A collection of mystery tales chronicles the investigations of the 1815 New York Chief Constable and looks at the New Amsterdam river pirates --

The clock is ticking for Fiona FitzGerald. The clock is ticking both figuratively and biologically. During Fiona FitzGerald's pursuit to conceive a child, a powerful female pro-life Senator is found dead. It appears to be suicide, but Fiona is puzzled and continues to investigate. The case gets even more baffling when one shocking clue contradicts the entire investigation.

"No Room at the Morgue came out after Jean-Patrick Manchette had transformed French crime fiction with such brilliantly plotted, politically charged, unrelentingly violent tales as Nada and The Mad and the Bad. Here, inspired by his love of Dashiell Hammett, Manchette introduces Eugene Tarpon, private eye, a sometime cop who has set up shop after being kicked off the force for accidentally killing a political demonstrator. Months have passed, and Tarpon desultorily tries to keep in shape while drinking all the time. No one has shown up at the door of his office in the midst of the market district of Les Halles. Then the bell rings and a beautiful woman bursts in, her hands dripping blood. It's Memphis Charles, her roommate's throat has been cut, and Memphis can't go to the police because they'll only suspect her. Can Tarpon help? Well, somehow he can't help trying. Soon bodies mount, and the craziness only grows"--

Hardcover Fine Hardcover Fine Hardcover Fine Hardcover Fine Hardcover Fine Hardcover Fine Hardcover Fine OTHER THAN SOME DINGS TO THE DUST COVER THIS BOOK HAS PAGES THAT LOOK AND FEEL NEW!

[Read by Mark Peckham] A jealous widow won't rest until she gets back everything that is rightfully hers in this exciting tale by Ellery Queen. hen Barney Street, the fixer, was in Holland in World War II, his life had been saved by a German soldier. Now Barney is dead and his two million dollar estate is left entirely to the soldier who saved him, Milo Hacha. But that fortune comes with a death sentence, for Barney's widow, Estelle, won't rest until she gets back everything that is rightfully hers. She sends Steve Longacre, once one of Barney's boys, to Europe to find Hacha, trailing him from Holland to Switzerland, to Vienna, and finally to Prague. Longacre has Hacha is on the run, fleeing love, money, and a velvet-lined coffin . . .

Book by Queen, Ellery

When Frank Behr’s friend and mentor is murdered without any apparent motive, he thirsts for answers and retaliation. But before he can make headway in the dead-end investigation, a private firm approaches him with a delicate proposition: two of its detectives have gone missing, and the firm wants Behr to find out what happened to them. The search for the missing detectives takes Behr into the recesses of Indianapolis’s underworld, a place rife with brutality and vice where Behr uncovers a shocking thread connecting the missing detectives to his friend’s brutal murder, and, in the process, an ominous, deadly new breed of crime family.

A masterly biography of Yehuda Halevi, one of the greatest of Hebrew poets and a shining example of the synthesis of religion and culture that defined the golden age of medieval Spanish Jewry. Like Maimonides, with whom he contrasts sharply, Yehuda Halevi spanned multiple worlds. Poet, philosopher, and physician, he is known today for both his religious and secular verse, including his famed “songs of Zion,” and for The Kuzari, an elucidation of Judaism in dialogue form. Hillel Halkin brilliantly evokes the fascinating world of eleventh- and twelfth-century Andalusian Spain in which Halevi lived and discusses the influences that formed him. Relying on the astonishing discoveries of the Cairo Geniza, he pieces together the mystery of Halevi’s last days, with its fateful voyage to Palestine, which became a haunting legend. An acclaimed writer and translator, Halkin builds his account of Halevi’s life and death on his magnificent translations of Halevi’s poems. He places The Kuzari within the wider context of Jewish thought and explains why, more perhaps than any other medieval Jewish figure, Halevi has become an inspirational yet highly controversial figure in modern Jewish and Israeli intellectual life.

"From the hematite used in cave paintings to the moldavite that became a TikTok sensation; from the stolen sandstone of Scone to the unexpected acoustics of Stonehenge; from crystal balls to compasses, rocks and minerals have always been central to our story. 3,000 years ago Babylonians constructed lapidaries - books that tried to pin down the magical secrets of rocks. In The Secret Lives of Stones, renowned art critic Hettie Judah explores the unexpected stories behind sixty stones that have shaped and inspired human history, from Dorset fossil-hunters to Chinese philosophers, Catherine the Great to Michelangelo. Discover why alchemists sought cinnabar and sulphur. Unearth the mystery of the tuff statues of Rapa Nui, the lost amber room of Frederick of Prussia and the scandal of Flint Jack. Find out how a Greek monster created coral, moon rock explains the history of Earth's only satellite and obsidian inspired the world's favourite computer game. Stone by stone, story by fascinating story, The Secret Lives of Stones builds into a dazzling, epoch-spanning adventure through human culture, and beyond"--Publisher's description.

"No mortal can write this well." - Harlan Ellison "Kersh has a strange, perverted sense of genius. And how he can write." - Virginia Kirkus "Gerald Kersh had a wild imagination matched by a vivid, near-hallucinatory style. Many of his concepts are so original that they blur the distinction between fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and horror, but the cumulative impact of his short stories is horrific in the extreme." - Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural An expedition in South America uncovers a terrifying race of men without bones who literally suck the life out of their prey. A man in 20th century London makes a horrifying discovery about a monster found off the coast of Brighton in 1745. A sea captain goes ashore on a deserted island and finds what seem to be the bones of a previously unknown species of monster, only to learn that the bones tell a much more tragic tale than he could ever have imagined. A war correspondent, none other than Kersh himself, is sailing to America when he meets a strange man who claims to be 438 years old. These are the plots of just a few of the weird tales you will find in this book. Gerald Kersh (1911-1968) was a brilliant and inventive writer acclaimed in his time for his gritty novels of London life and his often bizarre short fiction, but he has unfortunately become neglected since his death. This volume includes an introduction by award-winning science fiction author Harlan Ellison, who also selected the eleven stories that appear in this collection and which represent the very best of Kersh's short fiction. Includes: "The Queen of Pig Island," "Frozen Beauty," "The Brighton Monster," "Men Without Bones," "Busto Is a Ghost, Too Mean to Give Us a Fright ," "The Ape and the Mystery," "The King Who Collected Clocks," "Bone for Debunkers," "A Lucky Day for the Boar," "Voices in the Dust of Annan," "Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo?"

A Nick Hoffman / Academic Mystery, Book 7 -Fitness = Death when Nick Hoffman heads back to the gym right after a vacation, finding himself caught in a Desperate Housewives-type mystery. Michigan Muscle is a state-of-the-art health club adjacent to the State University of Michigan. Boasting luxurious facilities, the latest equipment, and topnotch personal trainers, it's a palatial complex for fitness. But every palace has its intrigue, and when Nick stumbles across a dead trainer, he's drawn into a web of passion and privilege unlike anything he's ever experienced before. The prime suspect because he's the one who discovered the body, Nick has to work this mystery out to its bitter end. In this seventh novel in the series, Lev Raphael, Lambda Award winner, takes us on another voyage with one of the mystery world's funniest - and best-read - amateur sleuths. Included in this new edition, a foreword by R E Bradshaw (Rainey Bell Thriller series). "Raphael's latest smoothly delivers a satisfying mystery while providing insight into the middle-aging of America, gay marriage, the excitement of sleuthing as a means of exercising control over our lives, the 'Orwellian' Patriot Act, and more." - Booklist "Hot Rocks is a comic mystery of bad manners, written with the suspenseful touch of Alfred Hitchcock bred to the epigrammatic wit of Oscar Wilde. The hero of the tale, assistant professor Nick Hoffman, is among the most lovably erudite characters in all of mystery fiction." - Robert Eversz, Zero to the Bone "If you like your mysteries smart, witty, and steaming with suspense, you won't find a better read than Lev Raphael's Hot Rocks. The new spa in town is proving hazardous to Nick's health, and it's great to be back at his side while he sleuths in the sauna. Lev's turned up the heat in one of my favorite series in crime fiction." - Linda Fairstein, Bad Blood

In post-World War II England, former Secret Service operative Mirabelle Bevan takes a job at a debt collection agency, but when she discovers that a pregnant Hungarian refugee who had taken out a routine loan has been reported dead, she decides to investigate--

A serial killer turns Los Angeles into his own personal Monopoly board as he taunts the media and police with a trail of cash, deposit slips and bodies that randomly follow the game. When newly-promoted Detective Jessie Drake is appointed media spokesperson for the police, the killer plans his next move--against her.

From legendary cult writer Jerry Stahl comes Plainclothes Naked, a breakout novel that jacks up crime fiction to new heights of twisted, sexy, mind-blowing brilliance. With searing wit and devastating detail, Stahl -- whose work, Jim Carroll has written, "fills the gap in American literature left void since the death of the late, great Terry Southern " -- takes us deep into the minds of addicts and detectives, fetishists and killers. It's a vision of American misfits in a world of violent crime, official corruption, drug-addled scheming, and -- perhaps strangest of all -- genuine, up-from-the-toes true love. In a wildly careening plot that can only be described as crack noir, two pipe-heads accidentally steal a photo of George W. Bush's presidential package with a happy face tattooed on it and decide to blackmail the Republican Party. Before the crack-crazed thieves can follow through, however, a gorgeous, whip-smart young nurse absconds with the goods. But Nurse Tina's got her own problems -- she's just offed her online "money swami" husband with a bowl of Drano-laced Lucky Charms. When Manny Rubert, a scarred ex-junkie turned codeine-popping detective, is called in to investigate the "foamer" hubby's untimely demise, love hits him like a wrench to the head. Soon Manny and Tina are making plans of their own for the presidential pic -- and for their future together. But the meddling police chiefs and motel room sex-change surgeons of the world just won't leave them alone. And then there are those killer crackheads, still out there and closing in... At once a scathing tale of contemporary insanity and a no-holds-barred, tour de force thriller, Plainclothes Naked forges violence and comedy into a criminal love story as shocking as it is transcendent.

great paperback book

An express train rushing toward the north of England; a group of exceedingly mysterious characters; suspicious happenings in rapid succession; a humorous yokel; a bicycle accident; a lady in distress; and after much mystery a satisfactory conclusion, making this Farjeon story one of the best of its kind. Young Freddy Reeve wants an adventure, but may get more than he bargained for when he encounters the lovely Miss Lydia Leveridge, who provokes more questions than she answers. Freddy finds himself questioning the actions of various fellow passengers, but is quickly thrust into the wake of a criminal plot. He jumps at the chance to save the girl, which brings even more trouble than he imagined. The fast-paced plot leads to a dangerous climax, where several lives are on the line. The 5.18 Mystery was first published in 1929.

After UCLA coed Abigail Hunter disappears without a trace from a Caribbean cruise ship on which she and her parents and older brother are vacationing during spring break, her father, millionaire shipping magnate George Hunter, desperate for news of his daughter, hires Dan Grail, a Beverly Hills private eye to investigate her disappearance and offers a huge reward if he is successful in bringing her home successfully. Hoping to get a lead as to her whereabouts, Grail books passage on the same cruise ship from which the girl disappeared. His efforts are unsuccessful at first, but he does pick up some strong clues during the voyage. After some harrowing near-death experiences, he winds up in New York City, where he sees a girl who looks suspiciously like Abbey on a porn site on his computer. Her working name is Tulip. This gives him the idea that she might be in Amsterdam, Holland, which is notorious for its wide-open red light district and pornographic film industry. Eventually he tracks Abbey down, but finding her and rescuing her from the porn studio where she is being held captive nearly leads to his own demise.

This book is divided into three parts. The first part contains The Legends of Moses the Man and Moses the Magician, which brings to life who Moses really was. It includes the legends of him as a magician found both inside and outside of the Bible. Part Two is How the Sacred Writings of Moses were Lost, which explains how additional books of Moses, beyond the first five books of the Bible, can be accounted for and what is in them. Part Three is called The Book of Miscellaney, which reveals the magical applications of Moses' additional books. This section includes the 44 Secret Keys to Universal Power, various magical seals, and explains the modern influence of the Kabbalah, which traces it to a Mosaic origin. This final section also includes a chart of all the revelations made by Moses to various people in the Bible. This is an excellent book combining hard-to-find historical information on Moses with the magical power that can be associated with him.