Detective Stories Anthology

Alto meno di un metro e sessanta, con una curiosa testa a forma d'uovo e un superbo paio di baffi attentamente curati, Hercule Poirot non fa certo una grande impressione, eppure questo buffo ometto è riuscito ad accattivarsi l'interesse di milioni di lettori. Apparso per la prima volta nel 1920 il detective belga, protagonista di trentadue romanzi e numerosi racconti, ha risolto con successo decine di casi per oltre mezzo secolo, prima di scomparire definitivamente nel 1975, precedendo di poco la sua autrice.

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.

"C'était l'automne, la saison rousse. Les feuilles voltigeaient sur les gazons comme des volées d'oiseaux. On sentait traîner dans l'air des odeurs de terre humide, de terre dévêtue, comme on sent une odeur de chair nue quand tombe, après le bal, la robe d'une femme." ("Un coq chanta") "Les Contes de la Bécasse" est un recueil de nouvelles de Guy de Maupassant publié pour la première fois en 1883. Cette série d'histoires est profondément marquée par la Normandie sa jeunesse.

You will soon discover that Captain Arthur Hastings is on hand to relate confirming details of case after case. Hastings was an ongoing friend and adventure companion of the often exuberant Belgian investigator who once proudly proclaimed, “I am the greatest detective in the world.”

Professor George Edward Challenger summons 3 friends to his home with a strange request: bring your own oxygen. The even stranger reason: Challenger has discovered the Earth is about to pass through a poisonous belt of ether, and all living things are destined to die unless they can protect themselves. Can the 4 men's small supply of oxygen last until the Earth clears the poison belt?

Three compelling Sherlock Holmes mysteries in one book, including "The Game of Cat and Mouse": "The interior was dark, and neither of us searched for a lamp or switch. There came a ticking of some clock or another. And the sound of a dripping faucet somewhere in the house was like a hammer to an anvil. Our breaths were loud, but my heart sounded louder to me...."

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.

An unusual sequence of events in "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" leads the legendary Sherlock Holmes to locate the precious jewel owned by the Countess of Morcar. The story is read by a true master, Edward Hardwicke, a talented actor who plays Sherlock Holmes's associate, Dr. Watson, in the popular PBS series Mystery!

The Reinvented Detective presents stories that complicate law and order as well as the concept of criminals, detectives, punishment, and justice for all by showing how shifting technology, the rise of sentient AIs, and shifting social attitudes may affect what is not only acceptable, but expected, within both real world and digital communities—and everything in-between. These stories reinvent detective and true crime tropes, recasting them for the 21st century, and above all, experimenting, astonishing, and entertaining.

Dr. Watson faints for the first and last time of his life when the believed-to-be-dead Holmes appears in the middle of an investigation of a crime. We find out about what really happened in the fight to the death with the evil Moriarty.

Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings are on holiday at the opulent Grand Metropolitan Hotel in Brighton, where they meet the wife of a wealthy stockbroker. As they discuss the jewels worn by Mrs Opalsen, the great detective relates his experiences in cases which have concerned some of the best-known jewels in the world. Excited by his anecdotes, the wealthy matron eagerly offers to show him a very expensive pearl necklace, but when she goes to retrieve it, she discovers that it has been stolen.

"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."

This is a story from the The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes I collection.

Story One: Bumbling Caper on the Swiss Alps. "Watson! Watson!" I shouted in dismay, thinking I was close to the surface. Alas, I could not find my way out of the snow, packed thick and heavy all around me. My legs were pinned in place, and I could scarcely breathe with each passing moment.

Baroness Emmuska Orczy was a Hungarian-born British novelist, who gained fame as a writer for The Scarlet Pimpernel. She also created an archetype of popular mystery fiction: the armchair detective, as exemplified by "The Old Man in the Corner", a sleuth who is never mentioned by name and but who solves cases simply by "thinking them through", while leaving the gathering of evidence to others. "The Dublin Mystery" is one of the best of these stories.

A collection of short stories from Edmund Crispin featuring his beloved amateur detective, Gervase Fen. Crime fiction at its quirkiest and best.

The butler of Reginald Musgrave, one of Holmes' former schoolmates, has disappeared, and the local police can't solve the case. Holmes travels to the Musgrave estate and once there not only discovers the butler, but also finds out about the origin of the centuries-old Musgrave Ritual.

"His Last Bow", the title story of this collection, tells how Sherlock Holmes is brought out of retirement to help the Government fight the German threat at the approach of the First World War. The Prime Minister himself requests Holmes's services to hunt down the remarkable German agent, Von Bork. Several of the detective's earlier cases complete the volume, including "Wisteria Lodge", "The Bruce-Partington Plans", and "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax".

Thanks to Royal Jelly, Holmes is a fit 74-year-old, who has lost his interest in bees and returned to detecting, joining forces again with his colleague and friend, Dr. John Hamish Watson, a 75-year-old unfit twice-widower, who hankers after the good old days of derring-do. Together they explore the case of the Kew Gardens Gnomes and their fiery vengeance; the Portobello Pornographer and the reappearance of an old enemy; the Camden Counterfeiter and the theft of Doctor Watson's identity; the Kensington Kidnapper and the hefty price on Mrs Hudson's head; and the Undiscovered Country, in which a successful writer is haunted by his most famous character.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes picks up where the previous collection of Holmes stories left off: with the great detective's return from the dead in "The Empty House." This and the twelve other stories in the anthology—including "The Dancing Men," "The Solitary Cyclist," "The Six Napoleons," and "The Second Stain"—are absolute classics of detective fiction centered on the genius Holmes and his loyal friend and companion Dr. Watson