Mystery Reads

What will happen if you hear the bell of St. Sépulcre? According to the local small town folks, dangers and even death may follow. When a stranger enters the town, he is warned by the locals not to follow a certain path because it could be dangerous. It is believed that a strange and scary woman wanders the woods and terrorises whomever crosses her path. Will the traveler dare to enter the woods? What awaits him there? Find the answers in "The Bell of St. Sépulcre". B. J.

One night during his regular rambles, Mérimée stumbles upon a mysterious woman who invites him home to her place. They enter a big, dark but luxuriously furnished room and they spend the whole night having dinner and talking. However things take a turn to the strange when the eery lady starts talking about death and tombs. Mérimée realises that his companion is not an ordinary woman and that he is in danger. Will he get himself out of there alive or will Xélucha drag him with her to the underworld? B. J.

A young traveler is up on a mountain when night falls and he finds shelter with a family that lives nearby. They make friendly conversation and the visitor shares his dreams and goals to achieve great things in life. Their conversation is however interrupted by the sound of rocks falling from the slope. Are they in danger? Find out in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s "The Ambitious Guest". B. J. Harrison started his Classic Tales Podcast back in 2007, wanting to breathe new life into classic stories.

Can people come back from the dead? Can they bring something or someone back from there? If so, can they reach out to people who are still alive? "The Return" and "The Second Generation" are two stories about supernatural occurrences, about people returning from a world, which most of us do not know. Algernon Blackwood sets the readers in a scary and dreadful atmosphere which only the bravest can endure.

Father Brown, an amateur detective, takes up his first case ever. He has to find the infamous criminal Flambeau. The task is however very difficult because Flambeau is a master of disguise and nobody knows what he really looks like. The detective finds out that Flambeau is planning to head out to an international conference in London, most probably intending to steal some religious articles. So Father Brown decides to cross Flambeau’s path. What the detective had not expected is a police inspector from Paris to be crossing his path.

Helen Stoner goes to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. She is afraid that her stepfather, Dr. Grimesby Roylott, may be trying to kill her. Helen’s sister died mysteriously two years earlier, right before her own wedding. Her last words, which Helen never managed to decipher were "The speckled band". Dr. Roylott’s best friends are a band of gypsies. He also owns two dangerous animals, a cheetah and a baboon, as pets. He simply scares people, and everyone avoids him.

It is the day after Christmas. Colonel Adams and his daughter are throwing a party. The neighbor, the girl’s uncle, her godfather and the local priest Father Brown are invited. The uncle comes up with a plan: they are going to arrange a masquerade play with costumes. It seems like a very good idea, until the three diamonds the girl’s godfather had brought her as a gift disappeared from his pocket. Luckily Father Brown is there and he will try to solve this case as quickly as possible.

The Twelve True Fishermen are going on their annual dinner at an exclusive club where fifteen waiters are going to serve the guests. The fishermen are refined and insist on using their own ornate silver knives and forks, which are shaped like fish and have a pearl in the handles. The dinner goes as planned until the silver cutlery disappears. Have some of the waiters stolen it? Father Brown will find out. B. J. Harrison started his Classic Tales Podcast back in 2007, wanting to breathe new life into classic stories.

Dmitri Gurov is a nearly forty-year-old man, who is married and has three children. He is unhappy with his marriage and regrets this big mistake every single day. While on a vacation, Dmitri meets Anna Sergeyevna - a young lady, who just like him is unhappily married. Very soon a love affair enfolds between the two and they start secretly meeting at different places. Unfortunately, Anna must go back to Moscow because her husband is having some health issues.

Baron Grogzwig lives a life full of pleasure, drinking and hunting with his friends. But when he decides ´ to marry one of his fellow baron’s daughter, his days change drastically. First he has to send his friends away as per his wife’s demands. Then his responsibilities start growing bigger with time as his wife gifts him with twelve children. When the thirteenth child is on the way, baron Grogzwig’s despair and lack of money become unbearable. He decides to end his life.

While hosting a party, a banker makes a bet with one of his guests, who is a lawyer. The topic of the bet is capital punishment and whether it is worse or better than a life sentence. The banker sees the capital punishment as more humane than life imprisonment, whilst the young lawyer completely disagrees. The bet is as follows: if the lawyer spends fifteen years in complete isolation, the banker will give him two million rubles. As the years pass, the banker realizes that he will go bankrupt if he loses the bet.

The infamous Baron Munchausen is capable of everything and anything. Escaping from a hungry lion’s jaws, shooting a male red deer with cherry stones or climbing a beanstalk all the way to the moon are but a small part of his adventures. Every new one is more surprising and exciting than the previous one. If you want to learn more about Baron Munchausen, do not hesitate to embark on this journey. B. J. Harrison started his Classic Tales Podcast back in 2007, wanting to breathe new life into classic stories.

An Englishman stops at an inn during his trip through Transylvania. He decides to wander around in a carriage despite the approaching night; darkness doesn't seem to worry him. He sets off but after a while the horses get scared by howling wolfs. The Englishman continues by foot and suddenly finds himself in a snowy and gloomy cemetery. This would not be that big of a problem if this specific night was not the so called Walpurgis Night, or in other words the time when spirits leave their graves to haunt the living.

Lionel Dacre is a young man who lives in a small house in Paris. Because of his large interest in the occult, Dacre has gathered a huge library of occult literature and many mysterious items. One of these items is a leather funnel next to which the young man sleeps. The strange thing is that in his dreams, Lionel can see exactly how the funnel has been used.

Fleete is an Englishman who is traveling to India. Unfortunately, the poor man has no prior understanding or respect for Indian culture and ends up desecrating a holy statue in the local temple. Fleete can give no reasonable explanation for his actions and is declared bewitched by the "Silver Man". Why is Fleete in India? Who is the "Silver Man"? What will happen to Fleete? Find all the answers in Rudyard Kipling’s adventure story "The Mark of the Beast" from 1890. B. J.

Aristide Valentin holds a dinner party in his secret garden, which only has one main entrance. Many people are invited. Julius K. Brayne, one of Valentin’s rivals, is of the party as well. Everything goes as planned until one group of guests finds a beheaded corpse and the dinner turns into an investigation. Many questions begin to arise: How could someone be killed in a closed back garden without anyone noticing? Who is the victim? Who is the murderer? Where is the head? Find out the answers in "The Secret Garden". B. J.

One day a poor fisherman finds a large and heavy chest. Caliph Harun al-Rashid buys the chest, thinking that it encloses a treasure. Instead, he finds out that it contains a woman’s corpse sliced into pieces. Following this discovery, the caliph orders his vizier Ja’far, to find the murderer within three years, otherwise he will be executed. Unfortunately, due to the lack of evidence, the vizier is not able to make a proper investigation and the fatal day looms closer.

From the books that inspired the new Netflix series "Lupin" with Omar Sy. At Chateau de Maupertuis, death shadows Lady Jeanne Darcieux, as she escapes more than one attempted murder. But hero and gentleman burglar, Arsene Lupin is lying in wait and he can't help saving a stranger, especially if she's young and rich. The sixth story in Maurice Leblanc’s collection "The Confessions of Arsène Lupin" about gentleman thief and criminal mastermind, Arsene Lupin.

Business has been slow for Hounslow’s small time dope-dealer, Jay Qasim. A student house party means quick easy cash, but it also means breaking his own rules. But desperate times lead him there—and Jay finds himself in the middle of a crime scene. Idris Zaidi, a police constable and Jay’s best friend, is having a quiet night when he gets a call out following a noise complaint at a house party. Fed up with the lack of excitement in his job, he visits the scene and quickly realises that people are in danger after a stabbing.

This loner teen is haunted by a secret. One that forces her to continuously be on the move. As Penny settles into a new town, she realizes something much darker is afoot. The Raven, her nemesis, has tracked her down once again. She finds herself in a race against time to vanquish the darkness and save those around her.