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1
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Midnight Blue [MultiFormat]
by Ross Macdonald
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Lew Archer was out for a little target practice. Just a deserted old estate in the canyon where Archer could get away from the Hollywood rat race and sharpen his shooting skills down in the meadow. But he found two things there he wasn't expecting. One was a crazy old vagrant that had set up in dilapidated gatehouse. And two was a glittering red object on the ground. It was a red enameled fingernail that just happens to still be attached to its owner. A young blonde who was strangled, buried and... more info>> (Published: 1960)
Words: 10401 - Reading Time: 29-41 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime
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8 Reader Ratings:
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2
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The Imaginary Blonde [MultiFormat]
by Ross Macdonald
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Lew Archer was in a dismal mood when he checked into a sleepy motel. He had just lost the man he was trailing and then got into a crazy highway chase with a Cadillac. Now he just wanted to get some sleep. But his thoughts of sleep ended when a screaming brunette woke him with her screams and a hand covered in blood. It looked like a murder, but where was the victim? And Lew Archer only had one suspect―an imaginary blonde that nobody seems to have seen. (Published: 1953)
Words: 12277 - Reading Time: 35-49 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime/Suspense/Thriller
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11 Reader Ratings:
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3
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The Guilty Ones [MultiFormat]
by Ross Macdonald
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Lew Archer didn't like his client, J. Reginald Harlan, M.A. Of course Archer generally didn't like people whose names started with a single syllable. Harlan hired Lew to find his sister. A respectable school mistress that has run off with a bohemian artist type. But he finds more than what he expected when he has a corpse literally dumped on him! (Published: 1952)
Words: 8846 - Reading Time: 25-35 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime/Suspense/Thriller
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14 Reader Ratings:
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4
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Alone and Afraid [MultiFormat]
by Karen Lewis
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Life hasn't been easy for Shannon Knight, raised by a single mother, money's been tight, but it's about to get a whole lot worse. When her mother uproots them, to be with a boyfriend, then suddenly goes missing, it leaves Shannon facing homelessness in a strange city where she knows no one. Convinced that this man is responsible for her mother's disappearance, Shannon sets out to prove it, with surprising consequences. (Published: 2010)
Words: 10410 - Reading Time: 29-41 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime/Suspense/Thriller
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5
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The Ghost Phone [MultiFormat]
by Johnston McCulley
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Originally published under the pseudonym "Harrington Strong" in DETECTIVE STORY WEEKLY (June 18, 1921 issue), this short mystery novel by the creator of Zorro has never been reprinted. Part of the Wildside Pulp Classics line of rare reprints. (Published: 1921)
Words: 18243 - Reading Time: 52-72 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime/Historical Fiction
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6
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Gangster Moll [MultiFormat]
by Karen Lewis
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Police Officer's Affair with Gangster Moll Jeopardizes Case. The headline blazed from the newspaper lying on Cheryl Richards' front doorstep. When she realizes this is her husband, Brian, they're talking about, she reels and spills her morning coffee. Devastated that her marriage was thrown away for a slut, a gangster moll, who's been passed around by gang members and even done donkey sex shows, Cheryl walks out. But to make matters worse, she must now be isolated in a police safe house, which t... more info>>
Words: 17476 - Reading Time: 49-69 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime/Suspense/Thriller
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7
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Origins [MultiFormat]
by Mike Resnick
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An unpublished cartoonist notices a suspicious connection between his crime stories and his neighbor's behavior ... and reveals the origin of the world's most famous comic strip detective. (Published: 1990)
Words: 3575 - Reading Time: 10-14 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime/Fantasy
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53 Reader Ratings:
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8
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Card Shark [A John Justin Mallory Story] [MultiFormat]
by Mike Resnick
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Mallory and the Prince of Whales receive the same fake Tarot Cards that presage attempts on their lives. (Published: 1998)
Words: 8281 - Reading Time: 23-33 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime/Fantasy
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144 Reader Ratings:
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9
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Dead Blondes Don't Tell [A Rick Knight Hollywood Mystery] [MultiFormat]
by Jack Burns
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Sleuthing with a Sexy, tough-guy Hollywood Private Eye! From From a Shamus and Anthony Award Nominee Mystery Author Writing as Jack Burns! A dead blond leads private eye "Rick Knight into a trail of lust, larceny, and lethal force. When the police can't find who killed blonde Hollywood starlet, Flo Hobbs, Rick Knight is called in. Knight discovers the dead actress was the notorious lover of many Hollywood stars and executives, female and male. Old-fashioned sleuthing leads Knight into danger, bu... more info>>
Words: 22961 - Reading Time: 65-91 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime
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10
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Honorable Enemies [A Jake Masters Mystery] [MultiFormat]
by Mike Resnick
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Detective Jake Masters must enlist the aid of an alien criminal kingpin to solve the murder of his partner. (Published: 2008)
Words: 18040 - Reading Time: 51-72 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime
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21 Reader Ratings:
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11
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A Cry In The Night [MultiFormat]
by Tim Wohlforth
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You walk down a dark wind-swept street in Brooklyn, A sentry, holding a rifle, peers down from the fourth-floor window of an all-too-familiar brownstone. A child's cry rends the air. Your child. You must return to the group and rescue him. Once you enter that door, will they ever let you out again? (Published: 2004)
Words: 5669 - Reading Time: 16-22 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime
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12
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A Painful Day in Pinedale [MultiFormat]
by Guy Belleranti
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A robbery, an assault and a murder makes for quite a crime spree in a small mountain town. Can the sheriff put the peices together? (Published: 2000)
Words: 1640 - Reading Time: 4-6 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime
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10 Reader Ratings:
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13
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A Quiet Place in the Country [MultiFormat]
by Heather Parker
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Jessica enjoys her work as community copper in a small English village - until a young girl is found dead at the bottom of Lowther Crag. As the policewoman starts to investigate, she finds disturbing undercurrents in her quiet community. With the help of the local doctor, she sets out to uncover the girl's dark secrets, but soon finds her own life threatened... (Published: 2009)
Words: 6644 - Reading Time: 18-26 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime/Romance
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14
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As Strange a Maze as E'er Men Trod [MultiFormat]
by David Langford
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What was the real crime committed in Shakespeare's The Tempest, and by whom? Unsatisfied with the happy ending, Gonzalo investigates.... There's a subtle clue in the epigraph quotation, which genuinely comes from Shakespeare's play. (Published: 1998)
Words: 3810 - Reading Time: 10-15 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime/Fantasy
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23 Reader Ratings:
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15
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Favor and the Princess [MultiFormat]
by Ed Gorman
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A middle-aged private detective gets a chance to fulfill his life-long dream when he is hired by the woman he secretly loves ... who suspects her husband of infidelity. (Published: 1998)
Words: 6657 - Reading Time: 19-26 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime
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25 Reader Ratings:
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16
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Fifty Candles [MultiFormat]
by Earl Derr Biggers
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Earl Derr Biggers (1884-1933) is best remembered as the creator of Chinese detective Charlie Chan, whose long-running series of exploits (portrayed in the movies first by Warner Oland and later Sidney Toler) made him a world-famous character from the 1930s to the 1950s. At the height of the series, Charlie Chan was nearly on par with Sherlock Holmes ... and he spawned such Oriental detective imitators as Mr. Moto and Mr. Wong. Biggers had always been interested in mystery fiction, but his intere... more info>> (Published: 2001)
Words: 22950 - Reading Time: 65-91 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime
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29 Reader Ratings:
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17
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Heels Are For Hating and Other Stories [MultiFormat]
by Fletcher Flora
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Jackie Brand is a small-time middleweight boxing professional just barely trying to make ends meet. The week before a fight with one of Jay Paley's boys, he comes home to his wife Peg daydreaming again about her much-coveted motor court out on Highway 66, and guiltily he goes out to have a drink. At the bar, he is met by the competition's manager, and the latter makes a proposal: lose the fight and get paid ten thousand dollars. The amount would actually cover the downpayment for Peg's house, so... more info>>
Words: 23300 - Reading Time: 66-93 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime
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18
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Marion Riles Soft-Boiled Detective Stories [MultiFormat]
by R. D. Larson
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A collection of Short stories.... Marion Riles isn't just a guy with a dame's name; he's a cracker-jack detective. Overweight, constantly dieting for his girlfriend, Marion blunders through social situations but never fails to deliver excitement and action when he solves his cases from the seamy side of town. With a big heart and an even bigger fanny, he discovers the truth the client hired him to find. Even when it hurts the client. Always honest, always crude, Marion is a guy's guy and a woman... more info>> (Published: 2007)
Words: 14014 - Reading Time: 40-56 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime
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19
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Murder @ a Little Bead Shop [Featuring Suzan Aileen Cottrell] [MultiFormat]
by Yvonne Eve Walus
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Suzan Aileen Cottrell loves working in a bead shop. She also loves her other job: breaking into banks (electronically) and being paid by the bank bosses to do it. Her life gets busy when mysterious incidents begin disrupting the comfortable routine in the Little Bead Shop. To add to Susan's load, her daughter's marital life needs cyber rescuing and her own love life is in danger of revival... (Published: 2006)
Words: 6834 - Reading Time: 19-27 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime
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16 Reader Ratings:
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20
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Mysteries [Push #1] [MultiFormat]
by Josh Curry, Bethany Curry
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Anne Roberts is a federal agent with a gift. She can see other peoples memories. When Anne discovers a murder suicide is not what it seems she stumbles onto something far bigger then she ever imagined.
Words: 3541 - Reading Time: 10-14 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime/Science Fiction
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32 Reader Ratings:
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21
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Mysteries [Push #2] [MultiFormat]
by Josh Curry, Bethany Curry
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Anne Roberts is a federal agent with a gift. She can see other peoples memories. Now Anne has stumbled onto three murders committed by someone with a more powerful gift. Now she's got to find the killer before more people die and more innocents get blamed.
Words: 3397 - Reading Time: 9-13 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime/Science Fiction
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22 Reader Ratings:
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22
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Now Die In It [MultiFormat]
by Ed McBain
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Matt Cordell was on his way down. Since he lost his license as a detective for attacking his wife and her lover, his goal is seeking oblivion with a bottle. But P. I. work came to him in spite of himself. His buddy's sister-in-law is pregnant and he wants to know who the daddy is. The case takes on extra emphasis when his buddy's sweet sister-in-law turns up dead. With the help of a nympho, Matt finds out the person he's seeking name is Freddie. Now with only about 100,000 Freddies in NY, Matt C... more info>> (Published: 1953)
Words: 11098 - Reading Time: 31-44 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime/Suspense/Thriller
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23
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Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Amateur Mendicant Society [MultiFormat]
by John Gregory Betancourt
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Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson investigate spies and amateur beggars in this thrilling addition to the Holmes mythos. (Published: 1996)
Words: 6417 - Reading Time: 18-25 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime/Suspense/Thriller
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13 Reader Ratings:
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24
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Skip A Beat [MultiFormat]
by Henry Kane
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One of the great men of the country, Adam Woodward, has just hired Peter Chambers to be his bodyguard. Woodward, a famous newspaper columnist, is about to expose someone as a Communist. But before can start to do his job, Woodward is gunned down in the street. And Chambers is the only witness to the murder. The solution to Woodward's murder was carefully written down--but Woodward had hidden it where Peter Chambers couldn't find it. A Peter Chambers mystery by Noir Master, Henry Kane. (Published: 1954)
Words: 18525 - Reading Time: 52-74 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime/Suspense/Thriller
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25
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The Cellini Chalice [MultiFormat]
by Jim Thompson
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Mitch Allison is a hustler, and a good one at that. So, when he finds a beautiful antique chalice in a rundown neighborhood, he truly thinks that he has hit the big time. What he doesn't plan on is his past to come creeping up behind him. Suddenly, it seems as if everyone is out to get rid of him. But he will do whatever it takes to get hold of that chalice. Will Mitch be the master trickster in the end, or will he get outfoxed at his own game? Join Jim Thompson as he tells a story of murder, my... more info>> (Published: 1988)
Words: 14267 - Reading Time: 40-57 min.
Category: Mystery/Crime
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20 Reader Ratings:
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