Showing titles in Short Stories

Three stories, brought together in one edition, from 'crime-writing genius' Michael Connelly. In the title story, a fatal accident on Mulholland Drive turns out to be part of an ingenious plot - but is it too ingenious? In Two Bagger, a dedicated cop working for the Gang Intelligence Unit finally gets the payoff he's worked so hard for - but it's not what he's expecting. In Cahoots, a team of scam artists meet for a high-stakes poker game but who is scamming who?

As the alpha of the Black River Pack, Killian has to be strong. He’s been the leader since he won power from his father, and now it’s time for him to think about finding his mate. When he pictures her in his head, she’s strong—maybe a wolf like him. Then he smells her, and she’s nothing like he thought she would be. Sascha is a deer shifter. She’s always been the runt of any pack and has been cast aside more times than she can count. She’s always gotten over the hurt because she knew that one day she would find her fated mate and finally have a place where she’s wanted.

First published in 1846, Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novella The Double is a classic doppelganger story and the second major work published by the author. It is the story of Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin, a government clerk who believes that a fellow clerk has taken over his identity and is determined to bring about his ruin. Considered the most Gogolesque of Dostoyevsky's works, the novella brilliantly depicts Golyadkin's descent into madness in a way that is hauntingly poetic. The Double illustrates Dostoyevsky's uncanny ability at capturing the complexity of human emotion.

Pamela is a newly retired teacher with time on her hands. She’s finding it hard to muster enthusiasm for what’s ahead: exhausting postdivorce dating rituals and an uneasy relationship with her emotionally stunted, live-at-home son. But for Pamela, there’s a surprise in store that could challenge the status quo and, against all expectations, make life interesting again.

Winter 218 BC: In Cisalpine Gaul, a Carthaginian patrol is moving stealthily through thick woodland. It’s led by Hanno, one of Hannibal’s young officers, and his second-in-command, Mutt. Famished and cold, they are making for a town full of the grain that they desperately need. But the local Gauls cannot be trusted; and although defeated, the Romans still have patrols in the area. With peril on every side and a deadly ambush ahead, there is no certainty that either Hanno or Mutt will survive....

Spooky Stories to Tell in the Dark is the latest installment of tantalizing tales from S. Cary and Story Ninjas Publishing. In this book, you'll find 22 of the scariest stories to tell your friends. From Area 51 to fishing trips, this anthology has all kinds of spooky stories to make your spine tingle. What happens when a bunch of teenagers have a New Year's Eve bash on a private island? Or what about a paranormal party at Christmas?

In the final years of his life, Chekhov produced some of the stories that rank among his masterpieces and some of the most highly-regarded works in Russian literature. The poignant 'The Lady with the Little Dog' and 'About Love' examine the nature of love outside of marriage - its romantic idealism and the fear of disillusionment. And in stories such as 'Peasants', 'The House with the Mezzanine' and 'My Life' Chekhov paints a vivid picture of the conditions of the poor and of their powerlessness in the face of exploitation and hardship.

The literary world was shocked when, in 1890, at the height of his career, Robert Louis Stevenson announced his intention to settle permanently in Samoa. His readers were equally shocked when he began to use the subject material offered by his new environment not to promote a romance of empire but to produce some of the most ironic and critical treatments of imperialism in 19th-century fiction.

Here is a selection of some of the best-known and best-loved tales of The Arabian Nights, including "Sinbad", "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves", "Aladdin", "The Talking Bird", and the "Fisherman and the Genie". In this "treasure house of pleasant things" you will find golden palaces, gem studded caves, and breathtaking gardens.

"The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" is a short story by Fyodor Dostoyevsky written in 1877. It chronicles the experiences of a man who decides that there is nothing of any value in the world. Slipping into nihilism with the "terrible anguish", he is determined to commit suicide. A chance encounter with a young girl, however, begins the man on a journey that re-instills a love for his fellow man.

From the number one New York Times best-selling author of the Man Booker Prize-winning novel Lincoln in the Bardo and the story collection Tenth of December, a 2013 National Book Award Finalist for Fiction. Talking candy bars, baby geniuses, disappointed mothers, castrated dogs, interned teenagers, and moral fables - all in this hilarious and heartbreaking collection from an author hailed as the heir to Kurt Vonnegut and Thomas Pynchon.

In electric prose T. C. Boyle explores myriad facets of society: greed and excess, parenthood and responsibility, the digital world and the way we understand our mortality. Roaming unrestrainedly through the present and near future, he inhabits his characters’ minds with a ventriloquist’s flair, skewering human motivations and revealing us to ourselves with empathy and wry humour.

Hailed as one of the world's supreme masterpieces on the subject of death and dying, Leo Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" is the story of a worldly careerist, a high court judge who has never given the inevitability of his death so much as a passing thought. But one day, death announces itself to him, and to his shocked surprise he is brought face to face with his own mortality.

Gwen’s life has stalled. She’s in her mid-thirties, perpetually single, her friends are busy procreating in the country and conversations with her parents seem to revolve entirely around herbaceous borders and the council’s wheelie-bin timetable. Above all she’s lonely. But then, isn’t everyone? When Gwen’s made redundant from a job she drifted into a decade ago and never left, she realises it’s time to make a change.

DI Logan McRae and his infuriating boss, DCI Roberta Steele, investigate a chilling dispute between neighbours that escalates out of control. Includes an extract of the new Logan McRae novel, The Missing and the Dead. CID isn't what it used to be.... It's been a bad week for acting detective inspector Logan McRae. Every time his unit turns up anything interesting, DCI Steel's Major Investigation Team waltzes in and takes over, leaving CID with all the dull and horrible jobs.

Selected from the best of the world's short fiction, 50 Great Short Stories brings together writings by great masters of the genre. Carefully picked for their timeless quality, listeners are sure to be delighted by the inclusion of such favourites as 'The Gift of the Magi', 'The Lady with the Dog', 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button', 'Rain' and 'Mrs Packletide's Tiger', to name but a few.

Like the creation myths they supersede, the revelations of science are seared into our collective imagination through storytelling. From Archimedes' bath to Newton's apple, vivid accounts of scientific discovery help us understand the principles behind each theory, and add to the larger narrative of how the universe works, and how we came to be here. This anthology draws out and distils science's love of narrative from a wide range of scientific disciplines, weaving theory into very human stories.

Das perfekte Geschenk gegen den Alltagsstress – vom genialen Beobachter des täglichen Wahnsinns. Warum ist die Steuererklärung komplizierter, als Hebräisch zu lernen? Darf man lästige Werbeanrufer in den Wahnsinn treiben? Warum dauert es länger, die Wohnung saugrobotergerecht zu machen, als selbst zu saugen? Und was tun mit der Zeit, wenn der Lieferdienst meldet, dass die Sportsocken nur noch 9 Stopps entfernt sind? Der Alltag ist irre. Aber auch irre lustig. Wenn man ihn angeht wie Comedy-Bestsellerautor Tommy Jaud, hat man die besten Chancen, ihn mit einem Lachen zu meistern.

A schoolgirl catches the eye of the future leader of Nazi Germany. An aspiring playwright writes to a convicted serial killer, seeking inspiration. A pair of childhood sweethearts reunite to commit rape and murder. A devoted Mormon wife follows her husband into the wilderness after he declares himself a prophet. The 12 stories in The Love of a Bad Man imagine the lives of real women, all of whom were the lovers, wives or mistresses of various ‘bad’ men in history. 

A place of myths, rumours and secrets, The Hotel looms over the dark Fens, tall and grey in its Gothic splendour. Built on cursed land, a history of violent death suffuses its very foundations - yet it has a magnetism that is impossible to ignore. Here are the stories of The Hotel: stories of children, mothers, monsters, cult film-makers, thrill-seekers and workers on the night shift, all with their own tales of its strange power, of the horrors of Room 63, and of desperate but failed attempts to escape its seductive pull.