Full Measure

This anthology was edited by Michael Connelly. His essay is called "Once Upon a Midnight Dreary."

A collection of stories by thriller master Edgar Allan Poe with essays by beloved and bestselling writers, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Poe's birth. Authors involved include Michael Connelly, Jeffery Deaver, Nelson DeMille, Tess Gerritsen, Sue Grafton, Stephen King, Lisa Scottoline, Laura Lippman, and twelve others.

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Few have crafted stories as haunting as those by Edgar Allan Poe. Collected here to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Poe's birth are sixteen of his best tales accompanied by twenty essays from beloved authors, including T. Jefferson Parker, Lawrence Block, Sara Paretsky, and Joseph Wambaugh, among others, on how Poe has changed their life and work.

Michael Connelly recounts the inspiration he drew from Poe's poetry while researching one of his books. Stephen King reflects on Poe's insight into humanity's dark side in "The Genius of 'The Tell-Tale Heart.'" Jan Burke recalls her childhood terror during late-night reading sessions. Tess Gerritsen, Nelson DeMille, and others remember the classic B-movie adaptations of Poe's tales. And in "The Thief," Laurie R. King complains about how Poe stole all the good ideas… or maybe he just thought of them first.

Powerful and timeless, In the Shadow of the Master is a celebration of one of the greatest literary minds of all time.

The Mystery Writers of America, founded in 1945, is the foremost organization for mystery writers and other professionals dedicated to the field of crime writing.

This time around, Hood is running the California-Mexico border with the ATF, searching for the iron river – the massive and illegal flow of handguns and automatic weapons that fuels the bloody cartel wars south of the border. Gunrunners by nature aren't exactly ethical, but the lengths they'll go to, and the innocent lives they'll risk, are shocking even to Hood. Most shocking of all is the close personal connection Hood finds wrapped up in events south of the border – a connection that shakes him to his core.

Сердце Америки – Нью-Йорк, а сердце Нью-Йорка – Манхэттен. Оно бьется круглые сутки, не останавливаясь ни на секунду. Самым причудливым, а зачастую и весьма драматическим образом здесь пересекаются судьбы самых разных людей. И иногда, просто выйдя в магазин за хлебом, можно оказаться свидетелем невероятных событий…

Совершенно случайно в Центральном парке Манхэттена встретились пожилой мужчина и молодая женщина. В разговоре выяснилось, что женщина пришла почтить память подруги, погибшей здесь ровно год назад; убийцу так и не поймали. Мужчина предложил ей найти тихое уединенное место, где никто не сможет помешать ее скорби. И получилось так, что они вышли прямо к месту того убийства. Где прошлогодняя история получила совершенно неожиданную развязку, а загадка преступления – ошеломительную разгадку…

„Има един случай, който не ми дава покой нощем — единственият, който ми се опря. Случай, който винаги присъства в съзнанието ми и ме изяжда отвътре. Няма значение, че от тогава са минали десет години. Екзекутирана бе невинна жена. Трупът на Кристофър Томас бе открит полуразложен в средновековен уред за мъчения. Съдът набързо реши, че в пристъп на ярост съпругата му го е убила…“

Инспектор Джон Нън е убеден, че е допусната съдбоносна грешка. Разрешаването на този случай е последният му шанс да изкупи и собствените си грешки, но зловещите сили зад смъртта на Кристофър няма да се спрат пред нищо, за да накарат миналото да замълчи завинаги.

Двайсет и шест майстори на трилъра пишат по една или две глави в този уникален литературен експеримент. В резултат на общите им усилия се наслаждаваме на един експлозивен екшън, който може да бъде създаден само от най-добрите автори в жанра.

Matt Stromsoe has come a long way since his wife and son were killed in an explosion meant for him. Wounded severely in both body and spirit, Stromsoe gave up the last thing that held any meaning for him — his job on the police force — and proceeded to hit rock bottom, hard.

That was a lifetime ago, and finally the spiral of personal destruction and despair seems to have come to an end. The man responsible for the murders — Stromsoe’s best friend from childhood and his wife’s old lover — is behind bars and Stromsoe has put the past behind him, rescued from the abyss by a former colleague who offers him a job at his private security firm. Stromsoe’s first assignment is to protect local television personality Frankie Hatfield from a stalker. But the further Stromsoe is drawn into this case, the more he finds that the net of intrigue is wide and ultimately leads back to the man who killed his family. As events conspire against him, Stromsoe learns that prison is no safeguard against revenge.

Roland Ford — once a cop, then a marine, now a private investigator — is good at finding people. But when he’s asked to locate Air Force veteran Clay Hickman, he realizes he’s been drawn into something deep and dark. He knows war, having served as a Marine in first Fallujah; he also knows personal pain, as only two years have passed since his wife, Justine, died. What he doesn’t know is why a shroud of secrecy hangs over the disappearance of Clay Hickman — and why he’s getting a different story from everyone involved. To begin with, there’s Sequoia, the teenage woman who helped Clay escape; she’s smart enough to fend off Ford’s questions but impetuous enough to be on the run with an armed man. Then there’s Paige Hulet, Clay’s doctor, who clearly cares deeply for his welfare but is impossible to read, even as she inspires in Ford the first desire he has felt since his wife’s death. And there’s Briggs Spencer, the proprietor of the mental institution who is as enigmatic as he is brash, and ambitious to the point of being ruthless. What could Clay possibly know to make this search so desperate? What began as just a job becomes a life-or-death obsession for Ford, pitting him against immensely powerful and treacherous people and forcing him to contend with chilling questions about truth, justice, and the American way.

When Christopher Thomas, a curator at San Francisco's Museum of Fine Arts, is murdered and his decaying body is found in an iron maiden in Berlin, his wife Rosemary Thomas is the prime suspect.

Long suffering under Christopher's unfaithful ways, Rosemary is tried, convicted and executed. Ten years later, Jon Nunn, the detective who cracked the case, becomes convinced that the wrong person was put to death. Along with financier Tony Olsen, he plans to gather everyone who was there the night Christopher died and finally uncover the truth about what happened that fateful evening. Could it have been the ne'er do well brother Peter Hausen, interested in his sister's trust fund having got through his own; the curatorial assistant Justine Olengard, used and betrayed by Christopher; the artist Belle who turned down his advances only to see her career suffer a setback; or someone else all together?

No Rest for the Dead is a thrilling, page-turning accomplishment that only the very best thriller writers could achieve.

Любознательный человек часто задается вопросами, ответов на которые не существует. Просто потому, что проверить, «что будет, если…», невозможно. Кто победил бы в битве — Александр Македонский или Чингисхан? Кто быстрее и изящнее разобрался бы в тайне преступления — Шерлок Холмс или Эркюль Пуаро?.. Но на сей раз звезды современного мирового детектива и триллера воплотили в жизнь уникальную задумку — свели под одной обложкой главных персонажей своих романов. Впервые фантазии авторов сталкивают лицом к лицу Джека Ричера и Ника Хеллера, Грея Пирса и Коттона Малоуна, Линкольна Райма и Лукаса Дэвенпорта — кумиров миллионов читателей по всему миру. Противостояние героев — и их создателей… Кто победит?