Dr. Thorndyke

Seven stories of mystery and adventure from R Austin Freeman; including an audacious theft from London's National Gallery; the sudden self-confidence of a normally timid curate; a very remarkable funeral; a ghostly lawyer's repentance; a lucky find for a rural bricklayer; and two investigations for the celebrated forensic detective Dr. John Thorndyke...

Mr Marcus Pottermack, an ingenious and meticulous gentleman, of quiet habits, is in a desperate situation: wrongfully convicted of fraud, he escaped from prison and established a new life, only to find himself in the clutches of a ruthless blackmailer. With no recourse to the law, Pottermack can see no way out—until a happy discovery within the walled garden of his home offers the means to rid himself of his tormentor forever.

On a sultry afternoon in July, a man stumbles through thick foliage, making for the coast. He wears prisoner's garb and guards are hot on his heels. Happening upon a bather's clothes, the escapee leaves the scene looking the part of the average beachcomber. But it can be hard to stay hidden forever. When a blackmailer intrudes upon the promising life of the man who now calls himself Mr. Pottermack, a violent fate befalls him, and the stakes are set: Pottermack must avoid discovery at all costs to escape the hangman's noose.

Eccentric collector Daniel Penrose fails to return home after being involved in a fatal car accident. In his absence, his house is burgled, apparently by someone possessing a key to the room in which he secretly stores a collection of valuable gemstones and coins; and then, as Penrose's wealthy father nears death, questions of inheritance arise. Dr John Thorndyke is asked to establish what has become of the missing man.

Overworked locum Dr. Jervis is called to the bedside of a gentleman who refuses to see a doctor except on the condition that the doctor must be told neither his name nor his address. After a strange ride in a closed carriage, Jervis finds his patient apparently suffering the effects of morphine poisoning, and departs with a sense of uneasiness. Anxious to trace the man again, Jervis consults his old friend and colleague, the eminent scientific investigator Dr. John Thorndyke.

In this two-part mystery, first a determined and uncompromising young Englishman traveling under the name 'John Walker' arrives in West Africa, on the run from events back home. Soon, he finds himself embroiled in adventure and romance by land and by sea. Meanwhile, in part two, the equally implacable forensic detective Dr. John Thorndyke investigates the theft that provoked 'Walker' to flee England in the first place and soon discovers unexpected mysteries.

Enjoying his last day of holiday before entering upon the duties of his first professional appointment, newly qualified Dr. Stephen Gray discovers the body of Julius D'Arblay, beneath the surface of a shallow woodland pond. He befriends the dead man's daughter, and to help her seeks the aid of his old teacher the great forensic investigator Dr. John Thorndyke—who soon discovers that Mr. D'Arblay was the victim of a very calculated murder. And the murderer is now threatening both Miss D'Arblay and young Dr. Grey himself.

When irascible clergyman Amos Monkhouse, visiting from the North, finds the condition of his invalid brother Harold so much worse than he had expected, he calls in a specialist. But when Harold then suddenly dies an investigation reveals that he was poisoned with arsenic. The police can make nothing of the conflicting evidence beyond the certainty that only someone in the dead man's immediate domestic circle could be responsible. A childhood friend of Harold's wife, young barrister Rupert Mayfield, convinced that there must be another explanation, enlists the help of Dr John Thorndyke to lift the shadow that hangs over his friends.

The great medical jurist Dr John Thorndyke must unravel three intricate cases, as a wealthy American attempts to prove a preposterous claim to an English earldom, based only upon a startlingly tall old family tale; a hundredweight of platinum, worth a fortune, is stolen; and, most bizarrely of all, a severed human head is discovered in a box in the left luggage office of London's Fenchurch Street Station...