Short Stories

When vandals destroy beach hut 512 on Brighton’s iconic seafront, they reveal a dead body that has apparently lain undisturbed for two months. But according to the hut’s owner, Sims, its locks rusted shut three months ago and she hasn’t had access to it since. So how could the man have got in, and why is there no evidence of the murderer?

Nathan Tyler ist ein unscheinbarer Mathematikprofessor, der sich ausschließlich der Welt der Zahlen verschrieben hat. Bis ihn eines Tages das Weiße Haus kontaktiert. Bei einer streng geheimen Besprechung erfährt er, dass er eine kryptische Kette von Gleichungen entschlüsseln soll, die möglicherweise das Passwort zum Zugang zu den russischen Nuklearcodes für eine Raketenanlage ist. Alles, was er tun muss, ist, ein Treffen mit dem renommierten russischen Mathematiker zu erreichen, der sie erstellt hat.

It’s a New Jersey summer in 1967, and thirteen-year-old Ravi Ramanathan has the makings of a tennis prodigy. His surgeon father encourages his ambition, while his mother dreams of their only child following his father’s path. Surrounded by his parents’ love, Ravi chafes a bit at their daily routines and little traditions. Then one unexpected day, everything changes. Realizing how much he took for granted, Ravi must grow up overnight and find a new role in the life of his family.

We all come to the fork in the road many times every day, every week. What was your last fork and where did the road lead? Choice, Chance, and Repercussion face each of us when we decide to go left or right. Reflecting later was it a good or poor choice? Did it yield wealth or disaster? Should we have taken greater care? These 25 stories examine those possibilities in various genres: general, romance, adventure, mystery, crime, fable, and fantasy—whatever your leaning you will find something to your taste here.

In 2004, Mark Leslie released his first collection of chilling fiction and disturbing poetry in a volume called One Hand Screaming. Twenty years later, this special anniversary edition that is more than twice as long as the original includes all the stories and poems from the first edition plus new ones published in the past 20 years along with all new pieces crafted specifically for this volume. This collection includes previously published award-nominees alongside original and never-before published works.

Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the gloves herself. Big Ben was striking as she stepped out into the street. It was eleven o'clock and the unused hour was fresh as if issued to children on a beach. But there was something solemn in the deliberate swing of the repeated strokes; something stirring in the murmur of wheels and the shuffle of footsteps. No doubt they were not all bound on errands of happiness. There is much more to be said about us than that we walk the streets of Westminster. Big Ben too is nothing but steel rods consumed by rust were it not for the care of H.M.'s Office of Works.

This story concerns a firework, who is one of many to be let off at the wedding of a prince and princess. The rocket is extremely pompous and self-important, and denigrates all the other fireworks, eventually bursting into tears to demonstrate his "sensitivity." As this makes him wet, he fails to ignite and, the next day, is thrown away into a ditch.

The narrator of the story is passionate about writing. He decides to take a few weeks to write a masterpiece, but inspiration does not come. One evening after supper, he falls asleep and dreams that the greatest writers of the last few centuries are invited to his table to create a story: William Defoe, Tobias Smollett, Jonathan Swift, Henry Fielding, Samuel Richardson, Lawrence Sterne, Sir Walter Scott, George Eliot, William M. Thackeray, James Payn, Walter Besant, a lady known as "Ouida", Robert Louis Stevenson, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, and Captain Marryat.

Recently unemployed, John Huxford accepts an offer to work at Sheridan & Moore, Montreal in Quebec. He agrees with his fiancée that he will first travel alone to prepare everything for a few weeks before she can join him. Unfortunately, weeks, months pass and she gets no news from John. Sheridan & Moore even say they never saw him in Montreal. Many years pass, and it seems that he has died somewhere or started a new life.

Mr. Hammond, who is travelling on the American steamer "The Spartan", is suspicious about two passengers after having witnessed their conversation on the deck. They were talking about a secret square box, a mechanism, and the fact that the world will soon hear of it...

A medida que Lord Murchison intenta descubrir el secreto detrás de la enigmática belleza de Sibyl, se ve envuelto en una trama de intriga y pasión. La historia explora temas como la dualidad entre la apariencia y la realidad, la obsesión amorosa y las consecuencias de perseguir un ideal inalcanzable.

Don Juan de Alfranje, un noble caído en desgracia, busca venganza contra aquellos que lo han traicionado y arruinado su familia. A lo largo de su viaje, enfrenta duelos, intrigas políticas y conspiraciones en la corte española. Con la ayuda de leales amigos y su astucia, Don Juan desenmascara a sus enemigos y lucha por restaurar su honor y herencia.

In a town full of suffering poor people, a swallow who was left behind after his flock flew off to Egypt for the winter meets the statue of the late "Happy Prince", who has never experienced true sorrow, for he lived in a palace where sorrow was not allowed to enter. Viewing various scenes of people suffering in poverty from his tall monument, the Happy Prince asks the swallow to take the ruby from his hilt, the sapphires from his eyes, and the gold leaf covering his body to give to the poor.

Renée è una nota accademica francese di origine italiana, con una routine sempre uguale e frustrante: i colleghi maschilisti la considerano una segretaria e, nonostante il successo delle sue pubblicazioni, Renée vive in solitudine da anni, con la sola compagnia dei lirici alessandrini. All'improvviso, arriva una mail a sconvolgere tutto: Gene Petrov, brillante matematico, lettore appassionato, emulo di Casanova e grande amore di Renée ai tempi degli studi a Harvard, è morto per una malattia fulminea.

En esta colonia, un antiguo comandante ha implementado una máquina de tortura y ejecución extremadamente cruel y elaborada, que graba en la piel del prisionero el motivo de su castigo antes de matarlo. A medida que el oficial observa horrorizado el funcionamiento de la máquina, se ve envuelto en un conflicto moral sobre la justicia, la crueldad y el poder.

Absolution is a haunting and psychologically rich short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, first published in 1924. In this deeply introspective tale of guilt, imagination, and spiritual crisis, young Rudolph Miller—a devout eleven-year-old boy—finds himself entangled in a web of religious expectations, private transgressions, and the fragile dance between truth and illusion. When he tells a lie during confession, a crisis of faith erupts, leading him down a path of inner turmoil that starkly mirrors the disillusionments of adulthood.

Few authors have achieved such renown as World Fantasy Life Achievement honoree and Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master Andre Norton. With the love of fans and the praise of critics, Norton's books have sold millions of copies worldwide.

A pesar de sus intentos por resistir a la tentación, Virgilio finalmente cede a sus deseos y comienza una relación amorosa con Dorigen. Sin embargo, su felicidad se ve amenazada cuando Dorigen promete entregarse a otro hombre si este logra eliminar unas rocas peligrosas de la costa. El cuento explora temas como el amor prohibido, la fidelidad y las consecuencias de nuestras acciones impulsadas por la pasión.

Un desconocido desafía a los lugareños a participar en una competencia para ver quién tiene la rana más saltarina. Un joven llamado Jim Smiley acepta el desafío y pone todas sus esperanzas en su rana, Dan'l Webster. A medida que avanza la competencia, se revelan las estrategias ingeniosas y los giros inesperados que hacen que la historia sea divertida y entretenida.

Harry Turtledove earned the title "master of alternate history" from Publishers Weekly for his thought-provoking novels that turn historical facts into gripping tales of possibility. But his writing talent goes much further. We Install offers a showcase of styles, from humor—in "Father of the Groom," a scientist with a penchant for wild experimentation helps his love-struck son by synthesizing a wedding ring out of two carrots—to classic science fiction.

Edgar Allan Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum plunges listeners into the claustrophobic mind of a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, who awakens in utter darkness to face a series of psychological and physical torments. Chained beneath a slowly descending pendulum blade, surrounded by monstrous iron walls and the yawning mouth of a deadly pit, he must summon every ounce of courage, reason, and instinct to survive.

In The Shadow Over Innsmouth, Lovecraft guides listeners into a decaying coastal town shrouded in mystery, where ancient pacts and unnatural beings have shaped generations. What begins as an innocent detour for a young traveler turns into a spiraling descent into horror, madness, and the terrifying realization of what lurks beneath the surface—both of the sea and of his own ancestry.

A Life in Pieces is a literary novella by D. X. Lewis, told through 28 sharp, emotionally rich flash stories that piece together the life and background of Edward Newman from childhood to his imminent death. Moving between styles—from lyrical fairy tale to gritty realism, from humorous to melancholic—this genre-blending work offers a fresh, deeply human listening experience.

A small, dark speck becomes the starting point for a cascade of thought—quiet, precise, wandering. In a room with a fire, a cigarette, and silence thick as dust, a mind drifts from memory to philosophy, from loss to structure, from trees to snails. Virginia Woolf's voice here is both still and restless, charting the motion of consciousness as it moves without hurry or warning.

Bishop Rider Lives! And for a dead man, he’s been busy. His story and the parts of it yet to be told being what populates Brand New Dark.