"Curiously enough," said Dr. Manners, "I know a story in which the detection of a murder turned on the behaviour of a bird: in this instance a jackdaw." Since the dawn of the crime fiction genre, animals of all kinds have played a memorable part in countless mysteries, and in a variety of roles: the perpetrator, the key witness, the sleuth's trusted companion. This collection of fourteen stories corrals plots centred around cats, dogs and insects alongside more exotic incidents involving gorillas, parakeets and serpents - complete with a customary shoal of red herrings. From the animal mysteries of Arthur Conan Doyle and F. Tennyson Jesse through to more modern masterpieces of the sub-genre from Christianna Brand and Penelope Wallace, this anthology celebrates one of the liveliest and most imaginative species of classic crime fiction.

Choice collection of short fiction by one of the masters of the genre. In addition to the title story, this volume includes "The Birthmark," "Rappaccini's Daughter," "Roger Malvin's Burial," "The Artist of the Beautiful," "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" and "My Kinsman, Major Molineux." Reprinted from standard texts, tales deal with scientific experiment, witchcraft, revenge, the power of guilt, more. Publisher's Note.

Ten tragicomic tales of environmental and personal disaster from the margins of town and country. A troubled hipster is seduced by an electricity pylon. Sinister omens manifest in a supermarket car park. A motorway bridge becomes a father. Malevolent bacteria plague a polar icebreaker. A bioengineered abomination lurks in a Gloucestershire railway terminus The weekly bin collection pushes a man over the edge. A former squatter clings to her home on a crumbling cliff. Joyriders are foiled by Anglo Saxon floodwaters. Vampiric entities stalk B&Q. And fiery catastrophe comes to the zoo. Gareth E. Rees's first collection of short fiction explores lives on the verge of breakdown, where ordinary people are driven to extremes by the effects of late capitalism and ecological collapse.

Belize, British Honduras. 10th September 1931. As good a place as any to die...