Subject: Crime & Mystery Fiction

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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 Tracer of Lost Persons Robert W. Chambers

Mr. Gatewood is a grumpy man whose friend wishes to find a woman to entertain him. A soldier continues to see visions of a woman he'd seen once on a train and wishes to find her before he must return to duty. A young man falls in love with the lifelike remains of an Egyptian dancing girl and wishes for her to come t…Read More »
Behind That Curtain Earl Derr Biggers

The third novel in the Charlie Chan series, set almost exclusively in California, tells the story of the former head of Scotland Yard, a detective who is pursuing the long-cold trail of a murderer. Fifteen years ago, a London solicitor was killed in circumstances in which the only clue was a pair of Chinese slippers…Read More »
No Hero E. W. Hornung

No Hero…A woman from his past…A mysterious, sealed letter…A mountain with a deadly reputation…What brings these things together? And will they confirm or deny a man's assertion that he is no hero? The scene is laid in Switzerland, with a background of piquant hotel gossip, the narrative being in the words of…Read More »
The Little Sister Raymond Chandler

Philip Marlowe heads to Hollywood exploring the underworld of glitter capital, trying to find a sweet young thing's missing brother; a movie starlet with a gangster boyfriend and a pair of siblings with a shared secret. Her name is Orfamay Quest and she's come all the way from Manhattan, Kansas, to find her missing …Read More »
The House Without a Key Earl Derr Biggers

In this classic novel, Charlie Chan makes his debut as Inspector of the Honolulu Police Department. Earl Derr Biggers brings Honolulu to life with deft descriptions of the landscape and of its hybrid ethnic communities. With the creation of Detective Chan, Biggers also shatters stereotypes and was ahead of its time …Read More »
Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club Dorothy L. Sayers

90-year-old General Fentiman was definitely dead, but no one knew exactly when he had died – and the time of death was the determining factor in a half-million-pound inheritance. Lord Peter Wimsey would need every bit of his amazing skills to unravel the mysteries of why the General's lapel was without a red poppy …Read More »
Brat Farrar Josephine Tey

What begins as a ploy to claim an inheritance ends with the impostor’s life hanging in the balance. In this tale of mystery and suspense, a stranger enters the inner sanctum of the Ashby family posing as Patrick Ashby, the heir to the family's sizable fortune. The stranger, Brat Farrar, has been carefully coached on…Read More »
Ziska Marie Corelli

Armand Gervase has it all. He is a famous artist, his paintings are hung in national galleries, and he is celebrated worldwide. His best-known painting, depicting an alluring Egyptian woman about to murder her lover, is known for its minute, historic detail, yet Armand has no experience with Egypt's ancient past…o…Read More »
Trouble is My Business Raymond Chandler

Trouble is My Business is a collection of four riveting novellas from Raymond Chandler. In the first of the four cases LA PI Philip Marlowe is offered a job that leaves a bad taste in the mouth: smearing a girl who's 'got her hooks into a rich man's pup'. Before too long Marlowe's up to his neck in corpses and cop…Read More »
The Gracie Allen Murder Case S. S. Van Dine

The zany plot follows nitwit Gracie Allen trying to help master sleuth Philo Vance solve a murder. Allen's uncle fixes her up with Bill at a company picnic. When the two go out to a nightclub that night, Gracie inadvertently links Bill to the murder of a thug after finding the dead body and Bill's cigarette case at …Read More »
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 Kidnap Murder Case S. S. Van Dine

This new Van Dine kidnap-murder case deals with two of the most unusual crimes in the whole record of Philo Vance's criminological researches. Kasper Kenting, a playboy and ne'er-do-well, disappears from his ancestral home, the 'Purple House,' in West 86th Street, with all the indications pointing to a kidnapping. B…Read More »
The Kennel Murder Case S. S. Van Dine

It was exactly three months after the startling termination of the Scarab murder case* that Philo Vance was drawn into the subtlest and the most perplexing of all the criminal problems that came his way during the four years of John F.-X. Markham's incumbency as District Attorney of New York County.
Fear Stalks the Village Ethel Lina White

It was a model English village, filled with flowers, Tudor cottages, and cobbled streets. Joan Brook loved working there as a companion to Lady d'Arcy, living in the huge mansion with its surrounding park. And small though the village was, it was not too small for Joan to have found a man there whom she could love. …Read More »
To Love and Be Wise Josephine Tey

When a young strikingly handsome photographer mysteriously disappears, it's up to Inspector Alan Grant to discover whether he accidentally drowned, committed suicide, or met his death at the hands of one of his many female admirers.
The Green Eyes of Bâst Sax Rohmer

Psychic investigator Dr. Damar Greefe is strolling home. It's been a tough day, assisting the police. During this stroll, he feels someone or something watching him – but when he turns to see who it is, he faces only emptiness. Then he sees a cat staring at him, eyes as green as jade. But when he goes to investigat…Read More »
The Franchise Affair Josephine Tey

Robert Blair was about to knock off from a slow day at his law firm when the phone rang. It was Marion Sharpe on the line, a local woman of quiet disposition who lived with her mother at their decrepit country house, The Franchise. It appeared that she was in some serious trouble: Miss Sharpe and her mother were acc…Read More »
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 Haunting of Low Fennel Sax Rohmer

Include the short stories; The Haunting of Low Fennel, The Valley of the Just, The Blue Monkey, The Riddle of Ragstaff, The Master of Hollow Grange, The Curse of a Thousand Kisses, and The Turquoise Necklace.
The Affair at the Semiramis Hotel A. E. W. Mason

A young, wealthy vagabond English man, Calladine, whom Ricardo knew before, hastily comes to Ricardo's London home in the morning, while Hanaud happens to be visiting. Calladine, very agitated, still dressed formally as for an evening ball, tells his disturbing story– He had gone to a costume party that night in a …Read More »
The Dragon Murder Case S. S. Van Dine

A guest at Inwood Hill Park, an estate in northern Manhattan, dives into the swimming pool and disappears. Has a mythological dragon which is said to prey on the imprudent anythin g to do with the murder? Philo Vance uses his knowledge of both dragons and criminals to demonstrate and solve the case.
The House in Lordship Lane A. E. W. Mason

Enter Bryan Devisher, over the side of the ketch in which Mordaunt was taking Mr. Julius Ricardo home to London on the summons of his old friend, Inspector Hanaud of the Paris Surete and the English 'idioms.' Exit, Devisher and Mordaunt. Enter Daniel Horbury. Exit Daniel Horbury-violently, with his throat slit in …Read More »
Have His Carcase Dorothy L. Sayers

When Harriet Vane finds a dead body on the beach, she and Lord Peter Wimsey must solve a murder when all the evidence has washed out to sea Harriet Vane has gone on vacation to forget her recent murder trial and, more importantly, to forget the man who cleared her name—the dapper, handsome, and maddening Lord Peter …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 »
Gaudy Night Dorothy L. Sayers

A must-read for fans of Agatha Christie's Poirot and Margery Allingham's Campion Mysteries, Lord Peter Wimsey is the immortal amateur sleuth created by Dorothy L Sayers. When Harriet Vane attends her Oxford reunion, known as the Gaudy, the prim academic setting is haunted by a rash of bizarre pranks: scrawled obscen…Read More »
The Winter Murder Case S. S. Van Dine

The detective story is a kind of intellectual game. It is more—it is a sporting event. And the author must play fair with the reader. He can no more resort to trickeries and deceptions and still retain his honesty than if he cheated in a bridge game. He must outwit the reader, and hold the reader’s interest, through…Read More »
Farewell, My Lovely Raymond Chandler

This is one of Chandler's most famous crime novels featuring the detective Philip Marlowe, who's about to give up on a completely routine case when he finds himself in the wrong place at the right time to get caught up in a murder that leads to a ring of jewel thieves, another murder, a fortune-teller, a couple more…Read More »
The Greene Murder Case S. S. Van Dine

Philo Vance takes a hand when, in an evening, one daughter of the Greene family is shot to death and another one is wounded. The family comprises two sons and three daughters (the youngest, Ada, is adopted) under the rule of their mother, a bedridden invalid who spends her days feeling sorry for herself and cursing …Read More »
Playback Raymond Chandler

The final complete novel by Raymond Chandler, featuring his iconic creation Philip Marlowe. Betty Mayfield is blond and beautiful and has just been found guilty of murdering her husband. But when the jundge realizes the jury is terrified of her father-in-law–the man who owns everything in this small North Carolina …Read More »