Mystery Reads

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.

An Adjutant-crane, a jackal and a giant crocodile are talking by the river, under a newly built railway bridge. The crocodile remembers the good old days, when he used to catch and devour the villagers as they tried to pass through a ford. He also remembers a boat sailing down the river, on which was a white child whom the crocodile tried to catch, but got shot with a revolver instead. Soon the reptile falls asleep, when two men with riffles cross the bridge.

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.

"I will not suffer thee, ungrateful girl, to rule my people according to thine own capricious will!" The king of Denmark is extremely frustrated with his daughter. Not only does she reject every suitor who asks for her hand - she does it so rudely that her reputation has become horrible in the neighboring countries. When the King orders her to marry one of her cousins, she does so only begrudgingly, and instantly starts planning her father's murder with her new husband.

"Phil, my dear boy, really -- what's the matter? Why don't you answer? Have you seen the eyes?" An older gentleman invites a group of friends over for dinner and to discuss the supernatural. Afterwards, when only two guests remain, he tells them a story about The Eyes, about a man who is repeatedly haunted at night by a pair of grotesque eyes floating over the foot of his bed. 'The Eyes' is a short, sharp read that slowly enters your psyche and leaves you with a paragraph that may haunt you forever, because it's not about ghosts at all...

Joyce-Armstrong is a pilot, whose allies dies while they are trying to break the current height record of 30,00 feet. The man is curious over the mysterious deaths and thinks that his friends have been caught in what he calls "air-jungles". Hay Connor and Myrtle are its two most recent casualties. Connor dies immediately after landing, while Myrtle is found beheaded. Joyce-Armstrong then decides to conduct his own investigation and takes his plane to a height of 40,000 feet.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are discussing the lack of interesting new cases when a man bursts into the room. The panicked young man is McFarlane and he believes that he will be arrested for the murder of 52-year-old Jonas Oldacre. Oldacre’s burnt remains are found behind McFarlane house, the day after the builder Oldacre came to the lawyer McFarlane to draw up his will and made him his sole beneficiary. McFarlane is arrested as the main suspect. Holmes believes that the young man is not guilty and does his best to prove it.

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and Other Tales" is a collection of 23 stories by the American author Ambrose Bierce. It consists of some of the author’s best known works such as "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", "Chickamauga", "A Horseman in the Sky" and many others. The American Civil War, execution of plantation owner, twist endings, stream of consciousness narration, soldiers who are morally challenged, horses running through the sky, murder and supernatural occurrences.

Have you been caught in a long and meaningless conversation of which you want to sneak out but somehow find it difficult to do so? Simon Wheeler was sitting quietly in a tavern in a small mining town when an unknown man approached him. The man was actually sent there with a mission: he had to ask Wheeler if he knew another man called Leonidas Smiley. And there the big misunderstanding occurred, because the stranger began rambling about another Smiley he knew. He kept telling funny stories about tricky situations Smiley had gotten himself into.

Henry Adams is a poor American who ends up penniless in London after a boating accident swept him out to sea. One day he stumbles upon two brothers who hand him a suspicious envelope. What Henry does not know is that it contains a million pound bank note and that he is the subject of a bet. One of the brothers thinks that the bank note is completely useless since it cannot be exchanged for cash. The other brother has the opposite opinion. They are giving Henry one month to prove them right or wrong.

Can you imagine traveling back to the past? What would you find there? Would you like it? Would you find that everything you do has some consequences in the future? Do you want to join the man in our story? Because he is about to "trap" himself in a backwards time warp. If you are not brave enough to come along, but you still want to find out what happened next, just grab "The Man Who Lived Backwards" by Charles F. Hall. B. J. Harrison started his Classic Tales Podcast back in 2007, wanting to breathe new life into classic stories.

"Tobin’s Palm" is a story about a young man named Tobin whose love Katie has disappeared. He did everything he could to find her, but she was nowhere to be seen. Heartbroken, Tobin falls into despair. His friend Jawn shows up and force Tobin to head out into to get some fresh air. But what they stumble upon there is not what Jawn or Tobin had expected. "The Ransom of Red Chief" is a short story with a twist ending about two criminals, named Bill and Sam.

Can you imagine that a big white elephant could disappeared into thin air? It may sound impossible or ridiculous but it actually happened. An elephant got sent to Great Britain as a gift to the Queen but it was lost on the way and nobody seems to have a clue how it came to happen. Can chief inspector Blunt solve the case? Find out in Mark Twain’s short story "The Stolen White Elephant". B. J. Harrison started his Classic Tales Podcast back in 2007, wanting to breathe new life into classic stories.

A man named Manton killed his wife and his two children and managed to get away with it. Ten years later he returns to the house where the crime was committed. He is recognized by the locals and he is provoked into a duel which is to be held in the haunted house where Manton killed his family. The locals were aiming to scare Manton away. However, the day after the duel Manton was found dead.