Steve Hockensmith

Super-smart kid inventors Nick and Tesla Holt have outsmarted crooks, spies, and kidnappers, but now it's time to crack their biggest mystery yet: where the heck are their parents? With the help of their eccentric Uncle Newt, the twins trace the clues to their missing Mom and Dad, scientists working on solar-power research for a clandestine government project. They'll need all their wits, along with an assortment of homemade gadgets, to outsmart the criminal mastermind who's trying to turn solar power into a secret weapon. Featuring instructions for building and using five awesome solar-powered contraptions-a hot dog cooker, alarm bell, listening device, model car, and nighttime LED signal cannon-this sixth installment is sure to please budding scientists and sleuthers alike.

In this third installment of the series, 11-year-old whiz-kids Nick and Tesla discover that someone in the quiet town of Half Moon Bay has placed their beloved Uncle Newt under electronic surveillance-but who is spying on him, and why? To expose the secret agent, Nick and Tesla build all kinds of outrageous contraptions. Throughout the book, the narrative is interrupted by blueprints and instructions so that budding young inventors can follow along. Science and electronics have never been so much fun!

In this second novel of the Nick and Tesla series, the precocious brother-and-sister duo find themselves solving another baffling mystery. As the story opens, their Uncle Newt takes a consulting gig at a cut-rate amusement park, engineering animatronic figures for a cheap Hall of Presidentsknockoff. One perk of the job is that Nick and Tesla have unlimited access to the amusement park all summer long-but the kids quickly discover that one of the park employees has a sinister plan. They'll have to build a few robots of their own to foil him! Readers are invited to join in the fun as each story contains instructions and blueprints for five different projects. Learning about science has never been so dangerous-or so much fun!

HE CAME TO WASHINGTON FOR BRRRRRRRRAINS. NO WONDER HE'S STILL HUNGRY. The undead have risen from their graves, and society hangs by a thread. But America's political parties aren't going to let a little thing like the zombie apocalypse get in the way of a presidential election. There are nasty whispers about the incumbent, though, and they have nothing to do with where he was born. The rumor: He's dead. Could a zombie be running for President? It's up to ace Washington Tribune reporter Jan Woods to find out. Cadaver in Chief, the new 10-chapter mini-novel from New York Times bestseller Steve Hockensmith (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls), follows Woods on her search for the truth...a search that puts her up against the most dangerous ghouls in Washington. Oh, and zombies, too. Praise for the novels of Steve Hockensmith: "...hilarious...delightfully offbeat...." --Entertainment Weekly"...wonderfully entertaining...." --Booklist"...quirky and original...breezy and funny...." --The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette"...a hoot " --The Washington Pos

It's the ninth commandment: Thou shalt not lie. But if you've already covered the big sins on the list -- coveting, stealing, killing -- why balk at a fib...especially when it might save your neck? That's why you'll find all kinds of lies in Steve Hockensmith's crime stories. Trying to cut through them to the truth are cops, private eyes, spies, criminals and ordinary people in way over their heads. In the Derringer Award-winning "Erie's Last Day," a retiring detective races against the clock to solve one final case before he has to turn in his badge. "Fred Menace, Commie for Hire" introduces the wildest P. I. ever to wisecrack his way through a case. In "Strays," a paranoid old man's fantasies about a neighborhood crime ring turn out to be true...sort of. "The Case of the Unfortunate Fortune Cookie" offers a hilarious answer to one of life's little mysteries: Why don't fortune cookies have real fortunes in them anymore? Retired cop Larry Erie takes on his first case as a private detective -- the theft of an irreplaceable piece of baseball history -- in "Minor League." In "Burl Lockhart's in Town," a pair of rustlers try to get the jump on the Pinkerton on their trail only to discover that he's even closer than they thought. The search for a stolen dog leads Larry Erie to a deadly conspiracy in "Animals." An innocent young man finds himself caught in the crossfire of a Chicago drug war in "Didn't Do Nothing." In the Shamus Award finalist "Tricks," a reluctant Larry Erie finds himself dragged into the search for a kidnapped monkey. "The MacGuffin Theft Case" tackles another of life's little mysteries -- why are pizzas round? -- and finds that the answer is "Communist spies." Really. In the Shamus-, Barry- and Anthony-nominated "The Big Road," Larry Erie teams up with a trucker to find a highjacked shipment of TVs. And "Blarney" takes a peek into the twisted mind of the world's most embittered crime writer. Originally published in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and various anthologies, these 12 tales from short story master Steve Hockensmith (Holmes on the Range, Dreadfully Ever After) are sure to please any lover of quality crime fiction -- and that's no blarney

"It's the most wonderful time of the year," the old song tells us. But that doesn't mean the people celebrating it are always so nice. Criminals get the Christmas spirit, too In this collection of hilarious short stories, you'll see what the thieves, killers, psychos and scumbags are up to come the holidays...and it's not caroling door to door. Well, not unless they're casing the neighborhood for a break-in, as a rag-tag gang does in the title story. You'll also meet a mall elf menaced by a very, very bad Santa (in "I Killed Santa Claus"), a London police inspector hunting for the man who murdered Ebenezer Scrooge (in "Humbug"), a trucker out to save his shipment of Cabbage Patch Dolls from bumbling hijackers (in "Special Delivery") and many more characters you'll never forget. Originally published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, these nine tales from award-winning short story master Steve Hockensmith (Holmes on the Range, Dreadfully Ever After) are sure to have you ho-ho-hoing from the first page to the last.

The story opens with newly married protagonists, Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy, defending their village from an army of flesh-eating unmentionables. But the honeymoon has barely begun when poor Mr. Darcy is nipped by a raging dreadful. Elizabeth knows the only acceptable course of action is to promptly behead her husband (and then burn the corpse, just to be safe). But when she hears rumours of a miracle antidote being developed in London, she realizes there may be one last chance to save her true love - and for everyone to live happily ever after.

At the opening of the international bestseller "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies", Elizabeth Bennet is already a seasoned warrior-trained in the martial arts, skeptical of romance, and determined to wipe out the deadly dreadfuls. But how did Elizabeth get that way? And where did all of the zombies come from? Readers will witness the birth of a heroine in Dawn of the Dreadfuls - a thrilling prequel set three years before the horrific events of "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies". This comic-horror novel is an all-new work of fiction from acclaimed novelist, Steve Hockensmith. As our story opens, the Bennet sisters are enjoying a peaceful life in the English countryside. They idle away the days reading, gardening, practicing instruments, and daydreaming about future husbands-until a funeral at the local parish goes strangely and horribly awry. Suddenly corpses are springing from the soft earth-and only one family can stop them. As the bodies pile up, we watch Elizabeth Bennet evolve from a naive young teenager into a savage slayer of the undead. We laugh as she begins her first clumsy training with nunchucks and katana swords, and cry when her first blush with romance goes tragically awry. Through it all, of course, readers will be treated to scene after scene of absurd zombie carnage. Complete with 15 dazzling illustrations, "Dawn of the Dreadfuls" invites readers to step back into Regency England-Land of the Undead.