British Library Crime Classics
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Author
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English
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"Shentall's, a long-established institution of the Staffordshire Potteries industry is under attack. With its designs leaked to international competition and its prices undercut, private investigator Hedley Nicholson has been tasked with finding the culprit of the suspected sabotage. But industrial espionage may just be the beginning. Delving further into the churning heart of Shentall's Pottery, Nicholson's prying is soon to unearth rumours of bonds...
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English
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A tale of lethal events at a legal firm by a writer acclaimed as “perhaps the best living master of the classic English murder mystery” (The New Yorker).
One of the Crime Writers’ Association’s Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time
One of the Mystery Writers of America’s Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time
Horniman, Birley and Craine is a respected legal firm with clients drawn
Author
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English
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The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkeley is a classic mystery novel that combines clever plotting, wit, and a unique twist on the traditional detective story format. First published in 1929, this novel features Berkeley's famous amateur detective Roger Sheringham, who, alongside the members of the Crimes Circle club, takes on the challenge of solving a perplexing murder case.
The story begins with a seemingly simple crime: a box of chocolates,...
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English
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Aunt Mildred declared that no good could come of the Melbury family Christmas gatherings at their country residence Flaxmere. So when Sir Osmond Melbury, the family patriarch, is discovered by a guest dressed as Santa Klaus with a bullet in his head on Christmas Day, the festivities are plunged into chaos.
5) Fog of Doubt
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Series
Inspector Cockrill mysteries volume 5
Language
English
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Description
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...
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English
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"On Christmas Eve, heavy snowfall brings a train to a halt near the village of Hemmersby. Several passengers take shelter in a deserted country house, where the fire has been lit and the table laid for tea-- but no one is at home. Trapped together for Christmas, the passengers are seeking to unravel the secrets of the empty house when a murderer strikes in their midst. This classic Christmas mystery is now republished for the first time since the...
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English
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George Surridge, director of the Birmington Zoo, is a man with many worries: his marriage is collapsing; his finances are insecure; and an outbreak of disease threatens the animals in his care. As Surridge's debts mount and the pressure on him increases, he begins to dream of miracle solutions. But is he cunning enough to turn his dreams into reality - and could he commit the most devious murder in pursuit of his goals?
Author
Publisher
Sourcebooks
Pub. Date
2015
Language
English
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Description
An eclectic collection of London-based crime stories from the Golden Age of Mystery, featuring work by Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Wallace and others.
Capital Crimes presents seventeen tales of murder and mayhem that blend the familiar with the unexpected in a way that reflects the personality of London. Alongside classics by Margery Allingham, Anthony Berkeley and Thomas Burke are excellent and unusual stories by authors
...Author
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English
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George Furnace, flight instructor at Baston Aero Club, dies instantly when his plane crashes into the English countryside. People who knew him are baffled - Furnace was a first-rate pilot, and the plane was in perfect condition-and the inquest records a verdict of death by misadventure. An Australian visitor to the aero club, Edwin Marriott, Bishop of Cootamundra, suspects that the true story is more complicated. Could this be a dramatic suicide…or...
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English
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Several local residents have disappeared in suspicious circumstances at the Hog's Back ridge in Surrey. When a doctor vanishes, followed by a nurse with whom he was acquainted, Inspector French deduces murder, but there are no bodies. Can he eventually prove his theory and show that murder has been committed?
Author
Publisher
Ingram Pub Services
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
"'Scores of men and women died daily in London, but on this day of days one of them had died in the very midst of a crowd and the cause of his death was a dagger piercing his heart. Death had become something very real.' When Bobbie Cheldon falls in love with a pretty young dancer at the Frozen Fang night club in Soho, he has every hope of an idyllic marriage. But Nancy has more worldly ideas about her future: she is attracted not so much to Bobbie...
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English
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The Notting Hill Mystery was first published between 1862 and 1863 as an eight-part serial in the magazine Once a Week. Widely acknowledged as the first detective novel, the story is told by insurance investigator Ralph Henderson, who is building a case against the sinister Baron R-, who is suspected of murdering his wife. Henderson descends into a maze of intrigue including a diabolical mesmerist, kidnapping by gypsies, slow-poisoners, a rich uncle's...
15)
Silent nights: Christmas mysteries
Author
Author
Publisher
Poisoned Pen Press
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Already it looked as if the police were up against a carefully planned and cleverly executed murder, and, what was more, a murder without a corpse! Two brothers, John and William Rother, live together at Chalklands Farm in the beautiful Sussex Downs. Their peaceful rural life is shattered when John Rother disappears and his abandoned car is found. Has he been kidnapped? Or is his disappearance more sinister- connected, perhaps, to his growing rather...
17) Thirteen guests
Author
Series
Publisher
Poisoned Pen Press
Pub. Date
©2015.
Language
English
Description
On a fine autumn weekend, Lord Aveling hosts a hunting party at his country house, Bragley Court. Among the guests are an actress, a journalist, an artist, and a mystery novelist. The unlucky thirteenth is John Foss, injured at the local train station and brought to the house to recuperate--but John is nursing a secret of his own. Soon events take a sinister turn when a painting is mutilated, a dog stabbed, and a man strangled. Death strikes more...
18)
The Z murders
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20) Calamity in Kent
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English
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In the peaceful seaside town of Broadgate, an impossible crime occurs. The operator of the cliff railway locks the empty carriage one evening; when he returns to work next morning, a dead body is locked inside--a man who has been stabbed in the back. Jimmy London, a newspaper reporter, is first on the scene. He is quick on the trail for clues--and agrees to pool his knowledge with Inspector Shelley of Scotland Yard, who is holidaying in the area....
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English
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In the seeming tranquility of Regency Square in Cheltenham live the diverse inhabitants of its ten houses. One summer's evening, the square's rivalries and allegiances are disrupted by a sudden and unusual death - an arrow to the head, shot through an open window at no. 6. Unfortunately for the murderer, an invitation to visit had just been sent by the crime writer Aldous Barnet, staying with his sister at no. 8, to his friend Superintendent Meredith....
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English
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"Never, even in his most optimistic moments, had he visualised a scene of this nature--himself in one arm-chair, a police officer in another, and between them . . . a mystery." So thinks the Reverend Dodd--vicar of the quiet Cornish village of Boscawen and a reader of detective novels--when an actual mystery unexpectedly lands on his doorstep in The Cornish Coast Murder. Julius Tregarthan, a secretive and ill-tempered magistrate, is found at his house...
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English
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On a dark November evening, Sir Wilfred Saxonby is travelling alone in the 5 o'clock train from Cannon Street, in a locked compartment. The train slows and stops inside a tunnel; and by the time it emerges again minutes later, Sir Wilfred has been shot dead, his heart pierced by a single bullet. Suicide seems to be the answer, even though no reason can be found. Inspector Arnold of Scotland Yard thinks again when he learns that a mysterious red light...
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English
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For Miss Cordell, principal of Persephone College, there are two great evils in the world: unladylike behavior among her students and bad publicity for the college. This means it's a very, very bad day when a secret society of her students meets by the river on a gloomy January afternoon--and finds the drowned body of the college bursar. Death on the Cherwell follows the investigation, which initially focuses on the girls themselves and ultimately...
Author
Publisher
Poisoned Pen Press
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
When a counterfeit currency racket comes to light on the French Riviera, Detective Inspector Meredith is sent speeding southwards--out of the London murk to the warmth and glitter of the Mediterranean. Along with Inspector Blampignon--an amiable policeman from Nice--Meredith must trace the whereabouts of Chalky Cobbett, crook and forger. Soon their interest centers on the Villa Paloma, the residence of Nesta Hedderwick, an eccentric Englishwoman,...
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English
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The Female Detective is the first novel in British fiction to feature a professional female detective. Written by Andrew Forrester, it was originally published in 1864. The protagonist is Miss Gladden, or 'G' as she is also known - the precursor to Miss Marple, Mma Ramotswe and Lisbeth Salander. Miss Gladden's deductive methods and energetic approach anticipate those of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, and she can be seen as beginning a powerful...
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English
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The Lake District Murder opens with the discovery of a faceless body in an isolated garage, then follows Inspector Meredith through a complex investigation where every clue seems to lead only to another puzzle. Was this a bizarre suicide, or something more sinister? Why was the dead man apparently making plans to flee the country? And what does all this have to do with the newly discovered shady business dealings of the garage?
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English
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It is a wet and windy night in the town of Gunnarshaw, on the edge of the Yorkshire moors. The body of young Jane Trundle, assistant in the chemist's shop, is discovered lying face down on the cobblestones. Sergeant Caleb Cluff is not a man of many words, and neither does he play by the rules. He may exasperate his superiors, but he has the loyal support of his constable and he is the only CID man in the division. The case is his. Life in Gunnarshaw...
Author
Publisher
Sourcebooks
Pub. Date
2016
Language
English
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Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder
"[T]he entire book is filled with country-house-mystery wonders: the closed-circle puzzle, the dying-message clue, and the sociopathic guest who invades the weekend house party." —Booklist
The English country house is an iconic setting for some of the greatest British crime fiction. This new collection gathers together stories written over a span of about 65 years,
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English
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When Professor Julius Arnell breathes his last in the hushed atmosphere of the British Museum Reading Room, it looks like death from natural causes. Who, after all, would have cause to murder a retired academic whose life was devoted to Elizabethan literature? Inspector Shelley's suspicions are aroused when he finds a packet of poisoned sugared almonds in the dead man's pocket; and a motive becomes clearer when he discovers Arnell's connection to...
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English
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"When Miss Pongleton is found murdered on the stairs of Belsize Park station, her fellow-boarders in the Frampton Hotel are not overwhelmed with grief at the death of a tiresome old woman. But they all have their theories about the identity of the murderer, and help to unravel the mystery of who killed the wealthy 'Pongle'. Several of her fellow residents-even Tuppy the terrier-have a part to play in the events that lead to a dramatic arrest"--
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English
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"They're terrible mistrustful of strangers in these parts." Samuel Whitehead, landlord of the Rose and Crown, is a stranger in the lonely East Anglian village of High Eldersham. When the newcomer is stabbed to death in his pub, and Scotland Yard is called to the scene, it seems that the veil dividing High Eldersham from the outside world is about to be lifted. Detective-Inspector Young forms a theory about the case so utterly impossible that merely...
Author
Publisher
London
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
:'He could feel it in the blackness, a difference in atmosphere, a sense of evil, of things hidden.'Amy Snowden, in middle age, has long since settled into a lonely life in the Yorkshire town of Gunnarshaw, until - to her neighbours' surprise - she suddenly marries a much younger man. Months later, Amy is found dead - apparently by her own hand - and her husband, Wright, has disappeared. Sergeant Caleb Cluff - silent, watchful, a man at home in the...
35)
Serpents in Eden: countryside crimes
Author
Publisher
Poisoned Pen Press
Pub. Date
2017.
Language
English
Description
A man is forbidden to uncover the secret of the tower in a fairy-tale castle by the Rhine. A headless corpse is found in a secret garden in Paris - belonging to the city's chief of police. And a drowned man is fished from the sea off the Italian Riviera, leaving the carabinieri to wonder why his socialite friends at the Villa Almirante are so unconcerned by his death. These are three of the scenarios in this new collection of vintage crime stories....
Author
Language
English
Description
Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder
"Edwards's second winter-themed anthology in the British Library Crime Classics series is a standout. As in the most successful of such volumes, the editor's expertise results in a selection of unusual suspects, expanding readers' knowledge." -Publishers Weekly STARRED review
Crimson Snow brings together a dozen vintage crime stories set in winter. Welcome to a world of Father Christmases...
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Language
English
Description
Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder
"[W]orthy of Agatha Christie at her fiendish plotting best." -Booklist STARRED review
Two classic cases featuring Detective Inspector Littlejohn.
In the winter of 1940, the Home Guard unearth a skeleton on the moor above the busy town of Hatterworth. Twenty-three years earlier, the body of a young textile worker was found in the same spot, and the prime suspect was never found-but the second...
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English
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Miss Tither, the village busybody, is not the best-loved resident of Hilary Magna. She has made many enemies: bombarding the villagers with religious tracts, berating drunkards, and informing the spouses of cheating partners. Her murder, however, is still a huge shock to the Reverend Ethelred Claplady and his parish.
40)
Death of Anton
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41) Family matters
Author
Publisher
Poisoned Pen Press
Pub. Date
2017.
Language
English
Description
Robert Arthur Kewdingham is an eccentric failure of a man. In middle age he retreats into a private world, hunting for Roman artifacts and devoting himself to bizarre mystical beliefs. Robert's wife, Bertha, feels that there are few things more dreadful than a husband who will persist in making a fool of himself in public. Their marriage consists of horrible quarrels, futile arguments, incessant bickering. Scarcely any friends will visit the Kewdinghams...
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English
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Prince's College, Cambridge, is a peaceful and scholarly community, enlivened by Prudence Pinsent, the Master's daughter. Spirited, beautiful, and thoroughly unconventional, Prudence is a remarkable young woman. One fine morning she sets out for Suffolk to join her cousin Lord Wellende for a few days' hunting. On the way Prudence encounters Captain Studde of the coastguard - who is pursuing a quarry of his own. Studde is on the trail of a drug...
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English
Description
A fascinating historical mystery by Sulari Gentill, author of #1 LibraryReads pick The Woman in the Library
"Set in Australia in 1933, Gentill's entertaining third mystery featuring portrait artist Rowland Sinclair will appeal to fans of Greenwood's Phryne Fisher." -Publishers Weekly
"Norman Lindsay is a complete and utter bastard!"
With this curse heaped upon the renowned real-life Australian artist and cartoonist, Miles Off Course gets underway....
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English
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The Chichester is making a routine journey across the English Channel on a pleasant afternoon in June, when the steamer's crew notice something strange. A yacht, bobbing about in the water ahead of them, appears to have been abandoned, and there is a dark red stain on the deck... Two bodies later, with no sign of a gun, there certainly is a mystery in the channel. Inspector French soon discovers a world of high-powered banking, luxury yachts and international...
45) Quick curtain
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English
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When Douglas B. Douglas, leading light of the London theatre, premieres his new musical extravaganza, Blue Music, he is sure the packed house will be dazzled by the performance. What he couldn't predict is the death of his star, Brandon Baker, on stage in the middle of Act 2. Soon another member of the cast is found dead, and it seems to be a straightforward case of murder followed by suicide.
Author
Publisher
British Library
Pub. Date
2017.
Language
English
Description
1913. John Farringdale, with his cousin Eric Foster, visits the famous archaeologist Tolgen Reisby. At Scarweather--Reisby's lonely house on the windswept northern coast of England--Eric is quickly attracted to Reisby's much younger wife, and matters soon take a dangerous turn. Fifteen years later, the final scene of the drama is enacted. This unorthodox novel from 1934 is by a gifted crime writer who, wrote Dorothy L. Sayers, 'handles his characters...
Author
Publisher
Poisoned Pen Press
Pub. Date
2017.
Language
English
Description
In the winter of 1942, England lies cold and dark in the wartime blackout. One bleak evening, Councillor Grayling steps off the 6:12 from Euston, carrying £120 in cash, and oblivious to the fate that awaits him in the snow-covered suburbs.
Author
Language
English
Description
A woman is on trial for her life, accused of murder. The twelve members of the jury each carry their own secret burden of guilt and prejudice which could affect the outcome. In this extraordinary crime novel, we follow the trial through the eyes of the jurors as they hear the evidence and try to reach a unanimous verdict. Will they find the defendant guilty, or not guilty? And will the jurors' decision be the correct one?
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English
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"Bruce Attleton dazzled London's literary scene with his first two novels - but his early promise did not bear fruit. His wife Sybilla is a glittering actress, unforgiving of Bruce's failure, and the couple lead separate lives in their house at Regent's Park. When Bruce is called away on a sudden trip to Paris, he vanishes completely - until his suitcase and passport are found in a sinister artist's studio, the Belfry, in a crumbling house in Notting...
Author
Language
English
Description
Discover the captivating treasures buried in the British Library's archives. Largely inaccessible to the public until now, these enduring classics were written in the golden age of detective fiction.
"This is the perfect volume for fans of short, high-quality, fair-play detective fiction." -Publishers Weekly
"Never had I been given a tougher problem to solve, and never had I been so utterly at my wits' end for a solution."
A signalman is found...
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English
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Welworth Garden City in the 1940s is a forward-thinking town where free spirits find a home-vegetarians, socialists, and an array of exotic religious groups. Chief among these are the Children of Osiris, led by the eccentric High Prophet, Eustace K. Mildmann. The cult is a seething hotbed of petty resentment, jealousy and dark secrets--which eventually lead to murder. The stage is set for one of Inspector Meredith's most bizarre and exacting cases....
Author
Publisher
Poisoned Pen Press
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
"Through the double clamour of Big Ben and the shrill sound of the bell rang a revolver shot." A financier is found shot in the House of Commons. Suspecting foul play, Robert West, a parliamentary private secretary, takes on the role of amateur sleuth. Used to turning a blind eye to covert dealings, West must now uncover the shocking secret behind the man's demise, amid distractions from the press and the dead man's enigmatic daughter. Originally...
Author
Publisher
British library Crime Classics
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
"'From the point of view of the nation, it's a good thing that he died.' ... Great Barwick's least popular man is murdered on a train. Twelve jurors sit in court. Four suspects are identified - but which of them is on trial? This novel has all the makings of a classic murder mystery, but with a twist: as Attorney-General Anstruther Blayton leads the court through prosecution and defence, Inspector Fenby carries out his investigation. All this occurs...
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English
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"The Second World War is drawing to a close. Nicholas Vaughan, released from the army after an accident, takes refuge in Devon - renting a thatched cottage in the beautiful countryside at Mallory Fitzjohn. Vaughan sets to work farming the land, rearing geese and renovating the cottage. Hard work and rural peace seem to make this a happy bachelor life. On a nearby farm lives the bored, flirtatious June St Cyres, an exile from London while her husband...
56) Foreign bodies
Publisher
Poisoned Pen Press
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
Today translated crime fiction is in vogue-- but this was not always the case. A century before Scandi noir, writers across Europe and beyond were publishing detective stories of high quality. Often these did not appear in English and they have been known only by a small number of experts. This is the first ever collection of classic crime in translation from the golden age of the genre in the 20th century. Many of these stories are exceptionally...
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English
Description
With a foreword by David Morrell
"A pure delight." -JEFFERY DEAVER, New York Times bestselling author
It's 1955, and Edna Ferber is basking in the success of her blockbuster novel Giant. Headed to Los Angeles, where director George Stevens and Warner Brothers Studio are in the final days of filming her Texas oil epic, she is looking forward to meeting Rock Hudson, Liz Taylor, and especially the young James Dean.
But there is trouble brewing. Dean,...
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Language
English
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Adrian Gray was born in May 1862 and met his death through violence, at the hands of one of his own children, at Christmas, 1931. Thus begins a classic crime novel published in 1933 that has been too long neglected - until now. It is a riveting portrait of the psychology of a murderer. Each December, Adrian Gray invites his extended family to stay at his lonely house, Kings Poplars. None of Gray's six surviving children is fond of him; several have...
60) Seven dead
Author
Series
British Library Crime Classics volume 2
Publisher
Poisoned Pen Press
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
Ted Lyte, amateur thief, has chosen an isolated house by the coast for his first robbery. But Haven House is no ordinary country home. While hunting for silverware to steal, Ted stumbles upon a locked room containing seven dead bodies. Detective Inspector Kendall takes on the case with the help of passing yachtisman Thomas Hazeldean. The search for the house's absent owners brings Hazeldean across the Channel to Boulogne, where he finds more than...
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English
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Jim Henderson is one of six guests summoned by the mysterious Edwin Carson, a collector of precious stones, to a weekend party at his country house, Thrackley. The house is gloomy and forbidding but the party is warm and hospitable except for the presence of Jacobson, the sinister butler. The other guests are wealthy people draped in jewels; Jim cannot imagine why he belongs in such company. After a weekend of adventure, with attempted robbery and...
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English
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Description
Lady Wainwright presides over the gothic gloom at Belting, in mourning for her two sons lost in the Second World War. A stranger arrives, claiming to be son David who was not killed after all. With Lady Wainwright's health fading and her inheritance at stake, the family is torn apart by doubts over its mysterious long-lost son. Then the first body is found.
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English
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"Jim Teasdale has been drowned in the Dumb River, near Ely, miles from his Yorkshire home. His body, clearly dumped in the usually silent ('dumb') waterway, has been discovered before the killer intended - disturbed by a torrential flood. With critical urgency, it's up to Superintendent Littlejohn of Scotland Yard to trace the mystery of the unassuming victim's murder to its source, leaving waves of scandal and sensation in his wake as the hidden,...
Publisher
Poisoned Pen Press
Pub. Date
[2019]
Language
English
Description
"A Christmas party is punctuated by a gunshot under a policeman's watchful eye. A jewel heist is planned amidst the glitz and glamour of Oxford Streets Christmas shopping. Lost in a snowstorm, a man finds a motive for murder. Featuring stories by John Bude and E.C.R. Lorac, as well as tales by little-known writers of crime fiction, this collection of mysteries explores the darker side of the festive season, from unexplained disturbances in the fresh...
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English
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"John Wilkins meets a beautiful, irresistible girl, and his world is turned upside down. Looking at his wife, and thinking of the girl, everything turns red before his eyes--the colour of murder. But did he really commit the heinous crime he was accused of? Told innovatively in two parts: the psychiatric assessment of Wilkins and the trial for suspected murder on the Brighton seafront, Symons' award-winning mystery tantalizes the reader with glimpses...
Author
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English
Description
Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder
An eager London crowd awaits the trial of Victoria Lamartine, hotel worker, ex-French Resistance fighter, and the only logical suspect for the murder of her supposed lover, Major Eric Thoseby. Lamartine—who once escaped from the clutches of the Gestapo—is set to meet her end at the gallows.
One final opportunity remains: the defendant calls on solicitor Nap Rumbold to replace the defence...
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English
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"'Any book by Michael Gilbert is a treat'--Daily Telegraph. A man is found dead in an escape tunnel beneath an Italian prisoner-of-war camp. Did he die in an accidental collapse--or was this murder? Captain Henry 'Cuckoo' Goyles, master tunneller and amateur detective, takes up the case. This classic locked-room mystery with a closed circle of suspects is woven together with a thrilling story of escape from the camp, as the Second World War nears...
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English
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Description
"The British Secret Service, working to uncover a large-scale blackmail ring and catch its mastermind 'The Spider,' find themselves at the country residence Feltham Abbey, where a fancy-dress ball is in full swing. In the chaos of celebration, Sir Ralph Feltham is discovered dead and Tony, a bewildered yet curious guest, sets out to make sense of the night's activities as well as the motives of the other benevolent-appearing partygoers. This classic...
69)
Deep waters: mysteries on the waves
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Author
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English
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"London, 1945. The capital is shrouded in the darkness of the blackout, and mystery abounds in the parks after dusk. During a stroll through Regent's Park, Bruce Mallaig witnesses two men acting suspiciously around a footbridge. In a matter of moments, one of them has been murdered; Mallaig's view of the assailant but a brief glimpse of a ghastly face in the glow of a struck match. The murderer's noiseless approach and escape seems to defy all logic,...
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English
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""Never make trouble in the village" is an unspoken law, but it's a binding law. You may know about your neighbor's sins and shortcomings, but you must never name them aloud. It'd make trouble, and small societies want to avoid trouble." When Dr Raymond Ferens moves to a practice at Milham in the Moor in North Devon, he and his wife are enchanted with the beautiful hilltop village lying so close to moor and sky. At first, they see only its charm,...
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English
Description
Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder…
"At 8 o'clock in the evening on the 8th of November, there was a terrific explosion in Green Lane, Evingden."
The offices of the Excelsior Joinery Company have been blown to smithereens; three of the company directors are found dead amongst the rubble, and the peace of a quiet town in Surrey lies in ruins. When the supposed cause of an ignited gas leak is dismissed and the presence of dynamite...
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English
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"Chief Inspector Brett Nightingale and Sergeant Beddoes have been called to a gloomy flat off Islington High Street. An elderly woman-Princess Olga Karukhin, an emigrant of Civil War Russia-lies dead on the bed, and her trunk has been looted of its glittering treasure... Out in the festive chaos of the capital a colourful cast of suspects abound: the downtrodden grandson, a plutocratic jeweller, Bolsheviks with unfinished business? Beddoes and Nightingale...
Author
Language
English
Description
Discover the captivating treasures buried in the British Library's archives. Largely inaccessible to the public until now, these enduring classics were written in the golden age of detective fiction.
Crossed skis means danger ahead...
In Bloomsbury, London, Inspector Brook of Scotland Yard looks down at a dismal scene. The victim of a ruthless murder lies burnt beyond recognition, his possessions and papers destroyed by
...Author
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English
Description
"Like Cold Tuscan Stone, the novel is light on its feet, with a protagonist who will strike readers as a good guy to hang around with."-Booklist
Perfect for readers of Donna Leon and Martin Walker, this thrilling addition to David Wagner's Italian mysteries immerses us in the sights, smells and tastes of Italy, this time in a picture-perfect Alpine town with a surprising dark side
Rick Montoya is looking forward to a break from his translation business...
76) Fell murder
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English
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"A fascinating, 'return of the prodigal' mystery set in the remote fells of the North of England. The Garths had farmed their fertile acres for generations and fine land it was with the towering hills of the Lake Country on the far horizon. Garthmere Hall itself was old before Flodden Field, and here hot-tempered Robert Garth, still hale and hearty at eighty-two, ruled his household with a rod of iron. When he is killed, Inspector MacDonald sets to...
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Series
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English
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Description
Discover the captivating treasures buried in the British Library's archives. Largely inaccessible to the public until now, these enduring crime classics were written in the golden age of detective fiction.
With an introduction by Martin Edwards and featuring the Dickson Carr short story "The Shadow of the Goat"
We are thrilled to welcome John Dickson Carr into the Crime Classics series with his first
...Publisher
Poisoned Pen Press
Pub. Date
[2019]
Language
English
Description
"The detective's role is simple: to catch the culprit. Yet behind each casual observation lies a learned mind, trained in deliberations of logic - preferably amid complicated gadgetry and scientific tomes. The detectives in this collection are masters ofscientific deduction, whether they are identifying the perpetrator from a scrap of fabric, or picking out the poison from a sinister line-up. Containing stories by R Austin Freeman, J J Connington...
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English
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Description
The murder, a brutal stabbing, definitely took place on Guy Fawkes's (bonfire) night. It was definitely by the bonfire on the village green, and there were definitely a number of witnesses. And yet, nobody is clear on what exactly happened and what they saw. In the writhing, violent shadows, it seems as if the truth may have gone up in smoke. Julian Symons's phenomenal 1960 novel is a searing drama of wrongful accusation, twisty police procedural,...
80)
Settling scores: sporting mysteries
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81) Castle Skull
Author
Series
Henri Bencolin mysteries volume 3
Language
English
Description
Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder
That is the case. Alison has been murdered. His blazing body was seen running about the battlements of Castle Skull.
And so a dark shadow looms over the Rhineland where Inspector Henri Bencolin and his accomplice Jeff Marle have arrived from Paris. Entreated by the Belgian financier DAunay to investigate the gruesome and grimly theatrical death of actor Myron Alison, the pair find themselves...
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"On a dismally foggy night in Hampstead, London, a curious party has gathered in an artist's studio to weather the wartime blackout A civil servant and a government scientist are matching wits in a game of chess, while an artist paints the portrait of his characterful sitter, bedecked in Cardinal's robes at the other end of the room. In the kitchen, the artist's sister is hosting the charlady of the miser next door. When the brutal murder of said...
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"'The purpose, the illusion, the spirit of a waxworks. It is an atmosphere of death. It is soundless and motionless... Do you see?' Last night Mademoiselle Duchêne was seen heading into the Gallery of Horrors at the Musaee Augustin waxworks, alive. Todayshe was found in the Seine, murdered. The museum's proprietor, long perturbed by the unnatural vitality of his figures, claims that he saw one of them following the victim into the dark--a lead that...
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"In this follow up to It Walks by Night, Inspector Bencolin attempts to piece together a puzzle involving a disappearing street and a set of gallows that mysteriously appears through the thick London fog. And a mythical spirit, Jack Ketch, may be afoot and in the business of wanton execution, leaving Londoners on edge and in fear of the bogeyman. The Lost Gallows is an early gem from one of the great writers of the genre. This edition also includes...
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"Four men were due to fly to Dublin. When disaster strikes and the plane goes down over the Irish sea, only three of them were on board. With the identities of the flyers scattered to the winds, the police turn to the Wade family, whose patchy account andmemory of their past few days hold the key to this elusive and tense mystery. Who was the man who didn't fly? And what did he have to gain by not? Proof in one novel that Margot Bennett's tight and...
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English
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"A suicide, a derelict barge, and floating pink chiffon nightdresses... When the San Angelo drifts into port in the Pool of London, telephones begin to ring across the capital and an intricate series of events is set in motion. Beset by dreadful storms inthe Bay of Biscay, the ship, along with the "mixed cargo" it carries, is late. Unaware of the machinations of avaricious importers, wayward captains, and unscrupulous traders, docklands residents...
Publisher
Poisoned Pen Press
Pub. Date
[2021]
Language
English
Description
"A Postman murdered while delivering cards on Christmas morning. A Christmas pine growing over a forgotten homicide. A Yuletide heist gone horribly wrong. When there's as much murder as magic in the air and the facts seem to point to the impossible, it's up to the detective's trained eye to unwrap the clues and neatly tie together an explanation (preferably with a bow on top). Martin Edwards has once again gathered the best of these seasonal stories...
88) Tour de Force
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Series
Inspector Cockrill mysteries volume 6
Language
English
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Description
Inspector Cockrill's dull vacation is jolted by a Mediterranean murder From 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...
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An enigmatic young woman named Laura Dousland is on trial for murder, accused of poisoning her elderly husband, Fordish. The couple's Italian servant, Angelo Terugi, chief witness for the prosecution, is on the stand and also under suspicion. At the heart of the puzzle of Fordish Dousland's death is the Chianti flask that almost certainly held the wine containing the poison that killed him. But the flask has disappeared, and all attempts to trace...
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English
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"An unusually rewarding anthology whose most dangerous species remain Homo sapiens."- Kirkus Reviews
Feline friends, canine companions and aviary associates are often the truest reflections of their owners and have played a crucial role in classic crime fiction-be they detectives, or delinquents. Martin Edwards reaches into the British Library of Crime Classics to collect mysteries featuring an animal cohort.
Guilty Creatures celebrates an often-overlooked...
Author
Publisher
Poisoned Pen Press
Pub. Date
[2022]
Language
English
Description
Good old Uncle Willie -- rich, truculent, and seemingly propped up by his fierce willpower alone -- has come to stay with the Redpaths for the holidays. It is just their luck for him to be found dead in the snow on Boxing Day morning, dressed in his Santa Claus costume and seemingly poisoned by something in the Christmas confectionery. As the police flock to the house, Willie's descendants, past lovers and distant relatives are drawn into a perplexing...
Series
British Library Crime Classics volume 93
Publisher
Poisoned Pen Press
Pub. Date
[2022]
Language
English
Description
"With Martin Edwards as librarian and guide, delve into an irresistible stack of bibliomysteries, perfect for every booklover and armchair sleuth, featuring much-loved Golden Age detectives Nigel Strangeways, Philip Trent, Detective Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn, and others. But readers should be warned that the most riveting tales often conceal the deadliest of secrets... "If much of the action is set in a bookshop or a library, it is a bibliomystery,...
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"Anthony Berkeley, one of the most influential crime writers of the 1920s and 1930s and founder of the prestigious Detection Club, returns to the reading public. First published in 1932, Murder in the Basement is Berkeley at his most playful. When newlyweds move into a new home only to discover a corpse in their basement, a grueling investigation begins to identify the victim. When avenues of inquiry peter out, Chief Inspector Moresby follows a tenuous...
94) Murder's a swine
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English
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""I should imagine this was murder, too, because it would be very difficult to build yourself into a heap of sandbags and then die..." In the blackout conditions of a wintry London night, amateur sleuth Agnes Kinghof and a young air-raid warden have stumbled upon a corpse stowed in the walls of their street's bomb shelter. As the police begin their investigation, the night is interrupted once again when Agnes' upstairs neighbour, Mrs. Sibley is terrorised...
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Amidst the confusion of too many fake names, clues, ciphers, and convoluted alibis, Chief Inspector Macdonald and his allies in the CID must unravel a truly tangled case in this metafictional masterpiece, which returns to print for the first time since its publication in 1937. "Should detectives go to parties? Was it consistent with the dignity of the Yard? The inspector tossed for it -- and went." Chief Inspector Macdonald has been invited to a treasure...
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First published in 1944, Till Death Do Us Part remains a pacey and deeply satisfying impossible crime story, championed by Carr connoisseurs as one of the very best examples of his mystery writing talents. This edition includes an introduction by CWA Diamond Dagger Award-winning author Martin Edwards. Crime author Dick Markham is in love again; his fiancée, the mysterious newcomer to the village, Lesley Grant. When Grant accidentally shoots the fortune...
97) Two-way murder
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English
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"It happened on a dark and misty night; the night of the ball at The Prince's Hall, Fordings. Abuzz with rumours surrounding the disappearance of Rosemary Reeve on the eve of last year's ball, the date proves ill-fated again when two homebound partygoers, Nick and Dilys, come to a swerving halt before a corpse on the road. Arriving at the scene to the news that Nick has been attacked after telephoning for the police, Inspector Turner suspects there...
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Hugh Everton was intent on nothing more than quietly drinking in the second-rate hotel he found himself in on England's south coast -- and then in walked his old flame Lucy and her new husband and ex-judge, Gregory Bath. Entreated by Lucy to join her party for an evening back at the Bath residence, Hugh is powerless to resist, but when the night ends with the judge's inexplicable murder, he is pitched back into a world of chaos and crime -- a world...
99) Crook o' lune
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English
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It all began up at High Gimmerdale with the sheep-stealing, a hateful act in the shepherding fells above the bend in the Lune River -- the Crook o' Lune. Then came the fire at Aikengill house and with the leaping of the flames, death, disorder, and dangerous gossip came to the quiet moorlands. Visiting his friends, the Hoggetts, while searching for some farmland to buy up ahead of his retirement, Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald's trip becomes a busman's...
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"Those who treasure books won't want to miss this." - Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"A welcome pleasure for fans of classic British mysteries." - Kirkus Reviews
An honest policeman, Sergeant Wigan, escorts a drunk man home one night to keep him out of trouble and, seeing his fine book collection, slowly falls in to the gentle art of book collecting. Just as the friendship is blossoming, the policeman's book-collecting friend is murdered.
To...
101) Death of Jezebel
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English
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At Elysian Hall, a grand exhibition space in post-War London, a cast has been assembled for a medieval-themed pageant show replete with knights in colored armour, real horses, and a damsel in a rickety tower on high. With death threats discovered by members of the troupe before the show, the worst comes to pass when the leading lady is thrown from the tower before the eyes of the audience by an unknown assailant -- with all doors backstage also under...
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The headline from The Maningpool Telegraph read: "TRAGIC DEATH OF SIR NOEL GRAMPIAN -- shot during performance -- Symphony Concert Calamity." As a rousing Strauss piece is reaching its crescendo in Maningpool Civic Hall, the talented yet obnoxious conductor Sir Noel Grampian is shot dead in full view of the Municipal Orchestra and the audience. It was no secret that he had many enemies -- musicians and music critics among them -- but to be killed...
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English
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"… and what a motive! Murder to save one's artistic soul… who'd believe that?"
Behind the stage lights and word-perfect soliloquies, sinister secrets are lurking in the wings. The mysteries in this collection reveal the dark side to theatre and performing arts: a world of backstage dealings, where unscrupulous actors risk everything to land a starring role, costumed figures lead to mistaken identities, and on-stage deaths begin to look a little...
105) Green for danger
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It is 1942, and at the new Kent military hospital Heron's Park, postman Joseph Higgins delivers seven letters of acceptance for infirmary roles. He has no idea that one of the recipients will later cause his demise. When Higgins returns to Heron's Park with injuries from a bombing raid in 1943, his inexplicable death in the operating theatre casts four nurses and three doctors under suspicion, and a second, sudden death brings Inspector Cockrill to...
106) Jumping Jenny
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"Tightly paced and cleverly defying the conventions of the classic detective story, this 1933 novel remains a milestone of the i
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First published in a limited run in 1934, this exceedingly rare and fast-paced bibliomystery set against the landscapes of Yorkshire is long overdue its return to print.
The note read:
"Will the gentleman who took by mistake a copy of Bunyan's Life and Death of Mr. Badman, return it as soon as possible, as the book is in demand."
On holiday in Keldstone visiting his nephew, Jim, blanket manufacturer Athelstan Digby agrees to look after the old...
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English
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The Surrays and their five children form a prolific writing machine, with scores of treatises, reviews, and crime thrillers published under their family name. Following a rare convergence of the whole household at their Oxfordshire home, Ruth -- middle sister who writes "books which are just books" -- decides to spend some weeks there recovering from the pressures of the writing life, while the rest of the brood scatter to the winds again. Their next...
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When the police arrive at the holiday bungalow of the haughty Justice Ireton to find a man killed by gunshot and the high court judge brandishing a pistol, the case seems as straightforward as it is scandalous. Yet, with the incongruous assemblage of physical evidence, the judge's denial of any participation in the crime and the recent events of his daughter's love life combined, the deceptively simple case is soon steeped in complexity. At a loss...
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"James Bennett has been invited to stay at White Priory for Christmas among the retinue of the glamorous Hollywood actress Marcia Tait. Her producer, her lover, the playwright for her next hit and her agent are all here, soon to become so many suspects when Tait is found murdered on a cold December morning in the lakeside pavilion. Only the footprints of her discoverer disturb the snow which fell overnight -- and which stopped just shortly after Marcia...
111) The black spectacles
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English
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"A sinister case of deadly poisoned chocolates from Sodbury Cross's high street shop haunts the group of friends and relatives assembled at Bellegarde, among the orchards of 'peach-fancier' Marcus Chesney. To prove a point about how the sweets could have been poisoned under the nose of the shopkeeper, Chesney stages an elaborate memory game to test whether any of his guests can see beyond their 'black spectacles'; that is, to see the truth without...
112) Death of an author
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English
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"Vivian Lestrange--celebrated author of the popular mystery novel The Charterhouse Case and total recluse--has apparently dropped off the face of the Earth. After he was reported missing by his secretary Eleanor, whom Inspector Bond suspects to be the author herself, crime and murder are afoot when Lestrange's housekeeper is also found to have disappeared. Bond and Warner of Scotland Yard set to work to investigate a murder with no body and a potentially...
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English
Description
A fair play, double twist mystery where a beloved London bookseller with a passion for rare books is found shot to death in his locked bookshop.
Mr. Richard Dodsley, owner of a fine secondhand bookshop on Charing Cross Road, has been found murdered in the cold hours of the morning. He'd been shot in his own office, where few clues remain besides three cigarette ends, two spent matches, and a few books on the shelves which have been rearranged.
In...
114) He who whispers
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English
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"When Miles Hammond is invited to a meeting of the Murder Club in London, he is met instead with just two other guests and is treated to a strange tale of an impossible crime in France from years before -- the murder of a man on a tower with only one staircase, under watch at the time the murder took place. With theories of levitating vampires abounding, the story comes home to Miles when he realizes that the librarian he has just hired for his home...
115)
The lady vanishes
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Author
Series
Publisher
Poisoned Pen Press
Pub. Date
2024.
Language
English
Description
While the Blitz bombards London, the boisterous grandchildren of Sir Richard March have descended upon Swanswater Manor in Kent for a family gathering and the finalizing of the patriarch's will. Disgruntled by the behavior and life choices of his heirs, March seems poised to deny all of them their inheritance and heads out to his lodge to make arrangements--only to be discovered dead the next morning with strychnine in his blood. With evidence at...
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Publisher
Poisoned Pen Press
Pub. Date
2024.
Language
English
Description
"While hot on the heels of serial coupon-racketeer Gordon Ginner, Chief Inspector Macdonald of Scotland Yard receives word of a peculiar incident up in Lancashire -- the fishing cottage of a local farmer has been broken into, with an assortment of seemingly random items missing, which include a reel of salmon line, a large sack, and two iron dogs (or andirons) from his fireplace. This incident becomes all the more enticing to Macdonald when a body...
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English
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Horace Manning, scientist, recluse, and "closed book" even to his friends, is found dead in his study at 4 a.m., following a dinner in honour of his daughter's engagement. An ivory-handled carving knife rests between his shoulder blades as the houseguests gather round to witness the awful crime. The telephone line has been sabotaged -- a calculated murder has been committed. Rewinding twelve hours, the events of the afternoon and evening unfold, revealing...
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English
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"Sir Robert Boniface, the industrial and financial tycoon -- and stalwart of the British Cabinet -- has been found shot dead in his blue limousine on a warm Friday evening in the Vale of Health, Hampstead Heath. Nearby, a rejected portrait of Sir Robert is found riddled with bullets in the studio of the now-missing artist Matt Caldwell. Called to the scene, Inspector Beckett of Scotland Yard suspects murder. By the time Superintendent Mooney joins...
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"Sarah has been receiving threatening anonymous letters, seemingly from a former lover. Just one day after revealing this information to her coworker Nancy, Sarah is found shot in her bedroom by one of her past flames, Donald. Hearing the news and desperate to clear any evidence of Donald's presence at the scene due to her own infatuations, Nancy finds herself as the key suspect when she is discovered in the apartment. As the real killer uses the...
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