Mammoth Books: From history to manga, true crime to sci-fi, these anthologies feature top-name contributors and award-winning editors.

Leading anthologist Maxim Jakubowski presents the very best in crime writing from around the world - 40 short stories from an all-star line-up of international writers. They cover the full spectrum of crime fiction, from noir and thrillers, to whodunnits and procedurals, with settings that include Italy, Cuba, Scandinavia, Russia, USA, Japan, Germany, Mexico, France, Italy, Spain and the UK. Among the writers presented are: Ian Rankin, bestselling author of compelling, cerebral crime fiction set in Edinburgh, featuring the much-loved Inspector Rebus. John Mortimer, the English barrister and writer, famous for his much-loved fictional character Horace Rumpole of the Bailey. Boris Akunin, whose eccentric characters and surprising, inventive plots have earned him a reputation as one of the finest contemporary writers of classic crime fiction. Mark Billingham, whose series of taut procedural thrillers featuring London policeman Tom Thorne have won him numerous fans. Giorgio Faletti, author of the 5 million copy seller I Kill. Jo Nesbo, a hugely succesful Norwegian writer with a series featuring Detective Harry Hole, set in Oslo. Jeffrey Deaver, one of the very best US crime writers. His psychological thrillers feautring Lincoln Rhyme have been bestsellers around the world. Ruth Rendell, one of the UK's most respected crime writers.

Updated and expanded edition of the fullest ever collective investigation into Jack the Ripper and the Whitechapel Murders. This volume collects not just all the key factual evidence but also 20 different arguments as to the identity of Jack the Ripper, such as that advanced by Patricia Cornwell. Contributions are from the world's leading Ripperologists, including William Beadle, Melvyn Fairclough, Martin Fido, Shirley Harrison, James Tully and Colin Wilson. The identity of Jack the Ripper has plagued professional historians, criminologists, writers and amateur enthusiasts. The many suspects include Montague John Druitt, Walter Sickert, Aaron Kosminski, Michael Ostrog, William Henry Bury, Dr Tumblety and James Maybrick. The only certainty is that Ripperologist have not found an invididual on whom they can all agree. The essays are supported by a detailed chronology, extensive bibliography and filmography.

Pulp fiction has been looked down on as a guilty pleasure, but it offers the perfect form of entertainment: the very best storytelling filled with action, surprises, sound and fury. In short, all the exhiliration of a roller-coaster ride. The 1920s in America saw the proliferation of hundreds of dubiously named but thrillingly entertaining pulp magazines in America – Black Mask, Amazing, Astounding, Spicy Stories, Ace-High, Detective Magazine, Dare-Devil Aces. It was in these luridly-coloured publications, printed on the cheapest pulp paper, that the first gems began to appear. The one golden rule for writers of pulp fiction was to adhere to the art of storytelling. Each story had to have a beginning, an end, economically-etched characters, but plenty going on, both in terms of action and emotions. Pulp magazines were the TV of their day, plucking readers from drab lives and planting them firmly in thrilling make-believe, successors to the Victorian penny dreadfuls of writers such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Dickens. These stories exemplify the best of crime and mystery pulp fiction – its zest, speed, rhythm, verve and commitment to straightforward storytelling – spanning seven decades of popular writing.

A reference and overview of the genre of crime fiction, primarily covering the 1950s onwards, although major earlier writers, such as Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler, also have entries.

The biggest and best collection of unsolved murder and mystery cases - updated and expanded. This compelling volume presents thirty-five of the most intriguing crime cases that still defy solution, as reported by leading authors and journalists in the field of crime writing. Expanded and updated, this new edition includes the mystery of 'Jack the Stripper' who preyed on prostitutes in Hammersmith in the 1960s, the death of Starr Faithful whose young body was found on Long Island, the vicious murder of Oxford nurse Janet Brown in her own home in 1995, and the case of Lizzie Borden who, according to the rhyme, 'took an axe, And gave her mother forty whacks'. Other cases include: Colin Wilson and the 'Zodiac' killer of California; Russell Miller and the obsession with the Black Dahlia; Rebecca West on the killing of Stanley Setty, and the man who contracted out of humanity; Brian Masters on the killing of Rachel Nickell; Kenneth Alsop on who shot 'Jake' Lingle, and his connection with Al Capone; Philip Sugden on that most famous Victorian enigma, Jack the Ripper; Sydney Horley on the woman who was cleared of killing her husband, and went on to become a Broadway star. Nearly all the cases involve one or more acts of murder, and all are left with a question mark hanging over them with real-life whodunits that offer a continuing challenge to all who find fascination in the criminal mind.

Gathers mysteries by Bentley, Charteris, Sayers, Christie, Keating, Collins, Crispin, Chesterton, Innes, Chandler, Simenon, Fraser, James, Queen, and others.

Over 60 gripping accounts tracking the dark side of rock 'n' roll from the early days of the drugs-and-drink culture, and the birth of rock 'n' roll, through The Beatles, Stones, Sex Pistols, Madonna, Kurt Cobain and Oasis, to Amy Winehouse, Pete Doherty and other stars of the current rock-music scene. From trashed hotel rooms to cars in swimming pools, all rock 'n' roll's excesses are here, including murder and sexual deviancy, surprising brushes with the law that the stars thought they'd kept quiet, early and tragic deaths, drug overdoses, robbery, mis-marriages and groupies by the truckload

A bumper collection of the most outrageous, but absolutely true, news stories.

"When his hand reappeared, he was holding neither cigarettes nor keys. He was holding a small black revolver that glittered evilly in the diffused light admitted by the curtains, and his hand was steady as he touched it to the temple of the sleeping man in the bed..." Murder, kidnapping, robbery, smuggling, industrial sabotage and international terrorism -- Mahboob Chaudri, a Pakistani native working as a police officer in the Middle Eastern island emirate of Bahrain, tackles all these crimes and more...and solves them with a charming mixture of logic, wisdom, wit, and heart. From 1984 to 1986, seven short Chaudri stories by Josh Pachter appeared in the pages of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and three more were later published in other places. In his classic anthology, "The Ethnic Detectives," noted author/critic Bill Pronzini called Chaudri "one of crime fiction's most delightful new detectives," and the Chaudri stories have been reprinted in several "Year's Best" collections and other anthologies. In The Mahboob Chaudri Mystery MEGAPACKTM (published in paperback as "The Tree of Life"), all 10 of the Chaudri stories are gathered together in a single volume for the first time, complete with a new introduction and new afterwords for each story by the author.