Mike Ashley's brilliant new collection of whodunnits presents stories that reflect all the excitement, escapism and eccentricity of the 1920s. The Roaring Twenties, the Jazz Age, the Age of Wonderful Nonsense - this was a decade when everyone went a little bit crazy. It was also a decade that saw wonderful detective fiction from the likes of Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham and others. Contributions range from Cornell Woolrich's story of murder at a jazz party set aboard a steamboat on the Mississippi, to Grenville Robbins's impossible homicide committed on the radio, live on air, and Mat Coward's tale of death at a house party hosting the inaugural meeting of the British Communist Party. Shots' own Mike Stotter writes about murder and gangsters set in London's East End.

Mike Ashley is author and editor of many Mammoth titles including crime-fiction collections such as The Mammoth Book of Locked-Room Mysteries, The Mammoth Book of Ancient Egyptian Whodunnits and The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits.

A quiet village is colonised by mystery writers. But, alarmingly, they find the world intruding most cruelly into their rural retreat. First, a child falls victim to a hit-and-run. Then two authors discover they are using the same historical character, and it's poisoned pens at dawn. Novelist Macho Magee's seduction by a chick-lit writer seems the final straw - for him and his cat - until another hit-and-run fatality tips the balance. Are the deaths accident or murder? And who else is at risk in this once idyllic setting?

'One of my favourites among the lighter practitioners of the crime writer's craft.' Gerald Kaufman, The Scotsman
'The Diamond Cat: Quietly builds to a purrfect climax.' Daily Mail

Marian Babson was born in the USA but has spent most of her adult life in London. A full-time writer, whose love of cats is reflected in her work, she has also served as secretary to the Crime Writers’ Association.

When a neighbouring house suddenly blows up during a dinner party, and a child disappears in the aftermath, Sarah Tucker - a young, married woman, bored and unhappy with her life - becomes obsessed with trying to find her.
Her attempts at investigation, fired initially by frustration and curiosity, reveal that people long thought dead are still among the living, while the living are joining the dead. She's soon left wondering whether she has really ever known anybody or anything at all.
What begins in suburban south Oxford ends on a remote and inhospitable Scottish island, where the hunt takes Sarah away from her lacklustre marriage and involves her with a troubled ex-soldier, who himself is being tracked by murderous and apparently official forces. Life for Sarah is suddenly anything but dull. This intriguing first novel is fast-moving and engaging, with a dash of quite surreal humour.

'Good characterisation, dialogue and a well-paced narrative make this confident first novel frighteningly plausible. 'Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph
'Seldom does a debut grip as much . . . . Intelligent, articulate, an enthralling read.' Shots

Mick Herron was born in Newcastle upon Tyne and educated there and at Balliol College, Oxford. He lives in Oxford but commutes into London. Down Cemetery Road was his highly acclaimed first novel.

Caroline Daniels meets a terrible end beneath the wheels of a train. Strangely, her new lover Alan Talmadge fails to turn up at the funeral, and private investigator Zoe Boehm is hired to find him. Already struggling to come to terms with her own violent past and its damaging effect on her future, life gets even more complex for Zoe, as she attempts to unlock the secrets of a woman she's never met, in search of a man who might be anyone . . .

Then other deaths distract Zoe - such as that of a young boy, frightened of heights, who falls from the top of a tower block to his death. Zoe is accustomed to finding answers - accustomed too to finding the people she looks for. But as her search leads her nearer to the hearts of two very different kinds of criminal, she starts to wonder whether the man she is looking for has found her first. And, if he has, if that is going to make her another victim - or prove to be her salvation.

Mick Herron was born in Newcastle upon Tyne and educated there and at Balliol College, Oxford. He lives in Oxford but commutes into London. Down Cemetery Road was his highly acclaimed first novel.

After the final dreadful battle in the mud and cold of the Crimea, there could hardly be a greater contrast - 'Fancy Jack' Crossman, minus a hand, and newly promoted to Lieutenant, finds himself taking ship for the heat and excitement of India. He is to assist the East India Company Army in gathering intelligence at a time when there are ominous signs of restlessness amongst the native troops. Crossman lands at Bombay, expecting to make his way north to the Punjab region where he will be seconded to the irregular infantry force known as Coke's Rifles. Accompanying him is Sgt Farrier Jones, a military cartographer. Jones is a highly intelligent man, educated at a village church school. Yet Crossman, himself risen from the ranks, sees nothing of his former self in Jones and believes the sergeant is reaching too high. The two men do not get on. Then Crossman meets the Maharaja of Rajputan who offers him a third companion on his journey to the Punjab, a tall and sullen Rajput, who has no desire to be the bodyguard of a British officer. The unlikely trio undergo several trials and adventures before being swept up in the Indian Mutiny of 1857 and the march to relieve Delhi. Reaching the capital of the old Mughal emperors, they take part in the siege and eventual assault on the city: a long and bloody battle of attrition.

From his bruising first experience of giving witness to securing Britain's first ever double-supergrass, Dick Kirby describes with a strong dose of humour the trials and tribulations of over twenty years spent in the Serious Crime Squad and Flying Squad. Not for him the flabby compromises shown to today's criminals. Kirby's methods lead straight into the underworld, meeting informants in often dangerous situations, gathering together intelligence before hitting the criminals hard, either when they're carrying out a crime or hauling them from their beds at an unwholesomely early hour. Whether it's the Kings Cross job that became the worst kept secret in London, or the case of the unhappy bigamist who burst into tears, Kirby tells things the only way he knows - no punches pulled. His tales of how life in the force used to be in the good old days are sometimes shocking, sometimes blackly funny, and always compelling.

'Those who haven't sampled the terrific true tales penned by this retired detective are in for a page-turning experience to remember.' Joseph Wambaugh, author of The Choirboys.
'A unique insight into the workings of the Flying Squad as it used to be.' John O'Connor, former Flying Squad Commander

Horror, as the headless torso of a child is pulled out of the Tyne. Rumours of black magic, ritual killings and a paedophile ring abound as Operation Headhunter launches against a background of personal tension within the force. When Interpol intervenes, the hunt is on for a serial killer.
Archaeologist Arnold Landon is drawn unwittingly into the inquiry. As the net closes in, his life is in danger and he becomes the target for a ruthless murderer who pursues him to an explosive climax.

Fifteenth in the popular Arnold Landon mystery series

'Strong, commonsensical prose; adroit use of archaeological know-how with north-east locations as fresh as the wind from the moors.' Literary Review
'Eminently readable.' Birmingham Post

It is 1370, right in the middle of the Anglo-French conflict, the Hundred Years War. In danger of losing the Aquitaine territory, England sends Geoffrey Chaucer, protégé of the king’s son, to France. As a poet on a diplomatic mission, Chaucer must persuade one of the most important noblemen of the region to remain loyal to England's king. The problem is that the noble, Henri, Comte de Guyac, whose wife Chaucer had previously fallen in love with when he was held prisoner by Henri, is not exactly neutral in his feelings for Chaucer. Wondering how he will feel when he meets with Rosamund, the Comte’s wife, Chaucer reaches de Guyac’s castle and is greeted by turmoil. There are factions ready to undermine his mission, which is further complicated when Henri is killed during a boar hunt. Chaucer soon realizes the Comte’s death is no hunting accident and that he must solve the murder before returning home. Enemies and suspects abound. Wanting only to return to England and get back to his work, Chaucer finds himself in the midst of a brightly colorful puzzle that turns him into a fugitive in a foreign country, unsure who his friends and enemies really are.

From the author of the award-winning Mamur Zapt books, the first in a new series introducing Seymour of Special Branch and set in the British embassies and Consulates of Europe in the early 1900s.

Trieste in 1906 is one of the greatest seaports in the world. It is the Austrian Empire's main outlet to the Mediterranean and beyond. But various nationalist movements are threatening to pull the place apart. The heavy-handed militarist regime has trouble keeping a lid on it, the secret police are everywhere, and now the British counsel has gone missing. But was this the result of some fiaison, which frankly it's best not to enquire into too closely? Or could he have fallen foul of the secret police, or the even more secret revolutionaries? And does it matter? Well, yes it does. For Britain has commercial interests in the port and there have been rumours of too close a relationship between the Consul and some of these. Could something have gone wrong? In which case, it would be better to find out about it quick. The Austrian police are of course investigating. But can it be left to them - the Foreign Office would prefer this matter to be handled with sensitivity so perhaps it would be wise to send someone out. Someone very special from Special Branch, perhaps? Capable of speaking the relevant languages? Special Branch is, alas, not overbrimming with linguistic talent. But there is one man...He is, unfortunately, not very sound. Capable enough, and rather a good officer but... not British. Not straightforwardly so, anyhow. Born here, lived here but...from the family of one of those East End immigrant families from somewhere in Europe. He's all right, but with these blokes you never can tell. You can never quite rely on them. A bit dubious really. Just the man for the job.

From the Author
When I wrote The Laundrymen, I said there was $100-$300 BILLION worth of dirty money circling the globe, looking to get clean. A few years later in The Merger, I put the figure at $300-$500 BILLION. Now, in The Sink, the figure is $600-$700 BILLION. Call that the turnover of Transnational Organised Crime, PLC. But dirty money looking to get laundered represents a mere 10% of the wealth hidden offshore. That means a staggering $6-$7 TRILLION is stashed anonymously in island nations. It’s hidden behind duck blinds, purposely constructed by nations selling secrecy. This book is about that secrecy, and about those nations, and also about the people and businesses --- from drug traffickers to terrorists to the many Enron’s around the globe --- whose very existence depends on stealth. This book is about how the real world works.