Category Archives: Travel Guides
Murder in the Museum
When Professor Julius Arnell breathes his last in the hushed atmosphere of the British Museum Reading Room, it looks like death from natural causes. Who, after all, would have cause to murder a retired academic whose life was devoted to Elizabethan literature? Inspector Shelley`s suspicions are aroused when he finds a packet of poisoned sugared
The Writer Abroad: Literary Travels from Austria to Uzbekistan
From the grand tour to the global village, novelists and poets have made particularly observant travellers. Many writers have been prone to wanderlust, eager to explore the world and draw inspiration from their travels. They recorded their notes in letters, journals, essays and books.In some cases, these became celebrated examples of travel writing, but there
Death of Anton
`There`s more crime going on in Carey`s Circus than in the whole underworld of London. Theft, immorality, blackmail – you`ll find all the pretties here.`Seven Bengal tigers are the star attraction of Carey`s Circus. Their trainer is the fearless Anton, whose work demands absolute fitness and the steadiest of nerves. When Anton is found lying
Quick Curtain
Quick Curtain is a witty detective story, originally published in 1934. It is one among many books that enjoyed brief popularity during the “Golden Age of murder” between the two world wars but subsequently fell out of sight. The author, Alan Melville, was a successful playwright and man of the theatre, and he uses his
Continental Crimes
A man is forbidden to uncover the secret of the tower in a fairy-tale castle by the Rhine. A headless corpse is found in a secret garden in Paris – belonging to the city`s chief of police. And a drowned man is fished from the sea off the Italian Riviera, leaving the carabinieri to wonder
The Last Best Friend
“The small man standing on the narrow ledge stared fixedly forward with eyes made wide and blank by terror.” At 2pm on a Monday in 1966, Ned Balfour wakes in Corsica beside a beautiful woman. In the same instant, back in London, fellow art dealer and Dachau survivor Sam Weiss falls ten stories to his
Portrait of a Murderer: A Christmas Crime Story
Adrian Gray was born in May 1862 and met his death through violence, at the hands of one of his own children, at Christmas, 1931. Thus begins a classic crime novel published in 1933, a riveting portrait of the psychology of a murderer. Each December, Adrian Gray invites his extended family to stay at his
The Z Murders
`Jefferson Farjeon is quite unsurpassed for creepy skill in mysterious adventures.`Dorothy L. SayersRichard Temperley arrives at Euston station early on a fogbound London morning. He takes refuge in a nearby hotel, along with a disagreeable fellow passenger, who had snored his way through the train journey. But within minutes the other man has snored for
Seven Dead
Ted Lyte, amateur thief, has chosen an isolated house by the coast for his first robbery. But Haven House is no ordinary country home. While hunting for silverware to steal, Ted stumbles upon a locked room containing seven dead bodies. Detective Inspector Kendall takes on the case with the help of passing yachtsman Thomas Hazeldean.
Murder of a Lady
Duchlan Castle is a gloomy, forbidding place in the Scottish Highlands. Late one night the body of Mary Gregor, sister of the laird of Duchlan, is found in the castle. She has been stabbed to death in her bedroom – but the room is locked from within and the windows are barred. The only tiny
The Cocktail Book
The Cocktail Book, first published in 1900, is the earliest book devoted purely to the art of the cocktail. For thirty years including the prohibition, it was a staple of well-stocked bars, although originals are now extremely rare. This collection, in a beautiful new edition, allows a modern audience to rediscover the joy of classic
Death on the Riviera
When a counterfeit currency racket comes to light on the French Riviera, Detective Inspector Meredith is sent speeding southwards – out of the London murk to the warmth and glitter of the Mediterranean. Along with Inspector Blampignon – an amiable policeman from Nice – Meredith must trace the whereabouts of Chalky Cobbett, crook and forger.Soon
Death in the Tunnel
On a dark November evening, Sir Wilfred Saxonby is travelling alone in the 5 o`clock train from Cannon Street, in a locked compartment. The train slows and stops inside a tunnel; and by the time it emerges again minutes later, Sir Wilfred has been shot dead, his heart pierced by a single bullet.Suicide seems to
A Kind of Anger
A car hurtles down the driveway of a luxury villa in Switzerland. The driver is a young woman, Lucia Bernardi. Inside the house, police find the body of her lover on the bedroom floor. The dead man – Ahmed Fathir Arbil – was an Iraqi refugee, who has been tortured and killed. Lucia vanishes into
Sergeant Cluff Stands Firm
`He could feel it in the blackness, a difference in atmosphere, a sense of evil, of things hidden.`Amy Snowden, in middle age, has long since settled into a lonely life in the Yorkshire town of Gunnarshaw, until – to her neighbours` surprise – she suddenly marries a much younger man. Months later, Amy is found
Family Matters
`The characters are quite extraordinarily living…A most original and grimly farcical situation` – Dorothy L. SayersRobert Arthur Kewdingham is an eccentric failure of a man. In middle age he retreats into a private world, hunting for Roman artefacts and devoting himself to bizarre mystical beliefs. Robert`s wife, Bertha, feels that there are few things more
The Methods of Sergeant Cluff
After battling for justice, at great personal risk, in his first recorded case, Sergeant Caleb Cluff made a swift return to duty in this book. The story opens one wet and windy night, with the discovery of a young woman`s corpse, lying face down on the cobblestones of a passageway in the Yorkshire town of
The 12.30 from Croydon
`Crofts constructs his alibi with immense elaboration…The story is highly successful, and Mr Crofts is to be congratulated upon his experiment` – Dorothy L. SayersWe begin with a body. Andrew Crowther, a wealthy retired manufacturer, is found dead in his seat on the 12.30 flight from Croydon to Paris. Rather less orthodox is the ensuing
Mystery in the Channel
Mystery in the Channel is a classic crime novel with a strikingly modern sub-text. The story begins with a shocking discovery. The captain of the Newhaven to Dieppe steamer spots a small pleasure yacht lying motionless in the water, and on closer inspection, sees a body lying on the deck. When members of his crew
The Dead Shall be Raised and Murder of a Quack
Two classic cases featuring Detective-Inspector Littlejohn.In the winter of 1940, the Home Guard unearths a skeleton on the moor above the busy town of Hatterworth. Twenty-three years earlier, the body of a young textile worker was found in the same spot, and the prime suspect was never found – but the second body is now
