When Mrs. Packington's husband begins keeping regular company with an office girl, she turns to Mr. Parker Pyne, master of the human soul, for help, in the first of a series of cases that take him from London to the Middle East.

A collection of short mysteries by leading writers includes Laura Lippman's "Waco 1982," Joseph Finder's "Heirloom," and R. L. Stine's "High Stakes."

The best-selling author of Harm Done and A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell has written dozens of gripping works under her own name and as Barbara Vine. She has received three Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America and four Dagger Awards from England's Crime Writers Association. How frightening can a book be? Ambrose Ribbon, self-appointed editor and grammar police, is about to find out. He has spent years pointing out mistakes to writers...

A Silenced Man. Footprints in the snow lead to the murder scene of Marc Fraysse, France's most celebrated chef - brutally shot before he could make the revelation of his career. A Determined Man. Seven years on and the mystery still raw, Enzo Macleod, forensic investigator, forays into the heated world of haute cuisine to uncover bitter feuds and a burning secret. A Hunted Man. The Fraysse family history is as twisted as Enzo's own. And in his pursuit...

When Gordon Cloade is killed in the London blitz a few weeks after getting married, his new bride is suddenly in sole possession of the family fortune. Other family members, though, have suspicions about his demise, especially when "spirits" claim the widow's first husband is still alive.

"Andrew Brown, winner of the Sunday Times Fiction Prize, has stunned readers in his native South Africa with this intelligent and compelling police procedural set in Stellenbosch, South Africa. Now, Brown is ready to take on America with this top notch mystery series, published here for the first time. In Coldsleep Lullaby the body of a young woman is found drifting in a river, and Detective Eberard Februarie is called in to investigate the case....