Series: British Library Crime Classics

Girls Together magazine agony-aunt 'Mrs Friendly-wise', aka Katinka Jones, finds herself at a loose end in Swansea, and decides to pay a surprise visit to one of the magazine's regular correspondents, 'Amista'. But reaching the address—a strange house perched atop a mountain which matches all of the descriptions in the letters—nobody has even heard of 'Amista'. As Katinka begins to...

A man is found dead in an escape tunnel in 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...

It is 1942, and struggling up the hill to the new military hospital, Heron's Park, Kent, postman Higgins has no idea that the sender of one of the seven letters of application he is delivering will turn out to be a murderer in a year's time. When Higgins is brought in following injuries from a bombing raid in 1943, his...

Luke flung the light of his torch full onto the face of the immobile figure. Then he had the shock of his life. The man had no face! Where his face should have been was a sort of inhuman, uniform blank! When a body is found at an isolated garage, Inspector Meredith is drawn into a complex investigation where every...

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 in the 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...

In a tranquil Kentish village, Dr Sandys and his wife are preparing for Christmas with their guest, Liane 'Lee' Crauford. Festivities start badly when their party is spoiled by an enigmatic widow new to the village, and the atmosphere hits rock bottom when the pompous local nobleman and ceramic-collector Sir Henry Metcalfe unexpectedly dies. Sensing potential villains among Metcalfe's circle,...

After all, under its gaiety and brilliance, Vienna has always been a centre of intrigue. The distinguished industrialist, the fair girl, and the aggressive young man—although Superintendent McDonald tried to avoid studying his fellow-passengers, he simply couldn't help it. For him, it was difficult to adjust to being on holiday. He turned away deliberately. These people weren't his problem; he...

Antidote to Venom by Freeman Wills Crofts delivers a captivating puzzle for all mystery enthusiasts, as praised by the Times Literary Supplement: "Mr Wills Crofts is deservedly a first favourite with all who want a real puzzle." Similarly, the Daily Mirror commends, "He always manages to give us something that really keeps us guessing." George Surridge, the director of the...

As he walked away from the phone, there was a puzzled expression on Blampignon's massive countenance. He was thinking: Le Touquet again! With some trepidation, Nigel Derry approaches the country house of his enigmatic and unpredictable aunt Gwenny for an Easter holiday visit. After a tense few days in which her guests' interactions range from awkward dinners to a knife...

Some women give birth to murderers, some go to bed with them, and some marry them. Lina Aysgarth had lived with her husband for nearly eight years before she realised that she was married to a murderer. Following the success of Malice Aforethought, novelist Anthony Berkeley Cox returned to his Francis Iles pen-name for another experiment in the inverted mystery....

The discovery of Sir Robert Boniface's body on the floor of his blue limousine was made quite accidentally on a sultry Friday evening towards the end of June. The industrial and financial tycoon, and former stalwart of the British Cabinet, had been shot in the head and left in the quiet Vale of Health alongside London's Hampstead Heath. Nearby, a...

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 the 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...

With its fascinating mix of people—rich and poor, British and foreign, worthy and suspicious—London is a city where anything can happen. The possibilities for criminals and for the crime writer are endless. London has been home to many of fiction's finest detectives, and the setting for mystery novels and short stories of the highest quality. Capital Crimes is an eclectic...

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 D'Aunay to investigate the gruesome and grimly theatrical death of actor Myron Alison,...

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...

A new award-winning author joins the Crime Classics series with one of her best novels. This is a mystery of international intrigue set in London at Christmas time, mixing the best parts of traditional mystery with thriller elements such as a climactic chase involving a helicopter! The Easter egg. I told 'im. All white an' glittering, lovely, like ice an'...

There will be ten teacups at number 4, Berwick Terrace, W. 8, on Wednesday, July 31, at 5 p.m. precisely. The presence of the Metropolitan Police is respectfully requested. Writing as Carter Dickson, the master of the locked room mystery, John Dickson Carr, returns to the Crime Classics series. He pitches his series amateur detective, Henry Merrivale, against a seemingly...

John Waterhouse has died of some gastric complication. Exhumed at his brother's request, it transpires that he has been killed by arsenical poisoning, though nobody in the sleepy village of Anneypenny seems to have had a reason to do him ill. Rumours abound of Nazi intrigue and military skullduggery, but whatever the motive, the truth remains; this was murder. Originally...

One of the greatest locked-room murder mysteries of all time, hailing from 1938, returns to baffle a new bevy of armchair detectives. James Answell, visiting his father-in-law Avery Hume in his locked study, has the misfortune to wake up from a drugged-Whisky swoon to find his host dead, skewered with an arrow. He is, of course, the prime suspect. After...

Rose has news for Celia: she is due to have a baby by Celia's husband, Humphrey. Soon after, the seeds of scandal bear a criminal fruit when a body is discovered in Little Venice along with Rose's handbag. Celia drafts in an old flame, Will, to root out the truth from suspicions of murder and blackmail, as the evidence starts...

After all, said our host, it's Christmas. Why not let the cat out of the bag? 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...

"Ahoy, my lad!" he bellowed back. "I didn't expect you so early. Come for a dip! The water's fine. Everything is-" Then it happened. Mystery and murder runs amok amidst ominous peaks and icy lakes. In hushed valleys, venom flows through villages harbouring grievances which span generations. The landscapes and locales of Wales ("Cymru", in the Welsh language) have fired...

Crimson Snow brings together a dozen vintage crime stories set in winter. Welcome to a world of Father Christmases behaving oddly, a famous fictional detective in a Yuletide drama, mysterious tracks in the snow, and some very unpleasant carol singers. The mysterious events chronicled by a distinguished array of contributors in this volume frequently take place at Christmas. There's no...

It all began with sheep-stealing. A hateful act among the shepherds of the fells, and yet not a matter of life and death. Then came arson, and with the leaping of the flames, death and disorder reached the peaceful moors. Holidaying with his friends the Hoggetts in High Gimmerdale while on a trip to find some farmland for his retirement,...

In London's Bloomsbury, Inspector Julian Rivers of Scotland Yard looks down at a dismal scene. Here is the victim, burnt to a crisp. Here are the clues — clues which point to a good climber and expert skier, and which lead Rivers to the piercing sunshine and sparkling snow of the Austrian Alps. Yet there is something sinister beneath the...

At the Central Criminal Court, an eager crowd awaits the trial of Victoria Lamartine, an active participant in the Resistance during the war. She is now employed at the Family Hotel in Soho, where Major Eric Thoseby has been found murdered. The cause of death? A stabbing reminiscent of techniques developed by the Maquisards. While the crime is committed in...

Death in White Pyjamas: A theatre-owner, a 'slightly sinister' producer, a burgeoning playwright, and a cast of ego-driven actors have gathered at a country home to read through the promising script for Pigs in Porcelain. Before the production ever reaches the stage, one of their number is found murdered in the grounds wearing what mysteriously seems to be somebody else's...

There's more crime going on in Carey's Circus than in the whole underworld of London. Theft, immorality, blackmail - you'll find all the pretties here. Seven Bengal tigers are the star attraction of Carey's Circus. Their trainer is the fearless Anton, whose work demands absolute fitness and the steadiest of nerves. When Anton is found lying dead in the tigers'...

At Elysian Hall, a great exhibition space in post-War London, a cast has been assembled for a Medieval pageant show. There are knights in coloured armour, real horses, and a fair damsel in the tower on high. Tragedy is in the air when several members of the troupe are sent death threats before the show, and the worst comes to...

A bookshop is a first-rate place for unobtrusive observation, he continued. One can remain in it an indefinite time, dipping into one book after another, all over the place. Mr Richard Dodsley, owner of a fine second-hand bookshop on Charing Cross Road, has been found murdered in the cold hours of the morning. Shot in his own office, few clues...

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...

From picturesque canals to the swirling currents of the ocean, a world of secrets lies buried beneath the surface of the water. Dubious vessels crawl along riverbeds, while the murky depths conceal more than one gruesome murder. The stories in this collection will dredge up delight in crime fiction fans, as watery graves claim unintended dwellers and disembodied whispers penetrate...

"Her writing is moment by moment intense, and successful as such... What propels the reader through the pages is not the tug of 'who done it' nor the excitement of men with guns coming through doors, but the sheer excellence of the writing." — H.R.F. Keating A car speeds down a road between miles of marshes and estuary flats, its...

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...

First published in 1944, Fell Murder sees E.C.R. Lorac at the height of her considerable powers as a purveyor of well-made, traditional, and emphatic detective fiction. The book presents a fascinating 'return of the prodigal’ mystery set in the later stages of the Second World War amidst the close-knit farmerfolk community of Lancashire’s lovely Lune valley. The Garths had farmed...

... 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 of theatre and performing arts: a world of backstage dealings, where unscrupulous actors risk everything to land a starring role, costumed figures lead...

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 have been known only by a small number of experts. Foreign Bodies is the first ever collection of classic crime in...

"Curiously enough," said Dr. Manners, "I know a story in which the detection of a murder turned on the behaviour of a bird: in this instance a jackdaw." Since the dawn of the crime fiction genre, animals of all kinds have played a memorable part in countless mysteries, and in a variety of roles: the perpetrator, the key witness, the...

It almost seemed that the murder, if it was a murder, must have been committed by someone who could rise up unsupported in the air... 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...

We are thrilled to welcome John Dickson Carr into the Crime Classics series with his first novel, a brooding locked room mystery in the gathering dusk of the French capital. In the smoke-wreathed gloom of a Parisian salon, Inspector Bencolin has summoned his allies to discuss a peculiar case. A would-be murderer, imprisoned for his attempt to kill his wife,...

Her best yet. A classic story with well concealed and ingenious clues, sufficiently difficult to leave us properly surprised by both murderer and method. — The Spectator Near St. Brynneys in the Welsh border country, isolated by heavy snow and flooding from the thaw, a calamity has occurred. Old Dr. Robinson, a known 'menace on the roads', has met his...

Mr. Anthony Berkeley deserves all gratitude for his energetic efforts to escape from the thraldom of formula... If you are hard-boiled and disillusioned about detectives, you will find this tale very refreshing. Dorothy L. Sayers At a costume party with the dubious theme of 'famous murderers and their victims', the know-it-all amateur criminologist Roger Sheringham is settled in for an...

The Master? Dr. Greeby? You don't say so! Murdered? Dear me! Poor Greeby! This will upset my whole day's work. An Oxford Master is slain on campus during Pentecost. A headmaster faces off in a deadly battle of wits with a disgruntled parent. A sixth-form public school prank courts a murderous consequence. In this new anthology, theft, blackmail, murder, and...

On a sultry afternoon in July, a man stumbles through thick foliage and rough ground, making for the coast. He wears prisoner's garb and the guards are hot on his heels. Happening upon a bather's clothes—the bather nowhere in sight—the escapee takes the risk, changes, and leaves the scene looking the part of the average beachcomber. But it can be...

"You have to reach for the greatest of the Great Names (Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen) to find Christianna Brand's rivals in the subtleties of the trade." Anthony Boucher in the New York Times Night falls in the capital, and a "London particular" pea-souper fog envelops the city. In Maida Vale, Rose and her family doctor Tedwards struggle...

When two newlyweds discover that a corpse has been buried in the basement of their new home, a gruelling case begins to trace the identity of the victim. With all avenues of investigation approaching exhaustion, a tenuous piece of evidence offers a chance for Chief Inspector Moresby and leads him to the amateur sleuth Roger Sheringham, who has recently been...

Murder of a Lady is set in Duchlan Castle, a gloomy and forbidding place in the Scottish Highlands. Late one night, the body of Mary Gregor, sister of the laird of Duchlan, is discovered in the castle. She has been stabbed to death in her bedroom, which is locked from within and the windows are barred. The only tiny clue...

"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...

Murder Underground is more than just an interesting detective novel. The numerous characters are well differentiated and include one of the most feckless, exasperating, and lifelike literary men ever to confuse a trail, according to Dorothy L. Sayers, Sunday Times, 1934. When Miss Pongleton is found murdered on the stairs of Belsize Park station, her fellow-boarders at the Frampton Hotel...

The horror on the train, great though it may turn out to be, will not compare with the horror that exists here, in this house. 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...

"Now tell us about your crime novel. Take my advice and don't try to be intellectual over it. What the public likes is blood." 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,...

Quick Curtain is a witty detective story, originally published in 1934. It is one among many books that enjoyed brief popularity during the "Golden Age of murder" between the two world wars but subsequently fell out of sight. The author, Alan Melville, was a successful playwright and man of the theatre, and he uses his knowledge of backstage life to...

A war's on and a murder has been committed—and we sit here talking nonsense about almond whirls and mince pies! 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...

Scandalize My Name opens with a haunting image: Caroline stares out at the restless traffic, her mind plagued by the memory of Ivan Sweet's pale, cold face and the malevolent storm behind his dead brown eyes. On the eve of Elaine Southey's 21st birthday, Ivan Sweet is discovered dead in his basement flat in the Southeys' historic north London home....

‘My friend Ellingham has persuaded me to reveal to the public the astounding features of the Reisby case. As a study in criminal aberration it is, he tells me, of particular interest, while in singularity of horror and in perversity of ingenious method it is probably unique.’ 1913. John Farringdale, with his cousin Eric Foster, visits the famous archaeologist Tolgen...

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...

"The detective story is a game between two players, the author... and the reader." - Ronald Knox From the squash court to the golf links, the football pitch to the swimming pool and the race course to the cricket square, no court, grounds, stadium or stand is safe from skullduggery. Entering the arena where sport clashes with crime, this spirited...

Ted Lyte, an 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 yachtsman Thomas Hazeldean. The search for the...

Powerful and impressive ... there is a fine inevitability in the plot structure which gives it true tragic quality - Dorothy L. Sayers Portrait of a Murderer by Anne Meredith presents a captivating journey into the dark psychology of a murderer. Adrian Gray was born in May 1862 and met his death through violence, at the hands of one of...

The death was an odd one, it was true; but there was after all no very clear reason to assume it was anything but natural. 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 GBP120 in cash, and oblivious to the fate that...

Then I felt his warm hand grow cold, it was as if he had been reminded of death. He wasn't looking at me any more, but obliquely, across the restaurant. I turned round. Sarah has been receiving threatening anonymous letters, seemingly from a former lover. Just one day after revealing this information to her co-worker Nancy, Sarah is found shot...

On a cold winter's afternoon, Alberta Mansbridge waits at a table set with teacups for eight, musing over her guests. The ex-jailbird Barry, the nephew and his ghastly new flibbertijibbet of a wife, the Italian playboy, the old friend with whom she had so recently fallen out... Alberta returns upstairs to get herself ready. When the guests arrive, the door...

Following a mysterious explosion, the offices of Excelsior Joinery Company are no more; the three directors are killed, 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 is revealed, Superintendent Littlejohn of Scotland Yard is summoned to the scene. Beneath the...

The 1939 Arsenal side is firing on all cylinders and celebrating a string of victories. They appear unstoppable, but the Trojans—a side of amateurs who are on a winning streak of their own—may be about to silence the Gunners. Moments into the second half, the whistle blows, but not for a goal or penalty. One of the Trojans has collapsed...

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...

[Belloc Lowndes] brings to the making of a mystery a literary sense and an imagination that puts life into the tale and into the readers. The Observer An enigmatic young woman named Laura Dousland stands on trial for murder, accused of poisoning her elderly husband Fordish. It seems clear that the poison was delivered in a flask of Chianti with...

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. The Reverend Dodd, vicar of the quiet Cornish village of Boscawen, spends his evenings reading detective stories by the fireside; heaven forbid that the shadow of any real crime...

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...

Dr James Earle and his wife live in comfortable seclusion near the Hog's Back, a ridge in the North Downs in the beautiful Surrey countryside. When Dr Earle disappears from his cottage, Inspector French is called in to investigate. At first, he suspects a simple domestic intrigue and begins to uncover a web of romantic entanglements beneath the couple's peaceful...

As the thick, autumnal fog chokes the capital, within the fire-lit lounge of London's notorious Brimstone Club a bizarre tale is being spun for Inspector Bencolin and his friend Jeff Marle. A member of the club has been sent a model of a tiny gallows, and the word is that the folkloric hangman Jack Ketch has been stalking the streets...

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 Duchene was seen heading into the Gallery of Horrors at the Musee Augustin waxworks, alive. Today, she was found in the Seine, murdered. The museum's proprietor, long perturbed by the unnatural vitality of his...

Four men were due to fly to Dublin. When disaster struck and the plane went 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 patchy account of the Wade family, whose memory of their past few days must hold the key to...

The detective's role is simple: to catch the culprit. Yet behind each casual observation lies a learned mind, trained on finding the key to the mystery. Crimes, whatever their form, are often best solved through deliberations of logic—preferably amid complicated gadgetry and a pile of hefty scientific volumes. The detectives in this collection are masters of scientific deduction, whether they...

After battling for justice, at great personal risk, in his first recorded case, Sergeant Caleb Cluff made a swift return to duty in The Methods of Sergeant Cluff. The story opens one wet and windy night, with the discovery of a young woman's corpse, lying face down on the cobblestones of a passageway in the Yorkshire town of Gunnarshaw. The...

I should be very much happier if she were dead. Edward Powell lives with his Aunt Mildred in the Welsh town of Lywll. His aunt thinks Lywll is an idyllic place to live, but Edward loathes the countryside — and thinks the company even worse. In fact, Edward has decided to murder his aunt. A darkly humorous depiction of fraught...

Taking a break from his holiday visiting his nephew, Jim, Athelstan Digby agrees to look after the old bookshop of Keldstone so that his hosts, the Lavenders, can attend their cousin's funeral. On the first day of his tenure, three suspicious characters enquire after a copy of The Life and Times of Mr Badman by John Bunyan. When a copy...

The Notting Hill Mystery has been widely described as the first detective novel. The story is told by the insurance investigator Ralph Henderson, who is building a case against the sinister Baron R___, suspected of murdering his wife to claim her life insurance. Henderson descends into a maze of intrigue, including a diabolical mesmerist, kidnapping by gypsies, slow-poisoners, a rich...

The murder, a brutal stabbing, definitely took place on Guy Fawkes' night. It was definitely by the bonfire on the village green. There were definitely a number of witnesses. And yet, was it definitely clear to anybody exactly what they had seen? In the writhing, violent shadows, it seems as if the truth may have gone up in smoke. The...

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. Nearly every member of the party stands to reap some sort...

Over a long career in the courts, Justice Horace Ireton has garnered a reputation for merciless rulings and his dedication to meting out strict, impartial justice. Taking a break from his duty after a session of assizes, Ireton retreats to his seaside bungalow in Devon and turns his attention to family, specifically in attempting to bribe his daughter's lover, Morrell,...