Amateur Detectives Mystery

Tired of being homeless and down on his luck, the incorrigible Ben has taken a job as a stoker on a cruise ship. But his luck doesn't last long when they are all shipwrecked in the Pacific. Seen through Ben's eyes, the uncharted island is a hive of cannibals, mumbo jumbo, and gals who are more nearly naked than any he has ever seen. And every time he tries to bluff his way out of a situation, he just bluffs himself further in, somehow convincing the natives that he has godlike powers....

Amateur sleuth Mordecai Tremaine is back in another classic mystery from the author of Murder for Christmas. Mordecai Tremaine and Chief Inspector Jonathan Boyce are never pleased to have a promising game of chess interrupted - though when murder is the disrupting force, they are persuaded to make an exception. A quick stop at Scotland Yard to collect any detective's most trusted piece of equipment - the murder bag - the pair are spirited away to Bridgton.

In the merry month of May, Ellery Queen made a trek to Gettysburg to witness an annual celebration - and an annual murder. February found the ingenious Ellery locked in a furious battle of wits with a dead US president. These are but two of the 12 appointments with crime that make up Queen's baffling calendar of conundrums. Each elegant enigma ticks off all the surprise and excitement that have made Queen the dean of American detective fiction.

Questo volume raccoglie i dodici racconti preferiti da Agatha Christie all'interno della sua vasta produzione. Dodici miniature di altrettanti drammi umani ai quali assistono due insoliti spettatori: l'anziano signor Satterthwaite, pigro ma osservatore attento e curioso della vita che gli si svolge attorno, e il suo misterioso amico Harley Quin.

"Le fatiche di Hercule" - Un bel giorno Hercule Poirot scopre che un eroe della mitologia classica ha avuto non solo l'impertinenza di portare il suo stesso nome, ma anche l'ardire di compiere imprese che un professore universitario sembra giudicare superiori a quelle compiute da lui. Ma chi è questo mitico Ercole, se non un omone tutto muscoli, privo di eleganza e buone maniere? E come è possibile paragonare le imprese di Poirot, frutto dell'impeccabile funzionamento delle sue "cellule grigie", alle fatiche di Ercole?

Crescent Place was once a peaceful country green surrounded by five tasteful suburban houses and populated by polite, responsible citizens. But as the city enveloped it, the residents built a gate to keep the world out. With each passing year, the subdivision grew stranger and stranger - until it began to look like a time capsule of the 1890s.

In an elaborate house known as the Cloisters, Maud Wainwright rules supreme. The queen of society in the small town of Beverly, she has a table long enough to seat 100, and she keeps an iron grip on the guest list. Her right-hand woman is Pat Abbott, a local girl who is beautiful, innocent, and kind. Pat has no idea how cutthroat high society can be, but she's about to get a deadly first lesson.

Elizabeth Bell runs a quiet household, with no family and no more than the usual number of servants. She passes her time thinking about crime and working on her biography of a relative. When a young cousin comes to stay, life in the house becomes uncharacteristically lively. First, cousin Judy burns a hole in Miss Bell's desk. Next, they spy a burglar on the staircase - a shadowy figure who vanishes without a trace. And finally, Sarah, the nurse, takes the dogs for a walk and never returns.

When newlyweds Agnes and Andrew Kinghof are present for the discovery of an over-ripe corpse in the air-raid shelter of their apartment building, the two set out to put their amateur detective skills to work. The dead man's sister is nearly frightened to death by the appearance of a grinning pig's head outside her window, and she claims to be threatened by someone calling himself 'The Pig'. The newlyweds deduce that it must be someone who lives in the same apartment building.

On a break from the Windy City, aspiring crime novelist Jake Justus and his wife, Helene, are acquainting themselves with Manhattan’s finest cocktail lounges when they befriend Dennis Morrison, a blind-drunk groom. The handsome former male escort thought he’d found his bounty in homely heiress Bertha Lutts, but while their wedding night may have been a bust, the morning after turned out to be the real horror. It seems Bertha has vanished from their bridal suite and in her place is an unidentified beheaded woman.

England in den 40er Jahren. Beim Oxforder Opernensemble steht die erste Aufführung von Wagners Meistersingern nach dem 2. Weltkrieg auf dem Plan. Eine der Hauptrollen übernimmt der überaus begabte, aber ebenso unbeliebte Sänger Edwin Shorthouse. Jedenfalls, bis man ihn nach einer Probe erhängt in seiner Garderobe findet. Selbstmord? Wohl kaum. Schon bald danach kommt es zu einem zweiten Mord. Der Tote war ein junger Chorsänger und aufstrebender Opernkomponist. Oxford Professor und Amateurdetektiv Gervase Fen ist ratlos und steht vor einem Rätsel.

Miss Marple auf Mörderjagd. Anonyme Briefe sorgen für böses Blut in dem Provinzstädtchen Lymstock. Hinzu kommen zwei mysteriöse Todesfälle und die Polizei tappt im Dunkeln. Nur Miss Marple, die zufällig gerade in Lymstock zu Besuch ist, gelingt es mit ihren unkonventionellen Methoden schließlich, hinter die Fassade der Wohlanständigkeit zu blicken und den Täter zu entlarven.

A collection of 6 short stories from the golden age of detective fiction, introducing H. C. Bailey's amateur sleuth Mr. Reginald Fortune, surgeon and general practitioner: a man interested in everything, but not in anything in particular, whose vast store of eclectic knowledge makes him just the man to help Scotland Yard unravel the most complex of murders, no matter how privileged or powerful the perpetrator may be...

All homicide detective Dylan Collins wants is a few hours of pleasure to take his mind off of the case haunting him. A serial killer is stalking the streets of Charleston, SC—a killer who calls himself The Grim Reaper. When the woman he'd just spent the night with turns up and offers her services as a psychic consultant on the case, his ardor quickly cools. Last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a con artist.

Genealogist Lucy Lancaster is just about to tuck into a plate of tacos at her favorite Austin joint, Big Flaco’s, when she gets an unexpected visit from her former - and least favorite - coworker. Camilla Braithwaite hasn’t gotten much friendlier since the last time Lucy saw her, but that doesn't stop her from asking a favor. In her hand is a newspaper feature on an ancestor, a Civil War corporal - and a liar, according to the article. Charles Braithwaite is depicted as a phony and a deserter, and Camilla wants Lucy’s help clearing his name.

What happened while they were sleeping? A school for the deaf takes an overnight trip to the snowy woods. Five teenagers go to sleep, but only four wake up. Leon is missing, and a teacher’s body is found in the forest. Sign-Language Interpreter Paige Northwood is brought in to help with interrogations. Everyone at the school has a motive for murder - but they all have an alibi. As Paige becomes increasingly involved, she suspects there’s something sinister going on.

"La scarica di adrenalina adesso era una locomotiva in corsa nelle sue vene. Nel profondo di sé, Renée Ballard sapeva che era per via di momenti come questo che non avrebbe mai mollato, qualsiasi cosa dicessero di lei, in qualsiasi turno la obbligassero a lavorare." La polizia di Los Angeles non è stata gentile con Renée Ballard: ex reporter di nera, è entrata in polizia stufa di scrivere di crimini, e impaziente di risolverne qualcuno, e in poco tempo è diventata detective alla Omicidi. Ma poi qualcosa è andato storto.

Ihr Name ist Tuesday - und sie nimmt unerbittliche Rache an Vergewaltigern und Gangstern. Wie eine Naturgewalt schlägt sie aus dem Verborgenen zu, nur um sofort wieder zu verschwinden. Für die Menschen in London wird Tuesday bald zur Heldin, doch die Polizei fahndet nach ihr. Detective Inspector Loss wird mit dem Fall betraut - ein ausgebrannter Kommissar, der noch immer unter dem unaufgeklärten Mord an seiner Tochter vor drei Jahren leidet.

On Christmas Eve, 85-year-old Miriam Caravasios steps onto the ice that surrounds her seaside estate on Maine's Mount Desert Island. As a younger woman, she used to steal out on winter nights to meet her lover, walking across the frozen reach to their secret meeting place. She knows the way—but not the year. Miriam, her mind clouded by dementia, doesn’t hear the snap of thin ice until it’s too late.

A group of vigilantes are carrying out a campaign of harassment against the homeless, hounding them both verbally and physically to get them off the streets. Jimmy Mullen is approached by his friend Gadge, who wants to confront the people behind it, but Jimmy has finally got his life back on track. He's working at a hostel for 18- to 25-year-olds, and he's reluctant to get involved in anything dodgy.