Crime/Detective
Fiction and True Stories that deal with crime, their detection, criminals and their motives.
Celebrated Crimes [en] (1841)
Alexandre Dumas
Written between 1839 and 1841, Celebrated Crimes is an 8-volume collection of 18 essays based upon historical facts of famous criminals and the crimes they committed. The Borgias, The Cenci, Massacres Of The South, Mary Stuart, Karl-Ludwig Sand, Urbain Grandier, Nisida, Derues, La Constantin,...
Genres: Crime/Detective, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Non-Fiction, Thriller / Suspense
The Woman in White [en] (1860) 
Wilkie Collins
The woman in white first appears at night on a lonely heath near London and is next seen at a grave-side in Cumberland. Who is she? Where has she come from, and what is her history? She seems alone and friendless, frightened and confused. And it seems she knows a secret - a secret that could...
Genres: Crime/Detective, Mystery, Thriller / Suspense
The Moonstone [en] (1868)
Wilkie Collins
First published in 1868, Moonstone is considered the first modern English detective novel. Stolen from the forehead of a Hindu idol, the dazzling gem known as "The Moonstone" resurfaces at a birthday party in an English country home--with an enigmatic trio of watchful Brahmins hot on its...
Genres: Crime/Detective, Mystery
The Mysterious Affair at Styles [en] (1920)
Agatha Christie
The heiress of Styles has been murdered, dying in agony from strychnine slipped into her coffee. And there are plenty who would gain from her death: the financially strapped stepson, the gold digging younger husband, and an embittered daughter-in-law. Agatha Christie's eccentric and hugely...
Genre: Crime/Detective
The Valley of Fear [en] (1915)
Arthur Conan Doyle
Only Holmes and Watson can get to the bottom of this baffling murder mystery. John Douglas is found in his study blasted faceless with a sawn-off shotgun. There is no obvious motive or suspect. Douglas and his wife, Ivy, a rich and locally popular couple, have lived for years in the ancient,...
Genre: Crime/Detective
The Secret Adversary [en] (1922)
Agatha Christie
Full of energy and short of funds, old chums Tommy Beresford and Tuppence Cowley decide to form the "Young Adventurers," and advertise themselves as willing to "go anywhere and do anything." Asked by a British Intelligence official to find a woman named Jane Finn, who disappeared with...
Genre: Crime/Detective
His Last Bow [en] (1917)
Arthur Conan Doyle
The greatest detective of them all is back...About to spring out upon my appalled senses, lurked all that was vaguely horrible, all that was monstrous and inconceivably wicked in the universe'. A dense yellow fog descends upon London. Tricksters, thieves and murderers stalk their prey...
Genres: Crime/Detective, Mystery
The Sign of the Four [en] (1890)
Arthur Conan Doyle
When an Englishwoman receives mysterious gifts of pearls and a letter promising to right wrongs done to her, she calls upon Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to investigate. Who is sending the beautiful Miss Morstan a rare and priceless pearl each year? Holmes and Watson pursue Indian treasures,...
Genres: Crime/Detective, Mystery
Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes [en] (1894)
Arthur Conan Doyle
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes are overshadowed by the event with which they close—the meeting of the great detective and Moriarty, the Napoleon of Crime. Their struggle, seemingly to the death, was to leave many readers desolate at the loss of Holmes, but was also to lead to his immortality...
Genres: Crime/Detective, Short Stories
The Thirty-nine Steps [en] (1915)
John Buchan
Famous as the basis for several films, including the brilliant 1935 version directed by Alfred Hitchcock, The Thirty-Nine Steps is a classic of early twentieth-century popular literature. Richard Hannay has just returned to England after years in South Africa and is thoroughly bored with his...
Genres: Crime/Detective, Espionage/Spy, Thriller / Suspense
A Study In Scarlet [en] (1887)
Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle's Study in Scarlet is the first published story involving the legendary Sherlock Holmes, arguably the world's best-known detective, and the first narrative by Holmes's Boswell, the unassuming Dr. Watson, a military surgeon lately returned from the Afghan War. Watson needs a...
Genres: Crime/Detective, Mystery
The Hound of the Baskervilles [en] (1901)
Arthur Conan Doyle
Perhaps the most popular of all Sherlock Holmes stories, The Hound of the Baskervilles combines the traditional detective tale with elements of horror. When Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead on the wild Devon moorland with the footprints of a giant hound nearby, the blame is placed on a...
Genre: Crime/Detective
The Return of Sherlock Holmes [en] (1905)
Arthur Conan Doyle
When Sherlock Holmes met his demise in The Adventure of the Final Problem, published in 1893, the distress of the unsuspecting reading public was profound. For years fans showed no signs of letting Sherlock Homes lie down and die. Eventually, Doyle saw fit to continue his Holmes' canon and...
Genres: Crime/Detective, Mystery