Mystery Reads

Sometimes self-fulfilling prophecies are not all they seem. Lord Arthur Savile is a young British aristocrat about to get married. Mr. Podgers tells people’s fortunes, and he has bad news for the groom: he will commit murder. Unable to get the thought off his mind, he decides to get it over with before entering into marriage, but things do not go as planned. Hear the darkly humorous short story "Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime" by Oscar Wilde from the late 19th century brought to life by B.J. Harrison. B. J.

"A Chapter in the History of the Tyrone Family" is a Gothic short story by Sheridan Le Fanu focusing on a young woman who marries a Scottish landowner with a dark past. A short story whose haunting and semi-supernatural elements might have influenced Charlotte Bronts "Jane Eyre", Le Fanus tale combines a lot of elements horror, romance, thriller, and drama to create a compelling and sophisticated world from which there is no easy escape.

"You see, this is the beauty I want. Beauty has got to be astonishing, astounding--it's got to burst in on you like a dream, like the exquisite eyes of a girl." Ardita, a beautiful and bored young Flapper, is hanging out on her uncle's yacht when it's suddenly captured by pirates. When Ardita meets and falls in love with the charming captain she knows she's been right to reject the boring and rich society men. But a truth lurks around the corner that will make her question everything she thinks she knows.

Ralph Orth is an American novelist who decides to move to the English countryside. There he buys a marvellous estate called Chillingsworth. Inside Chillingsworth’s gallery, Orth finds an old portrait of a young girl who takes Orth’s breath away. He is fascinated and is determined to find out who this girl was. His obsession with little lady Blanche gets so strong that one day he sees her walking around in the neighborhood.

The major part of the human population lives under the surface of Earth. Humankind has created a Machine which meets all possible needs. Travelling is permitted but people do not feel the need for it. Everybody lives in a separate room and communication is made via messages and videos only. However, not everyone is content with this life. There are rebels like Kuno who want to explore and get out of the limitations set by the Machine. Kuno will try to escape but without success.

A three-mast Brazilian ship passes by and a man standing on the shore, waving to it. After sailing on the broad and getting back home, the man starts feeling worse with every passing day. He realizes that there is a supernatural being in his home, taking his strength and sanity away. The man tries to fight back and kill the ghost but it proves more challenging than he had expected. He realizes that he himself had invited the creature.

After a passionate affair with Agnes Keith-Wessington, Jack Pansay wearies of her and becomes engaged to Miss Kitty Mannering. However, Wessington refuses to accept the rejection and reappears in Jack’s life, trying to make him reconsider. But to her greatest regret, Pansay continues to respond curtly and brutally. Not so long after, Agnes dies of a broken heart. From this moment on, Jack's life will never be the same again.

Mrs. Pratt mysteriously dies in her sleep after a fight with her husband. He thought that she had tried to poison him. But maybe it was the other way around? After a while Mr. Pratt is found dead as well, with a skull next to his head. Those who believe in ghosts think that Mrs. Pratt finally got her revenge. What do you believe? What happened with Mr. Pratt? If you are courageous enough, find the answer in "The Screaming Skull" by Francis Marion Crawford. B. J.

Forty-two years old Marlow is drinking with four other Englishmen. They have known each other since the beginning of their working lives. Some of them have other jobs now, but they still gather to recall the good old days. Marlow tells his friends a story of his early life, when he travelled to the East as a young man in search of adventure. He shares his experience and impressions of the different cultures he came across with the four men.

In this story, John Buchan explores Africa together with his friend Lawson. During their expedition, they find an astonishing place and they decide to settle there. But after a while John decides to leave Africa, while Lawson decides to stay. When Buchan returns, after some years, he finds Lawson in terrible condition and not willing to tell him why. However, Lawson’s warden, Mr. Jobson, believes that the problem comes from the grove of trees in their property.

The three scientist Mr. Edward Malone, Mr. Peerless Jones and Professor Challenger come together to build a machine that can drill deep into the earth. When the machine’s construction is finally completed the drilling starts, and it will not stop until the earth’s mantle is reached. Everything goes well for the three men, until they reach something into the earth that threatens to destroy their excavation.

Francis Thurston finds an old collection of letters and articles from his late uncle. They contain detailed descriptions of the so called Cthulhu cult, which Francis gets more and more interested in. He begins to understand his uncle’s fear and dread but he decides to continue his investigation. Will he keep be able to keep his sanity or will the Cthulhu cult come calling on him? B. J. Harrison started his Classic Tales Podcast back in 2007, wanting to breathe new life into classic stories.

Meet Daniela Rose and Cillian in the Orphan Dreamer Saga - a transcontinental sweeping story where Anne of Green Gables meets The Da Vinci Code inside the War Room. When a twist of fate alters the destiny of an orphan boy and the future of humanity in this epic journey that defies time and takes the listener from 1018 BC into a future of “what ifs” in the first full-length novel of the series, Orphan Dreamer and the Glass Tattoo.

Если вы нашли в заброшенном храме древнюю книгу, хорошенько подумайте, прежде чем ее прочитать. Ведь заклинания способны перенести вас в чужой мир. Обаятельный маг, в чьи объятия вы упадете, может оказаться не тем, за кого себя выдает.

In the Adirondacks, a grandfather is killed while deer hunting. On New York City's East Side, two boys are kidnapped and a retired doctor is gunned down in the getaway. In midtown Manhattan, a former governor is abducted and viciously butchered, his throat slit. The crimes seem unrelated until maverick newspaper reporter Todd Paige, on a hot tip from ambitious NYPD lieutenant Sarah vanAllen, follows the trails of blood to a sleepy hamlet far upstate. For there, buried deep in the Adirondacks, lies the secret of the Wilderness, a hospital for the criminally insane.

Madeline Dare has traded in the drudgery of life in backwoods Syracuse, New York, for work as a teacher at Santangelo Academy, a boarding school for emotionally disturbed teenagers in the Berkshires. Behind the ornate gates of the academy, she finds a disturbing realm where students and teachers must follow the dean's bizarre therapies.

Ali Baba and Cassim are two Persian brothers. Ali Baba barely manages to put food on the table for his family, while his brother lives an easy life thanks to his rich wife. One day, while chopping wood in the forest, Ali Baba sees a band of thieves laden with treasures approaching. They stop in front of a rock and the captain shouts "Open Sesame!". What happens next is pure magic. The giant rock moves to the sides and opens a portal which the thieves enter.

Twenty years ago, Ray Campbell, now a cautious risk-management consultant, was a well-intentioned aid worker dedicated to improving conditions in Lubanda, a newly independent African country. He is forced to reconsider that year of living dangerously when a friend from his time in Lubanda is found murdered in a New York alley. Signs suggest that this most recent tragedy is rooted in the far more distant one of Martine Aubert, the only woman Ray ever truly loved and whose fate he’d sealed in a moment of grievous error.

"You won't know till afterward. You won't know till long, long afterward." When Ned and Mary Boyne hear that their new house is haunted, they laugh it off and joke that every good house in the countryside must have a ghost for it to be worth purchasing. They move in and forget all about its supposed supernatural quirks. But when Mary notices a strange change in her husband's behaviour, she begins to suspect a not so friendly ghost is indeed at play.

Daniel Dravot and Peachey Carnehan are two scruffy adventurers who are planning to conquer Kafiristan - a remote part of Afghanistan. The two men pretend to have signed a contract that neither of them will touch alcohol or women. However, disguised as a priest and his assistant, Dravot and Carnehan depart for Kafiristan, secretly carrying twenty riffles. Why do they want to conquer Kafiristan? Will the make it across the border alive? Find all the answers in Rudyard Kipling’s adventure story "The Man Who Would Be King" from 1888. B. J.