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Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > Crime & mystery > Historical mysteries
The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1908) is a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux. Originally serialized in L'Illustration from September to November 1907, The Mystery of the Yellow Room marked the first appearance of popular character Joseph Rouletabille, a reporter and part-time sleuth who features in several of Leroux's novels. Originally a journalist, Leroux turned to fiction after reading the works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allan Poe. Often considered one of the best locked-room mysteries of all time, the novel has been adapted several times for film and television. Joseph Rouletabille is more than meets the eye. A reporter by profession, he spends his free time working as an amateur detective, using his journalistic talents to compile facts and track down leads. When the young daughter of a prominent professor is found badly beaten in a locked room at the Chateau du Glandier, Roulebatille sets out to investigate with his trusted assistant Sainclair. After conducting interviews with several members of the castle staff, he is told that France's top detective Frederic Larsan has been assigned to the case. Larsan soon names Robert Darzac, Ms. Stangerson's fiance, as his primary suspect. Having already ruled Darzac out, Roulebatille begins to grow suspicious when the man is arrested and seems hesitant to defend himself. Working behind the scenes, the unassuming sleuth must race against time to prove Darzac's innocence and stop Ms. Stangerson's attacker from finishing what he started. The Mystery of the Yellow Room is a story of danger and suspense from one of history's finest detective novelists. Joseph Rouletabille is without a doubt France's answer to Sherlock Holmes. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Gaston Leroux's The Mystery of the Yellow Room is a classic of French literature reimagined for modern readers.
Crispin Guest is summoned to a London priory to unmask a merciless killer. Can he discover who is committing the deadliest of sins? 1399, London. A drink at the Boar's Tusk takes an unexpected turn for Crispin Guest, Tracker of London, and his apprentice, Jack Tucker, when a messenger claims the prioress at St. Frideswide wants to hire him to investigate murders at the priory. Two of Prioress Drueta's nuns have been killed in a way that signifies two of the Seven Deadly Sins, and she's at her wits end. Meanwhile, trouble is brewing outside of London when the exiled Henry Bolingbroke, the new Duke of Lancaster, returns to England's shores with an army to take back his inheritance. Crispin is caught between solving the crimes at St. Frideswide's Priory, and making a choice once more whether to stand with King Richard or commit treason again.
As the Great War grinds to its bloody finale, DI Hardcastle is encumbered with a frustrating and complicated investigation . . . March, 1918. The Great War is grinding slowly to its bloody finale. Divisional Detective Inspector Ernest Hardcastle, head of the Whitehall Division of the Metropolitan Police, is called to a body is recovered from the Thames. Mavis Parker, the victim and attractive widow, proves to be a good-time girl, and to complicate matters, all the suspects seem to be known to each other, including a South African who purports to be an actor. But it is when Special Branch intervene that things really get complicated . .
Cairo, 1912. The Pasha receives an unexpected gift: a traditional
Bride Box. When opened, however, the box contains an unwelcome jolt
from the past . . . At the same time, a little girl is discovered
riding under a train from Luxor - and the Mamur Zapt, Head of the
Khedive's Secret Police, is called in to investigate.
A Roger the Chapman mystery Christmas, 1483: Roger the Chapman is looking forward to twelve days of peace and celebration with his wife and children in Bristol. The family is particularly excited by the arrival of a troupe of mummers, who will perform their plays in the outer ward of the castle throughout the festival. But the gruesome murders of two of the town's most prominent and venerable citizens, both veterans of the French wars, scupper Roger's hopes as he is gradually drawn into the hunt for the killer. Once again, Roger finds himself in grave danger, but it is someone else who pays the price of his inability to keep his nose out of matters that do not concern him . . .
In the latest Richard Nottingham historical mystery, the Constable must track down a predatory child-killer who roams the city. Leeds, 1733. Three children are found dead in a disused bell pit; their bodies battered and bruised, each of them stabbed through the heart. As an atmosphere of fear and suspicion pervades the city, Richard Nottingham and his team find themselves hunting a ruthless child-killer, a monster who preys on abandoned street children, those with no one to care about them, no one to report them missing. The Constable has his suspicions as to who the culprit might be - but how can he prove it when the wealthy and powerful protect their own? He could also do without the interference of the new mayor, who's taking a close personal interest in the case. Nottingham's efforts to bring the killer to justice will have tragic consequences for himself and his family.
"Harrison, like Peter Tremayne in his Sister Fidelma series, provides a superior brand of historical mystery" Booklist February, 1512. Mara, Brehon of the Burren, judge and lawgiver, has been invited, along with her pupils, to the magnificent and imposing city state of Galway, which is ruled by English laws and operates under a royal charter originally granted by Richard III. While in the city, Mara and her students sit in on a hearing for a man from the Burren who has been caught stealing a meat pie. He cannot speak English and has no means to defend himself, but the penalty for such a theft is death. Can Mara use her legal knowledge to save the poor man's life? However, events in the city take a dramatic turn when the mayor's son is charged with a heinous crime. Mara is sure there is more to the case than meets the eye and sets out prove his innocence, before he too is sent to the hangman's noose .
Benjamin January's search for a missing man takes him into a dark world filled with grave robbers and slave stealers. New Orleans, 1838. When Benjamin January suddenly finds that his services playing piano at extravagant balls held by the city's wealthy are no longer required, he ends up agreeing to accompany sugar planter Henri Viellard and his young wife, Chloe, on a mission to Washington to find a missing friend. Plunged into a murky world, it soon becomes clear that while it is very possible the Viellards' friend is dead, his enemies are very much alive - and ready to kill anyone who gets in their way.
Happily married to her third husband, Ursula Blanchard is rudely shaken on receipt of a threatening letter from the exiled Anne Percy, Countess of Northumberland, whose treasonous plot against Elizabeth I, Ursula helped foil a few months previously. Ursula dismisses the Countess's letter as idle threats, but then a series of strange events rocks Ursula's household - and Ursula herself is accused of witchcraft. Could Anne Percy really be orchestrating a plot against Ursula from her exile in the Netherlands? And, if so, how can Ursula prove it before she is hanged as a witch?
Private investigator Liberty Lane's latest case takes her to rural Gloucestershire to uncover the truth of a brutal murder. July, 1840. Did young Jack Picton, a known rebel and political agitator, kill governess Mary Marsh? Liberty Lane has left London for Cheltenham to find out, sharing the magistrate's doubts. He is, however, hiding something ...but what? As Liberty is about to discover, behind Cheltenham's genteel facade lies a hotbed of vice. It is a place where the poor are driven to desperate lengths to escape the horror of the workhouse. A place which is harbouring a ruthless killer. Can Liberty uncover the truth in time?
June, 1914. Following three, seemingly unrelated suicides, DI Silas Quinn knows he must uncover the link between the three men if he is to discover what caused them to take their own lives. The one clue is a card each victim was carrying, depicting a crudely-drawn red hand. To find out what it means, Quinn must revisit his own dark past.
"Medieval mystery fans have cause for rejoicing with the return of Brother Athelstan" Booklist on Bloodstone The twelfth intricately plotted Brother Athelstan medieval mystery January, 1381. Guests of the Regent, John of Gaunt, Brother Athelstan and Sir John Cranston have been attending a mystery play performed by the Straw Men, Gaunt's personal acting troupe, when the evening's entertainment is rudely interrupted by the sudden, violent deaths of two of Gaunt's VIP guests, their severed heads left on stage. The Regent orders Athelstan to find out who committed such a heinous act, leading Athelstan to tackle his most baffling case yet.
Come to me! I need you! These are the words that bring apprentice healer Lassair awake one morning in the spring of 1092, shaking and trembling, covered in sweat despite the chill night. It is not the first time she has had such a dream, and Lassair - who is growing more aware of the strange power within her - knows that something in the spirit world is trying to reach her. Something increasingly insistent and threatening. Soon, Lassair is certain that one of her loved ones is in terrible danger - but who? Travelling from Cambridge, where she is studying under the tutelage of an extraordinary man, she returns to her backwater Fenland village - to hear the dreadful news that a nun at Chatteris Abbey has been murdered. The same nunnery where her beloved sister, Elfritha, lives. Could the urgent summons have come from her? Lassair immediately sets off, full of fear, but the danger she will have to face may be greater than she is ready for . . .
"A gruesome discovery leads Libertus on a dangerous quest ...- "Wealthy Volus, ex-lictor to the Imperial Governor of Gaul, is retiring to the town of Glevum. Libertus is sent to his new apartment, where he is informed that one of the ex-lictor's treasure carts has been intercepted, the guards and horses brutally butchered. When his actions are misinterpreted by a network of spies, Libertus is suspected of involvement in the massacre and marched to the garrison to await trial. But after daringly escaping, Libertus embarks on a dangerous quest to discover the truth ...
A missing man leads Jack Haldean straight into danger . . . Mark Helston, the rising star of Hunt Coffee Limited, was successful and popular, with plenty of money and everything to live for. Yet at half past seven on the evening of the ninth of January, 1925, he walked out of his Albemarle Street flat and disappeared. Desperate to know what happened to Mark, his uncle, old Mr Hunt, appeals to Jack Haldean. Inspector Bill Rackham of Scotland Yard thinks it's a thankless task. Perhaps, says Jack, but why should Mark Helston vanish? And then Jack finds a body . . .
In the autumn of 1483, Roger goes on an errand of mercy to Hereford, where he gets caught up in the Duke of Buckingham's rebellion against the new king, Richard III. Taking refuge in Tintern Abbey, Roger learns of an ancient hiding-place linked to events of over a century and a half ago. But on his return to Bristol, a murder and a series of house robberies lead him to the eventual discovery of the fabulous treasure stolen from the abbey on the night he was there. It also means danger, not only for himself, but a member of his family.
‘A page-turner of a crime thriller . . . This is a world conveyed with convincing, terrible clarity’ – C. J. Sansom Blood & Sugar is the thrilling debut historical crime novel from Laura Shepherd-Robinson. June, 1781. An unidentified body hangs upon a hook at Deptford Dock – horribly tortured and branded with a slaver’s mark. Some days later, Captain Harry Corsham – a war hero embarking upon a promising parliamentary career – is visited by the sister of an old friend. Her brother, passionate abolitionist Tad Archer, had been about to expose a secret that he believed could cause irreparable damage to the British slaving industry. He’d said people were trying to kill him, and now he is missing . . . To discover what happened to Tad, Harry is forced to pick up the threads of his friend’s investigation, delving into the heart of the conspiracy Tad had unearthed. His investigation will threaten his political prospects, his family’s happiness, and force a reckoning with his past, risking the revelation of secrets that have the power to destroy him. And that is only if he can survive the mortal dangers awaiting him in Deptford . . .
"RAN AWAY." So began a score of advertisements every week in the New Orleans newspapers, advertising for slaves who'd fled their masters. But the Turk, Huseyin Pasha, posted no such advertisement when his two lovely concubines disappeared. And when a witness proclaimed that he'd seen the "devilish Infidel" hurl the two girls' dead bodies from his attic window on Bourbon Street, everyone in New Orleans "knew" of the proverbial jealousy of Turks and was willing to believe him the murderer. Only Benjamin January, driven by memories of his first meeting with the Turk in Paris ten years before, is willing to brave public outrage and mob violence to seek for the true culprit. The quest takes him back to memories of tragedy, and, in pursuing them, he finds himself the target of accusations which endanger his family, his freedom . . . and his life.
The enthralling new Burren mystery . . . April 1511, Ireland. Mara, Brehon of the Burren, is celebrating the christening of her son when she notices that three of her law students have disappeared from the party. The next morning, one of them is found dead on a lone mountain pass with suspicious wounds. He was carrying an important legal document that has now disappeared. But why did he choose to deliver it during the night, and what of the two other missing students? Mara must uncover the truth, and it at first seems that the stolen deed holds all the answers . . .
A 'Canterbury Tales' medieval mystery As Chaucer's pilgrims shelter for the night in a well-stocked tavern, it's the physician's turn to enthral his fellow travellers with a terrifying tale of mystery and intrigue. When Brother Anselm and his novice Stephen are summoned to the Church of St Michael's, Candlewick, to perform an exorcism, little are they prepared for the horror that awaits. The demons and apparitions that plague the church would appear to have been summoned by an infamous sorcerer known as the Midnight Man. But what has he unwittingly unleashed - and why? Is someone using the haunting as the perfect cover for their murderous intent? And is there any link with the sudden disappearances of a number of young women in the area? The answers lie in the past and an unresolved wickedness from many decades before. But before Anselm can get to the truth, he must uncover the identity of the mysterious Midnight Man.
In an aging mansion on the south side of London's Putney Bridge, an old woman confesses a secret to her grandson, just returned home from the battlefields of World War II. Charlotte Stetchworth has always appeared to be a proper Englishwoman, though with a lively background as a suffragette and European traveler. Now, her grandson Freddy learns a sinister secret, that Charlotte and her son Rolly-Freddy's father-were involved in a complex web of spying for the Germans starting in World War I. In this captivating novel by historian and Army veteran Colonel David Fitz-Enz, we follow Rolly throughout the European theater of World War I. Rags, as he is known to friends and colleagues, is assigned to the staff of Major General Avery Hilliard Hopewell, an inspector general for the British Army whose work takes him from the battlefields of France to Alexandria and Gallipoli and beyond. Rags' travels lead him to army hospitals, a mysterious father figure, a beautiful nurse wracked with grief, and Churchill's War Rooms. Along the way, he and Charlotte learn the art of spycraft and use any means necessary to keep their secret. But while Freddy is told his family's covert history, he begins to suspect that Charlotte has just scratched the surface. Beginning his own investigation, Freddy learns that there is much more to discover about the spy on Putney Bridge. |
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