Twelve stories from the celebrated author of one of the most famous mystery classics ever written, Trent's Last Case.Philip Trent is an artist, a journalist, and an urbane unraveller of highly problematical crimes. Here the unshakable sleuth appears in twelve tales of misadventure, where the crimes that he investigates range from fraud and embezzlement to criminal assault and murder, yet they all succumb to his adept methods even if the criminal sometimes escapes.Trent Inte...

Romain Rolland was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary production and to the sympathy and love of truth with which he has described different types of human beings".He was a leading supporter of Josef Stalin in France and is also noted for his correspondence with and influence on Sigmund Freud.Rolland's most famous novel is the 10-volume nove...

Includes Part One of Candide; three stories; selections from The Philosophical Dictionary, The Lisbon Earthquake, and other works; and thirty-five letters.

The second novel from the celebrated author of one of the most famous mystery classics ever written, Trent's Last Case.James Randolph is murdered early one evening and his body is found a few hours later. When the police arrive they discover that Randolph's safe has been ransacked and discarded wrapping paper litters his bedroom floor.Perhaps by chance or perhaps by design, Trent seems to have been the last person, other than the murderer, to see Randolph alive. But this is...

John Rutherford, bookseller and sometime fiction writer, discovers the bludgeoned corpse of a policeman one evening while taking a stroll in a rainstorm. The policeman's overturned bicycle is what first catches Rutherford's eye. Then he sees Officer Johnson's body sprawled on the sodden ground of Phantom Coppice. Rutherford takes Johnson's bike and pedals to rural Paulsfield police station, two miles away, to report the crime. There he finds Sgt. Martin who initiates calls to a doctor, a p...

Ronald Hudson, travel writer and adventurer, visits Philip Tolefree with an anonymous letter written in cypher, which he hopes the sleuth can decode. But Tolefree is uneasy. What are Hudson's motives? Is his writer-persona a facade for espionage - or something even more nefarious? When a chance telephone call links Hudson's visit with the murder of a scientist during a country house party Tolefree's worst suspicions seem confirmed. But what is the secret of Old Hallerden?Originally...

Lord Greenwood is most perturbed when his son Bill Chance strikes up a relationship with the actress Millicent Vane. When the troubled peer commissions Philip Tolefree to provide him with proof that Miss Vane is a woman with a scandalous past, Tolefree worries that this savours too much of the sordid intrigue of the divorce court. But when a hunch leads Tolefree and his associate Farrar to pay a late night visit to the rich playboy Howard Killick, the case takes an altogether more interest...

Inspector Frost is called in when a body is found stabbed in Bolter's Court in the City of London. The young man found bending over the corpse would seem the obvious suspect - and the revelation that the man is none other than the famous American millionaire Mckinley M. Macmillan causes a sensation in the press. But the fact that the victim was not shot, but stabbed with an antique dagger is just one of several details that leads Frost to suspect that all may not be as it seems...O...

Inspector Frost and his son-in-law, Detective-Sergeant Billy Smith, are called in to investigate the murder of Henry Whitbourne of Bellhampton Hall. The obvious suspect is Whitbourne's older brother, John. But while Billy is convinced of John's guilt, Frost is less certain. Working together with Superintendent Thomas of Dolminster, Frost soon uncovers evidence of a villainous conspiracy and it will take all his patience and professional dexterity to bring the culprits to justice.Or...

From the Collins Crime Club archive, the third Inspector French novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, once dubbed ‘The King of Detective Story Writers’.THREE CORPSES FOR INSPECTOR FRENCHA chance invitation from friends saves Ruth Averill’s life on the night her uncle’s old house in Starvel Hollow is consumed by fire, killing him and incinerating the fortune he kept in cash. Dismissed at the inquest as a tragic accident, the case is closed – until Scotland Yard is alerted to the ci...

In "The Cheyne Mystery," Freeman Wills Crofts presents a compelling detective narrative intricately woven with elements of crime and human psychology, characteristic of the classic "whodunit" genre. The novel showcases Crofts' signature use of meticulous plotting and detailed investigation, propelling readers through an enigmatic web of clues and red herrings that culminates in a dramatic resolution. Set within the rich tapestry of early 20th-century British society, the story engages with...

From the Collins Crime Club archive, the seminal first novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, once dubbed ‘The King of Detective Story Writers’ and recognised as one of the ‘big four’ Golden Age crime authors.The unloading of a consignment of French wine from the steamship Bullfinch is interrupted by a gruesome discovery in a broken cask leaking sawdust and gold sovereigns. But when the shipping clerk returns with the police, the cask and its macabre contents have gone. Following the clues...