Best of
Mystery-Thriller

1934

Fer-de-Lance


Rex Stout - 1934
    When someone makes a present of one to Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin knows he's getting dreadfully close to solving the devilishly clever murders of an immigrant and a college president. As for Wolfe, he's playing snake charmer in a case with more twists than an anaconda -- whistling a seductive tune he hopes will catch a killer who's still got poison in his heart.

Cain's Jawbone


E. Powys Mathers - 1934
    One hundred pages. Millions of possible combinations... but only one is correct. Can you solve Torquemada's murder mystery? In 1934, the Observer's cryptic crossword compiler, Edward Powys Mathers (aka Torquemada), released a novel that was simultaneously a murder mystery and the most fiendishly difficult literary puzzle ever written. The pages have been printed in an entirely haphazard order, but it is possible - through logic and intelligent reading - to sort the pages into the only correct order, revealing six murder victims and their respective murderers. Only two puzzlers have ever solved the mystery of Cain's Jawbone: do you have what it takes to join their ranks? Please note: this puzzle is extremely difficult and not for the faint-hearted.NB This is a new edition of the last 100-page puzzle in Torquemada's 1934 "The Torquemada Puzzle Book". It is a limited edition boxed set in which the pages are printed on cards to facilitate solving.

A Pin To See The Peepshow


F. Tennyson Jesse - 1934
    A Pin to See the Peepshow is a fictionalized account of the life of Edith Thompson, one of the three main players in the "Ilford murder" case of 1922.

The House on the Roof


Mignon G. Eberhart - 1934
    “She reached the roof and emerged at the opening of the parapet wall. Flat, black, and dirty. Chimneys, incinerators, ventilators. The house itself, dark and dingy and passive. Nothing moved. . . . No sound except, away below, the murmur of a passing automobile. . . . Quite suddenly she realized that if she had removed the threat of the police she had also removed their protection.” In a few moments she will face sheer dizzying horror.

The Thin Man


Dashiell Hammett - 1934
    At once knowing and unabashedly romantic, The Thin Man is a murder mystery that doubles as a sophisticated comedy of manners.