THE FAIRER SEX? NOT THESE LADIES…The female of the species is absolutely deadlier than the male in these 14 cunningly-crafted tales of suspense, crimes of passion, and murder, all by women writers. Edited by MWA Grandmaster and bestselling mystery author John D. MacDonald, these bone-chilling stories show the depths that men and women will stoop to in pursuit of what they want. Christianna Brand brings us a story of two sisters who engage in the ultimate cat-and-mouse game, with the prize being their lives. A woman accustomed to the finer things appears in Margaret Manners' twisting tale of a socialite who will go to any lengths to keep what's hers. Carolyn Thomas spins a tale of long-overdue revenge in the balmy Caribbean. From Veronica Parker Johns come the story of a cheating wife who's too clever for her own good. And Juanita Sheridan delivers a marriage slipping toward disaster amid the tropical paradise of Hawaii. Fourteen...

Inspector Charlesworth investigates a strange murder in a dress shop The sales room at Christophe et Cie is staffed by five young women. Each is beautiful in her own way—and each could be a murderer. One morning, two of the women purchase some oxalic acid to clean a stain off a Panama hat. No one knows how the poison gets into Miss Doon's system, but it doesn't take long to kill her. When Inspector Charlesworth steps into the little shop, he finds a dozen motives and no clear solution.   Everyone in the shop was jealous of Miss Doon, for as the owner's girlfriend she was the favorite to head up the store's new Riviera branch. Romantic feelings for his chief suspect sidetrack Charlesworth, and it takes a second murder to put him back on the trail of the killer.

An island republic goes to insane lengths to canonize its most famous residentJuanita di Perli was a young woman when she decided to live the rest of her life on a table-top. She called it God's will, but for the order of nuns that sprang up around her, Juanita's devotion was a curse. For decades they did the bidding of the holy grouch, and the entire island of San Juan el Pirata sighed with relief when she died.   Twenty years later, the islanders fight for Juanita's canonization—not because they liked her, but because a local saint would be a tourist boon. The only thing keeping the island poor is the Archduke, who refuses to ask Rome to consider Juanita for sainthood. His stubbornness may get him dethroned or worse, for nothing will stop his subjects in their pursuit of Juanita's holy cause.

A man dies on the operating table, and Inspector Cockrill suspects murder As German V-1 rockets rain down on the English countryside, the men and women of the military hospitals fight to stay calm. The morning after a raid, Doctor Barnes prepares for a routine surgery to repair a postman's broken leg. But with general anesthesia, there is always danger. Before the first incision is made, the postman turns purple. Barnes and his nurses do what they can, but the patient is dead in minutes.   The coroner calls for an inquest. Barnes has a history of lost patients, and cannot afford more trouble. Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Cockrill is unimpressed by the staff at the hospital, which he finds a nest of jealousy, indiscretion, and bitterness. One of them, doctor or nurse, murdered the postman—and it won't be long before they kill again.

Inspector Cockrill is called in to solve the murder of a most unpopular Belgian Few were disappointed when Raoul Vernet was found with his head bashed in, dead in a pool of his own blood. On vacation in England, the Belgian seducer comes to visit Matilda, an old flame from a few years before. She agrees despite suspicions that Vernet has been deploying his legendary charm on another member of the family: young Rosie, who has returned from her Swiss boarding school carrying a child.   None of the family members were in the house when Raoul was killed, but all were within a fog-choked London mile. Rosie calls in the brilliant Inspector Cockrill to clear the family's name, but what he finds is a twisted clan of seven people, each as likely to laugh at a murder as commit one.

Inspector Cockrill's dull vacation is jolted by a Mediterranean murderFrom the moment he steps on the plane, Inspector Cockrill loathes his fellow travelers. They are typical tour group bores: the dullards of England whom he had hoped to escape by going to Italy. He gives up on the trip immediately, burying his nose in a mystery novel to ensure that no one tries to become his friend. But not long after the group makes landfall at the craggy isle of San Juan el Pirata, a murder demands his attention.   The body of a woman is found laid out carefully on her bed, blood pooled around her and fingers wrapped around the dagger that took her life. The corrupt local police force, impatient to find a killer, names Cockrill chief suspect. To escape the Italian hangman, the detective must find out who would go on vacation to kill a stranger.

In the countryside, Inspector Cockrill investigates a wartime beheadingAs war rages in Europe, the citizens of London flee to the country. At Pigeonsford, a group of guests plays cards, drinks tea, and acts polite—but Grace Morland knows the strong emotions that lurk beneath the placid social surface. She's painfully in love with Stephen Pendock, the squire of Pigeonsford, but Pendock's smitten with young beauty Francesca Hart. One afternoon, Fran debuts a new hat, and Grace's jealousy gets the better of her. She exclaims, I wouldn't be seen dead in a ditch in a thing like that! She will soon be proven wrong. Grace is found dead with the hat on her head—and her head removed from her neck. To the scene comes the incomparable Inspector Cockrill, who finds that far more than petty jealousy lies beneath this hideous murder.

One woman has the answer to history's strangest maritime mysteryThough history would remember her as the Marie Celeste, the ship's name was Mary Celeste. She was a brig—square-rigged, a hundred feet long, large enough for a crew of nine, and sturdy enough to cross the Atlantic and bring profits home to its masters—a beautiful ship that was destined for tragedy. On December 4, 1872, the Mary Celeste is found adrift off the coast of Portugal with cargo in her hold, food upon her tables, and half-written letters on her captain's desk. But not a soul can be found on board. This mystery has puzzled maritime scholars for over a century. One woman knows the answers, because she was there from the beginning, and knows the seductive Honey Mary the ship was secretly named after. As she retraces the events that lead up to that fateful voyage, she finds that the mind can be as dark and cold as an ocean grave.

A governess comes to Wales to work in a house with a ghostly pastFor four hundred years, the squires of Aberdar have lorded over this gloomy patch of Wales. In Elizabethan times, the house burst with life, love, and intrigue, as gentlemen schemed endlessly in the shadow of the Virgin Queen's court. But now the house is dark, populated only by two darling twins, their ghastly Belgian aunt, and their father, whose grief for their departed mother is too powerful to bear. Into this grim environment steps Miss Alys Tetterman, a bright young governess with a disfiguring scar and secrets of her own. As she undertakes the education of the girls, she learns there is a long history of twins at Aberdar manor—and of brides dying young. There is one lesson Miss Tetterman should learn herself: Run.

 A young widow proves that modesty can be deceptive when she becomes the toast of LondonThe Marchesa goes to the theater accompanied only by her maid. She dresses in pure white, without any jewels or powder to compete with her golden hair and blue eyes. In the London society of King George III, this modesty is enough to cause a sensation. Night after night, every bachelor in London sends her flowers, hoping to win an audience with this mysterious, enigmatic beauty, but none have come close to a seat in her box. None of them guess that the Marchesa wears no jewels because she cannot afford them. None of them know that she is not a Marchesa at all. She is Marigold Brown, a poor girl from Gloucestershire who is about to mount the greatest con London has ever seen—if falling in love doesn't get in her way.

Fifteen perfectly constructed tales of death both well-planned and chaoticMr. de Silva begins the day sipping his coffee, reading the Times, and trying to decide how to murder his wife. After two years of marriage, he's simply fed up, and has decided to move on to someone younger, slimmer, and prettier. The trouble is, he wants to keep his wife's money. Killing her is the neatest solution. So begins The Rose, a three-page masterpiece that was the first story Christianna Brand ever wrote for publication. Over the next half-century she would write dozens of novels and countless short stories, proving again and again her genius for crisp characterization, witty dialogue, and timely bits of violence. This collection holds some of her finest early work—tales of murders committed for money, jealousy, or simply for something to do. Though the crimes often go awry, there is nothing quite so charming as a vintage Brand homicide.

While running for her life, a failed actress comes across a dead bodySari Morne had a shot at stardom, a five-year deal with a European film studio, and a starring role in an Italian romance that was poised to become a classic. But the film flopped, and Sari wasted her big break, disappearing from the set to flirt with her new beau: Prince Aldo, heir to a dukedom. Three years later, she is washed up, and all she has left from her romance is a ring—the tremendous heirloom diamond that the Duke's associates will kill to retrieve. Sari is being chased by the Duke's henchmen when a tree falls across her path. She swaps cars with a man on the other side of the fallen timber, who is in just as much of a hurry as she is. When she reaches home, she realizes why. There is a corpse in the back seat—a young woman, beautiful no more. Death is all around her, and Sari's only hope is to keep running.

At a medieval pageant, Inspector Cockrill investigates a dramatic deathEver since she drove her best friend's fianc\ to kill himself, Isabel Drew has been nicknamed Jezebel. She is domineering, arrogant, vain—and beautiful enough to get away with it. She is starring as a princess in a medieval pageant when her past catches up to her. On tiny slips of paper, threats appear, promising death to Isabel and those around her. Fearing she may be attacked, she invites the brilliant Inspector Cockrill to keep her safe after the performance. But her precautions come too late. During the first show, Isabel falls from her tower and is dead before she hits the ground. She was strangled, and the room she fell from was locked from the inside—a crime too daring to be possible. But Inspector Cockrill saw it all, and unraveling the impossible is his specialty.

Eighteen short stories—chilling, lovely, and sad—from a modern master of the formFor days she has been terrified that the phone will ring. Whenever she picks it up, the voice is there—breathing, cursing at her, terrifying her with words alone. Tonight, though, it isn't the phone that rings, but the doorbell. A man has come to inquire about buying her dresser, but as soon as he opens his mouth, she knows he is the man who has been tormenting her—and they are all alone in the house. Though best known for intricately plotted mysteries starring the brilliant Inspector Cockrill, Christianna Brand was equally adept at crafting short fiction. These eighteen tales run the gamut of genre and mood. There are stories of travel, crime, and desire—and even a depiction of the birth of an infamous historical figure. Throughout, Brand's talent illuminates the darkness that lies coiled within daily life.

A family patriarch is murdered on the eve of signing a new will Sir Richard's family has spent years waiting for him to die, but despite his weak heart, the old man simply refuses to cooperate. In the meantime, he makes their lives miserable by changing his will every few months, depending on which of his strange brood he favors that moment. Now he calls them together to announce his most diabolical revision yet: complete disinheritance of all the wastrels who bear his name. But he never gets a chance to sign the papers—by morning, he's dead.   Scotland Yard sends Inspector Cockrill, the only detective clever enough to unravel the family's tangle of jealousy and deceit. Each member had reason to kill Sir Richard, but which one plunged the syringe of poison into his heart? With a family this mad, nothing is as complicated as the truth.

Five courses of delectable depravity from mystery's master chefPlaying Othello is hard on any actor, but for the great James Dragon, the role is toxic. During the play's run, he must reenact the horrible crime that took his own wife's life. Every person in the audience thinks that Dragon killed his real-life wife, and when the curtain rises they wonder if tonight will be the night when Othello finally cracks. After the Event is just the first in a round of Cockrill cocktails—bracing short fiction starring Christianna Brand's famed Scotland Yard inspector. From there we proceed to bloody entrees, chilling desserts, and a cup of black coffee that will shock you wide awake. Brand's short fiction is more than a sample—it is an all-night banquet that leaves the reader terrified and satisfied as only a good mystery can.