100 Masterpieces of Murder Mystery & Detective Fiction maps the extraordinary breadth of crime writing from Gothic terror and sensation fiction to the classical puzzle, espionage thriller, psychological suspense tale, and hard-edged urban narrative. Its hundred selections place locked rooms, poisoned inheritances, disappearances, criminal investigations, and uncanny intrusions in conversation with one another. The volume's range illuminates how murder mystery became a capacious literary fo...

100 Mystery Classics of World Literature maps the extraordinary breadth of mystery writing, from Gothic menace and sensation fiction to detective puzzles, espionage, psychological suspense, adventure, and tales of the uncanny. Its hundred selections place celebrated investigations beside narratives of crime, disguise, inheritance, urban danger, and moral ambiguity. The volume's range reveals mystery not as a narrow formula but as a capacious literary mode, encompassing the locked-room prob...

The setting is the years prior to the outbreak of World War I. It is a time when Germany is outwardly preparing for war but Britain continues to believe it is invincible and that no one would challenge her. A vast German spy network flourishes in England, often in plain view. The main character is Francis Norgate, an aspiring British diplomat who falls in disfavor with his superiors for defending a woman while stationed in Berlin. The resulting scandal causes Norgate to be recalled. On the...