Head of Zeus

The stylish tale of a dead poet, a rediscovered pulp novel, and a lovely lady with a story to sell from the author of the Charles Resnick Mysteries.Ex–Metropolitan Police Officer Jack Kiley spent his career discerning fact from fiction. Now a private detective, Kiley has agreed to investigate the provenance of a newly discovered manuscript. Lost for decades, Dead Dames Don’t Sing is typical pulp fodder: “Hard, fast, and deadly,” according to Daniel Pike, the rare book dealer who hires Kiley. What makes it unusual—and potentially valuable—is that the novel appears to have been written by the late poet William Pierce before he made a name for himself. Pierce’s bewitching socialite-cum-model daughter, Alexandra, insists that it’s genuine, but Kiley isn’t so sure. Something doesn’t feel right, but the deeper he digs, the more he wonders if poetry and pulp really are such strange bedfellows.Hailed as “one of our most accomplished writers” by The Daily Telegraph, John Harvey brings swinging London—both past and present—to life in this gripping novella.The Bibliomysteries are a series of short tales about deadly books, by top mystery authors.

When a bibliophile is murdered, it takes a bookseller to solve the crime. Good Advice, New Mexico, is a sunny town with a gloomy bookshop. The store's eerie corridors are the province of Avery Sharecross, an ex-cop who has made the transition from chasing killers to tracking rare books. One afternoon, the local sheriff interrupts his book club meeting, and Sharecross's old career collides with his new one.The area's premier book collector has been found bludgeoned to death on the floor of his family library. A fifth-generation resident of Good Advice, Lloyd Fister devoted his life to books, accumulating a collection of local history that date backs to the sixteenth century. In his library, a single volume is missing: a Spanish book with a sinister past. Is the missing volume a clue, a motive, or a murder weapon? It will take a collector's eye to decide.

A rare book collector finds a manuscript that might have changed the course of WWI.On the evening of November 11th, 1968, antiquarian book collector Francis Altman is giving a talk in honor of the anniversary of the Armistice Treaty. But his lecture takes a dark turn upon the haunting arrival of a classmate from his past. As the two men discuss their lives they realise that they are two sides of the same coin: both born and raised in Germany, but whereas Altman's role in the war elevated his position, his comrade's life was destroyed on the faceless, mechanized battlefields. This strange encounter leaves Altman in possession of the man's personal manuscript, his mysterious 'life's work,' whose contents could have changed the course of history…

No case is too strange or too baffling for the policeman George Felse and his son, Dominic. Over 13 instalments and two decades, the Felse Investigations will take them from their home on the Welsh Borders to the southernmost tip of India.
Annet Beck is hauntingly beautiful, which worries her parents so much that they guard her as closely as a prisoner… until the rainy Thursday in October when she disappears. Annet is last seen vanishing over the crest of the eerie Hallowmount, a hill said to be the abode of witches. Five days later she mysteriously reappears, claiming that she was gone for only two hours.
Enchanted by her beauty, Annet's parents' lodger Tom Kenyon is determined to find the explanation for her disappearance: could it be deceit, amnesia or witchcraft? Tom's amateur investigations lead to nowhere until Detective Inspector George Felse finds cause to connect those missing five days with his enquiry into a death. The subsequent search takes the two men along a trail of betrayal, robbery and murder to a deadly confrontation among the ancient stones of Hallowmount…

No case is too strange or too baffling for the policeman George Felse and his son, Dominic. Over 13 instalments and two decades, the Felse Investigations will take them from their home on the Welsh Borders to the southernmost tip of India.
It is 1952, the shadow of World War Two still lies over the green fields of the small village of Comerford on the Welsh borders. When ex-prisoner of war Helmut Schauffler is murdered, local policeman Sergeant George Felse has his work cut out: Schauffler was Nazi to the core and the majority of the villagers had good reason to despise him.
Sergeant Felse's fourteen-year-old son Dominic — who found Schauffler's body in a shallow brook — is fascinated by the case. Much to his father's disapproval, he resolves to find the murderer — a decision that places his own life in great danger…

It's no mystery who killed Robert Ripple, owner of Precious Finds Bookstore in Pokesville, Pennsylvania. It was Agatha Christie — or rather, a large carton of valuable Christie hardcovers that the not-so-young Ripple was attempting to lift when his heart gave out. The real question is why the so-called Friends of England, who meet regularly in the back room of Ripple's literary emporium, are so eager to keep the place open after its proprietor's death. Certainly it must have something to do with the Friends' past lives as the associates of a slain New York mobster. Whatever their plan is, they'll need the help of Tanya Tripp, Ripple's recently hired and completely unsuspecting assistant, if they want to pull it off. But despite her trustworthy appearance, Tanya may well be hatching a scheme of her own.
A DEATH SENTENCE STORY: original shorts about deadly books from the world's best crime writers.

A new Mike Hammer story from the archives of Mickey Spillane. On the death of crime boss Don Giraldi, a rumour begins to spread about the existence of a very dangerous book. A ledger that lists every deal made during his career. The rumored is that the book is in the possession of person he trusted most. But who can a crime boss trust? Hired by the local police to find the ledger, Mike Hammer soon finds himself in the firing line of everyone from the cops, the local politicians, and the crime syndicates themselves…

A long-lost bookmobile opens a wild new chapter in the lives of dysfunctional Texas detectives Hap and Leonard—stars of the hit Sundance TV series. Hap Collins is a straight, white, liberal, blue-collar tough guy. Leonard Pine is a gay, black, Republican combat veteran. Together, they’re the truest Lone Stars living in America’s most independently minded state. Best friends who’ve shared a succession of low-wage odd jobs that have gotten them into even odder situations dealing with lowlifes, now the duo delivers their own brand of ass-kicking justice as private investigators.In this brand-new story, a day’s fishing lands Hap and Leonard their biggest catch ever: the Rolling Literature bookmobile. A pillar of rural African American communities in East Texas, the renovated school bus vanished fifteen years ago—along with its driver, Harriet Hoodalay, aka Hoodoo Harry—reappearing just in time to crash Leonard’s pickup into a creek. Behind the wheel was a twelve-year-old boy who didn’t survive the accident.The kid was clearly running scared, but who was he running from and how did he end up in the driver’s seat of the missing bookmobile? The first solid lead in a case that started more than a decade earlier with Hoodoo Harry, this mystery of a small town’s dark and disturbing past will take all of Hap and Leonard’s wits—and fists—to solve.Known for his “zest for storytelling and a gimlet eye for detail,” multiple award–winning author Joe R. Lansdale brings his rapid-fire dialogue, no-holds-barred action, and gut-busting humor to this original Hap and Leonard novella (Entertainment Weekly).The Bibliomysteries are a series of short tales about deadly books, by top mystery authors.

A man obsessed with Dracula pursues a legendary lost edition of the classic vampire book in this chilling story from the author of the Bryan and May Mysteries.Carter, one of the world’s leading experts on Dracula, owns many editions of Bram Stoker’s novel, maybe even as many as his well-heeled rival, Mikaela Klove. But one thing has always eluded him: the chance to examine the possibly apocryphal blue edition of Stoker’s seminal vampire tale. If it actually exists, the elusive edition is rumored to contain a different ending and a never-before-published chapter tantalizingly set in Dracula’s personal library. Determined to read it for himself, Carter travels to Transylvania, where the rumored treasure might be hidden. But once there, he’ll need to work with his nemesis to solve the mysterious puzzle—or risk an endgame neither he nor Mikaela can afford to lose.Drawing on his renowned flair for the outré, Christopher Fowler—an author “in the first rank of contemporary mystery writers”— reimagines Stoker’s lost chapter and intersperses it with an unforgettable journey through Transylvania. Reconciliation Day is a delightfully suspenseful novella perfect for fans of the Peculiar Crimes Unit novels (Publishers Weekly).The Bibliomysteries are a series of short tales about deadly books, by top mystery authors.

Attempting the perfect murder, a killer encounters the perfect cop. After years of get-rich-quick schemes, Troy Pellingham's bank account is empty and his options are down to one: take a job in his uncle's rare book shop, and spend his days working for an unpleasant man whose only redeeming quality is a mammoth bank account. Though well into his eighties, Uncle Rodney is the picture of good health, and the day when Troy will inherit the old man's money seems very far away. But then Troy gets a brilliant idea — why shelve books for a living, when he can kill for a fortune?After the deed is done, a peculiarly shabby police detective comes to call. Lieutenant Columbo seems dimwitted, and Troy expects he will have no trouble putting him off the scent. But as the noose tightens around his neck, Troy realizes that no murder is too perfect for Columbo.

All book lovers dream of stumbling upon a long-lost treasure in the attic or inheriting a fortune from a distant relative. For Ellen Gallagher, the impoverished owner of a thrift store in South Carolina, the dream comes true when she finds in her possession a first edition of Agatha Christie's Poirot Investigates that has been signed by the author – and inscribed to the Queen of England. When this extraordinary book mysteriously disappears from her shop, Ellen calls on her friend Annie Darling, owner of the Death on Demand mystery bookstore, to track down the stolen volume. But Annie's persual of the book leads her to grave danger as in order to recover her friend's prized possession, she must meet Death face to face.

It's been seven years since Else visited her tiny hometown on an isolated island off the coast of Scotland. She fled the island after years of bullying at the hands of the few other residents, but now that her mother has passed away, Else has no choice but to return. And when her old tormentor, Karen Little, hands her a book that holds a particular power over her, the cruelties of the past have Else seeing red.

No case is too strange or too baffling for the policeman George Felse and his son, Dominic. Over 13 instalments and two decades, the Felse Investigations will take them from their home on the Welsh Borders to the southernmost tip of India.
When his girlfriend's beautiful but erratic filmstar mother Chloe calls to ask a favour, Dominic Felse fears the worst. But she makes the couple an offer they can't refuse: an all-expenses-paid trip to India to escort 14-year-old Anjili Kumar, the daughter of Chloe's co-star, to stay with her father while her mother is filming in England.
But Dominic's fears are not unfounded as they soon discover that travelling with the spoilt, precocious Anjili is no sinecure – and the task of delivering her back to her family proves less than easy. Dominic and Theodosia find themselves embroiled in a mystery that swiftly and shockingly becomes a murder investigation. For behind the colourful, smiling mask of India that the tourist sees is another country – remote, mysterious – and often shatteringly brutal…

No case is too strange or too baffling for the policeman George Felse and his son, Dominic. Over 13 instalments and two decades, the Felse Investigations will take them from their home on the Welsh Borders to the southernmost tip of India.
Landlords are never popular, and there is little mourning when the greedy, ruthless Mahendralal Bakhle is blown up on his boat on the beautiful Periyar Lake. Suspicion falls on the boat-boy who died with him, but Dominic Felse, one of a party of young tourists visiting the landlord's game reserve, is not convinced of the boy's guilt. And when the party move on to their next destination, the terror pursues them all the way to the southernmost tip of India.
The police blame local terrorists targeting wealthy landlords, but what would that have to do with a group of innocent tourists? To get to the bottom of this trail of violence, Dominic Felse must unravel a deadly Indian rope trick of hatred and murder.

No case is too strange or too baffling for the policeman George Felse and his son, Dominic. Over 13 instalments and two decades, the Felse Investigations will take them from their home on the Welsh Borders to the southernmost tip of India.
While on a seaside vacation in Cornwall with his son Dominic, Detective Inspector George Felse can't help but investigate a dark mystery of smuggling, missing bodies and murder.
Jan Treverra was a legendary Cornish poet and smuggler who died two centuries ago. But when local scholar Simon Towne arranges to open Treverra's grave in search of his long-lost literary legacy, it yields not one body but two… and neither one of them is Jan Treverra. In this derelict seashore graveyard, George Felse uncovers a trail of violence in Maymouth's history that casts shadows centuries long…

No case is too strange or too baffling for the policeman George Felse and his son, Dominic. Over 13 instalments and two decades, the Felse Investigations will take them from their home on the Welsh Borders to the southernmost tip of India.
Is vulgarity grounds for murder? Alfred Armiger had antagonised many with his greed and crass acquisitiveness. So when the ruthless beer baron is discovered dead, his head beaten in by a magnum of champagne, there is no shortage of suspects.
All of Comerford is shocked when Detective George Felse arrests Kitty Norris, the daughter of a rival beer baron, the last person to see Armiger alive, and the main beneficiary of his will. But Kitty, charming and popular, has an unexpected advocate in Felse's young son, Dominic, who is secretly in love with her. Passionately convinced of Kitty's innocence, Dominic sets out to find the true culprit, a hazardous undertaking that might well cost him his life.

In the battle of Lincoln, 1141, the Sheriff of Shropshire is captured by the Welsh forces of the Empress Maud. The county proposes to exchange him for a young Welsh nobleman. But when the Sheriff is murdered only Brother Cadfael can save the captive from retaliation.

In July of 1139, a quarrel between the local burghers and the monks of the Benedictine monastery over Shrewsbury's annual Fair leaves a merchant dead.

Christmas 1138, a local dignitary is poisoned with one of the herbalist's own concoctions and Brother Cadfael has to defend himself against charges of murder.

In 1137, the Abbot of Shrewsbury decides to acquire the remains of St Winifred. Brother Cadfael is part of the expedition sent to her final resting place in Wales and they find the villagers passionately divided by the Benedictines' offer for the saint's relics.