In 1980, a freshman congressman was gunned down in Rhode Island, sending shockwaves through Washington that are still reverberating over four decades later. Now, with the world on the brink of war and a weakened United States facing rampant inflation, political division, and shocking assassinations, a secret cabal of global elites is ready to assume control. And with the world’s most dangerous man locked in solitary confinement, the conspirators...

In the Nevada desert, a handful of scientists are battling to retrieve a swarm of rogue micro-robots that has escaped from the lab. The swarm is self-sustaining, self-reproducing and capable of learning from experience. It is, to all intents and purposes, alive. And very, very deadly. Because it has been programmed as a ruthless predator, a predator that becomes more dangerous with every passing hour ... And we are the prey.

This form has a special kind of magic, the ability to transport you quickly, intensely, to capture character, time, place, and story with immediacy,” writes guest editor Lisa Unger in her introduction. The transporting stories in this year’s The Best American Mystery and Suspense are populated by those who exist on the fringe of our society and want more than what life has dealt them: A haunted veteran turned career criminal is on the run. An...

Former Army brat Morgan Albright has finally planted roots in a friendly neighborhood near Baltimore. Her friend and roommate Nina helps her make the mortgage payments, as does Morgan's job as a bartender. But after she and Nina host their first dinner party―attended by Luke, the flirtatious IT guy who'd been chatting her up at the bar―her carefully built world is shattered. The back door glass is broken, cash and jewelry are missing, her car...

Parisian cop Martin Beaumont has never really got over his first love, Gabrielle. Their brief, intense affair in San Francisco and the pain of her rejection still haunt him years later. Now, however, he's a successful detective - and tonight he's going to arrest the legendary art thief, Archibald Maclean, when he raids the Musee d'Orsay for a priceless Van Gogh. But the enigmatic Archibald has other plans. Martin's pursuit of the master criminal across...

After a brief stint in the Mayor's Office, DC Cat Kinsella is back at the London Metropolitan Police, wisecracking with her partner Luigi Parnell and trying to avoid the wrath of the boss, DI Kate Steele. But for Cat and Parnell, it's serious business when a young Australian woman turns up dead after a party thrown by her new boss. The initial investigation of Naomi Lockhart's murder points to Joseph Madden, the owner of a coffee shop around the corner...

"Army Criminal Investigation Agents Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor have been separated for five months following their last assignment, a dangerous mission in Venezuela to locate and detain an infamous Army deserter. Now, in Berlin, they are reunited and tasked with investigating the murder of one of their own: CID Special Agent Harry Vance of the 5th MP Battalion, an accomplished counterterrorism agent who had been stationed in western Germany, and...

After North Carolinas richest and most notorious heiress dies, her adopted son, Camden, rejects his inheritance until 10 years later, when his uncle's death pulls him and his wife back into the family fold at Ashby House where he realizes the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.

This diabolical and devilishly clever twist on Shakespeare's Richard III follows Rory, a scholarship kid teased for her weight, as she tells us exactly the lengths she'll go to secure the leading role in Bosworth Academy's senior musical.

"Back in the summer of 1988, a young Richard Chizmar was catapulted into the center of a living nightmare as the serial killer Joshua Gallagher--dubbed by the media as ;'The Boogeyman'--stalked his tranquil Maryland town. A lot has changed int he intervening years. These days, Chizmar enjoys a certain level of celebrity and notoriety himself, being the only person who an incarcerated Josh Gallagher will speak to on or off the record. Chizmar likes...