Ellery Queen

Otto Penzler

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Ohio

An Ellery Queen Mystery

Ellery Queen investigates a series of bizarre murders that lead to a mysterious religious cult “Crucifixion on Christmas Day.” That’s what the newspapers report when a small-town schoolteacher is discovered dead, beheaded, and tied to a T-shaped cross on December 25th. It’s a murder bizarre enough to pique Ellery Queen’s interest — and intriguing enough to lure him to the West Virginia village where it occurred to take a closer look. But when he arrives, Queen is met with too few clues and too little evidence to produce a satisfactory verdict, even for a master sleuth such as himself, and so returns home to New York defeated. The yuletide gore is a distant memory when the next such murder occurs, identical in every way, but now the location has moved to Long Island. When Ellery Queen learns that the sun-worshipping nudist cult he encountered down south has made the same relocation, it becomes clear that the group and the killings must be intertwined. But then several more crucifixion murders follow, drawing Queen deeper into a tangled and eerie puzzle unlike anything he’s encountered before. It will take all of his powers of deduction to uncover the killer. Reissued for the first time in decades, The Egyptian Cross Mystery is a “fair play” puzzle in which the readers have all the clues necessary to solve the mystery themselves. It is the fifth of Ellery Queen’s cases, which may be enjoyed in any order.

The Egyptian Cross Mystery

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Comprehensive compendium of classic cannibals. Sorry, don’t know why I made that alliterative. Anyways if you like zombies and zombie stuff we got everything you need. *slaps hood of book* Poe and Lovecraft and King and Ellison…among some other schmucks fascinated by people eating people. Check it out!

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

Maryland

Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! is the darkest, the living-deadliest, scariest--and dare we say most tasteful--collection of zombie stories ever assembled. It’s so good, it's a no-brainer. There is never a dull moment in the world of zombies. They are superstars of horror and they are everywhere, storming the world of print and visual media. Their endless march will never be stopped. It's the Zombie Zeitgeist! Now, with his wide sweep of knowledge and keen eye for great storytelling, Otto Penzler offers a remarkable catalog of zombie literature. Including unstoppable tales from world-renowned authors like Stephen King, Joe R. Lansdale, Robert McCammon, Robert E. Howard, and Richard Matheson to the writer who started it all, W.B. Seabrook, Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! will delight and devour horror fans from coast to coast. Featuring: • Deadly bites • Satanic Pigeons • A parade of corpses • Zombies, zombies, and more zombies

Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!

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Sally Cline

New Hampshire

Man of Mystery

"Delivers the goods on Hammett, in brief. . . . An entertaining and informative read.” —Library Journal Dashiell Hammett: Man of Mystery is the first new biography in thirty years on the man who changed the face of crime fiction. In five novels published over five years as well as a string of stories, he transformed the mystery genre into literature and invented the modern crime novel. He created the figure of the hard-boiled detective, from the Continental Op to Sam Spade—immortalized on film by Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon—and the more glamorous Thin Man, also made iconic with the aid of Hollywood. A brilliant writer, Hammett was a complex and enigmatic man. He identified with his tough protagonists, but tuberculosis compromised his masculine identity and alcoholism may have been his answer. A former Pinkerton detective who valued honesty, he was attracted to women who lied outrageously, most notably Lillian Hellman, with whom he conducted a thirty-year affair. A controversial political activist who stood up for civil liberty, he was also a very private man. In this compact biography, Sally Cline uses fresh research, including interviews with Hammett’s family and Hellman’s heir, to reexamine the life and works of the writer whom Raymond Chandler called “the ace performer.” Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Dashiell Hammett

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Very good condition ex library copy.

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Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Indiana

"Including stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Laurie R. King, Colin Dexter, Anthony Burgess, Anne Perry, Stephen King, P.G Wodehouse, Neil Gaiman, Kingsley Amis, and many, many more"--Jacket.

The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories

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Mary Roberts Rinehart

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Marcia Lloyd and her brother Arthur have spent every summer of their lives exploring the grand halls and seaside grounds of their family's idyllic vacation home, a gorgeous old mansion called Sunset House built by their grandfather. But when Arthur's ex-wife Juliette arrives at Sunset to demand alimony from him, things take a dark turn and Juliette disappears-her body found a week later. What sordid secrets lie within the creaky old manor? Marcia and the local sheriff Russell Shand must work against the clock to find the murderer in this seemingly utopian upper-class hamlet.

From "the American Agatha Christie" Mary Roberts Rinehart comes a Golden Age murder mystery inspired by her own hauntingly beautiful coastal northeastern home in Bar Harbor; The Wall is both a love letter to quiet waterfront towns as well as a subtle indictment of a wealthy Old New York family attempting to preserve a bourgeois veneer in the shadow of the Great Depression. But beneath all that lies a timeless tale of a family whose conflicts and passions, long masked by efforts toward respectability, finally rise to the surface with violent results.

Originally serialized in The Saturday Evening Post and published in 1938, this classic small-town cozy was among Rinehart's most popular titles in her day; reprinted for the first time in over twenty years, its atmospheric setting and memorable characters continue to distinguish it to this day.

Includes discussion guide questions for use in book clubs.

The Wall

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John Dickson Carr

Virginia

A Sir Henry Merrivale Mystery

When a spiritual medium is murdered in a locked hut on a haunted estate, Sir Henry Merrivale seeks a logical solution to a ghostly crime Plague Court is old and crumbling, long neglected after its lord, hangman’s assistant Louis Playge, fell victim to the black death hundreds of years before. Famously haunted by Playge’s ghost, the property finally has a new owner and banishing the spirit is the first order of business. And when the medium employed with this task is found stabbed to death in a locked stone hut on the grounds, surrounded by an untouched circle of mud, the other guests at Plague Court have every reason to fear an act of supernatural violence—for who among them would be diabolical and calculating enough to orchestrate such an impossible execution? Enter Sir Henry Merrivale, an amateur sleuth of many talents with deductive powers strong enough to unspool even the most baffling crimes. But in the creepy, atmospheric setting of Plague Court, where every indication suggests intervention from the afterlife, he encounters a seemingly-illogical murder scene unlike anything he’s ever encountered before... Reissued for the first time in thirty years, The Plague Court Murders is the first novel in the Sir Henry Merrivale series. Originally published under the name Carter Dickson, it is a masterful example of the “impossible crime” novel for which John Dickson Carr is known.

The Plague Court Murders

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Maine

Each year, for the past seventeen years, Mysterious Bookshop proprietor Otto Penzler has commissioned an original Christmas story by a leading suspense writer. These stories were then produced as pamphlets, just 1,000 copies, and given to customers of the bookstore as a Christmas present. Now, all seventeen tales have been collected in one volume, showcasing the talents of:

 * Charles Ardai
 * Lisa Atkinson
 * George Baxt
 * Lawrence Block
 * Mary Higgins Clark
 * Thomas H. Cook
 * Ron Goulart
 * Jeremiah Healy
 * Edward D. Hoch
 * Rupert Holmes
 * Andrew Klavan
 * Michael Malone
 * Ed McBain
 * Anne Perry
 * S. J. Rozan
 * Jonathan Santlofer
 * Donald E. Westlake

Some of these stories are humorous, others suspenseful, and still others are tales of pure detection, but all of them together make up a charming collection and a perfect Christmas gift for all ages.



Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop

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New York

A topsy-turvy crime scene sends a detective on a puzzling quest for the truth. The offices of foreign literature publisher and renowned stamp collector Donald Kirk are often host to strange activities, but the most recent occurrence­—the murder of an unknown caller, found dead in an empty waiting room—is unlike any that has come before. Nobody, it seems, entered or exited the room, and yet the crime scene clearly has been manipulated, leaving everything in the room turned backwards and upside down. Stuck through the back of the corpse’s shirt are two long spears—and a tangerine is missing from the fruit bowl. Enter amateur sleuth Ellery Queen, who arrives just in time to witness the discovery of the body, only to be immediately drawn into a complex case in which no clue is too minor or too glaring to warrant careful consideration. Reprinted for the first time in over thirty years, The Chinese Orange Mystery is revered to this day for its challenging conceit and inventive solution. The book is a “fair-play” mystery in which readers have all the clues needed to solve the crime. In 1981, the novel was selected as one of the top ten locked room mysteries of all time by a panel of mystery-world luminaries that included Julian Symons, Edward D. Hoch, Howard Haycraft, and Otto Penzler.

The Chinese Orange Mystery

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Here, Otto Penzler collects eighty-three wonderful stories about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, published over a span of more than a hundred years.

The Most Daring, Dangerous, and Death-Defying Collection of Adventure Tales Ever Captured in One Mammoth Volume

A collection of adventure stories set in exotic locales throughout the world includes stories by such leading authors as Jack London, Rudyard Kipling, and H. G. Wells.

The Big Book of Adventure Stories

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New Jersey

A professor tries to stop a murder spree, uncertain whether the culprit is man or ghost.

An all-around skeptic when it comes to the supernatural, literature professor William Porter gives no credence to claims that Twin Towers, the seaside manor he's just inherited, might be haunted. He finds nothing mysterious about the conditions in which his Uncle Horace died, leaving the property behind; it was a simple case of cardiac arrest, nothing more. So, though his wife, more attuned to spiritual disturbance, refuses to occupy the main house, Porter convinces her to spend a summer at the estate and stay in the lodge elsewhere on the grounds. But not long after they arrive, Porter sees the evidence of haunting that the townspeople speak of: a shadowy figure illuminated by the red light of Horace's writing lamp, the very light that shone on the scene of his death. And though he isn't convinced that it is a spirit and not a man, Porter knows that, whichever it is, the figure is responsible for the rash of murders first of sheep, then of people that breaks out across the countryside. Somehow, though, the suspect eludes him every time and, in his pursuit, Porter risks implicating himself in the very crimes he hopes to solve.

Written with atmospheric prose and tension that rises with every page, The Red Lamp is a hybrid of murder mystery and gothic romance that shows the "American Agatha Christie" at the height of her powers.

A professor tries to stop a murder spree, uncertain whether the culprit is man or ghost.
 
An all-around skeptic when it comes to the supernatural, literature professor William Porter gives no credence to claims that Twin Towers, the seaside manor he's just inherited, might be haunted. He finds nothing mysterious about the conditions in which his Uncle Horace died, leaving the property behind; it was a simple case of cardiac arrest, nothing more. So, though his wife, more attuned to spiritual disturbance, refuses to occupy the main house, Porter convinces her to spend a summer at the estate and stay in the lodge elsewhere on the grounds. But not long after they arrive, Porter sees the evidence of haunting that the townspeople speak of: a shadowy figure illuminated by the red light of Horace's writing lamp, the very light that shone on the scene of his death. And though he isn't convinced that it is a spirit and not a man, Porter knows that, whichever it is, the figure is responsible for the rash of murders first of sheep, then of people that breaks out across the countryside. Somehow, though, the suspect eludes him every time and, in his pursuit, Porter risks implicating himself in the very crimes he hopes to solve.
 
Written with atmospheric prose and tension that rises with every page, The Red Lamp is a hybrid of murder mystery and gothic romance that shows the "American Agatha Christie" at the height of her powers.

The Red Lamp

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California

Sara Paretsky selects the twenty best mystery short stories of the year, including tales by Michael Connelly, Jo Nesbo, Joyce Carol Oates, Colson Whitehead, and more!


Under the auspices of New York City's legendary mystery fiction specialty bookstore, The Mysterious Bookshop, and aided by Edgar Award-winning anthologist Otto Penzler, international bestseller and MWA Grandmaster Sara Paretsky has selected the twenty most puzzling, most thrilling, and most mysterious short stories from the past year, collected now in one entertaining volume.

Includes stories by:

 * Doug Allyn
 * Colin Barrett
 * Jerome Charyn
 * Michael Connelly
 * Susan Frith
 * Tom Larsen
 * Sean Marciniak
 * Stefon Mears
 * Kieth Lee Morris
 * Gwen Mullins
 * Jo Nesbo
 * Joyce Carol Oates
 * Annie Reed
 * Kristen Kathryn Rusch
 * Anna Scotti
 * Ginny Swart
 * Ellen Tremiti
 * Joseph S. Walker
 * Colson Whitehead
 * Michael Wiley

Plus a bonus vintage story from the annals of mystery fiction, written over a century in the past.

The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2022

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Erle Stanley Gardner

In one of Perry Mason’s most memorable cases ever, the character who inspired the HBO limited series risks his freedom to prove the innocence of an unidentified client. The bait is half of a $10,000 bill, delivered to Perry Mason by a man who promises the second half of the note should his companion, a silent masked woman, ever require the lawyer’s services. When a dead body is discovered soon after, Mason feels the hook—but how can one prove the innocence of a person whose identity is unknown? Suspecting that he’s been set-up, but curious nonetheless, Perry sets out to solve the mystery from the ground up, beginning with the face behind the veil. The more he learns, the more complex his investigation becomes. Uncovering a convoluted case of stock fraud, divorce, and inheritance, Mason’s nearly left reeling—that is until, with the help of Della Street and Paul Drake, he pulls off one of his most daring gambits ever to finally cast light on the killer. Filled with memorable characters, a multitude of motives, and just a few red herrings, The Case of the Baited Hook is classic Perry Mason, showcasing the character’s brilliance and pizazz with a plot that pushes his powers into overdrive. As puzzling as it is entertaining, the book exemplifies the style that made Erle Stanley Gardner one of the most popular authors of the twentieth century. “Millions of Americans never seem to tire of Gardner’s thrillers.” —The New York Times DON’T MISS THE NEW HBO ORIGINAL SERIES PERRY MASON, BASED ON CHARACTERS FROM ERLE STANLEY GARDNER’S NOVELS, STARRING EMMY AWARD WINNER MATTHEW RHYS

The Case of the Baited Hook

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Ed McBain

In its brief existence, THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES has established itself as a peerless suspense anthology. Compiled by the best-selling mystery novelist Ed McBain, this year's edition boasts nineteen outstanding tales by such masters as John Updike, Lawrence Block, Jeffery Deaver, and Joyce Carol Oates as well as stories by rising stars such as Edgar Award winners Tom Franklin and Thomas H. Cook. The 1999 volume is a spectacular showcase for the high quality and broad diversity of the year's finest suspense, crime, and mystery writing. "Keller's Last Refuge" by Lawrence Block, "Safe" by Gary A. Braunbeck, "Fatherhood" by Thomas H. Cook, "Wrong Time, Wrong Place" by Jeffery Deaver, "Netmail" by Brendan DuBois, "Redneck" by Loren D. Estleman, "And Maybe the Horse Will Learn to Sing" by Gregory Fallis, "Poachers" by Tom Franklin, "Hitting Rufus" by Victor Gischler, "Out There in the Darkness" by Ed Gorman, "Survival" by Joseph Hansen, "A Death on the Ho Chi Minh Trail" by David K. Harford, "An Innocent Bystander" by Gary Krist, "The Jailhouse Lawyer" by Phillip M. Margolin, "Secret, Silent" by Joyce Carol Oates, "In Flanders Fields" by Peter Robinson, "Dry Whiskey" by David B. Silva, "Sacrifice" by L. L. Thrasher, "Bech Noir" by John Updike

The Best American Mystery Stories 1999

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Oklahoma

Presents a collection of mystery stories selected from magazines in the United States and Canada

The Best American Mystery Stories 1998

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Phoebe Atwood Taylor

Minnesota

An Asey Mayo Mystery

Asey Mayo, the "Codfish Sherlock Holmes," investigates the murder of a traveling performer.

The Mystery of the Cape Cod Players

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18b29e10-bad2-4430-b733-4b3ba91c01b6-0

Washington

The Vampire Archives, Volume 2

Presents an anthology of twenty works about vampires, including contributions by H.P. Lovecraft, Anne Rice, Richard Laymon, and Clive Barker.

Fangs

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Small amount of scuffing on bottom right corner of spine, otherwise in New condition. See photos for details. 

C. J. Box

Alabama

A collection of the year's best mystery short fiction selected by New York Times best-selling and Edgar Award-winning author C. J. Box.

C. J. Box , #1 New York Times best-selling author of the hugely popular Joe Pickett series, selects the best short mystery and crime fiction of the year in this annual "treat for crime-fiction fans" (Library Journal).
 

The Best American Mystery Stories 2020

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Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Connecticut

Thirteen festive crime stories set in New York City's beloved mystery bookstore

Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop

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The Best American Mystery Stories 2009

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Michigan

The Best American Series®
First, Best, and Best-Selling

The Best American series is the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. Each volume's series editor selects notable works from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind.

The Best American Mystery Stories 2012 includes

Peter S. Beagle, Kathleen Ford, Mary Gaitskill, Lou Manfredo, Thomas McGuane,
Gina Paoli, T. Jefferson Parker, Kristine Kathryn Rusch,
Charles Todd, Daniel Woodrell, and others


The Best American Mystery Stories 2012

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Rebecca Stout Bradbury

Robert Goldsborough

Marvin Kaye

Lawrence Block

Loren D. Estleman

John Lescroart

Robert Lopresti

Dave Zeltserman

Thomas Narcejac

Marion Mainwaring

Jon L. Breen

O. X. Rusett

Frank Littler

Patrick Butler

Mack Reynolds

Michael Bracken

William Brittain

Joseph Goodrich

Parodies and Pastiches Featuring the Great Detective of West 35th Street

Stories that pay tribute to Rex Stout's legendary private detective by Lawrence Block, Loren D. Estleman, John Lescroart, Robert Goldsborough, and more. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin have been widely flattered almost from the moment Rex Stout first wrote about them in 1934. The Misadventures of Nero Wolfe collects two dozen literary tributes to one of crime fiction's best-loved private detectives and his Man Friday. Included are: A 1947 pastiche by award-winning crime writer Thomas Narcejac Rollicking new stories written especially for this collection by Michael Bracken and Robert Lopresti Stories by bestselling authors including Lawrence Block and Loren D. Estleman Chapters from Robert Goldsborough's authorized continuation of the Wolfe series; Marion Mainwaring's 1955 tour de force Murder in Pastiche; and John Lescroart's Rasputin's Revenge, which reimagines a young Wolfe as the son of Sherlock Holmes Also featuring a reminiscence from Rex Stout's daughter, this is a treasury of witty and suspenseful crime writing for every fan of the portly private detective.

The Misadventures of Nero Wolfe

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Ellery Queen; Otto Penzler

The Egyptian Cross Mystery

Otto Penzler

Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!

Sally Cline; Otto Penzler

Dashiell Hammett

Otto Penzler

The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories

Mary Roberts Rinehart; Otto Penzler

The Wall

John Dickson Carr; Otto Penzler

The Plague Court Murders

Otto Penzler

Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop

Ellery Queen; Otto Penzler

The Chinese Orange Mystery

Otto Penzler

The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories

Otto Penzler

The Big Book of Adventure Stories

Mary Roberts Rinehart; Otto Penzler; Mary Roberts Rinehart

The Red Lamp

Otto Penzler

The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2022

Erle Stanley Gardner; Otto Penzler

The Case of the Baited Hook

Ed McBain; Otto Penzler

The Best American Mystery Stories 1999

Otto Penzler; Otto Penzler

The Best American Mystery Stories 1998

Phoebe Atwood Taylor; Otto Penzler

The Mystery of the Cape Cod Players

Otto Penzler; Otto Penzler

The Best American Mystery Stories 1998

Otto Penzler

Fangs

John Dickson Carr; Otto Penzler

The Plague Court Murders

C. J. Box; Otto Penzler

The Best American Mystery Stories 2020

Otto Penzler

Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop

Otto Penzler; Otto Penzler

The Best American Mystery Stories 2009

Otto Penzler; Otto Penzler

The Best American Mystery Stories 2012

The Misadventures of Nero Wolfe