Böcker av Richard Helms

On a frigid January day on London's Whitehall in 1843, a Scottish woodturner named Daniel M'Naghten guns down Edward Drummond, believing him to be British Prime Minister Robert Peel. M'Naghten, who sympathizes with the Chartist cause in Great Britain, claims he intended to murder the Prime Minister-a Tory-because he blames Peel for persecution by the Tories in his home city of Glasgow. Queen Victoria, incensed at the most recent attempt on a high government official's life, demands that M'Naghten be hanged. M'Naghten, however, demonstrates every accepted sign of insanity, which would save him a visit to Tyburn Tree. Queen's Counsel Alexander Cockburn is hired to defend M'Naghten, and he recruits legendary thief-taker Vicar Brekonridge to travel to Glasgow to investigate M'Naghten's claims, with the goal of supporting an insanity plea. He sends young law clerk Simon Daughtrey to Glasgow with Brekonridge, and together they uncover contradictory evidence suggesting that M'Naghten's motivations in the murder of Edward Drummond might be considerably more sinister than mental illness. With M'Naghten's trial days away, Brekonridge and Daughtrey race to find the truth behind the assassination of Edward Drummond.

For the first time, collected in a single volume, Black Arch Books is proud to present the short crime fiction of Derringer, Macavity, Shamus, and Thriller Award-winning author Richard Helms!Paper Walls/Glass Houses (2008 Derringer Award Winner)The Gospel According to Gordon Black (2008 Derringer Award Winner)Silicon Kings (2011 Derringer Award Finalist)The Gods for Vengeance Cry (2011 Derringer Award Finalist; 2011 Macavity Award Finalist; 2011 Thriller Award Winner)Busting Red Heads (2015 Derringer Award Finalist; 2015 Shamus Award Finalist; 2015 Thriller Award Finalist)Shooting Stars (2016 Derringer Award Finalist)See Humble and Die (2021 Derringer Award Finalist; Best American Mystery Stories 2020)The Cripplegate Apprehension (2020 Derringer Award Finalist)Sweeps Week (2022 Macavity Award Winner; 2022 Shamus Award Winner)Nine tales of suspense, mystery, and intrigue carefully crafted to provide you with hours of reading pleasure!

Three teenagers are unwilling participants in a horrific event that results in a young man's death.