A new selection of the best short stories - including the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock's film Rear Window - from Cornell Woolrich, one of the twistiest, smartest and most thrilling crime writers of the 20th centuryHere an injured, housebound man believes he might have witnessed a murder and must uncover the plot without leaving his apartment. An accidental killer hides the corpse of his neighbour in a fold-down bed - just as his landlord decides to sta...

To Death! Three stories of suspense and murder, fall guys and frames, and good women and bad.The Fatal Footlights (1950)Match wits with Police-Dick Benson as he tries to trap the brazen murderer who killed golden Gilda before his eyes—on a burlesque runway.Chapter One – Curtains for the CutieChapter Two – Vanishing BottleChapter Three – Brazen KillerChapter Four – An Eye for an EyeChapter Five – The L...

Although “The Drugstore Cowboy” (published in 1927 and unrelateld to the movie of the same name) has some crime elements, including a stolen car and a high-speed police chase, it is primarily a Jazz Age tale. Filmed, it would have made a terrific screwball comedy in the right director’s hands—imagine young actors Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn in the starring roles as you read. If you are a fan of Woolrich's mysteries, this is a worthy addition to his oeuvre, showcases elements he would ...

"REAL NOIR... A GROTESQUELY MEMORABLE RIDE." - WALL STREET JOURNALTWO OF THE GREATEST AUTHORS OF NOIR FICTION IN AN UNFORGETTABLE COLLABORATION.An innocent woman lies dead in the street, felled by a stray bullet. Now it's up to the woman who killed her to investigate the dead woman's life and pick up its cut-short threads, carrying out a mission of vengeance on her behalf against the man she loved and lost – and the nightclub-singing femme ...

'This new series makes available again, in some cases for the first time in nearly a century, the best crime fiction you've never heard of.' A J FinnIn this collection of mysteries, the greatest detectives of the Golden Age investigate the most puzzling crimes of the era.The investigators in these stories are from all walks of life – retired magicians to schoolteachers, Broadway producers to nuns. Whether professional or amateur, these keen...

Fourteen impossible mysteries from the masters of the Golden Age detective story.‘Lock your door and enjoy’ – KirkusLocked-room mysteries have baffled and delighted readers for generations. They present the reader with a seemingly impossible crime – a body found inside a windowless room that’s been locked from the inside, for example – before revealing an ingenious and satisfying solution.This unique collection features fou...

In this collection of Golden Age mysteries, crime strikes in the world of books...'If much of the action is set in a bookshop or a library, it is a bibliomystery, just as it is if a major character is a bookseller or a librarian' – Otto PenzlerOf crime fiction's many sub-genres, none is as intriguing as the ‘bibliomystery’: stories that involve crimes set in the world of books.This volume collects the finest of such stories. From the murder...

What if you woke up to discover everyone thought you were somebody else?Pregnant and abandoned, all Helen Georgesson has is five dollars and a one-way ticket to San Francisco. Then she is involved in a train crash, and regains consciousness only to discover that she has given birth – and, in a bizarre twist of fate, has been mistaken for somebody else. Helen decides to claim this opportunity to make a new life for herself and her son. But eventually her past will c...

He stepped out of the warm sunlight into a dark, empty room; he groped in terror, and his hands met only the constricting black void. And no one would believe what he said—about the little girl who wasn't there

A dark tale of the destructive power of love and obsession from 'The supreme master of suspense' NEW YORK TIMES'The father of the modern suspense story' LA TIMESWhen Louis Durand first meets his bride-to-be after a months-long courtship by mail, he's shocked that she doesn't match the photographs sent with her correspondence. But Durand has not exactly been truthful, either, concealing the details of his wealth. Mostly, he feels fortunate s...

“Bricky”, a hardened ten-cents-a-dance-girl who is disillusioned with life in New York City but is too scared to admit failure and return to her small-town home in Iowa. One night she meets Quinn, a troubled young patron who Bricky lets walk her home. They discover that they both come from the same town and the two quickly bond. He then admits he also secretly longs to return, but can’t until his conscience is clear from some money he stole from the safe of a former client. They make a pac...

Inspector Lively walked slowly and talked slowly—but he thought fast, and that's what pays dividends on a fiend's murder-trail! Originally published in Detective Fiction Weekly (1936).