Detective Anthology

Aristide Valentin, head of the Paris Police, is on the trail of the ingenious criminal and master of disguise Flambeau. Valentin suspects that the Flambeau is going to London to attend a conference of clergymen to steal the precious religious articles on display there. While traveling to London, Valentin encounters a Catholic priest, and he overhears Father Brown tell a lady that he is carrying the "Blue Cross", a sterling silver cross covered in precious blue stones. Valentin warns Father Brown that it is dangerous to tell anyone that he is carrying an object of immense value.

“I had seen many strange things in my time living in 221B Baker Street with Mr. Sherlock Holmes, but an elderly man standing in the middle of our living room holding a blood-stained duck was most certainly one of the oddest of my experiences.”

This collection features some of the greatest fictional detectives ever, including: Sherlock Holmes, Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond, Father Brown, Morris Klaw, and Inspector Morse amongst others. Reader Edward Hardwicke, who played Watson to Jeremy Brett's Holmes in the early 1990s, makes an ideal reader for the genre.

Seven tales that have appeared in various anthologies, including the MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, from master pastiche author Arthur Hall. A client who is uncertain of his brother's demise; a priest with a curious accent; a headless body recovered from the Thames. Is Holmes correct in deducing that these things indicate a threat to the prime minister? Why is Mr. Michael Burlott constantly stalked by a man he does not know? The Whitechapel murders continue. Is the murderer known as Jack the Ripper still at large?

Jewel thefts, missing persons, even murder are all elements in the world of the great detective Sherlock Holmes. What connects the stories in this book is that the cases he and his biographer Dr. John H. Watson investigate are based on adventures beloved of childhood. In a novel twist to the usual Holmes pastiches, Mrs. Puhl has based her plots involving Mr. Sherlock Holmes on folk tales, nursery rhymes, and other snippets of children's literature.

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.

When Sherlock Holmes met his demise in "The Adventure of the Final Problem," published in 1893, the distress of the unsuspecting reading public was profound. For years fans showed no signs of letting Sherlock Holmes lie down and die. Eventually, Doyle saw fit to continue his Holmes' canon and wrote a series of 13 short stories, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, published in 1905.

This is a story from The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, Volume I collection. 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.

Mystery writer Anthony Eastwood is lured to the crime scene of a faked murder, where two individuals masquerading as police officers arrest him and charge him with murder. As the phony police officers escort Mr. Eastwood home, the true goal of the masquerade becomes apparent.

An American starlet with a mysterious diamond, a suicide that may be more than it appears, an impossibly cheap flat, a locked room murder, a million dollar robbery, an ancient pharaoh’s curse, a precious stolen jewel, a political abduction, a disappeared banker, a phone call form a dying man, and a missing will … Who could possibly solve such varied, gruesome, and dastardly crimes? None other than Agatha Christie’s beloved Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot!

Hercule Poirot is reluctant to answer a letter demanding his services by the reclusive and eccentric millionaire Benedict Farley. Farley wants him to diagnose his recurring dream of death, in which he shoots himself at precisely 3:28 p.m. Then, a week after dismissing Poirot, the dream becomes real. Each member of the Farley household that Poirot questions seems to be more puzzled than the one before. Was Benedict Farley's death a suicide? Or are darker forces at work?

Comprising 10 short stories, The Confessions of Arsène Lupin first appeared in 1913. Each story features the eponymous gentleman-burglar, who deploys his remarkable wit and skill to plot a path through aristocratic society, outwitting both police and criminals along the way. This collection contains tales of romance and mystery, with Lupin himself never above performing the occasional good deed, while pocketing his own rewards, in the course of his adventures.

Edgar Allan Poe, American poet and master of the horror tale, is also credited by many with inventing the American mystery story. "The Gold Bug" is one of his most famous stories. It was first published in the Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper in June 1843, after Poe had won a competition held by the paper and received a prize of $100.

Pretty Lily Margrave is not convinced that Hercule Poirot is needed in the matter of Sir Atwell's murder. At the request of her employer, Lady Atwell, she has already recounted what happened 10 days ago in the Tower Room, and the victim's nephew has been charged with the murder. Nevertheless, Lady Atwell brings Poirot up to the great house, Mon Repos, to see if he can find out anything.

Trick I - The first thing to vanish is a worthless doorstop. Then, in the twinkling of an eye, goes its rich and elderly owner. And, for the grand finale, both reappear - each as dead as the other. Trick II - From the House of Darkness issues more bafflement. In total darkness and from a distance of 12 feet, four bullets are pumped within an inch of each other into a spectator's back - a feat utterly impossible to perform yet brazenly and undeniably done.

In this thrilling selection of stories, a young porter is found dead in a coal tub; Colbeck devises a trap to catch a thief; and a burnt train carriage holds a gruesome secret in a small coastal village. As Colbeck and his trusty aide Sergeant Victor Leeming begin to piece together clues and motives for each crime, it becomes clear the pair must stay a step ahead of the culprits to solve the cases. With a new suspect at every turn, can the duo unearth the real villains?

Mr. Davenheim, a wealthy financier, leaves his home to mail a letter, then fails to return. The story fills the newspapers and intrigues Hercule Poirot, who challenges Inspector Japp with the claim that he can solve the case before the police, and without leaving his flat.

With contributions from Stephen Fry, Mark Gatiss, Douglas Wilmer, and many more, this book was put together by fan site Sherlockology to help save Undershaw, the former home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Nor has three years of absence taken away his power to startle the faithful Dr. Watson. But it is the Park Lane mystery---the murder of the Honorable Ronald Adair---that brings Holmes back to life and the search for the second most dangerous man in London. And when that case is satisfactorily concluded, Holmes is once again free to devote himself to examining 12 more of those interesting little problems that the complex life of London so plentifully presents.

A fictional priest and amateur detective named Father Brown had a face once described “as round and dull as a Norfolk dumpling”. This made him appear somewhat clumsy and naïve, but that didn’t take into account his keen understanding of human nature and exceptional intuition. Stories include: “The Blue Cross”, “The Secret Garden”, “The Queer Feet”, “The Flying Stars”, “The Invisible Man”, and more.