British Library Crime Classics
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British Library Crime Classics volume 93
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English
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With Martin Edwards as librarian and guide, delve into an irresistible stack of bibliomysteries, where "golden age–inspired puzzle masters [are] doing what they do best: bringing together readers, books, and felonies [in] perhaps the single best collection yet in this blue-chip series (Kirkus, Starred Review)."
There is no better hiding place for clues-or red herrings-than inside the pages of a book. But in this world of resentful ghost writers,...
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"On a dismally foggy night in Hampstead, London, a curious party has gathered in an artist's studio to weather the wartime blackout A civil servant and a government scientist are matching wits in a game of chess, while an artist paints the portrait of his characterful sitter, bedecked in Cardinal's robes at the other end of the room. In the kitchen, the artist's sister is hosting the charlady of the miser next door. When the brutal murder of said...
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"'The purpose, the illusion, the spirit of a waxworks. It is an atmosphere of death. It is soundless and motionless... Do you see?' Last night Mademoiselle Duchêne was seen heading into the Gallery of Horrors at the Musée Augustin waxworks, alive. Today she was found in the Seine, murdered. The museum's proprietor, long perturbed by the unnatural vitality of his figures, claims that he saw one of them following the victim into the dark--a lead that...
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"Four men were due to fly to Dublin. When disaster strikes and the plane goes down over the Irish sea, only three of them were on board. With the identities of the flyers scattered to the winds, the police turn to the Wade family, whose patchy account and memory of their past few days hold the key to this elusive and tense mystery. Who was the man who didn't fly? And what did he have to gain by not? Proof in one novel that Margot Bennett's tight and...
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"Exceptional fourth anthology of golden age Christmas-themed mysteries"-Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
A Postman murdered while delivering cards on Christmas morning. A Christmas pine growing over a forgotten homicide. A Yuletide heist gone horribly wrong. When there's as much murder as magic in the air and the facts seem to point to the impossible, it's up to the detective's trained eye to unwrap the clues and neatly tie together an explanation...
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"An unusually rewarding anthology whose most dangerous species remain Homo sapiens."- Kirkus Reviews
Feline friends, canine companions and aviary associates are often the truest reflections of their owners and have played a crucial role in classic crime fiction-be they detectives, or delinquents. Martin Edwards reaches into the British Library of Crime Classics to collect mysteries featuring an animal cohort.
Guilty Creatures celebrates an often-overlooked...
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"Amidst the confusion of too many fake names, clues, ciphers, and convoluted alibis, Chief Inspector Macdonald and his allies in the CID must unravel a truly tangled case in this metafictional masterpiece, which returns to print for the first time since its publication in 1937. This edition includes an introduction by CWA Diamond Dagger Award-winning author Martin Edwards. "Should detectives go to parties? Was it consistent with the dignity of the...
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"First published in 1952, The Widow of Bath offers intricate puzzles, international intrigue, and a richly evoked portrait of post-war Britain, all delivered with Bennett's signature brand of witty and elegant prose. This edition includes an introduction by CWA Diamond Dagger Award-winning author Martin Edwards. Hugh Everton was intent on nothing more than quietly drinking in the second-rate hotel he found himself in on England's south coast-and then...
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"Renowned for its authentic characters and settings based partly on the author's own experiences of life in the Lune Valley, E. C. R. Lorac's classic rural mystery returns to print for the first time since 1953. This edition includes an introduction by award-winning author Martin Edwards. "I'm minded of the way a fire spreads in dry bracken when we burn it off the fellside: tongues of flame this way and that-tis human tongues and words that's creeping...
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"This addition to the Crime Classics series is an immersive musical mystery, featuring diagrams of the orchestra arrangement and four pages of musical notation with relevance to the plot. First published in 1941 but out-of-print since, this is by a lost writer of the genre, Sebastian Farr (a pseudonym for Eric Walter Blom), a prolific Swiss-born and British-naturalised music lexicographer, music critic and writer. The headline from The Maningpool...
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"Readers who know Scotland will glow with recognition; those who don't will want to pack their bags and maybe a gun." -Kirkus Reviews
From the Highlands to the borders, the bustling cities to the remote isles in cold seas, the unique landscapes and locales of Scotland have long inspired writers of the very best Golden Age mysteries. Beginning with the adventures of Sherlock Holmes from Edinburgh-born Arthur Conan Doyle, this new collection includes...
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"… and what a motive! Murder to save one's artistic soul… who'd believe that?"
Behind the stage lights and word-perfect soliloquies, sinister secrets are lurking in the wings. The mysteries in this collection reveal the dark side to theatre and performing arts: a world of backstage dealings, where unscrupulous actors risk everything to land a starring role, costumed figures lead to mistaken identities, and on-stage deaths begin to look a little...
13) Jumping Jenny
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"Tightly paced and cleverly defying the conventions of the classic detective story, this 1933 novel remains a milestone of the inverted mystery subgenre. This edition includes an introduction by CWA Diamond Dagger and Edgar Award-winning author Martin Edwards. At a costume party with the dubious theme of "famous murderers and their victims," the know-it-all amateur criminologist Roger Sheringham is settled in for an evening of beer, small talk, and...
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First published in a limited run in 1934, this exceedingly rare and fast-paced bibliomystery set against the landscapes of Yorkshire is long overdue its return to print.
The note read:
"Will the gentleman who took by mistake a copy of Bunyan's Life and Death of Mr. Badman, return it as soon as possible, as the book is in demand."
On holiday in Keldstone visiting his nephew, Jim, blanket manufacturer Athelstan Digby agrees to look after the old...
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"First published in 1942, this reissue of one of Carr's most highly rated mysteries featuring series detective Gideon Fell offers readers a tense and enjoyable game of cat and mouse between the detective and the chief suspect. 'The supreme conjuror; the king of the art of misdirection ... once you begin a book of his, you simply cannot put it down.' -- Agatha Christie on John Dickson Carr When the police arrive at the holiday bungalow of the haughty...
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British Library Crime Classics volume 2
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"James Bennett has been invited to stay at White Priory for Christmas among the retinue of the glamorous Hollywood actress Marcia Tait. Her producer, her lover, the playwright for her next hit and her agent are all here, soon to become so many suspects when Tait is found murdered on a cold December morning in the lakeside pavilion. Only the footprints of her discoverer disturb the snow which fell overnight - and which stopped just shortly after Marcia...
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E. C. R. Lorac spins a twisting tale full of wry humor and red herrings, poking some fun at her contemporary reviewers, who long suspected the Lorac pseudonym to belong to a male author.
Vivian Lestrange-celebrated author of the popular mystery novel The Charterhouse Case and total recluse-has apparently dropped off the face of the Earth. After he was reported missing by his secretary Eleanor, whom Inspector Bond suspects to be the author herself,...