Detective Stories Anthology

Is the ‘perfect murder’ possible? Can that crime be committed with such consummate care, with such exacting skill, that it is unsolvable—even to the most astute investigator? In this unique collection, legendary crime writers Margery Allingham, Anthony Berkeley, Freeman Wills Crofts, Ronald Knox, Dorothy L. Sayers and Russell Thorndike each attempt to create the unsolvable murder, which Superintendent Cornish of the CID then attempts to unravel.

Lights! Camera! Action! The latest book in the Big Book Series takes us behind the curtain to uncover the stories that became some of the greatest films of the silver screen. Among these are Robert Louis Stevenson's horrifying tale that was later turned into the iconic movie The Body Snatcher, starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff; and "Cyclists' Raid", the short story that formed the basis for the legendary Brando film The Wild One.

221b Baker Street is known all over the world, for it’s the address most associated with the legendary Sherlock Holmes! But there was a time before Sherlock Holmes moved to Baker Street, before his fame had grown, when he was still learning his craft and struggling to create his unique profession - the first of its kind - consulting detective! Join some of the finest Sherlockian writers as they explore those early days before Baker Street.

This anthology of rare stories of crime and suspense brings together a selection of rare tales by masters of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction for the first time in book form, including a newly discovered Agatha Christie crime story that has not been seen since 1922. At a time when crime and thriller writing has once again overtaken the sales of general and literary fiction, Bodies from the Library unearths lost stories from the Golden Age, that period between the World Wars when detective fiction captured the public’s imagination.

From its launch in 1920 until its demise in 1951, the magazine Black Mask published pulp crime fiction. The first hard-boiled detective stories appeared on its pages. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner and John D. MacDonald got their start in Black Mask. The urban crime stories that appeared in Black Mask helped to shape American culture. Modern computer games, films, and television are rooted in the fiction popularized by “the seminal and venerated mystery pulp magazine” ( Booklist).

Eleven stories including “The Speckled Band”, “The Man with the Twisted Lip” and “The Blue Carbuncle.”

For all we know, or think we know, about Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, what we don’t know is far, far greater. In the duo’s first case, A Study in Scarlet, we learn that Holmes and Watson met on January 1st, 1881, and subsequently moved into an apartment together at 221b Baker Street. Their first case officially began on March 4th of that year, and it is argued that “The Adventure of the Resident Patient” possibly took place in October of 1881, depending on which version of the story you read. But what happened during the rest of 1881? Or all of 1882?

For all we know, or think we know, about Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, what we don’t know is far, far greater. In the duo’s first case, A Study in Scarlet, we learn that Holmes and Watson met on January 1st, 1881, and subsequently moved into an apartment together at 221b Baker Street. Their first case officially began on March 4th of that year, and it is argued that “The Adventure of the Resident Patient” possibly took place in October of 1881, depending on which version of the story you read. But what happened during the rest of 1881? Or all of 1882?

There is a persistent and incorrect idea, reinforced by countless film misrepresentations, that Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were always staid and dull British chaps of middle years (or older), with Holmes a spry, cranky, and impatient eccentric, and Watson a white-haired and portly Boobus Brittanicus, a la Nigel Bruce. Students of the true and Canonical Sherlock Holmes know this to be a falsehood. When we first meet them on January 1, 1881, Holmes is still 26 years old (although he will turn 27 in just a few days), and Watson, already a wounded war veteran, is only 28.

This volume, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson: The Early Adventures, is an amazing collection of some of Holmes and Watson’s fascinating cases that occurred during those first three years in Baker Street, when Holmes was creating his unique profession of consulting detective and Watson was still recovering from the war wounds that he’d received in Afghanistan and slowly returning to the business of being a civilian doctor. Included are 31 new stories in three companion volumes by some of today’s best Sherlockian pasticheurs.

A spine-tingling selection of detective stories including contributions from Edgar Wallace, Conan Doyle, and G. K. Chesterton.

A personal advertisement written in code attracts the attention of Tuppence Beresford. When Tuppence suspects that the code involves the Three Arts Ball, she persuades Tommy to attend dressed in costume. Tuppence's suspicions prove to be correct when a murder takes place, but as all of the guests are dressed in masquerade, identifying the killer may be more difficult than first thought....

While staying with the Kingston Bruce family, Mrs. Hamilton Betts discovers that her valuable pink pearl is missing. Presuming it to have been stolen by another houseguest, the concerned host contacts the Beresfords for help.

More than 50 years ago, Peter Lovesey published a short story in an anthology. That short story caught the eye of the great Ruth Rendell, whose praise ignited Lovesey’s lifelong passion for short form crime fiction. On the occasion of his hundredth short story, Peter Lovesey has assembled this devilishly clever collection, 18 yarns of mystery, melancholy, and mischief, inhabiting such deadly settings as a theater, a monastery, and the book-publishing industry.

If you love Arthur Conan Doyle’s original, do not miss this collection of artfully-constructed new tales.

Por un instante, los dos trenes circularon paralelos. En ese preciso momento, Elspeth McGillicuddy presenció un asesinato. Desde su vagón vio con impotencia como en el otro tren un hombre agarraba sin piedad el cuello de una mujer hasta estrangularla. Después el tren se alejó. No había sospechosos ni testimonios. Tampoco había cadáver. ¿Quién, salvo Jane Marple, se tomaría en serio esta historia?

This bundle includes Basil of Baker Street, Basil and the Cave of Cats, Basil in Mexico, and Basil in the Wild West.

When the body of a young man is pulled from a submerged car in Roque Harbor, rookie Game Warden Mike Bowditch is shocked when the man’s driver’s license identifies him as none other than...Mike Bowditch. For weeks, Mike and his colleagues have been fielding reports of a man terrorizing the locals while posing as a game warden, wielding a plastic pin-on badge and claiming to be “Warden Bowditch”. Who is the imposter, and how did he end up dead in the bottom of a harbor? Mike must uncover the truth in order to clear his own name.

When wealthy spinster Emily French is found murdered, suspicion falls on Leonard Vole, the man to whom she hastily bequeathed her riches before she died. Leonard assures the investigators that his wife, Romaine Heilger, can provide them with an alibi. However, when questioned, Romaine informs the police that Vole returned home late that night covered in blood. During the trial, Ms. French's housekeeper, Janet, gives damning evidence against Vole.

Recently, a stash of unpublished stories, written by Dr. John Watson, assistant to the legendary consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes, were discovered - hidden within the secret corners and shadows of the famous flat at 221b Baker Street. Collected together for the first time by author GC Rosenquist the ten newly unearthed stories detail the very earliest years of the Holmes/Watson partnership and shed a very different, personal and surprising light on their familiar relationship.