Classic Mystery Short Stories

El genial Edgar Allan Poe nos trae dos obras llenas de misterio y exponiendo hasta donde un ser humano puede hundirse en el odio irracional: "Carta Robada" y "Corazón Delator".

Diese "Erzgebirgischen Dorfgeschichten" stammen aus Mays frühester Schaffenszeit. Er zeigt sich hier von ungewohnter Seite...

A zealous aviator penetrates the highest strata of our atmosphere and discovers a groundbreaking new form of life. And yet he knows that this strange alien life form has claimed the lives of two aviators before him, and it may claim his own.

Murder comes in two familiar forms. Whether as a crime of passion with high emotions or a cold dispassionate plot to take life in order to gain in some way, the act strikes us all as somehow inhuman. Beneath us as civilised beings. But however we cloak our animal instincts the need to remove a human being and gain relief from abuse or gain from money, the term is just the same – MURDER. Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, J M Barrie, W W Jacobs and many others bring their literary heft to bear in as calculating a way as any killer could.

First published in an 1839 edition of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, "The Fall of the House of Usher" is the story of the declining physical and psychological health of the residents of the House of Usher - and the way in which the house itself reflects that. Gothic in theme and style, the story is an exemplar of Poe's philosophy of composition, which dictates that literary works should be short and methodological and have a unity of effect wherein all the elements of the story are related and relevant.

This terse and startling novel is the story of a struggle for possession and of its devastating consequences. Three women seek to secure the affections of one man, while he, in turn, tries to satisfy them all. But in the middle of this contest of wills stands his unwitting and vulnerable young daughter. The conclusion of The Other House makes it one of the most disturbing and memorable of Henry James' depictions of the uncontrollable passions that lie beneath the polished veneer of civilized life.

This is a story from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes II collection. In this collection are four of the finest cases of Mr. Sherlock Holmes, narrated by his faithful friend and admirer Dr. Watson. What was the mystery of the engineer's thumb? What was behind the disappearance of the race horse? Why did masked royalty walk up to see Holmes in Baker Street? These and other puzzles are solved in this collection by this bloodhound of a genius.

M.R. James (1862-1936) was provost of King's College, Cambridge, and Eton College. He was a highly regarded scholar and academic in his time but today is remembered for his ghost stories, which are considered among the finest in the genre. The seven stories in this Volume One are: "A School Story", "Rats", "A Warning to the Curious", "Two Doctors", "The Haunted Doll's House", "Casting the Runes", "There Was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard".

This second collection of dramatized stories from the early days of detective fiction includes the following: "The Mystery of Mrs. Dickinson" by Nick Carter; "The Stolen White Elephant" by Mark Twain; "The Red-Headed League" and "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; "The Purloined Letter" and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe; "Mr. Policeman and the Cook" by Wilkie Collins; and more.

El narrador intenta convencernos de su salud mental, diciéndonos que lo único que le pasa es que es un poco nervioso porque todos sus sentidos están extremadamente sensibilizados. El anciano con el que vive tiene un ojo azul que está velado, al que nuestro narrador describe como un ojo de buitre. El anciano realmente le cae bien pero odia el ojo de buitre....Hasta tal punto llega a odiar ese ojo que se convierte en una obsesión enfermiza, que le hace imposible no pensar en otra cosa que no sea planificar el asesinato del anciano.

A starlet's plot to blackmail a film-studio executive results in her murder. Only the "trouble chaser" can clear her volatile lover and solve the crime.

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 Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist" is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was originally published as part of The Return of Sherlock Holmes in 1903.

Assembled and edited by Julian Hawthorne and first published in 1907, the Old Time English volume of The Lock and Key Library features ten classic mysteries and ghost stories by Charles Dickens, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Thomas de Quincey, Charles Robert Maturin, Laurence Sterne, and William Makepeace Thackeray. This volume of The Lock and Key Library is sure to haunt and charm fans of ghost and detective mysteries alike.

A big-city tough guy comes to a small Minnesota town to settle a deadly fight between the local crime boss and his chief rival - his son.

In Agatha Christie’s short story, “The Lemesurier Inheritance,” Poirot and Hastings are asked to keep an eye on the heir of a Northumberland estate. The house, thought to be cursed since the middle ages, is the locale of several recent near-death accidents for a young boy and rumors of the curse increase. But is it possible the accidents are man-made? This short story originally appeared in the December 19, 1923 issue of The Sketch magazine.

Jane screeched at this further betrayal and went for Henry. They began to struggle. Henry was the stronger out of the two, yet the woman's pain was unstoppable. His hands wrapped around her throat and Jane clawed at his face until she fell. She lay there, across the tracks, and was quite still. Mrs. Cavell gasped in shock and Henry ran past us back to the train. We stared down at Jane's body.

An eccentric boarding house denizen winds up dead; his presumed killer, a fellow boarder, has vanished. The baffling case unfolds through the testimony of witnesses, who are themselves suspect.

"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."

In Agatha Christie’s short story, “The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor,” Poirot investigates the case of a middle-aged man who died under suspicious circumstances just weeks after insuring his life for 50,000 pounds. Could the man, who was in financial straits, have killed himself to benefit his beautiful young wife? This short story originally appeared in the April 18, 1923 issue of The Sketch magazine.