Historical Detective

In June of 1893, the future Nicholas II travels to London for a royal wedding, bringing with him his private security force and his ballerina mistress, Mathilde Kchessinska. Rumored to be the target of a professional assassin known only as La Sylphide, and the subject of conspiracies against his life by his own family who covet his future throne, Nicholas is protected by not only private security, but the professional forces of both England and Russia.

In the summer of 1932, Maisie Dobbs' career takes an exciting new turn when she accepts an undercover assignment directed by Scotland Yard's Special Branch and the Secret Service. Posing as a junior lecturer, she is sent to a private college in Cambridge to monitor any activities "not in the interests of His Majesty's government". She soon finds herself investigating a web of activities being conducted by the emerging Nazi Party.

Elliot Rosenzweig, a respected civic leader and philanthropist, is attending a fundraiser when he is suddenly accosted and accused of being a former Nazi SS officer named Otto Piatek, the Butcher of Zamosc. Although the charges are denounced as preposterous, his accuser is convinced he is right and engages attorney Catherine Lockhart to bring Rosenzweig to justice.

The Valentine Ball, the glittering social event of 1932 Boston. Who would want to spoil a debutante cotillion with a murder? Nurse Aggie Burnside goes to Boston to assist her cousin Amanda with the final touches on the dazzling debutante presentation to raise funds for a major hospital. But it seems there are new obstacles every day: the budget gets cut, the band quits, the finance manager interferes and the hospital board members argue. Despite the hurdles, the evening comes together without a hitch. And then someone is murdered, and a large amount of money disappears. What was the motive...

Spanning events over thirty years, Volume I of The Papers of Sherlock Holmes relates narratives of Holmes and Watson's days in Baker Street, as well as particulars of Holmes's supposed retirement. Follow along as The Master and his Boswell travel from the streets of London to the Kent countryside, to Oxford and Sussex. Written in traditional canonical style, these stories provide fresh details of Holmes's world. Join us as we climb the seventeen steps to the Baker Street sitting room, where Holmes and Watson prepare to begin their next adventure. The game is afoot!

The tranquility of a luxury cruise along the Nile was shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway had been shot through the head. She was young, stylish, and beautiful. A girl who had everything . . . until she lost her life. Hercule Poirot recalled an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: “I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.” Yet under the searing heat of the Egyptian sun, nothing is ever quite what it seems.

This first installment of a cozy mystery series transports listeners back to the bygone era of 1923 Britain, where unflappable flapper and fledgling journalist Daisy Dalrymple daringly embarks on her first writing assignment, and promptly stumbles across a corpse.

The year is 1933. Maisie Dobbs is contacted by an Indian gentleman who has come to England in the hopes of finding out who killed his sister two months ago. Scotland Yard failed to make any arrest in the case, and there is reason to believe they failed to conduct a thorough investigation. The case becomes even more challenging when another Indian woman is murdered just hours before a scheduled interview. Meanwhile, unfinished business from a previous case becomes a distraction, as does a new development in Maisie's personal life.

When Kendra Donovan is approached by Mrs. Gavenston with an unusual request - to find her business manager, Jeremy Pascoe, who recently vanished - the FBI agent is eager to accept the challenge. To Kendra's way of thinking, spending her time locating a missing person suits her more than perfecting her embroidery, painting watercolors, practicing on the pianoforte, or any of the other activities that are socially acceptable for young ladies in the early 19th century. Unfortunately, the missing person's case turns into a murder investigation after Kendra finds the man stabbed to death.

FIRST IN AN EXCITING HISTORICAL CRIME SERIES. Bullying. Corruption. Murder. It’s the summer of 2002. The corpse of a 15 year old boy, missing for thirty years, is discovered in Stoke-on-Trent, a city on the cusp of change. Chief Superintendent Berkins wants the case solved quickly. DCI Jim Tyler has arrived from London under a cloud, and finds himself teamed up with born-and-bred local DS Danny Mills to investigate the case. There is tension between the chalk-and-cheese detectives from the start, but mingled with a growing mutual admiration. When the dead boy’s sister comes forward, ...

Imagine Don Quixote as an intelligent detective in 1603 Spain who is simply pretending to be crazy--because being declared insane just happens to be the best way to finagle his entrance into the dreaded Santuario de San Jose to rescue his childhood friend. Sancho accompanies him to keep him from getting into more trouble, and a pesky journalist (think 1600s tabloid reporter) is following them both. Going after windmills? Only to escape questions from the journalist. But he can still dream of Dulcinea, the love of his life. Follow Don Quixote as he is swept from the tedium of daily life and ...

An anonymous letter warns Senior Police Inspector Melnikov to “DROP YOUR INVESTIGATION OR FACE DEATH”. But the dilemma—which one of his ongoing investigations did they mean? It’s 1935, and Borya Melnikov has risen to the rank of Senior Inspector on Harbin’s Judicial Police unit in Manchuria. But his position is becoming untenable as Manchukuo’s Japanese masters are increasingly intolerant of his independent style . . . and now this anonymous threat lands on his desk. It’s not in his nature to back down to threats, but it is only weeks before his wife returns to Harbin. He must...

A classic from the queen of mystery: Agatha Christie.

Luke Fitzwilliam does not believe Miss Pinkerton's wild allegation that a multiple murderer is at work in the quiet English village of Wychwood and that her local doctor is next in line. But within hours, Miss Pinkerton has been killed in a hit-and-run car accident. Mere coincidence? Luke is inclined to think so - until he reads in the Times of the unexpected demise of Wychwood's Dr. Humbleby....

The city of Rome is agitated and distraught as every news broadcast opens with coverage of the shocking murder of two women, committed by an incredibly clever serial killer, who manages to vanish without a trace and who repeatedly mocks the police with the sarcastic notes he leaves behind at the murder scene. Money, power, drug cartels, and street gangs are mixed up in this affair, and everyone suspects everyone else. The murdered women worked as prostitutes in a nightclub with a dubious reputation, La Casa, located on Rome’s prestigious and famous Veneto Street, and the young chief of ...

In the latest mystery in the New York Times best-selling series, Maisie Dobbs must unravel a case of wartime love and death—an investigation that leads her to a long-hidden affair between a young cartographer and a mysterious nurse..... August 1914. Michael Clifton is mapping the land he has just purchased in California’s beautiful Santa Ynez Valley, certain that oil lies beneath its surface. But as the young cartographer prepares to return home to Boston, war is declared in Europe,,,,

It is the summer of 1812. Wellington is fighting Napoleon's army in Spain, Lord Byron is dazzling the Beau Monde with the first Canto of his 'Childe Harold's Pilgrimage' - and Viscount Percy Ainsford Foster Ashe is discovered dead in a shabby boarding house in Brighton. It is assumed that the young man, whose gambling debts were considerable, has committed suicide. But then a suspicious silver locket is discovered by Lady Charlotte Ashe, the dead lord's now penniless widow, and Theo Bryght, a Bow Street Runner from London, is called in to investigate what is now suspected to be murder. Who ...

When listeners last heard Maisie Dobbs, it was 1938, and the world was on the brink of war. Maisie herself was on a dangerous mission inside Nazi Germany, where she encountered an old enemy and the Führer himself. In In This Grave Hour, a year has passed, and Maisie is back home in England - yet neither she nor her nation is safe. Britain has just declared war on Germany and is mobilizing for the devastating battle ahead.

London, 1853: Young Charles Lenox is called upon by the duke of Dorset, one of England’s most revered noblemen, for help. A painting of the duke’s great-grandfather has been stolen from his private study. But the duke’s concern is not for his ancestor’s portrait; hiding in plain sight nearby is another painting of infinitely greater value, one that holds the key to one of the country’s most famous and best-kept secrets. Dorset believes the thieves took the wrong painting and may return when they realize their error.

Faith Sunderly leads a double life. To most people, she is reliable, dull, trustworthy - a proper young lady who knows her place as inferior to men. But inside, Faith is full of questions and curiosity, and she cannot resist mysteries: an unattended envelope, an unlocked door. She knows secrets no one suspects her of knowing. She knows that her family moved to the close-knit island of Vane because her famous scientist father was fleeing a reputation-destroying scandal.