Francis Wheatley Winn, Senior Tutor at St Thomas' s College, is ready for a cosy night of dining, port, and pleasant company. Ernst Brendel, Viennese lawyer and crime specialist, has come to Oxford to lecture in Law, and the regular residents of St Thomas's are pleased to have such an interesting guest to liven up their after dinner chat. Talk soon turns to murder, and Winn finds the subject altogether unpalatable, even if his colleagues seem to relish the details of past cases Brendel has...

Late at night in the Senior Common Room of St Thomas's College, Ernst Brendel is persuaded by his companions to relate a tale of murder, blackmail, and corruption. A wager is made, half a crown to the first person to guess the murderer correctly. But the game is not so simple. The crime involves four friends, each with the potential to be the murderer – or the victim.Brendel employs the art of 'pre-detection', uncovering motive and cause before the crime has even been committed. Bu...

Anthony Newton has fallen hopelessly in love with the beautiful Cynthia, and feels desperate to secure her hand, putting an end to his carefree bachelor days. But there is one small problem. Cynthia is only nineteen, and Anthony, at thirty-six, is thought rather too old for her. Tearing himself from her side, Anthony goes on a great Arctic adventure, purely for the purpose of giving Cynthia time to be young, and test his own feelings towards her. For the three years he is away battling the...

The classic account of how British intelligence penetrated and practically operated Nazi Germany’s spy network within the British IslesWith great imagination, care, and precise coordination, the British were able to identify Nazi agents, induce many to defect, and supply completely false information to Germany about bombings, battles, and even the D-Day invasion. Told by the man who masterminded the entire, unbelievable four-and-a-half-year scheme, and filled with extraordinary sto...

No one would have guessed that death lurked nearby, and that only a little distance from the glitter and glamour of a house party, two victims lay silent on the floor. On a fine autumn weekend, Lord Aveling hosts a party at his country house. Among the guests are an actress, a journalist, an artist, and a mystery novelist. The unlucky thirteenth is John Foss, injured at the local train station and brought to the house to recuperate - but John is nursing a secret of his own. Soon events tak...

The Z Murders is a fast-paced and suspenseful crime thriller by J. Jefferson Farjeon, set against the backdrop of 1930s England. The story begins with a shocking murder at a London railway station, where the only clue is a mysterious letter "Z" left at the scene. As more bodies start turning up, each marked with the same cryptic symbol, the sense of danger escalates. The protagonist, Richard Temperley, finds himself unintentionally pulled into the investigation, racing against time to unra...

An unidentified body is found in a blazing car. A man in the locality is missing. But the corpse in the car is not that of the missing man, though someone has made an uncommonly thorough job of faking it to seem so.And just because his unknown opponent had gone to such lengths to prevent an investigation going further, Detective Mark Brand aka The Counsellor's 'satiable curiosity' is up ...'As a maker of watertight puzzles Mr Connington has no superior'

First published in 1948, Death on the Last Train is a Chief Inspector Littlejohn mystery full of false leads, dead ends and old-fashioned charm.Detective Inspector Littlejohn of Scotland Yard is travelling to an assignment, exhausted after an arduous journey of delayed connections, when he catches the last train. A murder occurs in his carriage, putting on hold any other plans he may have had. The local police, out of their depth, commande...

A Golden Age classic. In this "sparkling academic mystery," murders plague a university library— and only an intrepid book cataloger can solve them ( Publishers Weekly).For the staff of the library at the center of The Widening Stain, it's easy enough to dismiss the death of a woman who fell from a rolling ladder as nothing more than an unfortunate accident. It's more difficult, however, to explain away the strangled corpse of a man found ...

As inventive as Agatha Christie, as hilarious as P.G. Wodehouse – discover the delightful detective stories of Edmund Crispin. Crime fiction at its quirkiest and best.When young actress Gloria Scott throws herself from Waterloo Bridge, the news sends shockwaves through her film studio. Luckily Gervase Fen is in London to investigate.But when someone acts fast to cover up any evidence – removing all signs of Ms Scott’s identity from her apartment and poisoni...

A British judge and a naked corpse put French inspector Henri Castang on delicate, dangerous ground in this mystery from the Edgar Award–winning author.When a local businessman's car is stolen, he's more concerned about what's inside—the body of his just-deceased grandmother. Then Parisian police Insp. Henri Castang is called to investigate the mysterious appearance of a woman's body found in a car. But just when it seems like his latest case is about to solve itsel...

A mystery from one of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction's four Queens of Crime: a suspicious death and a treasured heirloom spell trouble for the gentleman sleuth."Wonderfully plotted…. A marvelous mixture of witchcraft, sacred relics and ancient oaths. [Allingham was a] rare and precious talent."— The Washington Post"Margery Allingham stands out like a shining light."—Agatha ChristieEstranged from his fathe...