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Books > Fiction > Special features > Classic fiction
"Cara!" Mr. Wilkinson stood on the jetty looking out at the long,
low shadow of the island, dark against the setting sun. "A
beautiful place, and a beautiful name." "It's the Gaelic word for a
corpse." From the dramatic Highlands to bustling cities and remote
islands in wild seas, the unique landscapes and locales of Scotland
have enthralled and shaped generations of mystery writers. This new
collection presents seventeen classic stories, spanning a period
from the 1880s to the 1970s, by a host of Scottish authors
alongside writers from south of the border inspired by the history
and majesty of the storied country. Featuring vintage tales by
Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson and Baroness Orczy
together with mid-twentieth-century mini-masterpieces by Margot
Bennett, Michael Innes and Cyril Hare, this anthology also includes
a rare Josephine Tey short story, reprinted for the first time
since 1930.
The fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm are among the best loved and
most famous in world literature. This volume features more than
forty of their best-known fairy tales, lavishly illustrated with
line drawings and colour plates by Artur Rackham.
'Never had I been given a tougher problem to solve, and never had I
been so utterly at my wits' end for a solution.' A signalman is
found dead by a railway tunnel. A man identifies his wife as a
victim of murder on the underground. Two passengers mysteriously
disappear between stations, leaving behind a dead body. Trains have
been a favourite setting of many crime writers, providing the
mobile equivalent of the 'locked-room' scenario. Their enclosed
carriages with a limited number of suspects lend themselves to
seemingly impossible crimes. In an era of cancellations and delays,
alibis reliant upon a timely train service no longer ring true, yet
the railway detective has enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in the
twenty-first century. Both train buffs and crime fans will delight
in this selection of fifteen railway-themed mysteries, featuring
some of the most popular authors of their day alongside less
familiar names. This is a collection to beguile even the most
wearisome commuter.
'Powerful and impressive ...there is a fine inevitability in the
plot structure which gives it true tragic quality' - Dorothy L.
SayersAdrian Gray was born in May 1862 and met his death through
violence, at the hands of one of his own children, at Christmas,
1931. Thus begins a classic crime novel published in 1933, a
riveting portrait of the psychology of a murderer. Each December,
Adrian Gray invites his extended family to stay at his lonely
house, Kings Poplars. None of Gray's six surviving children is fond
of him; several have cause to wish him dead. The family gathers on
Christmas Eve - and by the following morning, their wish has been
granted. This fascinating and unusual novel tells the story of what
happened that dark Christmas night; and what the murderer did next.
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