The silver blade

Charles Edmonds Walk

Summary

About six o'clock on an evening in the early part of a recent November, the drowsy quiet sometimes pervading police headquarters was rudely broken by the precipitate entrance of a young man, who made his way hurriedly to the door marked, in neat gilt letters, "CHIEF OF POLICE."
In addition to the reserve squad, whose vigil never ends, many other officers were present in the lazy transition stage between going on and going off duty. The attention of them all was immediately attracted to the stranger, and held by his extraordinary manner, from the instant he became visible in the flickering gas-lights until he finally disappeared.
In the first place, he was not such a one as usually comes to the city-hall basement, either voluntarily or when haled hither by one of the law's myrmidons; for he was fashionably, even fastidiously, attired, with a marked preciosity of manner which would have been even more noticeable under ordinary conditions.
But it was not over any idiosyncrasy of apparel or customary detail of personality that the aroused curiosity of the officers l

Available since: 09/01/2023.

Other books that might interest you

Pushing Daisy

Christopher O'Halloran

Daisy did not get the life she deserved. Despite her compassion, nothing she did made a difference in the world. With her through it all was her selfish, bitter husband, working a job he hated while they lived off her income as a nurse.  
The peace Daisy has carried in life does not follow her to the grave. A dead, bloodshot eye glowers from a dark bathroom. Below it, her deranged smile. Daisy, a mad corpse, haunts their townhouse. 
She’s back and intent on punishing Roger Darling for his mistreatment. Her death shook him enough to brave his faults, but this improved man does her no good now. He can try to escape into the arms of others, but at the end of the day, we all return home. To keep his new friends and maintain his sanity, Roger must help Daisy move on before her violence touches everything he’s built. She won’t leave on her own.  
Not for a second time.

Show book

A Margin for Murder

Lauren Elliott

Bookshop owner Addie Greyborne must put the brakes on a killer after a death occurs behind the wheel of a bookmobile . . . 
 
 
 
Addie leaves her Greyborne Harbor bookstore, Beyond the Page Books and Curios, in the capable hands of her assistant while she travels to the neighboring town of Pen Hollow to attend a book sale at a library that is closing due to lack of funding. But the real find is a bookmobile bus, which she's excited to refit as a traveling bookstore to hit all the summer festivals. The bookmobile also holds a surprising treasure: several classic first editions and an early edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses. 
 
 
  
But before the bookmobile can be delivered to Addie, a fatal car crash occurs. When an autopsy reveals poison in the victim's system and the first editions go missing, it's up to Addie to determine what would drive someone to murder. If she's not careful, however, she may be the next one to be dead on arrival . . .

Show book

To the Power of Three

Anonymous

“Powerful….A gripping tale that is a mystery only in the same sense as To Kill a Mockingbird was….Brilliant, insightful, moving.” 
—Chicago Sun-Times 
There are excellent reasons why New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman has won the Edgar®, Agatha, Anthony, Nero Wolfe, and every other major award the mystery genre has to offer. To the Power of Three is just one of those reasons. Lippman’s brilliant and disturbing tale of three inseparable high school girlfriends in an affluent Baltimore suburb who share dark secrets literally until death, To the Power of Three is this “writing powerhouse” (USA Today), who has “exploded the boundaries of the mystery genre to become one of the most significant social realists of our time” (Madison Smartt Bell) operating at the very top of her game. Not merely crime fiction, but fiction that gets to the deep psychological, emotional, and human roots of a terrible crime, Lippman’s novel is one that will not be easily forgotten—a must read for fans of Kate Atkinson, Tana French, Jodi Picoult, and Harlan Coben

Show book

The Women

Jacqui Rose

Welcome to HMP Ashcroft. An institution run by a corrupt governor whose determination to impose his will at any cost will have far-reaching consequences on all the inmates.Within these walls, friendships are forged that will last beyond a sentence, but some inmates can turn in the blink of an eye, because that’s all part of being locked up. In here you are kept from your loved ones and forced into a surrogate family with women you wouldn’t even look at on the outside, let alone call friends. But at Ashcroft, Alliances can mean everything.Each one of these women has their own story to tell and their own penance to deal with. But whilst they fight for their rights on the inside, who is looking after their family, their friends and children on the outside. Whilst they battle to survive in a closed off world what’s happening in the real world.At Ashcroft there’s always a price to be paid, and for some it’s high, but these women are prepared to pay anyway they can . . .Jacqui Rose is back with another hard-hitting gangland thriller. Now collaborating with Martina Cole on her new novel Loyalty.

Show book

The Harmless Series Boxed Set

Meli Raine

Four years ago, presidential candidate's daughter Lindsay thought Drew betrayed her, but now he's back to prove himself. Will she let him? The last person Lindsay Bosworth expected to be her head of security as she left the meditation center/mental institution she'd called home for the last four years after a violent attack was Drew Foster, her ex-fiancee. The guy who did nothing while three of his friends violated her on streaming video. Not one damn thing. As her parents reveal the real reason she's been released, and Lindsay's life continues to be in danger, she doesn't know who to trust. And if she gets it wrong, she’s dead. Drew proves himself, time and again, saving her from certain danger as she draws closer to him, hating herself for conflicting feelings so strong she can’t deny them. But when her attackers play a cat-and-mouse game that reignites old fury, Lindsay decides she’s done being a victim. Time to make everyone pay. Because revenge is never harmless. - The Harmless Series Boxed Set includes all three books in USA Today bestselling author Meli Raine’s. It is the complete trilogy: A Harmless Little Game A Harmless Little Ruse A Harmless Little Plan. If you like unreliable narrators, taut psychological suspense, a dash of political thriller and second chance romances where there seems to be no way the redeem the main characters - but there is! - then this is your series. Get the complete series audiobook, narrated by Audie award winners Andi Arndt and Sebastian York, and give your ears a thrill!

Show book

Choke

Stuart Woods

A standalone novel from Stuart Woods, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Stone Barrington and Holly Barker series... 
Murder is not a spectator sport. 
Chuck Chandler has choked on more than one occasion—first as a pro tennis player at Wimbledon, then as a womanizing coach at posh tennis clubs around the country. Now at Key West's Old Racquet Club, Chuck gets involved with the wrong married woman—the enticing Clare Carras, married to an enigmatic older man—and soon he is in way over his head. 
Enter Tommy Sculley, a retired New York homicide detective who has just joined the Key West force, and his young green partner, Daryl Haynes, who turns out to be smarter than he looks. Up to their necks in an investigation of a bizarre apparent homicide, the two detectives barely keep afloat in murky waters. Events take them from the Florida Keys to Los Angeles and back, as a plot emerges that involves not only the dangerous Clare, but a furious West Coast mob boss determined to get back what is his at any cost.

Show book