The Detective Stories Library is a rich and engaging collection of classic mysteries by some of the greatest writers of the genre. This illustrated volume brings together brilliant tales of crime, deduction, and suspense, featuring works by masters of the Golden Age of detective fiction such as Dorothy L. Sayers, John Dickson Carr, Ngaio Marsh, John Rhode, and Christianna Brand. Among the highlights are intriguing stories such as The House of the Poplars, Grand Guignol, Boots, The Yellow S...

A seaside village, a missing man, and a butcher’s shop hiding a gruesome secret… The Mystery of a Butcher’s Shop is one of the most celebrated Golden Age of Detective Fiction classics by Gladys Mitchell, the brilliant creator of the eccentric psychoanalyst-detective Mrs. Bradley. Known for her razor-sharp wit, psychological insight, and delight in the macabre, Mitchell crafts a vintage murder mystery that is as chilling as it is clever. When Rupert Sethleigh mysteriously disappears, the qu...

Published in 1930, The Longer Bodies is the third novel in Gladys Mitchell’s long-running series featuring the brilliant and unsettling Mrs. Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley — psychoanalyst, amateur sleuth, and one of the most original detectives of the Golden Age. The novel begins with an eccentric challenge from Sir Humphrey Miles, a wealthy sportsman obsessed with physical fitness and heredity. He invites a group of young men to his estate, The Longer Bodies, to compete in a bizarre ath...

The female sleuth introduced in this classic Golden Age mystery "is a cackling, leering, hooting delight—a boon to the country house murder mystery" ( The Guardian).It's not often the eccentric Mrs. Bradley finds herself at an elegant country manor for dinner. It's certainly the first time she's ever tended to a corpse at one when the body of a woman, Mountjoy, is discovered in the bathtub upstairs. The initial cause of death is claimed t...

The Classic Collection of Gladys Mitchell — Illustrated: Mrs. Bradley Mysteries: Speedy Death, The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop, The Longer Bodies brings together the early and most celebrated works of one of Britain’s most original Golden Age crime writers. Featuring the indomitable psychoanalyst and amateur detective Mrs. Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley, these novels showcase Mitchell’s trademark blend of sharp wit, psychological insight, and macabre humor. In Speedy Death (1929), Mitche...

''Speedy Death'' by Gladys Mitchell was first published in 1929 and is therefore now pubic domain in the US. In the first of a series of mysteries to introduce psychoanalyst and amateur detective Mrs Bradley, who better to investigate the case of a famous explorer who has died while taking a bath at a country house gathering? If anything roused the rancour of guests at Chayning Court, it was that someone should be late for dinner. But the intrepid explorer Everard Mountjoy was dead in the ...

Speedy Death (1929) marks the debut of Gladys Mitchell’s most enduring and eccentric creation — Mrs. Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley, a formidable psychoanalyst, amateur detective, and one of the most unconventional sleuths of the Golden Age of Crime. With her sharp intellect, sinister cackle, and unflinching eye for human folly, Mrs. Bradley brings a new and unsettling flavor to the traditional detective novel. The story opens at a country house gathering, where guests have assembled for...

With "a touch of genius," this round-robin mystery follow-up to The Floating Admiral features famous detectives including Lord Peter Wimsey ( The Times Literary Supplement).Following the success of The Floating Admiral, in which certain members of the Detection Club—including Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and G. K. Chesterton—collaborated on a whodunit, six writers pooled their talents to create another coauthored mystery. This time...

The Case of Bella Garsington by Gladys Mitchell is an eccentric, sharp-witted, and delightfully unconventional mystery featuring the inimitable Mrs. Bradley — psychoanalyst, amateur detective, and one of the most distinctive sleuths of the Golden Age of crime fiction. Blending dark humor, psychological insight, and ingenious plotting, Mitchell delivers a case as puzzling as it is entertaining. When questions arise surrounding Bella Garsington — a woman whose life is tangled in secrets, str...

An athletics competition to win an inheritance highlights this most eccentric British mystery featuring the most eccentric sleuth. The third of Gladys Mitchell's Mrs. Bradley mysteries, first published in 1930 and now public domain, it's an example of how the author frequently bent the rules of the fair-play detective novel to her own absurdist ends. You will never guess the killer's motives, but you'll have fun watching Mrs. Bradley unravel this mystery.

Gladys Mitchell’s second novel featuring the remarkable psychoanalyst and amateur sleuth Mrs. Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley, The Mystery of a Butcher’s Shop (1929), is a darkly comic and ingenious Golden Age detective story. With its macabre humor, eccentric characters, and cleverly twisted puzzle, it firmly established Mitchell as one of the most original voices in crime fiction. The tale begins in the quiet seaside village of Bossbury, where the disappearance of the wealthy but unpopu...

From "one of the Big Three women detective writers," a British crime novel featuring an unusual female sleuth investigating murder in an English village ( The Observer).When a dismembered corpse is found hanged in the local butcher shop, no one in the English country village of Wandles Parva is too disturbed to hear the body is Rupert Sethleigh's. Seems like just desserts for the blackmailing moneylender, which leaves psychoanalyst-turned-sleuth ...