Amateur Detectives Mystery

Tired of being homeless and down on his luck, the incorrigible Ben has taken a job as a stoker on a cruise ship. But his luck doesn't last long when they are all shipwrecked in the Pacific. Seen through Ben's eyes, the uncharted island is a hive of cannibals, mumbo jumbo, and gals who are more nearly naked than any he has ever seen. And every time he tries to bluff his way out of a situation, he just bluffs himself further in, somehow convincing the natives that he has godlike powers....

With his usual knack of getting into trouble, Ben the tramp finds himself hunted by the law and the lawless in this breathless adventure. Returning home to his Cockney roots after a trip to Spain, Ben meets a mysterious stranger on a cross-Channel steamer and is promised a job. On arrival at Southampton, they take a taxi. Ben gets out to post a letter but on returning to the cab finds the stranger has been murdered!

In the merry month of May, Ellery Queen made a trek to Gettysburg to witness an annual celebration - and an annual murder. February found the ingenious Ellery locked in a furious battle of wits with a dead US president. These are but two of the 12 appointments with crime that make up Queen's baffling calendar of conundrums. Each elegant enigma ticks off all the surprise and excitement that have made Queen the dean of American detective fiction.

From the Collins Crime Club archive, the first original novel to feature Ben the Cockney tramp, the unorthodox detective character created by J. Jefferson Farjeon, author of Mystery in White. Strange things are happening in the untenanted houses of Jowle Street. There are unaccountable creakings and weird knockings on the door of no.29, where a homeless ex-sailor has taken up residence.

A group of vigilantes are carrying out a campaign of harassment against the homeless, hounding them both verbally and physically to get them off the streets. Jimmy Mullen is approached by his friend Gadge, who wants to confront the people behind it, but Jimmy has finally got his life back on track. He's working at a hostel for 18- to 25-year-olds, and he's reluctant to get involved in anything dodgy.

Genealogist Lucy Lancaster is just about to tuck into a plate of tacos at her favorite Austin joint, Big Flaco’s, when she gets an unexpected visit from her former - and least favorite - coworker. Camilla Braithwaite hasn’t gotten much friendlier since the last time Lucy saw her, but that doesn't stop her from asking a favor. In her hand is a newspaper feature on an ancestor, a Civil War corporal - and a liar, according to the article. Charles Braithwaite is depicted as a phony and a deserter, and Camilla wants Lucy’s help clearing his name.

Sam Strait didn’t want to leave home early for the snowbird season, but the rules he lived his life by demanded it. When a relationship turned sour, the rules dictated he pack his bags and get out of town. He could have gone anywhere in the world, but Sam picked Phoenix, Arizona. With its beautiful women, fall baseball league, and warm winters, what more could a single guy ask for? When the death of a new friend brings violent strangers into his life, Sam is forced to make a choice—run out of town or find a killer.

"La scarica di adrenalina adesso era una locomotiva in corsa nelle sue vene. Nel profondo di sé, Renée Ballard sapeva che era per via di momenti come questo che non avrebbe mai mollato, qualsiasi cosa dicessero di lei, in qualsiasi turno la obbligassero a lavorare." La polizia di Los Angeles non è stata gentile con Renée Ballard: ex reporter di nera, è entrata in polizia stufa di scrivere di crimini, e impaziente di risolverne qualcuno, e in poco tempo è diventata detective alla Omicidi. Ma poi qualcosa è andato storto.

Ihr Name ist Tuesday - und sie nimmt unerbittliche Rache an Vergewaltigern und Gangstern. Wie eine Naturgewalt schlägt sie aus dem Verborgenen zu, nur um sofort wieder zu verschwinden. Für die Menschen in London wird Tuesday bald zur Heldin, doch die Polizei fahndet nach ihr. Detective Inspector Loss wird mit dem Fall betraut - ein ausgebrannter Kommissar, der noch immer unter dem unaufgeklärten Mord an seiner Tochter vor drei Jahren leidet.

When Time in a Bottle, St. Louis's premiere craft store, is slated for demolition, Kiki is forced to confront her deep-rooted aversion to change. But before she can move, the new building must be made ADA compliant. When a long-sealed wall is breached during renovations, a grim secret is revealed. Determined to uncover the truth and provide closure for the innocent life lost, Kiki becomes entangled in a whirlwind investigation that spans decades. With her unyielding spirit and tenacious curiosity, she unravels a web of secrets, deceit, and heartbreak that has haunted this house for years.

American Alana Eastwood is researching her family tree. Remarkably, Alana traces her Eastwood lineage to an African child, living at Wortley Hall Manor on England's 1801 census. The boy is known as Otobong. Alana believes Otobong to be her earliest traceable ancestor and plans to visit her distant relatives still living in Nottingham. Discovering he was connected to a homicide in 1835 sets Alana on a mission to prove his innocence. Then the body of a man turns up on a beach in Mississippi, eerily close to where Alana's father was born.

Jonathan Knox was an auctioneer of somewhat dubious repute with a photographic memory. So when a frightened woman offered him a discount on eleven of the rarest stamps in existence, worth something like $500,000, he became suspicious. He figured also that if the stamps had been stolen he might net a pretty reward by returning them to their rightful owner. But he couldn't find a single collector willing to admit to owning them. And when the girl who had originally offered them was murdered, Knox knew that he'd be the next one canceled unless he could find the person who would pay.

La cinquantaine passée, Marc vient de quitter son job de journaliste. Il est un peu désœuvré dans son appartement parisien quand son ancienne collègue, la jeune Manon, vient le solliciter pour tenter d'élucider un meurtre vieux de dix ans qui s'est produit dans un petit village de l'Aveyron. Marc quitte alors Paris sans regret pour découvrir un autre univers qui tourne essentiellement autour d'un sport inconnu pour lui : les quilles de huit. Il apprend à connaître les figures locales.

It's 1943, the war is raging, and sleuthing scribe Ellery Queen wants to do his bit. After a tortuous cross-country drive, he takes a job writing scripts for a Hollywood propaganda house - twelve hours a day of hack work that quickly turns his mind to jelly. After a few weeks, he is so worn down that he can type nothing but gibberish, and he decides to drive home. The trouble starts as soon as he reaches the desert.

The girl is found beside the East River, strangled. She's in her late 20s - so why was she carrying a fake ID? The case should have nothing to do with Reuben Frost, retired Wall Street lawyer, but Frost has never been known to mind his own business. Not to mention, his wife, Cynthia, has been slowed down by arthritis, and his social calendar is barren for the first time in decades. It's the perfect time to find a murderer.

Queen's Bureau of Investigation is now open for business - and in each department of this new enterprise Ellery finds ample opportunity to exercise the brilliant, ingenious, and at times startling talents of his crime-lab mind. For to the bureau come some of the most plaguey cases in Queen's career.

Claire Beacham returns from a busy day at work to a parcel on her doorstep - no note, no label. As a politician, she's used to being suspicious of anonymous hate mail but today she's too tired to worry. She opens it, finding a gruesome surprise inside. A severed head falls to her kitchen floor; the rich, red drip of blood on her hands. It is clear to Claire and those around her that this terrifying package is a message. But who sent it, and why?

Crime writer and reluctant sleuth Ethelred Tressider is handed his strangest case yet. Crime reviewer Henry Holiday is an unlikely murderer who’s convinced he’s killed somebody but doesn’t know who or when. Worryingly, Crispin Vynall, another crime writer who Henry had been drinking with, has vanished. After agreeing to help, Ethelred received a death threat. His impervious agent Elsie Thirkettle encourages Ethelred to continue since it is well worth risking death in exchange for a few good reviews.

Après le décès de son mari, Mathilde soigne sa maladie, motivée par la volonté farouche de terminer ses mémoires, Hugo Boscowich, à qui elle s'est adressée pour les mettre en forme, hésite à replonger dans un passé qui ne le concerne pas.

At the tail end of the long summer of 1940, there is nowhere in the country more charming than Wrightsville. The Depression has abated, and for the first time in years the city is booming. There is hope in Wrightsville, but Ellery Queen has come looking for death. The mystery author is hoping for fodder for a novel, and he senses the corruption that lurks beneath the apple pie façade. He rents a house owned by the town's first family, whose three daughters star in most of the local gossip.