instructions to read it in private. The letter contains a cryptic code; a long sequence of numbers. Wanting to keep a promise to his late wife, but also unburden his conscience, the deceased man wanted to expose a long-hidden family secret connected to a sixty-year-old unsolved murder. Gemma, the owner of The Bookworm Bookshop and her sharp-witted business partner, Mavis, must solve the code and uncover the truth.

Haunted by loss, graphic designer Julie retreats to an isolated lake cabin, desperate for solitude and escape. But grief doesn't stay quiet, and neither does the past. When Julie glimpses a frightened boy on a nearby dock, everything she thought she understood about her reality begins to fracture. Everyone insists the boy doesn't exist. Her ex-husband thinks she's imagining things. The police are disbelieving. Even Mark, her enigmatic neighbor who seems too eager to help, is unsure. Is she losing her mind, or is someone trying to make her believe she is?

Doing Time: For the prison writers whose work is included in this anthology, it means more than "serving a sentence"; it means staying alive and sane, preserving dignity, reinventing oneself, and somehow retaining one's humanity. For the last quarter century the prestigious writers' organization PEN has sponsored a contest for writers behind bars to help prisoners face these challenges. The contest honors the best short stories, plays, essays, and poems among hundreds submitted annually by men and women nationwide.

Chief orthopedic resident, Dr. Rylan Fraser, knows she’s in for a bad on-call night when she arrives in the trauma bay to find a young father barely holding on after a major motorcycle accident. It’s the eve of Thanksgiving, so staffing is thin, but things slide further downhill when she learns her junior resident is AWOL and the blizzard raging outside has stranded her supervising attending in a roadside ditch.

Clientes borrachos. Mapaches ladrones. Visitantes de otro mundo... Siendo el encargado del turno nocturno en la gasolinera de veinticuatro horas a las orillas del pueblo, Jack prácticamente ya lo ha visto todo. Eso es hasta que su mejor amigo le confiesa que tiene el cuerpo de un político local escondido en la cajuela de su coche, desatando una cadena de eventos con potencial apocalíptico.

Jane Roland and her painter friends are looking forward to a busy, fun-filled holiday season at the town's art center—watercolor exhibits, concerts, and a festive gala. But, when the screams of a child pierce the gaiety at the Halloween reception, Jane discovers a skeleton in the art closet. There's a dark history lurking below the center's charming exterior, and the deeper Jane digs into the secrets of the past, the more she realizes that art can be a deadly obsession.

Olivia is taken from the sidewalk near her college and thrown into a van. Her captors, who she soon discovers are vile, sadistic monsters, abuse her immediately, both mentally and physically. Then she is taken into a house, into a locked room, where everything is cotton candy pink. The pink furniture is designed with rounded edges and corners bolted to the floor, and the seams at the bolts melted. This is where the nightmare begins. She is now a part of their collection.