Classic Mysteries

A local hero is kidnapped, and a shocking murder is only one of many unexpected results. Investigator Anthony Bathurst uncovers the ugly truths that someone is willing to commit murder to hide.

A private detective and a small group of survivors from a murderous wedding find themselves trapped with an apparently psychotic killer on a remote island, cut off from the world at large.

It sounded like the perfect story for a movie - a curse still working after 300 years. A macabre twist to a powerful drama - or simply brutal murder?

Clever plotting, pointed dialogue and murder - what more could a reader want?

A car driven by a dead man with a cut throat...a lost gallows on a missing London street...John Dickson Carr's second mystery starring Henri Bencolin, "The Lost Gallows," reviewed:

Rabbi Small needed a break in his routine. An international bombing incident wasn't what he had in mind.

Nearly everyone in his family hated Sir Adam Braid. Only the old man's granddaughter loved him - and the old miser was cutting her out of his will. A motive for murder? Or did someone else hate him enough to kill him? "The Case of Sir Adam Braid," A Golden Age classic by Molly Thynne, reviewed.

On the Classic Mysteries podcast this week, Mr. and Mrs. North only want to draw up a new will, but it's their lawyer who gets murdered.

Newly appointed to Scotland Yard, Bobby Owen finds himself weighing motives, politics and amazing beauty as he hunts for a murderer who might just be an "untouchable" British aristocrat. E.R. Punshon's "Helen Passes By," reviewed.

Another, earlier pre-Orient-Express train ride for Hercule Poirot comes complete with jewel robberies, blackmail, and murder on a luxury train across France.

On the Classic Mysteries podcast this week, you might call it a portrait of the artist as a young...dog? Inspector Knollis had to decipher the secret of Francis Vivian's "The Laughing Dog." 

On the Classic Mysteries blog, Scotland Yard Inspector Macdonald thought he was going on holiday in Vienna. So how did he wind up helping local police investigate some nasty murders? E.C.R. Lorac's "Murder in Vienna," reviewed.

A grim solution to a grim problem: how to deal with a loathsome blackmailer who may also be a serial killer? For half-a-dozen young Englishmen, the answer appears to be a well-plotted murder, one where it will be impossible to tell who struck the fatal blow. Only things may not always go quite as smoothly as planned.

In Archie Goodwin’s world view, the word that best fits Isabel Kerr is a four-letter word: doxy. The dictionary says, it defines "a woman who is regarded as sexually promiscuous." Only trouble was, Isabel Kerr was dead. Murdered. And – with the police focused on a suspect who is both a friend and sometime colleague of both Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe, it was clear that  Wolfe was going to have to get involved in the search for the real killer.

The dead woman was a humble chemistry teacher at a girls' school. So, wonders Detective Inspector C.D. Sloan, why did she have a quarter-million pounds in her bank account? And was she murdered? Catherine Aird's "Some Die Eloquent," from her Calleshire Chronicles reviewed.

On the Classic Mysteries podcast this week, a review of some non-fiction - a book of essays about mysteries and the people who make them. "Unusual Suspects: Selected Non-Fiction," by Joseph Goodrich, reviewed.

Maigret stars in one of these holiday stories, while other associates of Maigret feature in two more tales of holiday crime and redemption.

Too bad about Joe Wilson. The itinerant traveling salesman had a secret. And it’s only fair to point out that it turned out to be a deadly secret indeed – a secret which apparently led to his murder. Ellery Queen needed the truth to keep the wrong person from paying for someone else's crime.

The victim's body turned up under a tree in a park, the body unusually battered and bruised – but that’s not what killed him; he appeared to have had potassium cyanide sprayed into his nose. What kind of animal could do that - and why?

It couldn't have been suicide - the victim was beheaded inside a watched and locked room - but the room was empty, except for the victim. French police director Henri Bencolin stars in the first novel by John Dickson Carr.

A theatrical and criminal problem for Ludovic Travers to solve.

Right from the start, it was clearly going to be an interesting case – the murder of an inoffensive little man with no apparent enemies, not much in the way of physical clues. And that kind of case can be very frustrating indeed.

What connection could there be between a gruesome fire in a London house and a ski holiday in Lech Am Arlberg in the Austrian Alps? The answer may conceal a ruthless murderer.

Princess Olga Karukhin escaped from Russia after the revolution. Was she murdered for her supposed collection of art objects? 

The death of a two-bit hustler was just the tip of the iceberg – that iceberg being a delicate international dispute over a contested strip of land – a dispute which may have involved no fewer than three murders…with every prospect of more crimes still to come.

a mystery with artfully rearranged bodies & missing heads & eccentric characters & assorted mayhem - and funny as well.

Passersby watching the daily advertising show in French's Department Store window got a lot more than they expected when a dead body fell out of the display's bed.

Claude Merivale admits he strangled his wife - but he says he did so while in a sleep so deep that everything he did, he did in a dream. Will the jury buy it? Or can Anthony Bathurst find evidence of a cunning killer at work?

Lord Edgeware's wife threatened to kill him. Now His Lordship has been murdered - but his wife has an unbreakable alibi! Hercule Poirot is on the case!

Trostler was described by Ellery Queen as "the first important Teutonic sleuth." These early stories find Dagobert using logic and reason to solve crimes.

Set in ancient China, Judge Dee must solve a couple of murders  involving very powerful individuals - and some black-haired foxes.

Cécile had come to the Parisian police headquarters to tell her secret to Inspector Maigret. But Maigret, in the course of a busy day, lost track of Cécile – until she disappeared. And when Maigret, now worried about her, want to her apartment to see what he could find – well, by then it was too late, for Cécile was dead. Now Maigret must uncover her secret.

What was the deadly secret of the book that forced Rena Austen to flee her home and husband and seek help from biblio expert Henry Gamadge?

Amid the turmoil of the late 1960s, Rabbi David Small deals with synagogue politics and the civil rights struggle within his Conservative congregation, not to mention solving a couple of murders.

Bobby Owen was spending the weekend at Cambers, planning to advise Lady Cambers on ways to keep her valuable jewelry safe. But when he woke up the next morning, Lady Cambers had been murdered - and the jewels had vanished. An excellent mystery mixed with some pointed British social satire.

Mr. Mottram's life insurance would pay handsomely, whether he was murdered or died by accident. But they wouldn't pay for a suicide. So insurance investigator Miles Bredon was sent to uncover the true story of Mottram's peculiar death.

It was the kind of murder Los Angeles saw all too often. But this time, Homicide Detective Mendoza had a hunch that he had worked on a similar crime before. Would he be able to solve both murders - or would a killer seek another victim?

Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin travel to Montenegro, in the heart of Europe, to find the person who murdered Wolfe's longest and closest friend.

Inspector French hears a young woman's plea for help too late to save her - but when she is murdered, French must find out why a gang seems to be targeting low-level clerks.

Ngaio Marsh is best known for her novels about Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn. This collection features short fiction - some with Alleyn, some with other characters, and most are likely to be unfamiliar to her fans..

On the Classic Mysteries podcast this week, a mysterious cryptogram, sudden death - and a shocking way to commit murder.

Henry Gamadge puts together a daring rescue for a woman held a virtual prisoner by her family. What was the secret worth killing for?

a murder in the Australian outback - and DI Napoleon Bonaparte - Bony - is on the case. Arthur Upfield's "Sinister Stones" reviewed.

Another of Catherine Aird's witty 'Calleshire Chronicles" mysteries with Inspector Sloan and company.

Miss Amanda Gipson was a fine researcher to investigate old murders.  But what if an old killing made a new one necessary?  Pam and Jerry North investigate a possible murder within a murder.

Eight fascinating short stories about cases investigated and solved by Judge Dee, a magistrate (and later court official) in T'ang Dynasty China during the 7th century.

"But that's impossible!" Or maybe not. Not when the story you're reading comes from Paul Halter, a modern French author with a gift for impossible crime stories. Ten short stories by Halter, translated by John Pugmire. Savor the (im)possibilities.

When a small group of neighbors is getting successful stock tips from a self-styled "psychic," sudden death may not be quite as accidental as you think. 

Henry Clandon wanted to hire Ludovic Travers to find the war hero who saved his life. But there were a few obstacles - including murder.

Ludovic Travers was nearly run off the road by a car driven by a man dying of atropine poisoning. But Ludo - and the police - found that the deeper they dug into a case of murder, the more bizarre the clues became.