Showing results by publisher "Wildside Press LLC" in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

These three Vic Powers stories present hard-boiled dysfunctionality at its most intense and brutal best. These are not tales for the easily squeamish, or those who want to spend their hours leisuring in country club-style mystery puzzlers. These are the darkest of excursions into taut, tough, nasty crime and noir excesses, featuring a flawed and violent hero whose life leads him on a one-way ride down into the very depths of his own demonic hell!

es and Watson investigate spies and amateur beggars in this thrilling addition to the Sherlock Holmes mythos, based on one of the unpublished tales mentioned in the original series.

From childhood Peggy had loved her adopted sister, Allison, with a protective warmth that could only have come from a true Leo. When Allison disappears from the family lake cottage, Peggy must call on her last ounce of strength and will to overcome the terror that confronts her at every turn.

When Liza Durant is saved from drowning by Jeffrey Forrest, she little realizes how much this chance meeting will change her life. For Jeffrey is the heir both to a large business, and to the great estate that lies near it, dominated by the old manor house called La Deuxième - “The Second.” Within days he proposes to the beautiful young woman; she neither accepts nor declines, but says that she'll visit him at his country home. But Jeffrey's father is killed, Jeffrey's so-called accidental death soon follows, and Liza finds herself enmeshed in a web of intrigue.

When book dealer "Freddie the Cur" is murdered at a paperback show, Police Lt. Pfisch is forced to close the con. After all, this is the third untimely death of a show attendee in as many days. First there was Lissa Boaz, called the "Boa Constrictor" for her questionable business practices. Then came Brody Richard "The O-Man" Dameen, the drunken horror writer. What links these victims, other than collectible paperbacks? And why does the identification of the real author of an early Ace gothic even matter?

Most of them were rich, most of them were beautiful, and now one of them was dead in an unexpected and particularly nasty way. Oh, and a perfectly maintained, priceless 1928 Duesenberg Phaeton, the royalty of collectible, classic automobiles, had disappeared. Where do you hide a totally recognizable Dusie? Insurance man Hobart Lindsey is back on the case...along with his sometime sparring partner and lover, homicide investigator Marvia Plum, Lindsey's troubled mother, and a cast of unforgettable characters.

Young Christmas Channing returns to Jeff because he tells her that his life's in danger, that he's being poisoned with arsenic by his wife. But when she arrives at Morgan House, she doesn't find what she expects - only David, the strange, secretive brother-in-law; Mary, Jeff's cunning, crafty spouse; and Jeff himself, the handsome but vastly changed young man whom she'd once loved, but does not now understand. Chris is lost, confused, and swept into a powerful undertow of danger, panic, and past love.

Cornelius Mildew is dead, but his drug-trafficking gang lives on! The Hon. Peter Boyle has taken administrative control of the organization, and appears to be as ruthless as his former master. But is Boyle the only member of London high society involved with the crooks? Inspector Cauldron thinks not. When Boyle is poisoned by one of his own gang, Cauldron must push and probe the dying drug lord to give up his backers. Only Billie Wingrove seems to have the inside track on the gang's activities.

Maggie came with her sister Rebecca to Heather House to recover from the drowning deaths of their two husbands. They thought a few months in the country would be wonderful therapy. But the house seems to be haunted by the ghost of its one-time owner, Heather Lambert, who (it is said) waits in the tower room for the return of her errant husband. When Maggie discovers the portrait of Heather hidden in the cellar, the woman from the past seems to come alive for her.

The activities of the infamous drug-running gang founded by Cornelius Mildew may have been hampered in The Mildew Gang, but the king of crime is still alive and well-and still threatening to take his revenge. Scotland Yard whisks the two young people responsible away from London, where they'll presumably be safe-but when they're attacked once again by Mildew's henchmen, they return to the big city to help bring about his downfall.

When the police are asked to investigate the brutal murder of bookseller Brian MacDonald, who's been stabbed in the back with his letter opener, they have no trouble locating suspects, because MacDonald has been less than honest in his dealings. But Detective Bentley Hollow has problems of his own: his wife has left him, and he detests his new partner. Still, he has to find a solution to the crime, and when he does, his life will be irrevocably changed. The first in a new series.

When Payne Gunnison inherits his great-aunt's house, he discovers that the entire structure has been wired for video and sound - both to record and to play - and that "The Greer" (as the locals called the elderly recluse) had accumulated a superb library of tapes and DVDs - including some filled with scenes of extreme sex and violence. Payne quickly befriends his next-door neighbor and tenant, Nick, who becomes concerned when his new buddy becomes obsessed with the video technology. Something strange inhabits this old house - something bizarre and totally evil.