1
of
1
The Unicorn Murders
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.
Check link for latest rating. ( 262 ratings, 38 reviews)
Brief Description
The diplomat Sir George Ramsden is returning to Britain from France with the mysterious unicorn in tow. The legendary thief Flamande has declared that he will be on the same flight as Ramsden, in disguise, and that the unicorn will be his. His arch-rival and head...
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2799
Unit price
/
Unavailable
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER
Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks
Found a better price? Request a price match
The Unicorn Murders
$2799
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Latest News
The Cultural Renaissance of Reading
There's something rather wonderful happening in the world of books at the moment. Reading is...
Marnie shares her tips for Spring!
Marnie is our garden expert and Lizzy kills every plant she brings home. We're getting...
A Little Bit Spooky: Board Games for Halloween
Halloween is the perfect excuse for a spooky board game night! From adorable ghost cats...
100 Years of Winnie the Pooh
100 years ago the Hundred Acre Wood and a cast of beloved friends was published...
The Book Briefing - 14/10/2026
It's time for another edition of 'The Book Briefing'! Sacha's back with all the latest...
See moreFor the 150th Crime Classic, this extremely scarce mystery masterpiece by Carter Dickson (John Dickson Carr) is a celebration of what the series is all about; making the greatest, and often very scarce, works of the genre available once more.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
The diplomat Sir George Ramsden is returning to Britain from France with the mysterious unicorn in tow. The legendary thief Flamande has declared that he will be on the same flight as Ramsden, in disguise, and that the unicorn will be his. His arch-rival and head of the Sûreté Nationale, Gasquet, has assured the public that he too will be on the plane to thwart his nemesis.
Meanwhile, holidaying in Paris, the ex-spy Kenwood Blake runs into Evelyn Cheyne and is swept into a perilous chase ending at the Chateau de l’Ile on a stormy night. Here, Ramsden’s plane has made an emergency landing, and Henry Merrivale has joined the party. When the castle is cut off by the flooding river, the stage is set for a battle of wits between two masters of disguise in Flamande and Gasquet, as a bizarre and seemingly impossible murder among the party casts suspicion in every direction – and the mystery of the unicorn is revealed.
The Unicorn Murders, Carter Dickson’s brilliantly intricate mystery, was first published in Britain in 1936; it remains a testament to his unique talent for wrangling audacious levels of devilishness into a masterpiece.
Series: British Library Crime Classics
View all-
Murder in Vienna
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...Paperback$2500Elsewhere:$2699Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Antidote to Venom
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...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Cat and Mouse
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...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
A Telegram from Le Touquet
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...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Death in Captivity
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...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Before the Fact
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....Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Green for Danger
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...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Calamity in Kent
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...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Big Ben Strikes Eleven
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...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Capital Crimes
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...Paperback$2999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Lake District Murder
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...Paperback$2299Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Castle Skull
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,...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780712369305
Publisher: British Library Publishing
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 10 May 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: British Library Publishing
Illustration: Illustrations
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 130.0mm
Height: 190.0mm
Weight: 0g
Pages: 256
About the Author
Carter Dickson was the pseudonym used by the American author John Dickson Carr (1906–1977) for his novels starring Sir Henry Merrivale. Carr was a prolific writer of highly regarded mysteries, many featuring Merrivale or Dr Gideon Fell. He moved to Britain in 1932 and was admitted to the Detection Club in 1936. His novels republished in the British Library Crime Classics series include The Ten Teacups, The Judas Window and The White Priory Murders.
Also by Carter Dickson
View all-
The Ten Teacups
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...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Judas Window
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...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The White Priory Murders
The White Priory Murders presents an 'impossible situation' regarded as the best Mr Dickson has given us, according to Torquemada in The Observer, 1935. "Sir Henry is at his best in this baffling yarn, and so is Carter Dickson," praised The New York Times in 1934. James Bennett has been invited to stay at White Priory for Christmas among the...PaperbackSold Out
Also by John Dickson Carr
View all-
Castle Skull
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,...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Black Spectacles
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...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Ten Teacups
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...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Judas Window
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...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Lost Gallows
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...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
It Walks by Night
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,...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Corpse in the Waxworks
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...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Seat of the Scornful
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,...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The White Priory Murders
The White Priory Murders presents an 'impossible situation' regarded as the best Mr Dickson has given us, according to Torquemada in The Observer, 1935. "Sir Henry is at his best in this baffling yarn, and so is Carter Dickson," praised The New York Times in 1934. James Bennett has been invited to stay at White Priory for Christmas among the...PaperbackSold Out -
He Who Whispers
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...PaperbackSold Out -
Till Death Do Us Part
Crime author Dick Markham is in love again; his fiancée is the mysterious newcomer to the village, Lesley Grant. When Grant accidentally shoots the fortune teller through the side of his tent at the local fair, following a very strange reaction to his predictions, Markham is reluctantly brought into a scheme to expose his betrothed as a suspected serial husband-poisoner....PaperbackSold Out -
The Problem of the Wire Cage
John Dickson Carr is famous for his puzzling "impossible crime" plots, in which corpses are discovered in scenarios that seem to lack any logical explanation, concealing clues as to how the murder was committed and how the body arrived in its current setting. Among all of Carr's ingenious crime scenes, the present case is one of his best known: a...HardbackSold Out
More from Crime & Thriller
View all-
New ReleaseKing’s Ransom
Five innocent hostages. Five private investigators. A fiendish ransom game. Has Detective Sam Speedman met his match? A fast and deadly Matthew Reilly thriller. A DARING ABDUCTION The richest man in the world has been kidnapped. Along with four of his children. THE DEADLY CHALLENGE The kidnapper's demand: the five best private detectives in America must come to the missing...Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$3499Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseThe French Illusion
Bestselling author John Grisham delivers a new gripping, suspenseful page-turner about aParis honeymoon gone horribly wrong - and the nightmare that follows. After Paul and Chelsea Tanner's fairytale wedding, their future is full of promise. But their honeymoon to Paris takes a dark, shocking turn when they are kidnapped while on a day trip to the French countryside. Who would...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseKing’s Ransom
Five innocent hostages. Five private investigators. A fiendish ransom game. Has Detective Sam Speedman met his match? A fast and deadly Matthew Reilly thriller. A DARING ABDUCTION The richest man in the world has been kidnapped. Along with four of his children. THE DEADLY CHALLENGE The kidnapper's demand: the five best private detectives in America must come to the missing...Hardback$4499Elsewhere:$4999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseThe Heights
In The Heights by #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Sir Ian Rankin, murder comes to London's most exclusive high-rise - and every resident is a suspect... MURDER COMES TO LONDON'S MOST LUXURIOUS HIGH-RISE: AND EVERY RESIDENT IS A SUSPECT. The Heights: a gleaming, high-end high-rise looming over Hyde Park. Newly built from steel and smoked glass, it is a billionaire's playground offering sumptuous suites...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseDeath Row
With all hope of an appeal fading away, the fate of a condemned murderess takes a shocking turn in a breathtaking short story from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Housemaid! A thrilling novella from #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden! Death is coming for her… unless she finds the truth first. Talia Kemper is on death row for murdering...Paperback$2299Elsewhere:$2400Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Signed CopyNew ReleaseDying Days
Award-winning writer delivers a pulse-pounding espionage thriller. Missing soldiers, MI6 secrets and European partisans collide in a deadly game where the lines between lies and reality are fast disintegrating. In the dying days of the Second World War, a new conflict is about to ignite. May, 1945: After fighting to liberate Europe from the Nazis, Tito's Yugoslav Army and Allied...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3699Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseFury In Death: An Eve Dallas thriller (In Death 63)
In the new crime thriller from the bestselling author, Lt. Eve Dallas journeys into the darkness where murder is born… NYSPD homicide detective Eve Dallas has seen a lot in her time but even she is shocked by the savagery of a beating which leaves a wealthy biotech executive dead in his home office. The victim’s corpse is so mangled...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseTom Clancy Pressure Depth
Jack Ryan Jr leads a team of divers in a race to beat the Chinese Navy to a weapon of terrible destructive power in the latest entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series. Jack Ryan Jr. is on Guam to work on a project for Hendley Associates. It's a perfectly ordinary insurance matter, but trouble finds the Ryans...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseThe Country Road Murders
From the Sunday Times bestselling author comes a pulse-pounding thriller about justice, vengeance and the roads that lead us home. No one gets this big without amazing natural storytelling talent - which is what Jim has, in spades — LEE CHILD Cross Rivers is the kind of small town where everyone knows your name – and your secrets. Silas Tucker...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseEvery Lake
Scary stories are fun... until your life becomes one. When Alice was fifteen, her father killed Mia Heywood in their lakefront cottage before vanishing into the trees. At least that's what the locals think happened. Over a decade later, Alice has lost her job as a journalist, she's going through an expensive divorce and she desperately needs to sell the...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New Release
Nautilus
The follow-up to the bestselling novel The Turing Protocol. Nautilus is a machine with the astonishing power to send messages eight weeks back in time. Its users must follow a set of protocols established by its inventor, Alan Turing, including that it can only be used by a descendant of his family, and only to avert global disasters. But what...Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$3699Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New Release
Cold River
The sensational new novel from the author of the bestselling thriller, The Creeper, winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction 2025. Deep in the mountains, secrets grow deadly... Detective Constable Sally White knows how easily hikers can go missing in Victoria's high country. But there's something about the disappearance of Louis Taylor, a young man lost up...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
Crime & Thriller lists from the team
Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!
-
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listCrime & Thriller
Thriller Novels for the Spooky Season
I love that my local book club always chooses a thematic book for October to fit with Spooky Season, but instead of...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listCrime & Thriller
Classics for the Crime & Thriller Reader
Here are some classics that are perfect for someone who already loves a crime & thriller novel - the fathers (and mothers)...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![We Need to Talk About Kevin]()
Lizzy's listCrime & Thriller
Thriller Novels that Won't Leave Lizzy's Brain
These are the books that Lizzy almost wishes she could forget about because they've ruined something for her - whether it's making...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Shirl's listCrime & Thriller
Shirl's Crime & Thriller Picks
I've always loved a good crime and thriller read! Here are a few of my favourites from past and present that have...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listCrime & Thriller
Lizzy's Top Kiwi Crime/Thriller Writers
Looking for your next Crime/Thriller pick? We have some amazing authors right here in Aotearoa doing everything from releasing amazing spine tingling...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Hannah's listCrime & Thriller
Gripping Crime and Thriller Books
From the fast paced and stressful to the laborious and creepy, this is a selection of some of my favourite crime and...View the list
