Short Stories and Anthologies

Edited by Martin Edwards.
Published on June 10, 2025.
British Library Publishing, 320 pages.

Martin Edwards presents a jam-packed travel case of short mysteries bristling with murder and chicanery, perfect for a summer getaway.

Features short stories from crime fiction legends such as Christianna Brand, Anthony Berkeley and Celia Fremlin alongside rare finds revived from the British Library archives. Including intriguing notes on the stories and their authors, this volume is your ticket to a thrilling journey from 1920s seaside skullduggery through to calamity in 1980s suburbia – perfect for armchair travelling or your own summer getaway.

Edited by Peter Lovesey.
Published on June 19, 2025.
Allison & Busby, 600 pages.

Unexpected discoveries hidden among the branches of the family tree. A parrot and an astonishing cache of uncut diamonds. The story of a marriage revealed between the lines of a Victorian advice column.

To crown a writing career spanning over fifty years, this collection showcases the very best of Peter Lovesey's short stories, featuring many of his most famous and much-loved characters such as Sergeant Cribb and Bertie. With his trademark wit, these inventive, intricate and entertaining stories have something for new and old fans.

An anthology of previously published stories.

19th century Australian stories by the earliest female crime writer Mary Fortune

By Mary Fortune.
Published on March 4, 2025.
Verse Chrous, 310 pages.

Mary Fortune's dramatic crime stories, set in colonial-era Australia, comprise the first detective fiction series written by a woman; they also provide a vivid account of life and death in a country in rapid flux, as the huge population increase following the discovery of gold in 1851 led to great riches for some, poverty and violence for others.

Born in Ireland in 1832, Fortune emigrated to Australia during the goldrush, which she observed first-hand and depicted in many of her stories. A bigamous marriage to a policeman gave her inside knowledge to write about crime, and over the next 40 years she produced more than 500 stories, serialized under the title The Detective's Album in the mass-circulation magazine The Australian Journal. She tackled subjects such as murder, armed robbery, bootlegging, and sexual violence with a frankness unprecedented for a woman in the 19th century.

This book collects 18 of Fortune's finest stories, while also showcasing her range as a writer-from melodrama and Gothic horror to social realism and what we now call noir. Mary Fortune lived a precarious existence-repeatedly jailed for public drunkenness, homeless on occasion, unable to prevent her illegitimate son George drifting into a life of crime. She preserved her privacy by publishing under pseudonyms, most commonly 'Waif Wander' (or 'W.W.')-it is a measure of her fame at the time that a racehorse and a greyhound were both named after Waif Wander. But her anonymity meant that when she died in 1911, she was almost lost to literary history. Only recently has her true identity and her extraordinary life story emerged.

Edited by Lucy Sussex and Megan Brown.

Edited by The Detection Club.
Published on March 4, 2025.
Severn House, 288 pages.

Short Stories in honour of Simon Brett, by members of the Detection Club, edited by Martin Edwards.

A long-married crime-writing couple plot murder most horrid, with a jaw-dropping twist . . . A group of school friends dig up a long-buried dark secret . . . A widower joins a local amdram society, with surprisingly dramatic results . . . A deranged fan stalks a celebrated TV personality . . . An online romance turns sour . . . and much, much more.

From police procedurals to the sharpest satire, from historical mystery to dark and twisted chillers, these twenty-two original tales, written by some of Britain’s most remarkable bestselling authors, are essential reading for crime and mystery fans.

Contributors include:

Ruth Dudley Edwards
David Stuart Davies
Christopher Fowler
Michael Z Lewin
Aline Templeton
Michael Ridpath
Martin Edwards
Abir Mukherjee
Catherine Aird
Andrew Taylor
Frances Brody
Peter Lovesey
Michael Jecks
Alison Joseph
Ann Cleeves
Elly Griffiths
John Harvey
Lynne Truss
Kate Ellis
L.C. Tyler
Liza Cody
Simon Brett

Features Griffiths' best-loved characters: Dr Ruth Galloway, Harry Nelson, Max Mephisto, Detective Harbinder Kaur and more.

By Elly Griffiths.
Published on October 24, 2024.
Quercus, 320 pages.

This collection of tales features Griffiths' best-loved characters: Dr Ruth Galloway, Harry Nelson, Max Mephisto, Detective Harbinder Kaur and more. It features several stories never published before, including a brand new Ruth and Nelson story. A must for all her fans.

Have you been wondering what happened to your favourite characters Ruth Galloway and Harry Nelson? Dive into this fabulous collection of stories and find out.

Here are stories to suit all tastes. There are ghost stories and mini cosy mysteries; tales of psychological suspense and poignant vignettes of love and loss. There’s a creepy horror story to make you shiver and a tale narrated by Flint, Ruth Galloway’s cat, to make you smile.