Detective Stories Anthology

Just in time for Sherlock Holmes, the major motion picture starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law: the world’s greatest fictional detective and his famous sidekick Dr. Watson are on their first trip across the Atlantic as they solve crimes all over 19th-century America - from the bustling neighborhoods of New York, Boston, and D.C. to fog-shrouded San Francisco. The world’s best-loved British sleuth faces some of the most cunning criminals America has to offer and meets America’s most famous figures.

The stories in this collection will dredge up delight in crime fiction fans, as watery graves claim unsuspecting victims on the sands of an estuary and disembodied whispers penetrate the sleeping quarters of a ship's captain. This British Library anthology collects the best mysteries set on choppy seas, along snaking rivers and even in the supposed safety of a swimming pool, including stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, C. S. Forester, Phyllis Bentley and R. Austin Freeman.

221b Baker Street is known all over the world, for it’s the address most associated with the legendary Sherlock Holmes! But there was a time before Sherlock Holmes moved to Baker Street, before his fame had grown, when he was still learning his craft and struggling to create his unique profession - the first of its kind - consulting detective! Join some of the finest Sherlockian writers as they explore those early days before Baker Street.

Horace Rumpole—who never prosecutes, whose fame rests on an infinite knowledge of blood and typewriters, whose court scenes are proverbial, whose home is ruled by Mrs. Rumpole (“She Who Must Be Obeyed”)—is back on the defense, as irreverent, as iconoclastic, as claret-swilling, poetry-spouting, impudent, witty, and cynical as ever.

LAPD homicide detective Peter Decker and his wife, Rina Lazarus, will be blindsided by a brutal multiple murder in this twisting tale of suspense from New York Times best-selling author Faye Kellerman.

Lytcham Close, one of the oldest stately homes in England, is owned by the last remaining heir and ruled by his intolerable whims. Old Hubert demands complete silence when he plays music and times dinner exactly by a resounding gong. Rushing down at the sound of the second - or is it the first? - gong, Joan Ashby is about to find out that not only is dinner delayed, but something is going on that no one can explain. Everyone is thrown into disarray when Old Hubert never materializes and instead a new guest is announced: Hercule Poirot himself.

>"A Scandal in Bohemia" tells of the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes' encounter with Irene Adler, a beautiful and intelligent woman, in a story of love, intrigue, and political scandal. 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!

Hercule Poirot is about to tuck into a very traditional English supper with his old friend Bonnington when a lone diner sparks his interest. Like clockwork, the man has eaten at the restaurant on Thursdays and Tuesdays for the last 10 years, but no one on the staff knows his name. When "Old Father Time", as they have fondly nicknamed him, suddenly stops coming, Poirot believes that he might have picked up the one essential clue that could shed light on this mysterious man. Could what Old Father Time ordered as his final meal provide the key?

Behind the stage lights and word-perfect soliloquies, sinister secrets are lurking in the wings. The mysteries in this collection reveal the dark side to theatre and performing arts: a world of backstage dealings, where unscrupulous actors risk everything to land a starring role, costumed figures lead to mistaken identities, and on-stage deaths begin to look a little too convincing. This expertly curated thespian anthology features 14 stories from giants of the classic crime genre.

Though best known for The Scarlet Pimpernel, the Hungarian novelist Baroness Orczy was a prolific and versatile writer who could turn her pen to other genres. So, in the social and literary context of the huge success of Sherlock Holmes, she developed a memorable, but nameless character with remarkable powers of detection. The first stories appeared in The Royal Magazine in 1901, and other series followed. The first collection appeared in book form in 1905.

Major Hastings and Hercule Poirot are not interested in the mystery of the Spanish chest, which has been reported in the papers so often that it seems to be an entirely closed case. But, when Hastings persuades Poirot to attend a fabulous party given by Lady Chatterton, they discover someone sequestered upstairs who is desperate for their help. Will the contents of a dead man's pockets reveal to the inscrutable eye of Hercule Poirot who the culprit is?

In the heart of gangland London, Reverend Digby Rolf witnesses a chilling prison execution, the condemned man's life ending with a snap. But it's not just a man's death that haunts him; it's the divine message he sees in its aftermath: "Vengeance is mine sayeth the lord." Driven by an unwavering faith and a sense of duty, Digby embarks on a perilous quest for justice, despite the dangers lurking in the shadows of the late 1950s underworld. As he delves deeper into the murky depths of London's criminal society, Digby must confront his own naivety and navigate a treacherous landscape where ...

This collection contains nine early stories featuring the Continental Op, an un-named middle-aged detective working for the San Francisco branch of the fictional Continental Detective Agency. The stories are narrated in the first person. The “hardboiled detective” voice was later used by author Dashiell Hammett in The Maltese Falcon (Sam Spade) and the Thin Man series of stories.

The best mysteries have one thing in common: a memorable perpetrator. For every Sherlock Holmes or Sam Spade in noble pursuit, there's a Count Dracula, a Lester Leith, or a Jimmy Valentine. These are the rogues and villains who haunt our imaginations - and who often have more in common with their heroic counterparts than we might expect. Now, for the first time ever, Otto Penzler gathers the iconic traitors, thieves, con men, sociopaths, and killers who have crept through the mystery canon over the past 150 years, captivating and horrifying readers in equal measure.

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

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....

In these pastiches of the sacred writings, written when he was 19 and 20, August Derleth has recreated the London of Sherlock Holmes. It does not matter that the familiar name has become Solar Pons, or that the familiar Baker Street has become Praed Street - something of the nostalgic charm and fascination, of the remembered quickening of the pulse and the familiar settings of the original London of Sherlock Holmes, has been recaptured in these pages. And what intriguing titles there arc to these 12 pastiches, chosen from among a greater number!

First published in 1911, The Innocence of Father Brown contains stories involving one of the greatest characters in the history of detective fiction: Father Brown. He is a Roman Catholic priest who has an uncanny insight into human evil. Rather than the large serial villains in, for example, Sherlock Holmes stories, the mysteries Father Brown solved were more local murders by small-town crooks, narrowing the suspect list down to those in the area of the crime.

On a dark evening, Mr. Harley Quin appears at the door of Royston Hall under the premise that his car has broken down. Once inside, he embarks upon the tragic tale of Royston Hall's former occupants, leading to a dramatic change in the perceptions of the current inhabitants - but has Mr. Quin's revelation come too late?

Spadework was published on the 25th anniversary of The Snatch, the first Nameless Detective novel. Spadework collects 15 short stories perfect for those who love the Nameless Detective. Two of the stories appear in print for the first time ("Worried Mother Job" and "Zero Tolerance"). The book has an excellent foreword by Marcia Muller about her take on her husband's work, and an interesting afterword by Mr. Bill Pronzini in which he talks about his dedication to the needs of the story.