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Thirteen stories of outrageous heists starring one smooth thief from the Edgar Award–winning author of The Shattered Raven. The dictator of the island of Jabali wants a baseball team, and he doesn’t care how he gets it. He has assembled nine of the finest players on the island, and is about to hire Nick Velvet to steal him some competition. Ordinary thieves might not be up to pinching a whole ball club, but Velvet specializes in lifting seemingly worthless items, and in this year’s National League, there is nothing more worthless than the hapless Beavers. He steals them easily—but will the island’s ruler be satisfied with a last-place team? In these charming stories starring one of Edward D. Hoch’s most popular characters, everything is up for grabs. Velvet steals sea serpents, garbage, cats, and toy mice—all with his trademark low-key style. In Nick Velvet’s underworld, there is nothing he won’t steal, so long as it’s priceless, worthless, or just plain crazy.
This collection is set in New England during the 1920's and the 1930's, and features country doctor Sam Hawthorne who specializes in locked room and other impossible crimes. Among the 12 stories is the classic tale of a horse and buggy that enter a covered bridge -- and vanish. Introduction by the author; Sam Hawthorne chronology and bibliography by Marvin Lachman.
A dozen marvelous tales of deduction, featuring history’s most famous detective, by Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Edward D. Hoch. In a heavily mortgaged country house, an heiress’s sinister guardian attempts to trap her in a bedroom with a rare Indian swamp adder—a murder averted only by the timely intervention of Sherlock Holmes. Five months after the events of “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” Holmes and Watson are called back to Stoke Moran by a frightened traveler who claims that the viper has gotten loose again. Holmes is unsure which poses a greater danger: the rumored snake, or the possibility that the nomad is telling lies. In these dozen tales, short story master Edward D. Hoch resurrects the most brilliant mind in the history of detective fiction. In the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Holmes tangles with circus tigers, Druidic curses, and a pair of Christmas killings. Here is the finest detective of the Victorian age—recreated by one of the greatest mystery writers of the twentieth century.
DIVDIVAn incredible assortment of stories from one of history’s masters of short fiction/divDIV On the morning of the merger, fog shrouds the offices of Jupiter Steel. On the twenty-first floor, the board of directors gathers to follow the commands of Billy Calm, an unequaled titan of finance. But a few minutes before the meeting, Calm jumps out a window. The chief of security rushes to the street, but where there should be a body, he sees only slush; Billy Calm has vanished into the fog./divDIV “The Long Way Down” is a classic Edward D. Hoch story—elegantly baffling, with prose that will please even the most hard-boiled fans. But this collection contains much more than puzzles. Here are the odds and ends of Hoch’s early work, covering espionage, boxing, and every shade of noir—as beautiful as the fog, and as chilling as the first step off the ledge. /divDIV/div/div
Edward D. Hoch was and is the undisputed master of the mystery short story. His total output of published short fiction hovers just under 1,000 stories (estimates are in the neighborhood of 960 stories). Hoch (pronounced "Hoke") is best remembered for his fair-play and impossible crime short stories, particularly the series featuring Dr. Sam Hawthorne, a small-town physician who unraveled seemingly impossible "problems" in 1920s New England. His other popular series characters included British Intelligence codebreaker Jeffrey Rand and thief-for-hire Nick Velvet. While a vast majority of Ed Hoch's stories were mysteries, he enjoyed horror and science fiction. Of his nine-hundred-plus output, ...
Leopold in these 24stories is the head of homicide, later to become the department of violent crimes. Because he is given to interior musing, we learn the workings of the mind of a thoughtful detective. Showing Leopold's mind, Hoch develops nuances of character rare in mystery stories. "The House by the Ferris" poses a typical Hoch problem. Ancient crone Stella Gaze predicts that four men will die--by earth, air, fire, and water. Leopold is called in when one man drowns, is called again when another burns. The crimes seem to have been concocted by a witch.
Dr. Sam Hawthorne, a New England country doctor in the first half of the twentieth century, was constantly faced by murders in locked rooms and impossible disappearances. Nothing Is Impossible contains fifteen of Dr. Sam's most extraordinary cases solved between 1932 and 1936.
Northmont, Connecticut, seemed to be haunted by ghosts, ghouls, and impossibilities, until Dr. Sam Hawthorne explained the seemingly impossible. All But Impossible contains fifteen of Dr. Sam's most extraordinary cases solved between 1936 and 1940, including A newly murdered corpse in a sealed tomb in a cemetery A body in a scarecrow A jug that turns water into wine -- poisoned wine A disappearance from a swimming pool A baby who becomes a child's doll on the way to being baptized An unfound door A room that appears and vanishes And eight other ingenious problems for Dr. Sam
The Annual Crime Writers' Association anthology is always a thrilling read, and eagerly anticipated by readers and authors of crime and mystery fiction worldwide. Music of the Night is a new anthology of original short stories contributed by Crime Writers' Association (CWA) members and edited by Martin Edwards, with music as the connecting theme. The aim, as always, is to produce a book which is representative both of the genre and the membership of the world’s premier crime writing association. The CWA has published anthologies of members’ stories in most years since 1956, with Martin Edwards as editor for over 25 years, during which time the anthologies have yielded many award-winning ...