This is a collection of 20 classic mystery and detective stories written by various authors.

Guy Newell Boothby was a prolific Australian writer. He moved to London in 1894 and became most well-known for his Dr.Nikola mysteries. This book is the first in a series of five and introduces the good doctor himself. Dr Nikola Is a criminal mastermind with an occult twist and like much fiction of that era this book and the following are more about how others fall under his spell and into his web. Here we have an adventure and love story that sweeps us from Australia, the South Seas, the Middle East and rural Hampshire with our lovestruck hero constantly battling against Dr Nikola and his cohorts. The sense of mystery and the exotic settings are exceptionally well portrayed and give the book a nostalgic appeal for the days of imperialists and hardened empire builders.

The masked super-crook, Black Star, is at it again. Will Roger Verbeck be able to match wits with him this time? Or are the not-so-efficient Sheriff and police chief going to spoil the party? Stay tuned for all the action and adventure to this pulp fiction.

Before Sam Spade chased the black bird in The Maltese Falcon and Nick and Nora Charles stirred their first martinis in The Thin Man, the Continental Op walked early twentieth century San Francisco’s mean streets for the Continental Detective Agency. Dashiell Hammett used his own experiences as a Pinkerton operative to lend realistic detail to this creation. These first five stories were published in Black Mask magazine in 1923.
01 - Arson Plus
02 - Crooked Souls
03 - Slippery Fingers
04 - It
05 - Bodies Piled Up

Detective John Thorndyke never disappoints when solving crime in this collection of Freeman's works.
01 - The Man with the Nailed Shoes, Part 1
02 - The Man with the Nailed Shoes, Part 2
03 - The Stranger's Latchkey
04 - The Anthropologist At Large
05 - The Blue Sequin download
06 - The Moabite Cipher
07 - The Mandarin's Pearl
08 - The Aluminium Dagger
09 - A Message from the Deep Sea

Nancy spends the summer with a cousin she hardly knows who has a friend who seems to be a bad influence. Secrets, jealousy and bitterness fill their days until they learn how to believe in themselves and overcome their bitterness when the truth is revealed.

Things look bleak for Lesbia Hales. Her father does not let her marry the man she loves. Her mother is dead. She has to keep secrets in order to promote what she wants for herself. One day, her lover, George Walker, is injured in her home and someone stole the expensive amethyst cross. Who could have done that and why?

The Benson Murder Case – A Philo Vance Story is the first of a series of twelve popular mysteries set in New York during the Jazz Age. S. S. Van Dine is the nom de plume of prominent art critic, and member of New York’s avant-garde, W. H. Wright. He rapidly became one of the country’s best-selling authors and the series remained immensely popular for decades, as Philo Vance was featured in dozens of movies, plays and radio shows.
Van Dine’s novels marked a sharp departure from earlier detective fiction. To begin with, the hero represents the antithesis of the familiar hard-boiled detective. He is an eccentric and volatile loner; a highly erudite aesthete; a debonair bon vivant; a fop. Indeed, Van Dine even flirts with his hero’s sexuality where, for instance, a friend tells Vance: “I trust you won’t wear your green carnation,” – then the symbol of homosexuality. Moreover, Philo Vance approaches crime from a totally new standpoint, more or less ignoring the sorts of evidence and inference generally used to solve mysteries. His perspective is primarily psychological. Thus, he tells his friend Van: “The truth can be learned only by an analysis of the psychological factors of a crime, and an application of them to the individual. The only real clues are psychological—not material.” (The author casts himself in the role of the narrator, “Van,” Vance’s old college friend, now his lawyer, advisor and general agent.)

Jack Carstares, oldest son of the Earl Wyncham, has been disgraced by his brother. Gone for six years, living the life a highwayman he meets the woman he will fall in love with. Saving her from being kidnapped by a dastardly blackguard he is injured and must stay with her family until he is able to return to his life...will she discovery his true identity? Will he be able to leave her when the time comes? Mystery and humor follow this intriguing cast of characters until the very end.

The flood brings in not only the muddy waters but a series of suspicious clues that convinced Mrs. Pitman, a boarding house keeper, that a murder has been committed at her boarding house. Jennifer Ladley aka Jennie Brice is missing and with the help of Mr. Holcombe, a quirky gentleman with a passion for mysteries, they embark on a quest for the truth behind the disappearance of Jennie Brice.

This final volume of detective stories was Doyle’s effort to put his most famous creation behind him at long last. It includes a variety of tales, from widely separated periods in the protagonist’s life, including his retirement, stories told from various points of view: Watson’s, Holmes’s, and an omniscient narrator’s. Most, of course, illustrate the detective’s famous “deduction,” but not all; some of his successes call upon resources of character which we rarely associate with him. He demonstrates compassion and empathy, and more than once he laughs. His attitude toward Dr. Watson, although occasionally brusque, includes kindness, affection, and professional respect, revealing a deep and complex friendship that endears both men to the reader.

Fergus Hume was a prolific writer of Victorian murder mysteries and The Clock Struck One is another great example of his inventive plots. Julian Edermont living in near seclusion for the last 20 years fearful of an unknown assailant is beaten to death in his study following an argument with his ward's fiance Dr. Allen Scott. The secret revealed to Allen during this argument is such that he breaks off his engagement to Dora refusing to reveal the cause. Since those around her seem unwilling to share what they know it is up to Dora to discover the truth and unmask the murderer of her guardian.

An English peer is found stabbed in his room with more than a hint of the supernatural playing a hand. This is only reinforced by the curse of the Reckaviles and the sinister members of the lineage. Scotland yard man sent to look into this is baffled and clueless to the extent that he was about to believe the ghost theory more than ever. Meanwhile, there is love blossoming even in this gloomy surrounding, but will it hold?

In this suspensful whodunit a mean-spirited and wealthy dowager is found murdered in her boudoir supposedly killed once by poison and also by a blow to the head. Most bizarre is the fact that she is found sitting in front of her mirror lavishly dressed wearing a fortune in pearls and gems. Her niece, her social secretary, her cousin managing her finances, a mysterious count and a maid acting rather suspiciously are the suspects. The police are getting nowhere so famous criminologist Fleming Stone is called in. However is it possible he is so taken with the primary suspect that she could prevent him from solving the mystery?

This thrilling novel teems with intrigue and unforgettable characters. It opens during WWI with a few allied soldiers lost at night behind German lines. One of them shoots at another in the darkness. Members of a criminal gang before the war, the men resume their unlawful activities when peacetime returns. The gang’s leader receives a letter that results in his leaving London for a small island off the Florida Keys. He is “as clever a scoundrel and as miserable, inhuman and unscrupulous a one as ever blasphemed the image in which God made him… He is without conscience, ruthless, a fiend who would do honour to hell itself."
Frank L. Packard authored many popular novels, several of which were made into movies, including a series in which he originated the idea of a heroic crime fighter with a secret double identity.

Published in 1917, this is a collection of a novella and seven short stories by one of the cleverest authors of the early twentieth century. ‘In Queen's Quorum (1951), a survey of crime fiction, Ellery Queen listed Bennett's The Loot of Cities among the 100 most important works in the genre. This collection of stories recounts the adventures of a millionaire who commits crimes to achieve his idealistic ends. Although it was "one of his least known works," it was nevertheless "of unusual interest, both as an example of Arnold Bennett's early work and as an early example of dilettante detectivism".

A rich playboy comes home from travels abroad and is bully-ragged by his eccentric aunt into finding meaning for his life. This he does by helping a school chum save his fiancée from the gallows and the playboy falls head over heels in love with the fiancée. A web of deception and lies is revealed and also a long list of who loves who filled with how much each is willing to accept. The colorful cast includes a south sea captain, a fortuneteller, and a colorful doctor who is an authority on the inhabitants and customs of Easter Island. Then, of course, there is the sacred herb!—

A mysterious message on a record is found sealed in a cylinder. A heroine straight out of a fairy-tale is kept secluded by a guardian with questionable motives. Add a murder, a gallant and fearless hero to the rescue and you have all the ingredients necessary to make this a very entertaining little mystery by acclaimed British author Fergus Hume!

It started out as a nuisance--odd electrical problems in the Atlas building that cleared themselves up. But then it got worse, the problems becoming more and more peculiar and inexplicable. Scientist Percy Darrow has given himself the task of figuring out the who and the how, and maybe the why, as life turns strange and a little dangerous.

A widely publicized and unsolved murder of five and twenty years is brought to the forefront in a best-selling novel entitled “A Whim of Fate". While Spencer Tait is looking forward to reading it, his best friend Claude Larcher, learns of the tragic death of his father which mirrors every detail of the new book. Not believing it to be a coincidence the two friends resolve to discover what truly happened so many years ago and who committed the vile act. As they delve deeper into the past, the motives, the evidence, and the list of potential suspects becomes so confusing that a solution to the mystery seems impossible. Will they ever know WHO killed Georges Larcher?

The Home Secretary is found murdered. Even more bizarre is that the fact is communicated to the Scotland Yard before the commission of the deed. Superintendent Sinclair, as is usual, enlists the help of the amateur sleuth Sylvester Collins in what takes them on a journey of discovery which keeps the listener on the edge of their seats. The book is forwarded by none other than G.K.Chesterton

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