Detective Stories Anthology

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.

This new volume in the Bodies from the Library series features the work of 16 prolific authors who, like Christie and Crofts, saw their popularity soar during the golden age. Aside from novels, they all wrote short fiction - stories, serials and plays - and although most of them have been collected in books over the last 100 years, here are the ones that got away.

This is a new edition of the first collection of G. K. Chesterton's masterful mysteries, The Innocence of Father Brown. Contains 12 thrilling tales, including "The Blue Cross", "The Invisible Man", and "The Sins of Prince Saradine". The audiobook is expertly narrated by British actor Nigel Peever, who brings to life Father Brown and all of Chesterton's marvelous characters.

From its launch in 1920 until its demise in 1951, the magazine Black Mask published pulp crime fiction. The first hard-boiled detective stories appeared on its pages. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner and John D. MacDonald got their start in Black Mask. The urban crime stories that appeared in Black Mask helped to shape American culture. Modern computer games, films, and television are rooted in the fiction popularized by “the seminal and venerated mystery pulp magazine” ( Booklist).

From esteemed crime fiction writer George Pelecanos comes four blistering novellas, drawn together by themes of strife, violence, and humanity. When the son of the Carusos is involved in a hold up, the family home comes under siege in the form of a no-knock warrant. Months after the cops destroyed their home, the Carusos struggle to return to normal. Elsewhere, two former inmates reunite by chance on the set of a TV production. Both have found their way on the straight and narrow path, that is, until one sees the potential for an easy grift.

This is a "Nameless Detective" mystery story that starts with the thefts of several exotic animals from San Francisco's Fleishhacker Zoo - and ends with murder.

Sane and sensible Edward Robinson secretly dreams of fast cars, adventurous women, and danger, but his fiancée, Maud, keeps him grounded in reality. When Edward wins money in a newspaper competition, he immediately buys the sleek red car of his dreams without telling Maud. Adventure swiftly ensues, as he is embroiled in high-society scandals that lead him to a significant transformation.

Lytcham Close, one of the oldest stately homes in England, is owned by the last remaining heir and ruled by his intolerable whims. Old Hubert demands complete silence when he plays music and times dinner exactly by a resounding gong. Rushing down at the sound of the second - or is it the first? - gong, Joan Ashby is about to find out that not only is dinner delayed, but something is going on that no one can explain. Everyone is thrown into disarray when Old Hubert never materializes and instead a new guest is announced: Hercule Poirot himself.

First published in 1911, The Innocence of Father Brown contains stories involving one of the greatest characters in the history of detective fiction: Father Brown. He is a Roman Catholic priest who has an uncanny insight into human evil. Rather than the large serial villains in, for example, Sherlock Holmes stories, the mysteries Father Brown solved were more local murders by small-town crooks, narrowing the suspect list down to those in the area of the crime.

Maine Game Warden Mike Bowditch accompanies his old friend and mentor, retired bush pilot Charley Stevens, as he pays a visit to a mysterious woman, the widow of a Vietnam vet, living in isolation in the Maine wilderness. Many years earlier, she had called Charley, then a young game warden himself, for help. She claimed that her badly bleeding husband had been attacked by a rabid bat. But in the succeeding days, despite her husband's increasingly erratic and aggressive behavior, his wife resisted Charley's attempts to help, arousing his suspicions that more was going on than met the eye.

A personal advertisement written in code attracts the attention of Tuppence Beresford. When Tuppence suspects that the code involves the Three Arts Ball, she persuades Tommy to attend dressed in costume. Tuppence's suspicions prove to be correct when a murder takes place, but as all of the guests are dressed in masquerade, identifying the killer may be more difficult than first thought....

This collection includes four book-centered mystery novellas from four masters of the craft: The Scroll, Reconciliation Day, The Compendium of Srem, and The Mysterious Disappearance of the Reluctant Book Fairy.

Here for the first time are three never-before-published mysteries by Edmund Crispin, Ngaio Marsh and Leo Bruce. Together with a newly unearthed short story by Ethel Lina White that inspired Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes, and a complete short novel by Christianna Brand, this diverse mix of tales by some of the world’s most popular classic crime writers contains something for everyone.

The series opens in the near future. Matt Deal's 15-year-old daughter, Mercy, is the glue in his rocky marriage. His life is changed forever after Mercy is brutally assaulted on a Destin beach leaving her in a coma. Trusting the local detectives to bring the rapists to justice, Deal concentrates on his Florida gym business, only to have his world further explode on learning the rape suspects may escape justice. Deal is isolated and at his wits’ end after his mob-connected father-in-law sends death threats blaming him for all these ills.

Tommy and Tuppence Beresford wait anxiously for a letter from Russia that may contain information of international importance hidden beneath the stamp. The letter is anticipated by more than just the Beresfords, and they must fight to keep the information from getting into the wrong hands.

This selection includes Tales and Poems: Tales. The Murders in the Rue Morgue ; The Gold-Bug ; The Black Cat ; The Pit and the Pendulum ; The Tell-Tale Heart ; The Fall of the House of Usher ; The Masque of the Red Death ; The Cask of Amontillado ; The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar ; Hop-Frog ; Ligeia ; Morella ; The Oval Portret. Poems. The Raven ; Al Aaraaf ; Annabel Lee ; The Bells ; The City in the Sea ; The Conqueror Worm ; A Dream Within a Dream ; Eldorado ; Eulalie ; The Haunted Palace ; To Helen ; Lenore ; Tamerlane ; Ulalume.

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?

Mysterious Tales of Loss and Woe (& Other Jovial Stories): Twelve short stories that blend the bizarre and profound, meeting grumpy trolls, elusive ghosts, and cunning spies along the way. Follow characters who navigate real (and not-so-real) life situations where they must choose right from wrong, good or bad, and love over hate. Lilac & the Troll: Meet Lilac, a girl of eight, or ten, or twelve years old—she's not sure. She lives happily in the woods until she meets a Troll who introduces her to new ideas about herself.

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 Holmes lie down and die. Eventually, Doyle saw fit to continue his Holmes' canon and wrote a series of 13 short stories, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, published in 1905.

From the dramatic Highlands to bustling cities, the unique landscapes and locales of Scotland have enthralled and shaped generations of mystery writers. This new collection presents 17 classic stories, spanning a period from the 1880s to the 1970s, by a host of Scottish authors alongside writers from south of the border inspired by the history and majesty of the storied country.