Maxima Library

From the New York Times bestselling suspense author Jan Burke comes a brand-new e-short story with the added bonus of three short stories from the Eighteen anthology.

Apprehended is a mini-anthology containing a brand new short story from Jan Burke: "The Unacknowledged," which features the fan-favorite investigative reporter Irene Kelly, back in her journalism school days. Also included are three short stories from the previously published Eighteen: "Why Tonight," "A Fine Set of Teeth," and "A Man of My Stature."

Praise for Eighteen:

"Astonishing… wry… these stories are sure to delight." – New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Deaver

"A delightful collection of page-turners. At turns chilling, funny, poignant – and always insightful. With these stories, Jan Burke's at the top of her game." – New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman

From New York Times bestselling author Jan Burke comes the last of six short story collections – sure to please fans of suspense masters Patricia Cornwell, Sue Grafton, and Robert Parker.

Case Closed is a mini-anthology containing a brand-new short story – "The Last Place You Look," featuring Frank Harriman in his younger days as a rookie cop – with an added bonus of three stories from the highly acclaimed print anthology Eighteen: "At turns chilling, funny, poignant – and always insightful" (New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman); "Astonishing… wry… these stories are sure to delight" (Jeffery Deaver, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Kill Room).

This e-short story collection from New York Times bestselling suspense author Jan Burke features a brand new Irene Kelly short story, "The Privileged," plus three unforgettable stories from the print anthology Eighteen.

Before Frank Harriman and Irene Kelly got married, Frank was a rookie cop in Bakersfield, California. When he investigates one of the worst types of calls a policeman can get – a bad smell coming from a closed trailer on a hot day – Frank and his training officer are not surprised to find a dead body. But everyone is stunned when the corpse leads to the police chief's downfall…

Still recovering from injuries sustained in her last murder investigation, reporter Irene Kelly dutifully hobbles back to work, only to get lured into another case of murder and mayhem. On her very first day back, Irene is “welcomed” by a threatening bit of fan mail from someone who calls himself “Thanatos” – the ancient Greek name for “Death.” Though Irene shrugs it off as a prank, she soon learns to take Thanatos at his word. As Thanatos’ letters keep coming, each cleverly wrapped in mythological puzzles, the bodies mount – as does the tension in southern California ’s beach community of Las Piernas. Unwilling to be a pawn in a killer’s deadly game, Irene Kelly knows she must take action. Taunted by phone calls and deadly threats from a killer known only to her as Thanatos, Irene ignores warnings from her worried fiancé, homicide detective Frank Harriman, and embarks on her most dangerous case yet. As Irene unravels the clues to the case – each one embedded in ancient riddles and mythic puzzles – Thanatos watches her every move with a fascination that brings him too close for comfort. Yet Irene will stop at nothing to unveil the true identity of this genius of death, even if it means playing into the hands of a killer who is determined to make her part of his deadly destiny.

Irene Kelly fights for her life in this blood-chilling sequel to the Edgar Award-winning smash hit Bones.

Despite her reporter's nose for trouble, Irene Kelly's life has almost returned to normal – the Las Piernas News Express wobbles along in defiance of its financial woes, and with the help of her husband, Frank, and a good therapist, she's recovered from the debilitating post-traumatic stress disorder that haunted her after her near-fatal encounter with notorious serial killer Nick Parrish. Until she receives some unwelcome news: Parrish, once thought permanently paralyzed by the injuries he sustained fleeing recapture, is walking again. And the rumor among the Moths, Parrish's online fan club, is that he's coming after Irene.

Suddenly Irene is on the other end of the microphone, being hounded by the media for interviews and plied with questions she'd hoped never to have to answer again. She tries to believe that she is safe from Parrish, who is imprisoned in a maximum security facility, and that the growing stream of threats from the Moths is all just talk. But an unnerving prank soon lets her know that someone, at least, wants her to be afraid. And when a young woman's body turns up in the trunk of a car near her home – naked, frozen solid, and decorated from head to toe in elaborately painted moths – it becomes clear that Irene will once again find herself pitted against a brutal murderer. She knows the twisted hunter who is stalking her all too well… or does she?

The acclaimed author of the Irene Kelly mystery series (Goodnight, Irene, etc.) and the Edgar award-winning novel Bones delivers this superb collection of short stories, hitherto available only in a limited trade edition from A.S.A.P. Publishing. These early works, which appeared in publications like Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, display an impressive range of styles, voices and settings. Burke offers ghost stories ("Ghost of a Chance"), romantic suspense ("The Muse"), a whodunit ("A Fine Set of Teeth"), a tale of revenge ("Miscalculation") and a humorous intrigue ("The Man in the Civil Suit"), and the voices she adopts are as disparate as an abused wife and an aristocratic gentleman (and, at one point, even a non-human narrator). It would be a challenge for readers to choose their favorite, as all the stories are carefully crafted gems: "Mea Culpa" follows a crippled boy as he deduces what his stepfather has in store for his mother; "Miscalculation," which is based on the wartime service of the Queen Mary ocean liner, effectively transmutes history into mystery; and "Unharmed" tells a surprising tale of domestic strife. Several of the stories won or were nominated for awards, and virtually all of them repay the reader handsomely.

This anthology was edited by Michael Connelly. His essay is called "Once Upon a Midnight Dreary."

A collection of stories by thriller master Edgar Allan Poe with essays by beloved and bestselling writers, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Poe's birth. Authors involved include Michael Connelly, Jeffery Deaver, Nelson DeMille, Tess Gerritsen, Sue Grafton, Stephen King, Lisa Scottoline, Laura Lippman, and twelve others.

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Few have crafted stories as haunting as those by Edgar Allan Poe. Collected here to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Poe's birth are sixteen of his best tales accompanied by twenty essays from beloved authors, including T. Jefferson Parker, Lawrence Block, Sara Paretsky, and Joseph Wambaugh, among others, on how Poe has changed their life and work.

Michael Connelly recounts the inspiration he drew from Poe's poetry while researching one of his books. Stephen King reflects on Poe's insight into humanity's dark side in "The Genius of 'The Tell-Tale Heart.'" Jan Burke recalls her childhood terror during late-night reading sessions. Tess Gerritsen, Nelson DeMille, and others remember the classic B-movie adaptations of Poe's tales. And in "The Thief," Laurie R. King complains about how Poe stole all the good ideas… or maybe he just thought of them first.

Powerful and timeless, In the Shadow of the Master is a celebration of one of the greatest literary minds of all time.

The Mystery Writers of America, founded in 1945, is the foremost organization for mystery writers and other professionals dedicated to the field of crime writing.

The fifth of six e-short story collections from New York Times bestselling suspense author Jan Burke, including three stories from the highly acclaimed print anthology Eighteen, praised as "Astonishing… wry… these stories are sure to delight" (Jeffery Deaver, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Kill Room).

Justice Done is a mini-anthology containing a brand-new short story, with an added bonus of three stories from Eighteen: "Miscalculation," "Two Bits," and "An Unsuspected Condition of the Heart." New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman says of the anthology, "A delightful collection of page-turners. At turns chilling, funny, poignant – and always insightful. With these stories, Jan Burke's at the top of her game."

A drug kingpin on the FBI's Most Wanted list is found hanging upside down over a bathtub, his corpse drained of blood. The killing looks like an organized-crime payback hit-until another Ten Most Wanted criminal is found similarly strung up, and then another. Soon Detective Alex Brandon of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department is grappling not only with a testy partner and a complicated home life, but also with a band of brilliant vigilantes whom the public starts to regard as heroes.

Alex Brandon is almost too good to be true, with his penetrating blue eyes, his steely toughness, his politeness, and his tenacious smarts. But Jan Burke-best known for her well-regarded series featuring reporter Irene Kelly-is such a sane, intelligent writer that Brandon and the book's many other characters come vividly alive. She's also a fine craftsman of individual scenes, many of which are perfectly paced little dramas or comedies. Nine's gripping, multithreaded plot is sometimes too complex for its own good, and the climax tips into melodrama, but overall the reliable Burke, a past winner of the Edgar and other mystery awards, has produced another winning read.

Who is Tyler Hawthorne?

Beneath the Caribbean Sea, a salvage diver hears an eerie voice calling to him from the wreckage of a nineteenth-century ship. In return for promised riches, the diver becomes the servant of Adrian deVille, Lord Varre, the creature who has called to him. It's a bargain the diver will come to regret. Varre enlists him in a hunt for a man named Tyler Hawthorne.

Ten years later, in a canyon in the foothills above Los Angeles, Amanda Clarke has become curious about her new neighbor, Tyler Hawthorne. He's not home much, but others tell her that her new neighbor is about her age – twenty-four. He's also wealthy, handsome, and single.

Amanda soon suspects that another description can be added to the list of Tyler's attributes: con artist. When Tyler shows up at the hospice room of her friend Ron and tells the dying man he'll live, Amanda angrily resents Tyler for giving Ron false hope.

Until Ron begins to recover.

Although Tyler continues to puzzle her, Amanda finds herself drawn to him.

Tyler finds himself drawn to Amanda as well, but he has a secret he must keep from her: he's been twenty-four for almost two hundred years.

Two centuries ago, he bargained for his life. In exchange, he became a Messenger, one who hears the final thoughts of the dying and conveys those last messages to their loved ones. Since that time, his life has been nomadic and – except for the companionship of a remarkable black dog – solitary.

The dying also convey messages to Tyler and now they are hinting that his long service may be coming to an end. He begins to hope that he can return to a normal, mortal life and allows himself to grow closer to Amanda, unaware that he is being pursued by an old enemy who will stop at nothing to destroy him and that he can only leave his role as the Messenger behind at a dreadful cost.

With a brand-new short story featuring Tyler Hawthorne from The Messenger, plus three stories from Eighteen, this is the third of six e-short story collections from New York Times bestselling suspense author Jan Burke.