Crime novelist Edward Hope has recently purchased Fen Court, a beautiful country residence on the Essex marshes. However when he and his friend Nancy Johnson go to visit the new property, they find themselves caught up in a real-life murder mystery when three bodies are discovered in the ornamental fish-ponds.Finding himself high on the list of suspects, Hope must work in collaboration with Inspector Brews of the local police to unmask the true culprit behind this terrible deed...

"This was murder, my dear. Someone seems to have beaned Marden with your blasted crystal!"Jean Maze is looking forward immensely to the Ingle Parva village bazaar, at which she is to play the part of fortune teller, complete with a real crystal ball. On the day in question, however, she receives a macabre surprise when a business rival of her brother-in-law is discovered beaten to death in her fortune teller's tent. While the police diligently pursue all available leads, Jean does ...

Dansford, the wealthy financier, has arranged a meeting with seven fellow businessmen, to be held at his country residence, 'Colham Gorse'. Each of the seven men represent a failing concern, which Dansford is convinced he will be able to make good - if only his guests are willing to accede to his terms. Also present is the house's previous owner, Chauncey Colham, and his niece Letty, whom Dansford now employs as his host and hostess. Tensions run high, but when Dansford is found dead at th...

When Colonel Coppe, an elderly bachelor, inherits a fortune from his father, he is keen to do right by his large extended family. As well as setting up his various nieces and nephews in appropriate professions, he takes care to make the necessary provisions in his will. Everyone is content - until, that is, the Colonel becomes engaged to a local widow, Mrs. Brown. On the evening the Colonel announces his engagement, and the terms of his new will, one of the family resorts to murder in orde...

When a guest at Stowe House is found dead, killed by a lethal dart, suspicion naturally falls on the resident collector of poisoned weapons from tribes in South America. With the entire house party as potential suspects, what part did the woman explorer play in this sinister tragedy? The local police are baffled, and call on the help of an amateur, whose recent assignment working with bushmen in Africa brings new insight into an increasingly unconventional investigation.

When a policeman patrolling a country market in the sleepy village of Sulcote spots a car parked illegally on the Green, he knows he must wake the sleeping occupant and move him along. But the policeman is in for a shock. The Sulcote constabulary are about to encounter their first murder investigation for over a century - and the victim is a Chief Inspector from Scotland Yard...  Originally published in 1933 in Collins's celebrated 'Crime Club' imprint, this is an intrigu...

In the midst of Corton Magna horse show, a man is struck down and killed by the hoofs of a horse. Why should a normally quiet animal suddenly have become a killer? Then a groom discovers a tiny wound in the horse’s hide, and when Inspector Chace is called in to investigate, he has a difficult question to answer—was the man’s death accidental or murder? Originally published in 1935 in Collins’s celebrated “Crime Club” imprint, this is a classic British mystery from the ‘golden...

Old Dr. Purton has always been a mystery to the gossipers of Lower Plaine. His grandiose living arrangements at Rampole Manor hint at a hidden source of income, outside the remit of a simple country doctor. When Purton is found murdered, his head battered in, the local police, aided by Purton’s solicitor Mr. Gayte, get busy. What is the significance of the pages torn from Purton’s case-books? And how justified was the gossip about Purton’s unexplained wealth?Originally published in...

AMONG all his guests at Stowe House, Mr. Barley was most proud of his latest capture. Elaine Gordon was a noted woman explorer of remote South America, a collector, among other things, of the poisoned weapons used by the savages of the Amazon. Then Tragedy stepped in. A guest was found dead in her room; her husband proved to be a close friend of Elaine; Elaine no friend to the dead wife. Suspicion falls upon the innocent. Then the mystery man from Africa stepped in on the heels of the Trag...

All is not well in the town of Cwyll, North Wales. The Horn Hotel is doing a brisk trade, with anglers coming from far and wide to enjoy the local fishing. But amongst them is Solomon Hayes, an unpleasant womaniser who has already come to blows with one of the guests over his selfish and rude behaviour. So no-one is entirely surprised when Hayes's body is discovered floating face down in one of the fishing pools - his throat pierced by a gaff. But who committed the crime? And what has happ...

Marsh House, Upperton, England—Hay Smith, editor of The Daily Record, is been dead in the private study of Sir James Sitheby. In his hands are the torn fragments of confidential Foreign Office documents. How Smith came to possess these documents is a mystery, but not as much of a mystery as which of Sir James’s house-guests murdered the editor. So when Inspector Brews arrives at the scene soon after the tragedy, having been summoned to Marsh House by a mysterious telephone call from Hay Sm...

When the body of a murdered deaf-mute vagrant is found in a West End square, Scotland Yard have trouble finding a motive for the deed. When the body of another deaf-mute, apparently a suicide, is found in the grounds of a Hendon hotel, the police are even more baffled. Are the crimes related? And did the first murder have anything to do with a recent spate of jewel robberies in the houses near where the body was found? These are the questions that Superintendent "Paddy" Mix and Chief-Inspe...