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Locked-room mysteries and other impossible crime stories have been
relished by puzzle-lovers ever since the invention of detective
fiction. Fiendishly intricate cases were particularly well suited
to the cerebral type of detective story that became so popular
during the 'golden age of murder' between the two world wars. But
the tradition goes back to the days of Wilkie Collins, and
impossible crime stories have been written by such luminaries as
Arthur Conan Doyle, G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy L. Sayers and Margery
Allingham. This anthology celebrates their work, alongside
long-hidden gems by less familiar writers. Together these stories
demonstrate the range and high accomplishment of the classic
British impossible crime story over more than half a century.
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Someone from the Past
Margot Bennett; Introduction by Martin Edwards
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R316
R259
Discovery Miles 2 590
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'Then I felt his warm hand grow cold, it was as if he had been
reminded of death. He wasn’t looking at me any more, but
obliquely, across the restaurant. I turned round.' Sarah has been
receiving threatening anonymous letters seemingly from a former
lover. Just one day after revealing this information to her co-
worker Nancy, Sarah is shot and found in her bedroom by one of her
past flames, Donald. Desperate to clear any evidence of Donald’s
presence at the scene for her own infatuations, Nancy finds herself
as the key suspect when she is discovered in the apartment. As the
real killer uses the situation to their advantage, Bennett crafts a
tense and nuanced story through flashbacks to Sarah’s life and
loves in this Gold- Dagger-award-winning story of deceit and
murder.
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Green for Danger (Paperback)
Christianna Brand; Introduction by Martin Edwards
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R418
R351
Discovery Miles 3 510
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While hot on the heels of serial coupon-racketeer Gordon Ginner,
Chief Inspector MacDonald of Scotland Yard receives word of an
intriguing incident up in Lancashire – the summer cottage of
local farmer Giles Hoggett has been broken into, with an assortment
of seemingly random items missing which include a complete reel of
salmon line, a large sack, and two iron dogs from his fireplace.
What first appears to Insp. MacDonald as a simple break-in quickly
spirals into a mystery of contested land grabs for fishing between
farmers, made all the more enticing to MacDonald when a body is
then found in the river – the body of Gordon Ginner. It’s up to
Insp. MacDonald, aided by the locals of Lunesdale, to determine who
broke into Hoggett’s cottage, where his irons dogs have gone, and
how Ginner met his watery end. First published in 1946 and set in
the fell country of Lunesdale over the course of a rainy September,
The Theft of the Iron Dogs is the very picture of a cosy crime
mystery and showcases Lorac’s masterful attention to detail and
deep affection for both Lunesdale and its residents.
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He Who Whispers
John Dickson-Carr; Introduction by Martin Edwards
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R317
R260
Discovery Miles 2 600
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‘It almost seemed that the murder, if it was a murder, must have
been committed by someone who could rise up unsupported in the
air…’ When Miles Hammond is invited to a meeting of the Murder
Club in London, he is met instead with just two other guests and is
treated to a strange tale of an impossible crime in France from
years before; the murder of a man on a tower with only one
staircase, under watch at the time at which the murder took place.
With theories of levitating vampires abounding, the story comes
home to Miles when he realises that the librarian he has just hired
for his home is none other than Fay Seton, a woman whose name still
echoes from the heart of this bizarre and unsolved murder of the
past. First published in 1946, in later years Carr considered this
novel one of his finest works. It shows the masterful author at the
height of his powers, boasting an ingenious plot delivered with an
astounding pace and striking characters including none other than
the great detective, Dr Gideon Fell.
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Due to a Death (Paperback)
Mary Kelly; Contributions by Martin Edwards
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R404
R335
Discovery Miles 3 350
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The Chianti Flask (Paperback)
Marie Belloc Lowndes; Introduction by Martin Edwards
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R407
R338
Discovery Miles 3 380
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An honest policeman, Sergeant Wigan, escorts a drunk man home one
night to keep him out of trouble and, seeing his fine book
collection, slowly falls in to the gentle art of book collecting.
Just as the friendship is blossoming, the policeman's
book-collecting friend is murdered. To solve the mystery of why the
victim was killed, and which of his rare books was taken, Wigan
dives into the world of 'runners' and book collectors, where avid
agents will gladly cut you for a first edition and then offer you a
lift home afterwards. This adventurous mystery, which combines
exuberant characters with a wonderfully realised depiction of the
second-hand book market, is sure to delight bibliophiles and
classic crime enthusiasts alike.
'The red robe concealed the blood until it made my hand sticky.
Father Christmas had been stabbed in the back, and he was certainly
dead.' The murder of Father Christmas at one of London’s great
toy shops is just one of many yuletide disasters in this new
collection of stories from the Golden Age of crime writing and
beyond. Masters of the genre such as Patricia Moyes and John
Dickson Carr present perfectly packaged short pieces, and Martin
Edwards delivers a sackful of rarities from authors such as Ellis
Peters, Gwyn Evans and Michael Innes. The answer to any classic
crime fiction fan’s Christmas wish – and the only way for you
to answer Who Killed Father Christmas? – this new anthology is
set to muddle, befuddle, surprise and delight.
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 was last seen alive. How did the murderer get in and
out of the pavilion without leaving a trace? When Bennett's uncle,
the cantankerous amateur sleuth Sir Henry Merrivale arrives from
London to make sense of this impossible crime, the reader is
treated to a feast of the author's trademark twists, beguiling
false answers and one of the most ingenious solutions in the
history of the mystery genre. When Henry Merrivale arrives to piece
together what appears to be an impossible crime, Carr treats the
reader to sensational twists, febrile tension between the closed
circle of suspects and one of the most perfect solutions in the
history of the genre.
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Big Ben Strikes Eleven
David Magarshack; Introduction by Martin Edwards
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R317
R260
Discovery Miles 2 600
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The discovery of Sir Robert Boniface’s body on the floor of his
blue limousine was made quite accidentally on a sultry Friday
evening towards the end of June. The industrial and financial
tycoon, and former stalwart of the British Cabinet, had been shot
in the head and left in the quiet Vale of Health alongside
London’s Hampstead Heath. Nearby, a rejected portrait of Sir
Robert is found riddled with bullets in the studio of the now-
missing romantic artist Matt Caldwell. As it hurtles towards its
feverish denouement under the bells of the capital’s most famous
clock, this closely observed and stylish study of both character
and motive transports the reader from the Stock Exchange to
Scotland Yard. It asks the question of what it means to be crooked
and how immense power corrupts. First published in 1934, this novel
is now extremely rare, and is long overdue its rediscovery.
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Jumping Jenny (Paperback)
Anthony Berkeley; Introduction by Martin Edwards
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R418
R351
Discovery Miles 3 510
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"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 like flames in brushwood."
It all began up at High Gimmerdale with the sheep-stealing, a
hateful act in the shepherding lands around the bend in the Lune
river - the Crook o' Lune. Then came the fire at Aikengill house
and with the leaping of the flames, death, disorder and dangerous
gossip came to the quiet moorlands. Visiting his friends, the
Hoggetts, while searching for some farmland to buy up ahead of his
retirement, Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald's trip becomes a
busman's holiday when he is drawn to investigate the deadly blaze
and the deep-rooted motives behind the rising spate of crimes.
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.
'Then the rhythm of the train changed, and she seemed to be sliding
backwards down a long slope. Click-click-click-click. The wheels
rattled over the rails, with a sound of castanets.' Iris Carr's
holiday in the mountains of a remote corner of Europe has come to
an end, and since her friends left two days before, she faces the
journey home alone. Stricken by sunstroke at the station, Iris
catches the express train to Trieste by the skin of her teeth and
finds a companion in Miss Froy, an affable English governess. But
when Iris passes out and reawakens, Miss Froy is nowhere to be
found. The other passengers deny any knowledge of her existence and
as the train speeds across Europe, Iris spirals deeper and deeper
into a strange and dangerous conspiracy. First published in 1936
and adapted for the screen as The Lady Vanishes by Alfred Hitchcock
in 1938, Ethel Lina White's suspenseful mystery remains her
best-known novel, worthy of acknowledgement as a classic of the
genre in its own right.
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Widow of Bath (Paperback)
Margot Bennett; Introduction by Martin Edwards
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R420
R353
Discovery Miles 3 530
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'If much of the action is set in a bookshop or a library, it is a
bibliomystery, just as it is if a major character is a bookseller
or a librarian.' - Otto Penzler A bookish puzzle threatens an
eagerly awaited inheritance; a submission to a publisher recounts a
murder that seems increasingly to be a work of non-fiction; an
irate novelist puts a grisly end to the source of his writer's
block. 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, indiscreet playwrights and unscrupulous book
collectors, literary prowess is often a prologue to disaster. With
Martin Edwards as librarian and guide, delve into an irresistible
stack of tales perfect for every book-lover and armchair sleuth,
featuring much-loved Golden Age detectives such as Nigel
Strangeways, Philip Trent and Detective Chief Inspector Roderick
Alleyn. But readers should be warned that the most riveting tales
often conceal the deadliest of secrets...
On holiday in Keldstone visiting his nephew, Jim, blanket
manufacturer Athelstan Digby agrees to look after the old bookshop
on the ground floor of his lodgings while his hosts are away. On
the first day of his tenure, a vicar, a chauffeur and an
out-of-town stranger enquire after The Life and Death of Mr. Badman
by John Bunyan. When a copy mysteriously arrives at the shop in a
bundle of books brought in by a young scamp, and is subsequently
stolen, Digby moves to investigate the significance of the book
along with his nephew, and the two are soon embroiled in a case in
which the stakes have risen from antiquarian book-pinching to
ruthless murder. 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.
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