Detective Short Stories Mysteries

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.

James has found himself at the fashionable resort Kimpton-on-Sea, all due to the persuasion of his girlfriend, Grace, who during the last few months of their courtship has become more difficult to deal with. Among the upper echelons of society, including the Rajah of Maraputna, James feels disgruntled and out of place. Eager to both irritate and win over Grace, James bypasses the queue to the changing rooms and ducks into the private huts on the beach so that he can be the first into the sea. It is only later that he realizes he has accidentally come into possession of a very valuable and sought-after object.

Returning to Glasgow after a brief spell in his new island home has left Leger feeling homesick and heartbroken. His son and daughter have grown up without him, his beloved Ginger has found a new tom and a thief is running amok in the area while his former sidekick, Amber, is uninterested in catching the culprit. On the plus side, the extra pounds he gained during his brief retirement have done nothing to ruin his appeal with the local mollies. Leger faces uneasy choices. Should he help Amber collect clues and point her in the right direction? How can he win back Ginger? Did he make the ...

Having decided life in the highlands, however temporary, is not for her, Annabella has given care of Leger to her niece Carol while she is Christmas shopping in Germany. Leger strongly objects to the decision, but has no choice in the matter. Leger is frequently left out in the chilly December rain with no catflap to use and questions Annabella's judgement, until one day he meets Saffron, a neglected child who lives across the street. The pair connect on a deep level in a short time, with Saffron more than once coming to Leger's aid. So when Saffron's mother is murdered one night, and Leger...

These six cases are among the last undertaken by Sherlock Holmes before he retired to the Sussex downs. However, the problems facing the sleuth are as diverse and challenging as ever. What with seeking the whereabouts of the stolen Mazarin Diamond, discovering the importance of being called Garrideb, encountering a mysterious murder on Thor Bridge, searching for eternal youth and the threat of a vampire in Sussex, there is no sign of Holmes' deductive powers slowing down.

Halloween means parties and the local residents association are planning a get-together at the Queen Languoreth to celebrate Halloween. However, with everyone out in the street at the same time, this opens the window for a gang of cat-phobic robbers to come in and take advantage. Leger and Ginger have overheard the men planning the robbery in an alleyway but can they uncover the identity of Gus and Andy in time? Meanwhile, a local man has discovered the body of a cat who looks just like Leger and taken the body to Annabella for burial. Annabella isn't sure it's really Leger who has died but...

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.

This volume presents some of Arthur Conan Doyle's unduly neglected masterworks of suspense. Each begins in a quietly factual way, which makes all the more dramatic the crescendo of fear and puzzlement that ensues as each startling new circumstance is revealed. Even without his supremely logical brainchild Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle shows that his tales are unbeatable for thrills and excitement.

Here are nine of Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous Sherlock Holmes stories, tales that showcase the talents of literature's most famous sleuth. This thrilling anthology includes such favorites as "Silver Blaze", in which a prize racehorse disappears; "Yellow Face", where Holmes confesses to a rare error; and "The Musgrave Ritual", one of his most famous cases. The collection concludes with the poignant, historic "The Final Problem", as Dr. Watson recalls Holmes's tragic death at the hands of Professor Moriarty.

What if the darkness of Lovecraft’s decadent New England overlapped into the Victorian era of Sherlock Holmes? Twenty-five new stories across two volumes pit Holmes and Watson against myriad nightmares from Lovecraft’s fiction—and against those nightmares which his writings have inspired. Join us as we journey from the familiar fog of Baker Street to the rotting gambrel roofs of Arkham, the blasphemous library of Miskatonic University, and beyond....

Altogether, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote four novels and 56 short stories about Sherlock Holmes. Throughout, Dr. Watson (or just Watson) was included as a catalyst for Holmes’s massive ego and mental processes. Eventually, Doyle felt the stories were distracting him from more serious literary work, but he did finally wind it up with the seven stories you’re about to hear. In the words of Watson (Dr. John H. Watson, MD), we have the pleasure of knowing about the declining years, beginning now.

Gus’s wakes up to discover that he’s been kidnapped by a Mexican mobster. He’s not the only one who has been kidnapped, however. Apparently, someone’s pinched the crime lord’s kid and the head thug of the gang wants Gus to find the missing kid before the crime lord finds out about it. By kid, it turns out that they meant young goat. If the goat doesn’t turn up in time then the ire of the crime lord will surely fall on one of them. Gus needs to figure out which suspect is the correct one. Luckily, Gus has Father Xavier around to help him sort out this tricky situation. Can Gus ...

This collection of eight world-famous cases from Doctor Watson's portfolio illustrates the singular mental faculties of Sherlock Holmes: a body on the London Underground; the strange disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax; a parcel containing some coarse salt and two freshly severed human ears.

The Greatest Mysteries of All Time, Volume 5 is an exciting addition to this series, featuring the finest short-story mystery fiction by the most acclaimed writers, past and present. This unique collection of master writers, including such notables as Isaac Asimov, Ogden Nash, and Mickey Spillane, edited by multi-award-winning mystery connoisseur Otto Penzler, is a delightful mixture of mystery and suspense.

Jane Cleveland is in desperate need of a job, and when she sees an ad for a woman of her description needed to impersonate a grand duchess, she cannot believe her luck. The royal retainers tell Jane that the job will be dangerous because attempts have been made on the Grand Duchess Pauline's life, but this only serves to make the job more appealing. Jane's disguise initially goes according to plan, but when she is kidnapped and drugged, it appears that her new employers are not all that they seem....

When Mr. Satterthwaite visits a new exhibit at the Harchester Galleries, there is one painting that bears an unusual likeness to a mysterious acquaintance of his, Mr. Quin. In one bold move he purchases the canvas on the spot, and in another invites the artist of "The Dead Harlequin" to dine with him that night, with an empty place at the table set for Mr. Quin. Dinner conversation soon turns to the setting of "The Dead Harlequin", the doomed and ghostly house Charnley, where many have perished under tragic circumstances.

Hailed by The New York Times as "a master of the British Mystery", award-winning author Elizabeth George is cherished by readers on both sides of the Atlantic. Her first collection of short stories is an extraordinary offering that deftly explores the lengths to which people will go to get what they want most.

Even in the future, dames still need help, criminals still need capturing, and men still hire out to do both! Hugh Monn, Private Detective, the debut collection from author Lee Houston is a New Pulp mash up of two classic genres-the hard boiled detective and science fiction! Join Hugh as he walks the glittering, yet dark streets of Galveston 2 and finds as much mayhem and corruption in the future as there's ever been!

Grace had never been more terrified...the pain was relentless. Nothing in her life prepared her for this. She desperately needed somewhere safe...someplace she could hide. Someone she could trust with her life. It was dark...and getting darker. Ronan Hendricks didn’t recognize her voice. Not family...not friends. Probably not an enemy. But he didn’t need the years he’d spent as a detective to recognize what he did hear... Fear. In a desperate moment of hope, a single number saved her life. Then a complete stranger opened his home offering safety yet Grace knew danger surrounded them.....

Movie star Mary Marvell consults with Hercule Poirot after receiving threatening letters that warn her to return her diamond, the famous "Western Star", to its rightful owner. But who does own the diamond, and is it even the genuine article?