Writing Detective Mysteries

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.

You just came up with a great story for a mystery/crime novel, but there's a problem: You don't know how to plant clues in your story. And after hours upon hours of Googling "how to hide clues in a detective novel", your results end up as zilch, zero, nada!

A wickedly plotted new thriller, in which a group of friends play a deadly game that unwraps a motive for murder, from Alex Pavesi, the author of The Eighth Detective Anatol invites five of his oldest friends to his family home in the Wiltshire countryside to celebrate his thirtieth birthday. At...

THE LATEST TOM REYNOLDS MYSTERY FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE PERFECT LIE 'Fiendishly clever' - Irish Sunday Independent Nobody was supposed to get out alive. On a Dublin city street, packed with afternoon shoppers, a young woman appears, naked, traumatised and bearing burn...

In the first major history of crime fiction in 50 years, The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators traces the evolution of the genre from the 18th century to the present, offering brand-new perspective on the world’s most popular form of fiction.

A grumpy author. A fatal book signing. And a witchy amateur sleuth. Magical bookshop owner, Mercy Brew, agrees to host a book signing for a romance writer with more enemies than fans. But when the event takes a murderous turn, Mercy’s dreams of a successful grand reopening crumble like an ancient tome. Now Mercy and her intrepid friends must solve the mystery faster than the killer can write a sequel. And as the plot thickens, the suspects pile up higher than a stack of paperbacks, and a murky chapter in the author’s past is revealed. Amidst swirling rumors and a search for clues, Mercy...

"Beneath a Buried House is a wonderful book, full of twists and turns and surprises." –Crime-Spree Magazine Things aren't always what they seem. Tulsa Police Detective, Kenny Elliot's quest to uncover the truth behind the death of a transient, makes him a target—from whom or what, he isn't sure. When he brushes the dirt from the surface of an apparent John Doe overdose case, he finds a labyrinth of misdirection and deception, and a trail, which leads him to an encounter with an aberration in human nature, the likes of which he's not prepared to deal with. Drawing on his strength of ...

Kids can be so cruel. They'll call you names. Hurt your feelings. Push you to your death. In the garden of an abandoned house, Luke Connolly lies broken, dead. The night before, he and his friends partied inside. Nobody fought, everybody else went home safely. And yet, Luke was raped and pushed...

"Where is my son?" Asher's mother screamed as they loaded her husband's body into the ambulance. Five miles up the trail, Asher was going deeper into the wilderness. His compulsive need for routine, hike to the lake at the same time on the same trail with the same gear, is now amplified by his father's last wish, to find their friend and deliver supplies. In Lincoln, Wyoming, fourteen-year-old Caleb is stunned when the sheriff asks him to urgently bring search dog "Boo" to find Asher. When they find Asher near the lake, the adventure is just beginning.

In this crime drama, detective Varg Veum's adventures take him into the world of privileged teenage girls who have been drawn into drugs and prostitution. The situation worsens when the local judge is found dead in a luxury hotel, clad only in women's lingerie. Called in by anxious parents to look for a missing daughter and explain the judge's death, Varg is led deep into Bergen's criminal underworld.

'A deeply satisfying read' Sunday Times Christmas Day, and DCI Tom Reynolds receives an alarming call. A mass grave has been discovered on Oileán na Caillte, the island which housed the controversial psychiatric institution St. Christina's. The hospital has been closed for decades and onsite...

In 1912, Asim and Chione, a young Egyptian couple, are enthralled by the discovery of the Queen Nefertiti sculpture bust. Asim becomes the official photographer of the excavation, while Chione assists archaeologist Herr Borchardt as a translator. They embark on a journey to Berlin, a city brimming with possibilities. Chione embraces newfound social freedoms and secures a job with a leading ancient artifact importer. Meanwhile, Asim joins an emerging Expressionist art group as an assistant photographer at the prestigious Berlin Museum. In the vibrant atmosphere of Berlin, they unknowingly ...

As Holmesians are aware, the literary works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are referred to as the Canon of the Sacred Writings. The title of this collection of short stories reflects my desire to belong to the extensive list of authors and fans that want to grow the literary and entertainment history of Sherlock Holmes. In the five short stories, listeners will note Holmes' continued mastery of forensic science and logical reasoning as the cornerstones of resolving the thorny issues presented.

The discovery of a dead body is nothing new for Detective Simon Grave, but when the body and the murderer are both invisible, well, that's another matter entirely, even in the futuristic town of Crab Cove. The question is whether he and his human and android team are up for the challenge, which also remains to be seen. Making his job even more difficult is the sudden retirement of Captain Henry Morgan, who taps Grave as acting chief.

On an isolated Scottish island, a secretive community is forced to face the darkness of its past. None but the Dead is the thrilling eleventh book in Lin Anderson's forensic crime series featuring Rhona MacLeod. 'One of the most satisfying characters in modern crime fiction' – Daily Mail...

A brutal murder and the kidnapping of a two-year old boy disrupt the return of Milton PD Detective Steve Marks from his Florida vacation. A homeless man has been savagely murdered behind the Trips Aces Casino and Henry Burnett, the son of the owner of the Burnett Furniture empire, has been kidnapped. Clues in both cases are scarce. As more homeless men become victims of the murderer dubbed The Shadow, and there is nothing pointing to little Henry's return, the pressure on Marks and his young partner, Anders Hedberg, mounts. Milton's mayor wants fast action in both cases while the Burnett ...

Discovering the meaning of the mysterious ancient rock art of Baja has obsessed archaeologist Marcos Andersson for decades. While investigating the macabre death of Davis Pearce on site, Marcos suspects it's connected to the rock art, but before he can prove it, he gets dragged into the spirit world where Davis languishes. He happens to meet psychiatrist-psychic Susan Cohen who guides Marcos to some understanding of the art as they explore more sites, pile up deaths, encounter vengeful spirits, and fall in love.

Misty Sumner, an aspiring writer and librarian, abandons her dream to become a nun. While volunteering to clean up a neglected valley for a church festival, Misty’s dog unearths the bones of a missing woman, sparking a journey of self-discovery. Meet Misty Sumner, a 28-year-old aspiring writer and librarian at St. Mary’s School. She had a dream of becoming a best-selling novelist, but one day, she decided to leave that behind and join the sisters, who raised her. Growing up as an orphan at St. Mary’s, Misty realized that love and belonging were more important than her dream of ...

Zander’s new romantic interest, Aubrey, is kidnapped right in front of him, and he never saw it coming. He needs to engage an old friend or two to help him try to attempt a rescue. Unfortunately, another problem rears its head before he has a chance to make good on his rescue plan. Zander finds out he’s a father. Before he has time to even process that fact, something else hits him right in the gut. His newborn daughter has been kidnapped. Ill-advised decisions from his previous life continue to haunt Zander. When he finally has a chance to find happiness in the mountains of Colorado ...

Cursed by a Native American brave, the Bennet House is one of the most haunted locations in Niagara Falls. This is where Emlyn Goode and all but one member of her writers’ group hunt for ghosts on Halloween. What they find in the house, isn’t a ghost, though. It’s the body of Edward Bennet, the missing group member. A few days earlier, Edward had shown Emlyn a document he’d found in the Bennet House, and told her it would anger people if made public. When Edward is found, the document is missing. Emlyn is certain that document will identify Edward’s killer, but her search for it ...