Detective Stories Anthology

When civilian life proves too dull for Major Wilbrahams, he contacts Parker Pyne to escape his boredom. Pyne's assistant arranges a chance meeting with the beautiful Freda Clegg and the two join forces, but on leaving for Africa they encounter more than they had bargained for.

Maria Packington suspects her husband of having an affair. In an attempt to revitalise her marriage, she responds to an ad from Mr. Parker Pyne - who promises to provide solutions to unhappiness. Maria's life soon undergoes a rapid transformation....

“I had seen many strange things in my time living in 221B Baker Street with Mr. Sherlock Holmes, but an elderly man standing in the middle of our living room holding a blood-stained duck was most certainly one of the oddest of my experiences.”

Round the Fire was the title of a series of 12 mystery and suspense short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, published monthly in The Strand Magazine between June 1898 and May 1899. The series was popular with contemporary readers, and while some of the individual stories, such as "The Brown Hand", have been regularly anthologised for many years and are well-known, there are some overlooked gems here, too.

"Dusted": Being a highly skilled predator doesn't necessarily put you at the top of the food chain at Club Nexus. A southern vampire with a hankering for blood and wanton violence may have bit off more than he can chew. "Demonized": The demon attorney we love to hate has his eye on a certain rockabilly human. Too bad she's brought a crossbow loaded with holy-water-dipped bolts for this night on the town. "Jinxed": Just when Jinx needs a carefree girl's night out with Ivy, a smoking-hot demon tries to buy her a drink. She really is the unluckiest human on the planet.

This story is from The Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes (His Last Bow) collection. Further adventures by the master of observation and deduction, as faithfully recounted by his companion and greatest admirer, Dr. Watson. "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans," "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax", and "The Adventure of the Dying Detective" are among the stories. David Timson's award-winning performances continue with this series.

Sherlock Holmes and Lucy James have become a formidable family crime-fighting team. But one murderous woman has evaded their grasp. And when they’re called to London’s Olympia Theatre to investigate the strange death of a circus clown, they quickly discover their cunning foe has struck again. Tracking the enigmatic killer through London Zoo, a fancy-dress ball, and a sinister occult organization, the erudite duo stays hot on her heels. Each time they close in, a powerful criminal mastermind intervenes, and she slips through their fingers.

Where does fiction begin and reality end? Is there ever such thing as real fiction? Alex is a failing writer who decides his lack of success is due to lack of honesty and relatability. How far will he go to gain his experience to create his masterpiece? Especially when the story he is writing involves murder....

An unidentified woman is found dead with a set of false teeth mysteriously gripped in her hand. A young tutor finds himself accused of a bizarre art theft. A Russian refugee in hiding is helped by Watson’s wife Mary, and now Mary has disappeared.

Although the illustrious career of Sherlock Holmes has been documented in innumerable stories over the decades, some accounts have remained classified due to their extremely sensitive nature…. Now, these cases are available to listeners in the collection The Undiscovered Archives of Sherlock Holmes.

Captain Heinz Noonan, master of the impossible crime, is called upon to solve the most puzzling of riddles. If it's odd, you call Noonan. Why, for instance, would someone steal 200 garden gnomes and then leave them in a pattern across a city? Better yet, how can air cargo increase in weight as it flies and how can a century old Tong high-binder warrior appear in a locked warehouse and then disappear in a cloud of smoke? And why would anyone want to steal anything from a garbage dump?

The bride carried no decaying roses, but her bridal dress was torn and burnt. Her bare legs, starved needle points, staggered disjointedly. The veil hung low over her face. I had my pistol, however I could not shoot. If it was a ghost, the bullet would surely pass through. If it was flesh, then I would be shooting dead a woman. Her hands, the fingernails long and cracked, lifted up the veil. Her face! Even in the darkness I could see its ruin.

He leaped up, feeling much better than I did, and chased me into my own room, so that I could get changed. There was a large crowd who had come to see the tomb. Holmes and I made our way through. I noticed Ini intently watching us. Mr. and Mrs. Fairfax were standing in the tunnel with someone from the Department of Antiquities. They had been waiting for us. The five of us made our way through the tunnel and back to the tomb. I couldn't wait to see if there really was a Pharaoh in the next room.

A second marriage after the first ended in tragedy is bound to have its challenges. In the case of DI Peter Johns, his new wife, "Our Bernie", is very different from Angie, the love of his life. This short story plots the path of their friendship from first encounters to final commitment.

Detective Sergeant Peter Johns is resentful of the young PC who catches the attention of his friend and boss, DI Richard Paige. Richard encourages his new protégé to apply for promotion and Peter fears that he is being left behind. They go their separate ways, but then fate throws them together again. Peter now has the upper hand. How will he treat his erstwhile rival?

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.

"För Sherlock Holmes är hon den enda kvinna i världen: han kallar henne alltid endast »hon». Jag har aldrig hört honom ge henne någon annan benämning. I hans ögon står hon högt över sina medsystrar – hon fördunklar alla och en var av hela sitt kön. Jag tror ej, att han för Irene Adler erfarit någon slags känsla, liknande kärlek; alla känslor och sinnesrörelser – kärlek i synnerhet – voro främmande för hans kalla, bestämda och utomordentligt väl avvägda karaktär."

A banker finds a photograph of a woman who later appears to him on the street. Could she be leading him to an inexorable appointment with fate? Does she even exist? The Adeptus Exemptus and Imperator of the Esoteric Society of the Roseate Morn is being menaced by a magician with an improbable name. Could there be something to his curse? Can Holmes and a young girl solve an old riddle about her family before the Christmas pudding is served? Who is Cassandra and why was she trying to disgorge a fish from her throat? Join Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson as they untangle these mysteries.

Ogden Ford, a spoiled child of stupidly wealthy divorced parents, is "the Little Nugget"—the El Dorado of the American kidnapping industry. When Peter Burns, the gentleman of leisure, agrees to spirit the boy away from an English preparatory school to reunite him with his doting mother, he finds himself up against professional competition from across the Atlantic. And when penitent ex-playboy Jimmy "Piccadilly Jim" Crocker covertly returns to his native United States, the Nugget is once more involved as Jimmy finds himself enmeshed in plots and schemes of espionage and kidnapping.

The Assyrian Rejuvenator, published in 1907, is one of R. Austin Freeman's novels written under the name Clifford Ashdown and the first to feature well-known protagonist Dr. Thorndyke—a medical-legal forensic investigator. In this tale, inflated claims about the powers of an expensive elixir put private investigator Romney Pringle in pursuit of a ruthless con man. The trickster has reason to believe that his customers won't complain, but Pringle sets out to destroy the crooked business.