Includes a new introduction from Sophie Hannah, bestselling author of THE MONOGRAM MURDERS.

Agatha Christie was not only the biggest selling writer of detective stories the world has ever known, she was also a mystery in herself, giving only the rarest interviews, declining absolutely to become any sort of public figure, and a mystery too in the manner in which she achieved her astonishing success.

H R F Keating, a crime novelist and respected reviewer of crime fiction, brought together a dozen distinguished writers from both sides of the Atlantic to throw light on this double mystery. Some analyse the art itself; some explain the reasons for her success, not just the books, but also in film and theatre. The approaches are penetrating, affectionate, enthusiastic, analytical, funny - even critical.

Together, they give an almost unique insight into the life and work of the First Lady of Crime.

As punctilious as Poirot, as shrewd as Miss Marple and as sharp as Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown ranks higher than all of them in the pantheon of literary sleuths. For in the confessional this unassuming, innocent little priest has gained a deep and intuitive knowledge of the paradoxes of human nature. So when murder, mayhem and mystery stalk smart society, only Father Brown can be counted upon to discover the startling truth.

From the Collins Crime Club archive, the first original novel to feature Ben the Cockney tramp, the unorthodox detective character created by J. Jefferson Farjeon, author of Mystery in White. Strange things are happening in the untenanted houses of Jowle Street. There are unaccountable creakings and weird knockings on the door of No.29, where a homeless ex-sailor has taken up residence. But even stranger things are happening in the House Opposite, from where a beautiful woman in an evening gown brings Ben a mysterious message; and worse-the offer of a job! Ben the 'passing tramp' was immortalised on film by Alfred Hitchcock in 'Number 17', based on a popular 'twenties stage play and novelisation by journalist-turned-author Joe Jefferson Farjeon. The House Opposite (1931) was the first full-length original novel to feature Ben, a reluctant down-at-heels Cockney sleuth, who went on to feature in six more successful detective thrillers from 1931 to 1952. This Detective Story Club classic includes an introduction by H. R. F. Keating, author of the award-winning Inspector Ghote mysteries, which first appeared in the Crime Club's 1985 'Disappearing Detectives' series.

It is just Inspector Ghote's luck to be landed with the case of The Perfect Murder at the start of his career with the Bombay Police. For in this most baffling of crimes there is the cunning and important tycoon Lala Varde to contend with, and as if this were not enough, Ghote finds himself having to investigate the mysterious theft of one rupee from the desk of another very important person, the Minister of Police Affairs and the Arts. The Perfect Murder won both an Edgar Special Award from the Mystery Writers of America and the Golden Dagger from the English Crime Writers Association. H. R. F. Keating is the author of many acclaimed mysteries.

Inspector Ganesh Ghote comes to London!The Indian police inspector (pronounced Go-tay) is sent to attend an international conference on drug smuggling; and in cold, drizzling London he is faced with his first case outside India.It is a very odd case. The girl, Ranee, niece of relatives of Ghote who live in London, has vanished--seduced, kidnapped, murdered, so her relatives allege, by the notorious pop singer Johnny Bull. Ghote is hounded by the relatives into spending his few leisure hours from the conference in trying to find Ranee--known for her brilliance as The Peacock.

In the rough, tough world where predatory young beauty queens compete fiercely for money, a murder is committed. Police Constable Peter Lassington is soon enmeshed in a complicated mystery - a mystery made more than usually exotic by the acreage of young feminine flesh that is continuously on show at the Star Bowl ballroom, rehearsing for the contest at which the St. Valentine prizes will be awarded. Lassington's superior, the officer in charge of the case, is Superintendent Ironside. Ironside - polite, sophisticated, devious - is somewhat sceptical about the charms of the young ladies: his thoughts roam forward to his imminent retirement. This detective novel is carefully plotted and firmly set in a world of bizarre values - values that do not appeal to Ironside, the most striking police detective to appear in fiction for some time. The naked competition of the adolescent beauty queens provides the background to a strange and exciting murder novel, with a surprise ending.

This novel, set in Victorian London in its heyday, presents a picture, both horrific and authentic, of the 'underside' of life in the first city of the world. It tells of Godfrey Mann, a young painter, who has access to the golden world of privilege and yet is possessed by a compelling sexual drive towards the hidden squalor and darkness below, a nostalgie de la boue that wars tumultuously both with his ideals as an artist and his love for the lion-couraged social reformer, Elizabeth. It is between Godfrey's reckless urges and Elizabeth's purity that truth must ultimately lie. And in working out this conflict of opposites, the story, though placed in an age whose fixed moral structure contrasts so forcibly with our permissiveness, has a meaning for today. Here are 'scenes from Victorian life' that will not be quickly forgotten. There are vignettes of the elegance of the upper side, as ornately formal in its social routines as in the sheer magnificence of its horses and carriages and opulent settings. There is the underside with its appealing sexuality, violence and open putrescence. There is, above all, the mingling of the two in a brilliantly brought to life picture or the whole rich, riotous, bawdy assembly of a Victorian Derby Day. It is compulsive story-telling, handled with the cool detachment and lucidity which in other fields have brought H.R.F. Keating a wide readership.

Jack Stallworthy is a bad detective just on the right side of corrupt. But now he's turning criminal... Detective Sergeant Jack Stallworthy has been accepting backhanders for most of his career. And why not? He's spent thirty years putting villains behind bars, surely he's entitled to a little nest-egg? Lily, the pretty wife he dearly loves, dreams of retirement on the tropical island Ko Samui, but Jack will happily settle for a bungalow in Devon. Until, that is, influential businessman Emslie Warnaby offers him paradise on a plate. All he has to do is steal one slim file from the Fraud Investigation office at police HQ. But soon Jack Stallworthy is dangerously out of his depth...

First published in 1978, this is a London where the worst has happened. There have been riots, huge uncontrolled fires, outbreaks of savage looting, artillery battles, mass flights. The great city lies three parts deserted, open to marauding gangs and beast-wild individuals, its highways and landmarks tumbled like ruined temples. To Mark, comparatively safe up in less troubled Highgate, there comes a message that his estranged wife is dying over in Wimbledon, right across on the far side of the dangerous bowl of the devastated city. Reluctant almost to sticking-point, he sets out to go to her. His journey is a story of adventure through the ruins. His immediate business is the simple one of pressing on through all the debris, always driven because he knows that Jasmine will die soon. He may never get there: he may be killed by idiotic accident, torn to pieces by the packs of wild dogs, trapped in one of the communes that within their stockades have established their own ruthlessly puritanical disciplines. But the difficulties and the dangers teach him lessons as he struggles onwards. He learns from the past. If it was drink, drugs and the dolce vita that had done for his wife, had not something similar destroyed the city too? He learns about the present amid its hazards. And he learns, as he comes at last to the bleak end of his Iong walk, lessons for a just possible future.

A delegation of visiting firemen arrives at Southampton, greeted by a stagecoach which carries a reception committee in early 19th century costume. This Old English greeting has been arranged between their president, Foster P. Schelemberger, and George Hamyadis, the flamboyant travel agent who is handling all the details of their visit to Britain. During an overnight stop in Winchester, Hamyadis reveals his plan for a little surprise to entertain the delegates during the journey to London the next day. But the surprise, when it comes, turns out to be a very grim one indeed - especially for Hamyadis...

First published in 1975, A Remarkable Case of Burglary tells of Val Leary, who is handsome, charming and broke. On the morning of April Fools' Day 1871, while walking through one of London's wealthiest districts, he notices a young maidservant scrubbing the steps of 53 Northbourne Park Villas. In that instant he conceives the idea for a remarkable case of burglary. The set-up seems perfect, but chance intervenes in a succession of coincidences that place the jewels further and further beyond the reach of Val and his cronies - until... Set in the Upstairs, Downstairs world of Victorian England, this is an ingenious and gripping tale by the acknowledged master of the English crime novel.

Introducing Bombay CID's most dogged, dutiful officer, and one of the greatest, most engaging creations in all detective fiction, H.R.F. Keating's The Perfect Murder: The First Inspector Ghote Mystery includes a preface by Alexander McCall Smith, author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, in Penguin Modern Classics. One crime that couldn't have happened, one that probably hasn't. Nothing's ever easy for Inspector Ghote. In the house of Lala Varde, a vast man of even vaster influence, an attack has taken place. Varde's secretary, Mr Perfect, has been struck on his invaluable business head. And try as Inspector Ghote might to remain conscientious and methodical, his investigation is beset on all sides by cunning, disdain and corruption. And then there's another urgent case to be dealt with: the impossible theft of a single rupee . . . H. R. F. Keating (1926-2011) was born at St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex. He went to Merchant Taylors, leaving early to work in the engineering department of the BBC. After a period of service in the army, which he describes as 'totally undistinguished', he went to Trinity College, Dublin, where he became a scholar in modern languages. He was also the crime books reviewer for The Times for fifteen years. His first novel about Inspector Ghote, The Perfect Murder, won the Gold Dagger of the Crime Writers Association and an Edgar Allen Poe Special Award. His other works in Penguin Modern Classics include Inspector Ghote Breaks an Egg, Inspector Ghote Trusts the Heart, and Under a Monsoon Cloud: An Inspector Ghote Mystery. If you enjoyed The Perfect Murder, you might like Keating's Inspector Ghote Breaks an Egg, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. 'May the redoubtable Ghote go on for ever' Len Deighton 'Beautiful little classics' Alexander McCall Smith

An independent island state in the North Atlantic has fallen under the sway of Rolph Mylchraine, a landowner who has gained ascendancy by stage-managing witchcraft orgies and purveying cheap liquor. Opposing him is Keig, a peasant of extraordinary physical strength who gradually emerges leader on the grand scale. Through their developing struggle, which becomes a guerrilla war in the classic mould, echoes the sombre theme of the fatal tendency of power to corrupt. Mr Keating, already acknowledged as a writer of distinguished crime novels, has produced at perhaps the height of his powers a book that is not only a new departure for himself but also genuinely original.

It's not often a Nobel Prize winner gets murdered...on your patch...very likely by a member of your own family. DCI Phil Benholme has the reputation for being a little soft because he tries to see both sides of every story. And if he hadn't on this occasion, the murder of Professor Unwala - Nobel Prize winner of 1945 - would have been recorded as a tragic accident. Was the elderly man a victim of a violent burglary? Or of a racist assault by Britforce troopers? Or did he know something about the collection of Celtic coins thought to be buried nearby? Clearly Inspector Benholme has a number of leads to follow up. Unfortunately they all point to one person - Conor Benholme. What does a 'soft cop' do when his teenage son is also his prime suspect?