Classic Detective

This is a story from the Murders in the Rue Morgue (The Dupin Stories) collection. Auguste Dupin, investigator extraordinaire, was the remarkable creation of Edgar Allan Poe. Written in the 1840s, Poe presented the acutely observant, shrewd but idiosyncratic character who, with his chronicler, provided the inspiration for the more famous Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.

There are hours of listening pleasure in The Legendary Detectives: 9 Classic Novelettes Starring the World's Greatest Super-Sleuths. You'll find gathered together a clutch of classic mysteries starring nine of the world's most famous fictional sleuths: The Thinking Machine, the Old Man in the Corner, Max Carrados, Morris Klaw, Sanders of the River, Reggie Fortune, Father Brown, Craig Kennedy, and, of course, the greatest and most famous of them all - Sherlock Holmes.

In the first of all the Sherlock Holmes stories, Dr. John Watson, discharged from military service after suffering severe wounds, is at a loose end until a chance encounter leads him to take rooms with a remarkable young man. The arrogant, irascible Sherlock Holmes is a master chemist, a talented musician, and an expert on all aspects of crime.

A Study in Scarlet was the very first Sherlock Holmes novel. Here, in the most remarkably precise manner, Doyle produced two of the most well-known characters in English fiction. Their individual traits and their relationships, their ambitions and foibles are introduced against the backdrop of an exciting story of revenge and persistence, which starts in Victorian England but moves to the American West, and the environment of the early Mormon communities.

The streets of London have been home to many great detectives since the days of Sherlock Holmes and Watson, with some of the best authors in the genre taking to the short story form to pit their sleuths against crimes ranging from murders on the Tube to heists from the capital's finest jewellers. Featuring a roster of Scotland Yard's meticulous best, a cohort of daring doctors and a cadre of characterful private investigators, this new selection by Martin Edwards includes 18 vintage mystery stories which showcase the city's most compelling classic cases.

A collection of short stories from such favorites as Wilkie Collins, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Rudyard Kipling are joined by others written anonymously in this anthology which will have you scratching your head and listening just a bit longer to discover the key to the mysteries.

Investigating the disappearance of a vicar's daughter in London, the popular novelist and amateur detective Roger Sheringham is shocked to discover that the girl is already dead, found hanging from a screw by her own silk stocking. Reports of similar deaths across the capital strengthen his conviction that this is no suicide cult but the work of a homicidal maniac out for vengeance - a desperate situation requiring desperate measures.

At the Central Criminal Court, an eager crowd awaits the trial of Victoria Lamartine, an active participant in the Resistance during the war. She is now employed at the Family Hotel in Soho, where Major Eric Thoseby has been found murdered. Thoseby is believed to have fathered Lamartine's child, and the prosecution insist that his death is revenge for his abandonment of Lamartine and her arrest by the Gestapo. A last-minute change in Lamartine's defence counsel grants solicitor Nap Rumbold just eight days to prove her innocence.

This unique collection for connoisseurs of detection done female style brings back six of the greatest fictional women sleuths of the era of gaslights and horseless carriages. Long out of print and unobtainable, these celebrated women 'tecs were once nearly as famous as the fictional sleuth of Baker Street himself. Their fame waned in the long decades of the 1930s through the '80s, when female sleuths took a backseat to Sam Spade, Nero Wolfe, and the like. But, they are back to baffle and thrill contemporary readers in The Legendary Women Detectives edited by Jean Marie Stine.

When a signalman discovers a mutilated body inside a railway tunnel near Groote Park, it seems to be a straightforward case of a man struck by a passing train. But Inspector Vandam of the Middeldorp police isn’t satisfied that Albert Smith’s death was accidental, and he sets out to prove foul play in a baffling mystery which crosses continents from deepest South Africa to the wilds of northern Scotland, where an almost identical crime appears to have been perpetrated.

A medida que el año llega a su fin, Sherlock Holmes y el Dr. Watson deben partir atravesando un Londres cargado de nieve, para investigar el robo de un reloj de valor incalculable y la recepción de siete macabras tarjetas de Navidad. ¿Resolverán el misterio antes de que ellos también reciban los "cumplidos de la temporada" no deseados?

Isabel Houghton has been shot dead, and her fugitive husband James is the chief suspect. Scotland Yard's Inspector Cauldron must unravel the mystery, and discover the connection between James and the notorious drug dealer, Cornelius Mildew.

The "League of the Scarlet Pimpernel" is a secret society made up of twenty English aristocrats. The commander is the so-called "Scarlet Pimpernel" but almost nobody knows his real identity. The society aims to defy the French revolutionaries. The main goal is to rescue innocents from the deadly guillotine.

Tom Sawyer attempts to solve a mysterious murder in this burlesque of the immensely popular detective novels of the time. Like Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the story is told using the first-person narrative voice of Huck Finn. Tom and Huck are once again in the thick of things, this time investigating an unlikely murder case.

"Il pénétra dans le cabinet. Mais, au bout de quelques secondes, il demanda, sans le moindre étonnement d'ailleurs : - Vous l'avez pris, chère amie ? Elle répliqua : - Comment ? mais non, je n'ai rien pris. - Vous l'avez dérangé."

The story is a double play: is it the story of a woman going mad, or a woman possessed by something evil? We begin to suspect that the narrator’s apparently caring husband John may not be as caring as she thinks. Is he trying to control her? We know that Charlotte was much concerned with the emancipation of women and them achieving financial independence, so is the character of John an echo of this?

"La Vie de Lazarillo de Tormes" est un roman épistolaire espagnol publié anonymement en 1554 et qui est généralement considéré comme étant le premier roman picaresque. Il raconte l'histoire de Lazaro, surnommé Lazarillo, un jeune garçon issu d'une famille modeste. Son père est mort et sa mère l'abandonne ; s'ensuit une série d'aventures où Lazarillo passe du service d'un maître à celui d'un autre. Il vit en marge de la société et dépeint celle-ci avec ironie et dérision.

In Agatha Christie’s short story “The Case of the Missing Will,” Poirot must help clever student Violet Marsh meet the terms of an unusual will by her Uncle Andrew. She must live in his house for a month and “prove her wits” if she is ever to receive his fortune. But is there another will?

When her employer suddenly disappears, young Grace Kirkstall finds herself accepting a new job at a new company in the same building - an oasis of tranquility off the streets of London. Ben and Helen Brown’s start-up company’s pitch is that, for a small consideration, they will help people out of their major and minor fixes. Their first big commission initiates Ben into the gentle art of housebreaking, and Helen into the mysteries of the Society for Progressive Rehabilitation.... But for Grace, it will plunge her into more danger than she could ever have imagined.

Edgar Allan Poe vient de créer le premier détective de la littérature policière.