Suspense Amateur Detective

London zu Beginn der 50er Jahre. Gervase Fen, Literaturprofessor aus Oxford und Gelegenheitsdetektiv, arbeitet als Experte bei der Produktion eines Films über den großen Dichter Alexander Pope, als eine grauenvolle Nachricht das Filmstudio erschüttert: Die junge und aufstrebende Schauspielerin Gloria Scott stürzte sich von der Waterloo Bridge direkt in ihren Tod. Ein tragischer, wenn auch unverständlicher Selbstmord. So scheint es jedenfalls, bis herauskommt, dass Gloria Scott nicht ihr echter Name war.

"Im Grunde bin ich ein Naturwissenschaftler, den es reizt, Abstecher in die trügerische Literaturwissenschaft zu unternehmen. Das erkennen Sie auch an meinem klaren und präzisen Verstand." England Ende der 40er Jahre. Oxford-Professor und Exzentriker Gervase Fen, wie er selbst betont, der einzige Literaturwissenschaftler der Kriminalliteratur, der je Detektiv wurde, hat es sich in den Kopf gesetzt, Lokalpolitiker zu werden. Das Dörfchen Sanford, in das es ihn für seinen Wahlkampf verschlägt, erscheint zunächst ruhig und friedlich. Doch der Schein trügt.

England in den 40er Jahren. Beim Oxforder Opernensemble steht die erste Aufführung von Wagners Meistersingern nach dem 2. Weltkrieg auf dem Plan. Eine der Hauptrollen übernimmt der überaus begabte, aber ebenso unbeliebte Sänger Edwin Shorthouse. Jedenfalls, bis man ihn nach einer Probe erhängt in seiner Garderobe findet. Selbstmord? Wohl kaum. Schon bald danach kommt es zu einem zweiten Mord. Der Tote war ein junger Chorsänger und aufstrebender Opernkomponist. Oxford Professor und Amateurdetektiv Gervase Fen ist ratlos und steht vor einem Rätsel.

Miss Marple auf Mörderjagd. Anonyme Briefe sorgen für böses Blut in dem Provinzstädtchen Lymstock. Hinzu kommen zwei mysteriöse Todesfälle und die Polizei tappt im Dunkeln. Nur Miss Marple, die zufällig gerade in Lymstock zu Besuch ist, gelingt es mit ihren unkonventionellen Methoden schließlich, hinter die Fassade der Wohlanständigkeit zu blicken und den Täter zu entlarven.

Mark Ablett is hosting all his friends at his English country house when he receives a letter from his estranged brother, Robert, announcing Robert's intention to arrive from Australia. Not long after his arrival, Robert turns up dead, his body found with a bullet wound to the head, and Mark is nowhere to be seen. Antony Gillingham and his friend Bill Beverly play Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson to solve this whodunnit mystery. This is Milne's only mystery novel.

Ein Mörder in der Familie? Das kann nur Agatha Christie so spannend mitteilen! Stets hatte Jacko Argyle beteuert, seine Mutter nicht ermordet zu haben. Trotzdem wird er für die Tat verurteilt und stirbt kurz darauf im Gefängnis. Zwei Jahre später überbringt Arthur Calgary der Familie den Beweis für Jackos Unschuld. Diese ist wider Erwarten alles andere als erfreut, denn nun hat sie Gewissheit: Der Mörder muss einer von ihnen sein.

La prima esperienza con "Miss Marple" non partì sotto i migliori auspici. Avevo la febbre e, quando mia madre era uscita, le avevo chiesto di portarmi un Asterix; quindi mi aspettavo un fumetto. Appena lo vidi, con sospetto, chiesi che libro fosse. "Un giallo di Agatha Christie" rispose lei "di quelli che piacciono tanto a tuo fratello". Di bene in meglio. "Sai, il protagonista non è un poliziotto, e nemmeno un investigatore privato. È una vecchietta che risolve i casi mentre lavora a maglia". E mi lasciò il libro sul comodino. Dalla prefazione di Marco Malvaldi.

London, 1556. Hal Westmecott, one of the city's most feared executioners, reckons Jack Blackjack owes him a favour - and now he's come to collect his dues. Hal has ordered Jack to track down his long-lost son. But when Jack's search draws him to the attention of a ruthless nobleman, a dead priest's vengeful brother and finally to a bloodstained body in a filthy lodging house, he comes to realise he is an unwitting pawn in a mesh of schemes dreamed up by the most powerful people in England. Just who is a friend, who is a foe - and will Jack escape with his life intact?

Former con-artist photographers Bingo Riggs and Handsome Kusak are en route from the grit of New York City to the glitter of Sunset Boulevard when their dreams are waylaid in a tragic roadside accident with an errant turkey. But getting stuck in the off-the-map community of Thursday County, Iowa, has an upside: a blushing farmer’s daughter with a promising sob story. To help her ailing grandma, the Halvorsen family turkey farm is up for grabs. With Thanksgiving just around the corner, Bingo and Handsome plan to make a bundle off the gobbling herd.

A note from bartender Brian McNulty, Raymond Ambler’s friend, confidant, and sometimes adviser, sets the librarian sleuth off on a murder investigation - one that he pursues reluctantly until a second murder upends the world as he knows it. The second victim is a lady friend of McNulty’s - and the prime suspect is McNulty himself.

Professor Emily Cavanaugh has left Windy Corner behind and is back at Bede College on her sabbatical, determined to finish writing her book on Dostoevsky. She is soon reunited with one of her promising students, Daniel Razumov, as well as familiar faces on the teaching staff - her friend, Marguerite Grenier; her half-brother, Oscar Lansing; the abrasive division chair, Richard McClintock; and the predatory Taylor Curzon, known for her relentless pursuit of young male students - and Taylor now has Daniel firmly in her sights.

Stoke Newington, 1863: Little Margaret Lovejoy is found brutally murdered in the outhouse at her family’s estate. A few days later, a man is cut down in a similar manner on the doorstep of courtesan and professional detective Heloise Chancey’s prestigious address. At the same time, Heloise’s maid, Amah Li Leen, must confront events from her past that appear to have erupted into the present day. Once again Heloise is caught up in a maelstrom of murder and deceit that threatens to reach into the very heart of her existence.

It's harvest season at Montgomery Estate Vineyard - the busiest time of year for winemakers in Atoka, Virginia. A skull is unearthed near Lucie Montgomery's family cemetery, and the discovery of the bones coincides with the arrival of handsome, wealthy aristocrat Jean-Claude de Merignac. He's come to be the head winemaker at neighboring La Vigne Cellars, but he's no stranger to Lucie - he was her first crush 20 years ago when she spent a summer in France. Not long after his arrival, Jean-Claude is found dead.

Clinching is the technique used to bend a driven horseshoe nail to hold the shoe to a hoof. Rainy Dale is The Clincher, a 20-something high school-dropout turned farrier (horseshoer) who is haunted by a secret she carries. Estranged from her California D-list actress momma and her ranch hand Texas daddy, she tracked down her childhood horse in small-town Oregon - a land full of cowboys and their horses - then stayed to build a life with her tools, steel, and forge. She’s sleeping in a garage and trying not to fall for her landlord, the hapless and hopeful chef, Guy.

As yuletide settles upon Gwenafwy Abbey, the rural Welsh convent's peace is shattered when Tiffany Reese, president of the Village Art Society, is found dead on the floor of the parish hall. Sister Agatha, whose interests lie more with reading and writing mystery stories than with making the abbey's world-renowned organic gouda, is not shy about inserting herself into the case. With the not-entirely eager assistance of Father Selwyn, she begins her investigation.

Just as a murderer dumps his corpse into the lake across Valley View in Lily Dale, Bella Jordan happens to be at her window, not quite realizing what she's seeing. Jiffy Arden, a neighborhood kid looking for the black cat and stumbling across the killer, begins to have premonitions of being kidnapped during the season's first snowstorm. Sure enough, he vanishes. A body shows up in the lake. Now everyone is pulling out all the stops to find the missing child, identify the victim, and collar the killer - and fast, because he's coming for Bella next in Dead of Winter.

When a murder desecrates the halls of New York City's iconic 42nd Street Library, Raymond Ambler, the library's curator of crime fiction, has a personal interest in solving the crime. But his quest to solve the murder is complicated by personal entanglements involving his friend - or, perhaps, more-than-friend - Adele Morgan. Not only does Adele's relationship with the staffer who was murdered get in the way of Ambler's investigation, but her growing interest in a darkly handsome Islamic scholar disturbs him.

Murder at the 42nd Street Library follows Ambler and his partners in crime-solving as they track down a killer, shining a light on the dark deeds and secret relationships that are hidden deep inside the famous flagship building at the corner of 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. In their search for the reasons behind the murder, Ambler and his crew uncover sinister and profoundly disturbing relationships among the scholars studying in the iconic library.

Gin Sullivan is back in her small hometown of Trumbull, Pennsylvania, on an extended leave from her job at the Chicago medical examiner's office and rekindling an old flame with her high school sweetheart, Jake. Gin is readjusting to life at home when Jake receives harrowing news early one morning: the new housing development his construction firm is building has caught fire, and underneath one of the burnt homes is a dead body.

Ben knows that whenever his thumbs are itching, something 'orrible is about to happen. Sure enough, on one foggy afternoon of itchy thumbs, the hapless Ben is implicated in criminal activity by the police - the kind of mistake it isn't easy to explain. Doing a runner, Ben hides in the basement of a deserted house, where he discovers the body of a well-dressed man, shot through the head...and much more trouble than he bargained for.