Mystery Reads

When movie producer Cody Ziegler goes missing from The Homestead’s Millionaires’ Row, his wife, retired actress Olivia, immediately claims there’s foul play afoot. A million-dollar ransom demand soon follows, with clear instructions not to involve the cops. In desperation she enlists the help of Moira, Rick, Philip and Lizzie, aka the Retired Detectives Club. Racing against the clock, the four retirees set to work.

Ashley Brooks’s life isn’t working out as planned. After years of struggling to make it in Hollywood, she’s still waiting for her big break. When fate leads her to the doorstep of legendary casting director Louisa Lake George, Ashley thinks her luck is about to change: the prickly old pro knows about a role she’s perfect for. The aspiring actress never gets to thank her, though, because the day after the audition, Louisa is dead. The bigger shock—she left all her money to Ashley.

Spread some Christmas cheer with Nate the Great in this holiday adventure! Young listeners are introduced to the detective mystery genre, perfect for the Common Core. Kids can problem-solve with Nate, using logical thinking to solve mysteries! Annie's dog is unhappy. When Fang is unhappy, everyone is unhappy. Especially Nate the Great. So Nate agrees to sniff out Fang's mysteriously missing Christmas mail. It's cold and snowy. But Nate the Great and his dog, Sludge, will try to solve this holiday case in time for Fang to have a crunchy, munchy Christmas.

Last Christmas, Callie Aspen left her tour-guide job and settled in Heart's Harbor, Maine. Now, she helps out at Book Tea, her great aunt’s vintage tearoom, where each treat has a bookish clue. Although she’s excited to start her new life, Callie worries she may regret having burned her bridges behind her. Fortunately, she finds immediate distraction in the preparations for a spectacular Fourth of July tea party, which will recreate key moments from the town's rich history.

With so much to do between running her shop and spending time with her new boyfriend, it's amazing Angie is able to help organize the Rolling Brook library's annual book sale. Luckily she's working alongside brash librarian Austina Shaker, a lady who isn't afraid to make waves to get books to her patrons - even the Amish. Unfortunately this draws the ire of cranky Bartholomew Belier, an Old Order Amish bishop who publicly vows to ruin Austina.

There's no place like home for the holidays - even if home is sleepy beachside Brigid's Island, North Carolina. During this season for giving, the town wakes up to a welcome throng of shoppers - and Beach Reads is no exception. But bookseller Summer Merriwether's Christmas cheer turns to cringing fear when she uncovers a deadly secret about her late mother - a secret someone will kill to keep.

When Beach Reads bookshop hosts a Valentine’s Day event, “Romance by the Sea,” bookseller Summer Merriweather has no idea that the guest author is under investigation for her own husband’s murder. When that same author is found dead at the local bed and breakfast, nobody assumes it’s natural causes—there were plenty of people who wanted her dead.

After the sighting of strange lights in the sky, the dismembered, burnt remains of the local RAF base commander are discovered in his car. An autopsy reveals that the victim showed signs of exposure to high radiation levels. Assistant Chief Constable Angela White enlists the aid of both John Handful and local reporter Yazmin Nash. The level of radiation the killer leaves in its wake should have killed any normal man by now, but the murders continue. When a leading government minister arrives the pressure is on for Handful to solve the case not only quickly but also quietly.

When headstrong Nesta Aldernay comes to Oxford, it’s to set the record straight for her father. Not to get mixed up in a tragedy, and certainly not to seduce the attractive if somewhat complicated Detective Inspector Lisle Jarvis. She’s only there to clear her father’s name. Sir Vivian Dalrymple of St Bede’s College tries to help her, but winds up dead. And Nesta was one of the last people to see Sir Vivian alive. What has she got herself into?

Isidore Smythe is in danger. He has received threating letters and he does not see a way out. John Angus offers Smythe his help and Smythe is escorted back to his flat. Angus is determined to find out who has sent the letters and he heads out to the former criminal Flambeau and the private detective Father Brown. Before he leaves Smythe’s apartment, he instructs four people to keep an eye on him. Yet when he comes back Smythe is missing and there's a bloodstain on the floor.

Benedict Archer, who is manager of Thornton Antiques in Melbourne and who has been secretly helping Alexandra learn more about her family business, is also invited. Alexandra asks Benedict and Edith Blackburn, her friend since childhood, to be with her when she approaches her father.

Ekantika Pakrashi has just lost the love of her life. Preliminary reports suggest it was no accident. Her boyfriend was murdered in cold blood and the modus operandi resembles that of India's most notorious serial killer of the 1990s: the Cellotape Killer. He was never caught, and if this indeed was him, then he had resurfaced after twenty-one years.

She is in hell. Trapped in the shadows, Rainey is unable to do much more than watch while her entire life is destroyed. While the Original Witch's plan continues to fall perfectly in place, it's up to Elijah to put it all on the line and save his hunter. Or die trying.

My world was built on lies and secrets, eating away at the good parts of me. When knowing too much incriminating information could get you killed, your only choices are to adapt or die. There are things about me others would never understand. Yet, one knowing look from her and I realize that my world just got more complicated. She could be my sanctuary in more ways than one. Or she might just be the siren leading me to my demise.

Helen Turrell is a young and well-off single woman, living a the countryside village. But one day, she decides to travel to southern France and returns home with a baby called Michael. Helen says that Michael is the son of her brother, George, who died in India after falling off a horse. However, the truth is quite different and secretly, Helen tells Michael that he can call her "Mummy". Why did Helen travel to France? Is Michael really her nephew? Find out the truth in Rudyard Kipling’s story "The Gardener" from 1925. B. J.

"The Moonstone" by Wilkie Collins is one of the forefathers of detective fiction, cementing the foundations of the genre. At the centre of it lays the theft of a diamond, dating in origin from a religious Indian shrine, which prompts detective Sergeant Cuff to take up the case. It is an absolute page-turner of a story and goes through the accounts of the different characters, winding and meandering from fact to fiction and vice versa.

Pip is a poor orphaned boy who lives together with his sister and her husband. Pip is not educated but has great dreams of the future. He is determined to get out of the low class and seek progress in the higher class. One day a lawyer appears. Pip has suddenly received a large fortune from a secret benefactor and he has to get to London to start his education. Pip’s life changes in a second. But he is ready to embark on his next journey.

Hungary during the Ottoman wars: Turks attack Buda and set up a siege of Eger. Gergely Bornemissza is a poor half-orphan who is about to become a national hero. "Eclipse of the Crescent Moon" follows Gergelys life from the age of eight until his early thirties. His life is a vivid combination of poverty, love, battles and dangers. He is on the front line when the Turks capture Buda and later when they approach Eger. His country is in danger and so is his family. The battle is one of life or death.

Sam McGee is one of the many gold miners of the Klondike Gold Rush. The freezing-cold and harsh winter of Yukon is about to take his next victim in the face of McGee. The poor man freezes to death on the trail. The night before he passed away, McGee had asked his friend, the narrator of the story, to cremate his remains, saying that he did not want to be buried in the frozen ground. However, after the man is cremated some strange things begin to happen.

The first season focuses on the short story tradition, and B. J. Harrison has selected some of the most prominent representatives of the genre. As far as the thematic aspect is concerned, the stories cover crime and mystery episodes like Arthur Conan Doyle’s "The Speckled Band", or revenge-driven ones like Shakespeare’s "Hamlet". There are also supernatural and horror classics such as Hawthorne’s "The Devil and Tom Walker" and W. W. Jacobs’ masterpiece "The Monkey’s Paw".