Subject: Crime & Mystery Fiction (page 5)

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The Lust of Hate Guy Boothby

In this the third of Boothby's Dr. Nikola novels, Nikola applies his almost hypnotic persuasion to convince an out-of-luck Australian, formerly from England, named Gilbert Pennethorne to assist Nikola unwittingly in an evil scheme. Nikola takes advantage of Pennethorne's intense desire for revenge against a former b…Read More »
The Man in the Brown Suit Agatha Christie

Newly-orphaned Anne Beddingfeld is a nice English girl looking for a bit of adventure in London. But she stumbles upon more than she bargained for! Anne is on the platform at Hyde Park Corner tube station when a man falls onto the live track, dying instantly. A doctor examines the man, pronounces him dead, and leave…Read More »
The Man in the Queue Josephine Tey

Inspector Alan Grant searches for the identity of a man killed in the line at a theater and for the identity of the killer—whom no one saw. A long line had formed for the standing-room-only section of the Woffington Theatre. London’s favorite musical comedy of the past two years was finishing its run at the end of t…Read More »
The Man Who Knew Edgar Wallace

The body of a young man is found splayed out in the middle of one of the most august public squares in England. Soon it is discovered that the dead man was at the center of a beguiling web of entanglements and intrigue. Will the intrepid detectives get to the bottom of things and puncture the thick veil of corruptio…Read More »
The Marriage of Esther Guy Boothby

Two men, a fight, and a series of calamitous circumstances. The bar of the Hotel of All Nations, Thursday Island. Time, 9.35, one hot evening towards the end of summer. The room contains about twenty men, in various stages of undress; an atmosphere like the furnace doors of Sheol; two tatterdemalions lolling, apart …Read More »
The Mask of Fu Manchu Sax Rohmer

After discovering the tomb of El Mokanna - the Veiled Prophet - and retrieving the precious relics buried there, the eminent archaeologist Sir Lionel Barton blows up the tomb. The heretic sect faithful to Mokanna interpret the fireball as their prophet's second coming, and a violent uprising begins.

Meanwhile, the …Read More »
The Murder on the Links Agatha Christie

Belgian detective Hercule Poirot is summoned to France after receiving a distressing letter with an urgent cry for help. Upon his arrival in Merlinville-sur-Mer, the investigator finds the man who penned the letter, the South American millionaire Monsieur Renauld, stabbed to death and his body flung into a freshly-d…Read More »
The Mysterious Affair at Styles 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 popular detective, Hercule…Read More »
The Nebuly Coat J. Meade Falkner

Set in the mid-nineteenth century, The Nebuly Coat is the story of a young architect, Edward Westray, who is sent to the remote Dorset town of Cullerne to oversee restoration work on crumbling Cullerne Minster. As he becomes caught up in the lives of the townspeople, he hears rumours about a disputed claim to the ti…Read More »
The Nine Tailors Dorothy L. Sayers

Lord Peter Wimsey and his manservant Bunter are halfway across the wild flatlands of East Anglia when they make a wrong turn, straight into a ditch. They scramble over the rough country to the nearest church, where they find hospitality, dinner, and an invitation to go bell-ringing. This ancient art is steeped in ma…Read More »
The Old Man in the Corner Emma Orczy

A nameless old man sits in the corner of a cozy London tea shop, and without leaving his seat, solves baffling crimes reported to him by an admiring lady journalist. Using only methods of pure deduction, the eccentric, self-assured sleuth unravels the mysteries behind a wide range of criminal acts — from gruesome mu…Read More »
The Power-House John Buchan

When his friend Charles Pitt-Heron vanishes mysteriously, Sir Edward Leithen is at first only mildly concerned. But a series of strange events that follow Pitt-Heron’s disappearance convinces Leithen that he is dealing with a sinister secret society. Their codename is ‘The Power-House’. The authorities are unable to…Read More »
The Prisoner in the Opal A. E. W. Mason

The scene is the south of France. An English lady has been murdered and a beautiful American girl has disappeared. Discovered is a body with a severed hand and an opal bracelet somehow connected to devil worship. Clearly a case for Inspector Hanaud or the Surete and his English friend Mr. Ricardo. Can Hanaud solve t…Read More »
The Quest of the Sacred Slipper Sax Rohmer

With the theft of the sacred slipper, rumored to have been worn by the great Prophet himself, came a wave of outrageous horror. Weird, supernatural feats accompanied its movement from the Near East to a London museum. Mutilation, even murder, threatened all who came near it. It was as if a horde of phantoms had desc…Read More »
The Race of Life Guy Boothby

It was nearly nightfall when that melancholy little party made their appearance at the head station. Dick, with great foresight, had sent the ration cart out some miles to meet them, so that my mother was spared the pain of seeing the body of her husband brought in upon his horse. Rough and rude as he was, Dick was …Read More »
The Red Rat's Daughter Guy Boothby

John Grantham Browne is rich, extremely rich - a millionaire many times over, but there's a mystery affort. Sit back and enjoy another great crime classic from the pen of Guy Boothby.
The Return of Fu-Manchu Sax Rohmer

Dr. Fu Manchu lives! He has managed to survive the fire in the cottage and has returned to further the plans of his secret society. Dr. Petrie and Nayland Smith must again fight this nefarious villain before he succeeds. This time, he's after Reverend Eltham in order to obtain the name of a secret agent in China. Bu…Read More »
The Return of Sherlock Holmes 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 wrote a series of 13 short…Read More »
The Ringer Edgar Wallace

The chief protagonist, a typical Wallace anti-hero vigilante, one Henry Arthur Milton, aka The Ringer, a legendary assassin who killed for personal vengeance. The main character Inspector Wembury of Scotland Yard, who is having a very bad day. It is his first day as the new commander of Deptford Division; his immedi…Read More »
The Scandal of Father Brown G. K. Chesterton

Another collection of G.K. Chesterton's ingenious, thoughtful, and lyrically written mystery stories featuring the unassuming little priest who solves crimes by imagining himself inside the mind and soul of criminals, thus understanding their motives. The stories are full of paradox, spiritual insight, and 'Chestert…Read More »
The Scarab Murder Case S. S. Van Dine

Philo Vance was drawn into the Scarab murder case by sheer coincidence, although there is little doubt that John F.-X. Markham—New York's District Attorney—would sooner or later have enlisted his services. But it is problematic if even Vance, with his fine analytic mind and his remarkable flair for the subtleties of…Read More »
The Secret Adversary 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 sensitive government documents,…Read More »
The Secret House Edgar Wallace

What if the head honcho of one of the country's most lurid gossip rags was suspected of running a very lucrative sideline in extortion of the wealthy and powerful? That's exactly what appears to be the case in The Secret House, a satisfyingly complex tale of treachery, titillation and good, solid detective work.
The Secret of Father Brown G. K. Chesterton

Easily the darkest of Chesterton's Father Brown collections, it is nonetheless a masterwork of perception of the human condition, explored through the usual impossible crimes and a parade of rogues and saints–a corpse in shining armor, a thieving mystic, insouciant British aristocrats, and a Canadian journalist. We…Read More »
The Secret of Sarek Maurice Leblanc

The war has led to so many upheavals that not many people now remember the Hergemont scandal of seventeen years ago. Let us recall the details in a few lines. One day in July 1902, M. Antoine d'Hergemont, the author of a series of well-known studies on the megalithic monuments of Brittany, was walking in the Bois wi…Read More »
The Shadow of the Rope E. W. Hornung

Rachel Minchin stands in the dock, accused of murdering the dissolute husband she was preparing to leave. The trial is sensational, and public opinion vehemently and almost universally against her. When the jury astonishes and outrages the world with a vedict of not Guilty, Rachel quickly finds herself in need of pr…Read More »
The Sign of the Four 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, and murders whose omino…Read More »
The Simple Art of Murder Raymond Chandler

Prefaced by the famous Atlantic Monthly essay of the same name, in which he argues the virtues of the hard-boiled detective novel, this collection mostly drawn from stories he wrote for the pulps demonstrates Chandler's imaginative, entertaining facility with the form. Contains the following short stories: - Spani…Read More »
The Singing Sands Josephine Tey

On sick leave from Scotland Yard, Inspector Alan Grant is planning a quiet holiday with an old school chum to recover from overwork and mental fatigue. Traveling on the night train to Scotland, however, Grant stumbles upon a dead man and a cryptic poem about 'the stones that walk' and 'the singing sand,' which send …Read More »
The Sins of Séverac Bablon Sax Rohmer

Rohmer's phenomenally popular tale of a 'Jewish Robin Hood'. Bablon's 'sins' were the blackmail, robbery and kidnap, he uses these techniques to force the rich to donate huge sums to good causes. An underlieing desire is his determination to improve people's impression of the Jews by making them give generously.