Classic Mysteries

The Crown Prince was being blackmailed, a young woman was murdered while at the dentist's - and a mysterious gem known as the Peacock's Eye  Different threads leading to an unknown destination.

Martin Edwards selects eleven classic short mystery stories, most from the Golden Age of English Detective Fiction, to provide some sinister holiday fare.

Hearing a warning of murder can be unnerving. Hearing it in your own voice could push you into insanity.

Did tension between regular army officers and "fighting" officers lead to murder?

It began with a minor embezzlement - but it ended with disappearances and multiple murders.

In this Agatha Christie thriller, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford must identify two Nazi spies known only as "N" and "M" who are plotting the German invasion of England during World War II.

The victim was stabbed inside a locked and bolted room, and witnesses insisted nobody could have entered - or left - the room. Police Lt. Marshall needs help from an inquisitive nun, Sister Ursula, to uncover the truth.

Banker Franklin Shore had run away from his wife a decade ago. Now somebody claiming to be Franklin Shore was on the phone, asking a family member to help him meet with lawyer Perry Mason. Unfortunately, murder intervened.

Oswald Preston was a very unpleasant man. But was that sufficient reason to murder him on the train?

The millionaire philanthropist died on her way to the operating room - strangled while waiting for the surgery. Ellery Queen realized that in order to determine the WHO, he'd need to uncover both the WHY and the HOW.

The head of a critical military research team disappears, followed by murder. But there's more to Colonel Brende's abduction, and it could affect Britain's chances for survival in World War II.

The body of a headless corpse turns up in a Parisian canal, and Inspector Maigret must find out who was killed - and why.

Someone is stealing hats and other headgear - top hats, barrister's wigs and such - and leaving them in strangely appropriate places. Surely leaving one on top of a murder victim's body was not appropriate?

The great Australian author Mervyn Blake is dead - and nobody knows what killed him. But DI Napoleon Bonaparte will find a most unusual way for a determined murderer to kill.

More than a dozen short stories, many featuring Margery Allingham's most popular character, Albert Campion, including several of her earliest tales.

There’s an awful lot going on behind the closed doors of Flaxborough – lots of greed and corruption, and the usual assortment of sexual peccadilloes not to mention possible fraud on the part of various dubious charities - and, of course, murder.

Inspector Littlejohn knew he had to find a solution quickly before a determined murderer could strike again.

Sixteen short stories, all virtually unknown, by some of the finest and best-known writers of Britain's Golden Age of Detective Fiction.

Did the powerful piano music played by their neighbor hold the secret of two murders?

Maigret takes time off from work to investigate a murder on his own, to help a schoolteacher who traveled to Paris to enlist Maigret's aid.