Hailed by critic Anthony Boucher as "one of the best detective stories of modern times," this classic tale by Grand Master Dorothy Salisbury Davis combines suspense and psychological insight as a priest and a police detective both race to find a self-confessed murderer before he is compelled to kill again. "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned ..." Father Duffy has heard many confessions through the years, but none quite so disturbing as the one he's heard tonight. A young man enters the confessional just as the priest is readying to leave for the evening; he's distraught that he has killed a woman in a paroxysm of uncontrollable rage—and he's still wielding the hammer he used to do the deed. Father Duffy tries to convince the young man to turn himself in to the police, but he flees just as suddenly as he had appeared. When the priest learns the next day that an escort was found bludgeoned to death on the East Side, he sets out to search for the troubled confessor. Meanwhile, Sergeant Ben Goldsmith of the NYPD is drawn deep into the official investigation. Neither is aware that the other is searching for the murderer, and both hope against hope that they're able to find the killer before he strikes again. "A simmering tour de force of detection from both ends of the trail."— Kirkus Reviews

Scandal and slayings among Regency London’s elite . . . Refusing to stand by while the wealthy men of London prey on their powerless scullery maids and other young women, Miss Emmeline St. Germaine has made it her mission to rescue the victims and threaten the men at dagger-point to cease their depravities. But mere hours after she pays just such a visit to a prominent knight, he’s found murdered and all of London is aghast. Did the man—or woman—who murdered the knight know of her visit? Facing scandal and the ruination of her family, Emmeline must solve the crime before she and her work are exposed. But there are powerful forces at work to silence her—or worse, lead her to the hangman’s noose for a crime she did not commit . . . “[An] outstanding series launch. . . . Hamilton expertly balances the page-turning detection with the story of a hypocritical society where women, whether they are scullery maids or orphans, rarely get to make their own decisions.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Hamilton’s novel will appeal to fans of Anne Perry’s Charlotte and Pitt mysteries.” —Booklist “A simply riveting and compulsive page-turner of a read from cover to cover. A deftly scripted mystery with more twists and turns than a Coney Island roller coaster.” —Midwest Book Review

DIVDIVPraised by the New Yorker as “excellent,” this mystery novel that features a cat as a murder suspect launched the acclaimed literary career of Grand Master of crime fiction Dorothy Salisbury Davis/div For generations, bitter old Andy Mattson terrified the children of Hillside and puzzled his adult neighbors. How did the scowling old codger, who seemed to spend his life stroking his cat on the front porch, support himself? How did he pass the days? And why did he die such a gruesome death?DIV The police find Andy dead on his sofa, covered in blood, eyes wide with fear. The most likely suspect is the dead man’s cat, a howling beast that resembles a trapped badger. But as Chief of Police Waterman digs into the strange death, he finds that beneath Hillside’s sunny surface runs a river of hate. An old man was murdered, and it seems many people in town had motives to commit the crime./divDIV/div/div

Mrs Gentle has fooled everyone into thinking she is as sweet as she sounds - Gentle by name and gentle by nature. But local constable Hamish Macbeth isn't fooled. He believes this little old lady is actually quite sly and vicious, but he's in a minority of one. Or is he? When Mrs Gentle dies under unusual circumstances the villagers of Lochdubh are shocked and outraged. Chief Detective Inspector Blair suspects that members of her family may be involved but Hamish thinks there's much more to the story - and is willing to get rough to solve the riddle of Mrs Gentle's mysterious demise.

Philo Vance, the snobbish art collector who happens to be the longtime friend of District Attorney John Markham, once more finds himself drawn into a criminal investigation. Margaret Odell, the beautiful and talented theatrical singer nicknamed “The Canary,” has been strangled during the night, and from the very beginning there are signs that nothing in the case is quite what it appears to be. Accompanied once more by Sergeant Heath, the unlikely trio struggle to make sense of the evidence. S. S. Van Dine found even more success with this novel, his sophomore outing as a mystery writer. Spending months on the bestseller lists, it was also the first of his books to be made into a movie, with William Powell starring as Philo Vance. At a time when a majority of successful mystery writers were English, Van Dine’s novels evoked an atmosphere that was distinctly American, with Vance’s cultured perspective colliding with Markham’s pragmatic sensibilities and Heath’s no-nonsense street smarts. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

DIVDIVIn Grand Master of crime fiction Dorothy Salisbury Davis’s third Julie Hayes mystery, the intrepid former actress and amateur sleuth returns to Broadway to catch a killer/div Julie Hayes has come up in the world. Her days as a starving actress behind her, she is married to a globe-trotting journalist, keeping up with her friends from her fortune-telling days, and celebrating a year of gainful employment at the New York Daily. But one of her colleagues is found shot dead in his office—and Julie may have been the last person to see him alive.DIV With a reporter’s nose for a scoop, Julie investigates the violent death of one of New York’s most infamous—and despised—gossip columnists. But his is not the only troubling death in the past few weeks. A Broadway publicist took his own life by jumping from the George Washington Bridge. Could the two deaths be connected? Determined to find out, Julie gets caught in a violent drama of lies, scandal, and deadly revenge that lights up the Great White Way./divDIV Lullaby of Murder is the third novel in Dorothy Salisbury Davis’s Julie Hayes mystery series, which also includes A Death in The Life, Scarlet Night, and The Habit of Fear, as well as the stories “The Puppet” and “Justina” in the collection In the Still of the Night./divDIV/div/div

DIVDIVGrand Master of crime fiction Dorothy Salisbury Davis introduces one of her most winning heroines, Julie Hayes, a former actress turned fortune-teller who abruptly learns there is murder in her future/div Twenty-five-year-old Julie Hayes is feeling overshadowed by her globe-trotting journalist husband and looking for some excitement and direction in life. On what amounts to a dare, she sets herself up as “Friend Julie,” a storefront fortune-teller in Manhattan’s seedy Theater District.DIV Now Julie finds herself concerned with the lives of the neighborhood eccentrics, old friends from the Actors Forum, and street characters such as Goldie the pimp, a wealthy gangster, and a young prostitute who wants Julie to help her escape The Life. But a man is found murdered in the girl’s room—a man Julie can identify for the police. Thrust into the investigation of the man’s death, Julie discovers a new direction for her life, but her tarot cards reveal a future she might not live to see./divDIV A Death in The Life is the first novel in Dorothy Salisbury Davis’s Julie Hayes mystery series, which also includes Scarlet Night, Lullaby of Murder, and The Habit of Fear, as well as the stories “The Puppet” and “Justina” in the collection In the Still of the Night./div/div