Mulholland / Strand Magazine Short

From legendary noir novelist Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins, a short story in which world-famous private eye Mike Hammer repays a debt to a dying police chief, proving loyalty can be as deadly as deception. A legendary and retired police chief lies in a New York hospital bed, visited by two strangers: the first is ex-cop-turned-PI Mike Hammer, whose life was saved more than once by the old man. To the detective, the chief gives a mysterious key. The second visitor murders the chief, mere days before he would have died from natural causes. Someone is trying to tie up loose ends, and Mike Hammer is the only one with the evidence and calculation to ferret him or her out. "So Long, Chief" by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins is one of 20 short stories within Mulholland Books's Strand Originals series, featuring thrilling stories by the biggest names in mystery from the Strand Magazine archives. View the full series list at mulhollandbooks.com and listen to them all! Mickey Spillane (1918-2006) was an American crime writer. Many of his novels featured the detective Mike Hammer. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Spillane sold his first story to a pulp magazine by the time he graduated from high school. He served as a fighter pilot in the army air corps in World War II, and published his first novel, I, the Jury, in 1947. With over two hundred twenty-five million copies of his books sold internationally, Spillane ranks as one of the world's most popular mystery writers. Max Allan Collins is an award-winning writer of mysteries, comics, thrillers, screenplays, and historical fiction. His graphic novel Road to Perdition was the basis for the 2002 Academy Award-winning film by the same name. He collaborated with Mickey Spillane on several projects and is completing a number of the Mike Hammer novels that Spillane left unfinished. Collins lives in Iowa with his wife, author Barbara Collins.

In a city where a girl can go missing for years, a retired New York cop investigates a gruesome crime. Tank is a retired New York City cop coping with two teenaged problems: one is his recently-orphaned nephew, and the other is a girl whose decomposed body was found in a cooler off the Henry Hudson Parkway. Determined to bring the girl's killer to justice, Tank hits the streets of upper Manhattan, chasing leads and searching for clues about her tragically short life. "Lost Angel" by Lorenzo Carcaterra is one of 20 short stories within Mulholland Books's Strand Originals series, featuring thrilling stories by the biggest names in mystery from the Strand Magazine archives. View the full series list at Mulholland Books and listen to them all! Lorenzo Carcaterra is a journalist and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of several novels set in New York City. One of those novels, Sleepers, was adapted into a popular film starring Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro, and Dustin Hoffman. Carcaterra lives in New York City with his two children and and an Olde English Bulldog named Gus.

A reclusive, haunted Dr. Frankenstein and his assistant are visited by a strange, persistent stranger in this haunting short story by R.L. Stine.It's a dark and stormy night, and the new, unnamed assistant to the penniless Dr. Victor Frankenstein answers the front door's knock. There stands a stranger, who has managed to track down the elusive doctor and forces a wager: reanimate the man's dead brother or face exposure to the community at large. But who is gaming whom--will the massive corpse actually be revived? "A Sad Mistake" by R.L. Stine is one of 20 short stories within Mulholland Books's Strand Originals series, featuring thrilling stories by the biggest names in mystery from the Strand Magazine archives. View the full series list at mulhollandbooks.com and listen to them all!

From the author of the Inspector Morse series, a short story about a freelance investigator and what should be a simple case. Mrs. Isobel Rodgers is an investigator's perfect client: beautiful, wealthy, and offering a straightfoward assignment. Mrs. Rodgers suspects her husband of an affair, and it's up to the investigator to determine the object of Mr. Rodger's affections. For someone with brilliant deductive powers, this should be an open-and-shut case-but Mrs. Rodgers may know more than she's letting on. "The Other Half" by Colin Dexter is one of 20 short stories within Mulholland Books's Strand Originals series, featuring thrilling stories by the biggest names in mystery from the Strand Magazine archives. View the full series list at mulhollandbooks.com and listen to them all! Colin Dexter is an English crime writer known for his Inspector Morse novels. These novels were adapted into a TV series, which ran from 1987-2001. In 2000 Dexter was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his services to literature. He currently lives in Oxford with his wife.

From New York Times bestselling author Philip Kerr, comes a story of a young man growing up in colonial America.No one knows when "something infernal" crept into the heart of young Master Edgar, a well-bred British orphan in the hands of a cool stepfather in 19th century Richmond, Virginia, and under the care of the home's educated and proper slave, Scipio. Was it when his actress mother died, years after moving Edgar and his brother from England to America? Was it during his strange education at the hands of the calculating Scipio? Or was it when he plotted another boy's death so that he could gain entry, through the boy's grave, into the underworld? "The Pocket Handkerchief" by Philip Kerr is one of 20 short stories within Mulholland Books's Strand Originals series, featuring thrilling stories by the most legendary authors in the Strand Magazine archives. View the full series list at mulhollandbooks.com and listen to them all!

From the renowned American playwright Tennessee Williams, a glimpse of college life on the eve of graduation.It's the last day of the academic year, and the students of a small, mid-western university are preparing for a bacchanalian celebration called Crazy Night. Our chaperone for the evening is Phil, a freshman on the verge of flunking out, who roves the fraternities in search of beer, women, and the meaning of life. It's just after the Great Crash, with Prohibition in sobering effect-a bleak time for college graduates and drop-outs, who have one more night to do everything, before they enter a world that offers them nothing. "Crazy Night" by Tennessee Williams is one of 20 short stories within Mulholland Books's Strand Originals series, featuring thrilling stories by the most legendary authors in the Strand Magazine archives. View the full series list at mulhollandbooks.com and listen to them all!

A masterful short story from the acclaimed author of Catch-22, about one long night of anticipation.In a small town in the American South, it is night in the middle of the twentieth century. Carter, a high-school teacher and football coach in the newly desegregated schools, is awaiting news of two of his students who have been in a serious altercation. Outside the building where Carter has kept his vigil, a crowd of townspeople have also gathered to keep watch. Carter must choose how much he wants to participate in the spectacle, and how much he can afford to keep his distance. "Almost Like Christmas" by Joseph Heller is one of 20 short stories within Mulholland Books's Strand Originals series, featuring thrilling stories by the biggest names in mystery from the Strand Magazine archives. View the full series list at mulhollandbooks.com and listen to them all!

A beguiling story of an adventurous traveler, from the Edgar Award-winning author of the bestselling Deputy Charlie Hood series.Fresh out of college, a young man is hired by a high-end travel agency. His fears that he might be in over his head prove to be well-founded when he is dispatched to a potential new destination, Playa Amazonia. Twenty hours of traveling leads him to a luxurious hotel, the world's most beautiful beach--and an encounter with a highly unusual invasive species."Amazonia" by T. Jefferson Parker is one of 20 short stories within Mulholland Books's Strand Originals series, featuring thrilling stories by the biggest names in mystery from the Strand Magazine archives. View the full series list at mulhollandbooks.com and listen to them all!

From the internationally #1 bestselling novelist comes a tale of small time criminals on a new grift that might cost them everything.Peppard and Jarman have a new grift that seems simple enough: Go to the airport. Imitate a hired driver by copying a name that they see in the crowd. Collect the passenger before the real drive does, take him to a secluded area and rob them. It seems like a simple plan to make some quick cash for these two amateurs--that is, until they finally meet a pro."Meet and Greet" by Ian Rankin is one of 20 short stories within Mulholland Books's Strand Originals series, featuring thrilling stories by the biggest names in mystery from the Strand Magazine archives. View the full series list at mulhollandbooks.com and read them all!

A man convicted of murdering his wife finds an unlikely champion in this short story by the bestselling author of The Dante Club. Our narrator is a man convicted of first-degree murder with only one person on his side: Ginnifer. After seeing him on TV and becoming obsessed with the case, Ginnifer devotes herself to overturning his sentence. Eventually, Ginnifer's friendship turns into something more -- but the closer they become, the more the relationship turns into a prison of its own. "Ginnifer" by Matthew Pearl is one of 20 short stories within Mulholland Books's Strand Originals series, featuring thrilling stories by the biggest names in mystery from the Strand Magazine archives.

Ray Bradbury's strange, magical, and unsettling story of a grown boy bent on understanding the man behind the beard, red coat, and hat at his local department store. An adolescent boy stands patiently in the back of the long line of children waiting to sit on the lap of their local Santa Claus. Why is he there? What does he intend? What mysterious hopes does he hold for this holiday season? The answer arrives following a cryptic interaction between the two, when the reality of the boy's awareness and the goals of the man in the red suit become clear. "Dear Santa" by Ray Bradbury is one of 20 short stories within Mulholland Books's Strand Originals series, featuring thrilling stories by the biggest names in mystery from the Strand Magazine archives. View the full series list at mulhollandbooks.com and listen to them all! Ray Bradbury, who died in 2012 at the age of ninety-one, inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create. A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and close to fifty books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, teleplays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated writers of our time. His groundbreaking works include Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes.