Curl up by the fire this Christmas with the masters of cosy and seasonal crime fiction – the perfect stocking-filler for fans of Agatha Christie and the British Library Crime Classics!A collection of Christmas-themed mysteries, written by some of the greatest Golden Age authors, including Ellery Queen, Mary Roberts Rinehart, John D. MacDonald, and John Dickson Carr, as well as such undiscovered writers as Norvell Page, Meredith Nicholson, and Pat F...

A businessman dies in an elevator in such a way that it seems as though no one could have committed the murder. A seemingly impossible murder in a private elevator draws two sleuths to the case. Inspector Hornbeam and Dr. Horatio Glass are at odds from the beginning, each dismissive of the other's theories, thus creating an atmosphere as much of competition as cooperation.

Christmas is a time of goodwill to all men ... or is it?As the nights draw in, throw another log on the fire and settle back into your armchair to enjoy this collection of ten classic Christmas mysteries, in which crime's best known sleuths, from Rebus to Holmes and Cadfael to Father Brown, uncover murder and mayhem galore.Whether it's a Christmas goose with a surprising secret cargo, a murdered pantomime dame, or a killer who departs the scene of the crime...

'There will be ten teacups at number 4, Berwick Terrace, W.8, on Wednesday, July 31st, at 5 p.m. precisely. The presence of the Metropolitan Police is respectfully requested.' The note was delivered to New Scotland Yard, its words evoking a cold murder case and its unsolved mystery of the ten teacups found beside the body. Scrambling to prevent a second killing, the police set up a watertight cordon at Berwick Terrace. But gunfire rings out from the top floor at 5 p.m. on the 31st, and the...

James Bennett, nephew of Sir Henry Merrivale (the cantankerous yet genius sleuth), has been invited to stay at White Priory for Christmas, among the retinue of the glamorous Hollywood actress Marcia Tait. Her producer, her lover, her playwright and her agent are all here along with the haughty master of the estate, Canifes and his daughter. So many suspects they become when Marcia Tait is found dead on Christmas morning in the lakeside pavilion, having been left there alone the night befor...

One of the greatest locked-room murder mysteries of all time, hailing from 1938, returns to baffle a new bevy of armchair detectives. James Answell, visiting his father-in-law Avery Hume in his locked study, has the misfortune to wake up from a drugged-Whisky swoon to find his host dead, skewered with an arrow. He is, of course, prime suspect. After setting up this devilish scenario, unravels an ingenious courtroom thriller, in which the razor-sharp amateur detective (and barrister) Sir He...

When a civil servant at the newly formed Ministry of Fine Arts is found crushed beneath a monstrous marble bust after dark, it appears to be the third instance in a string of fatal accidents at the department. Already disturbed by rumours of forgeries and irregularities in the Ministry's dealings, Minister Humphry David is soon faced with the possibility that among his colleagues is a murderer – though how the bust could have been made an instrument of death is a masterstroke of criminal d...

Alberta Mansbridge sets the table with teacups, mulling over the guests who will be arriving within the hour: her accountant and the ex-jailbird Barry; her nephew and his ghastly new wife; the Italian playboy, the family doctor, the manager of her father's company and dear old Myra, with whom she had so recently fallen out. . . Alberta returns upstairs to get herself ready. Yet the guests' knocking goes unanswered, and they soon discover that their host has been murdered - worse still, tha...

At the London service flat where she lives with her husband, dies after eating a meal which later analysis shows was infused with digitalis. Scotland Yard at first suspect her husband, who had been called away by a telephone call of murdering her. However, with the assistance of Priestley, the investigating officer is able to prove this is a long-premeditated crime by someone else.

The true motive for the murder is introduced very late on, so as to conceal the identity of the killer. Gangland elements in the plot. The method of murder is very clever and there are a few genuine suspects.

In the market town of Patham, Doctor Greenwood takes his annual August holiday with his wife and hires a locum to take over the practice while he is away. But his replacement Stephen Thornhill goes missing after just a few days, and when a body is discovered Scotland Yard are called in to investigate with the assistance of Priestley.

Nigel Ebbfleet, an author who after many years of effort has finally produced a successful book, settles down to live in a country cottage brought by the royalties of his hit work. However, his rural peace is shattered when he is killed in an explosion while chopping wood. Superintendent Jimmy Waghorn of Scotland Yard's investigation established that Ebbfleet was well-liked and no obvious motive is clear. But with a second murder and its accompanying alibis, and a rather gruesome and sensa...