Welcome to Level Best Books

Our Mission

Level Best Books is committed to publishing quality crime fiction and bringing new voices and stories to a wide audience of readers. Our focus is to partner with our authors to create stories that entertain and inspire as many readers as possible. 

Our Imprints

Level Best Books publishes contemporary and historical crime fiction and Young Adult Fiction. Our Level Best Historia imprint focuses on historical mysteries (pre-1970). Our New Arc Books imprint highlights a broader range of fiction to include Romantic Suspense, Literary Fiction, Fantasy, and Science Fiction. Our Level Elevate imprint features works for younger readers, ranging from children's to young adult fiction. Level Zest is dedicated to cookbooks. Level Short publishes exceptional collections of short stories. Level True, our newest imprint focuses on True Crime. 

Our Team

Level Best Books is owned and operated by Shawn Reilly Simmons and Verena Rose, aka the Dames of Detection. The Dames have been active in the mystery writing community for over twenty years as authors, editors, convention organizers, and publishers. 

Our History

Founded in 2003, Level Best Books is the publisher of crime fiction novels and short story anthologies, including The Best New England Crime Stories, the Writers' Police Academy, and New York/Tri-State Chapter of Sisters in Crime anthologies. Well-regarded by readers and reviewers, stories published by Level Best have won the Agatha, Anthony, Macavity, Derringer and Robert L. Fish Award for Best First Short Story presented at the Edgar® banquet. Level Best short stories have also been recognized as Best and Distinguished Mystery Stories by the editors of the Best American Mystery Stories series. 

Level Best Books publishes quality and award winning contemporary and historical mystery, thriller, and crime fiction novels as well as select non-fiction titles.

Our Associations
We are Proud Members/Vendors/Sponsors of these Fine Organizations