In an age of rapid scientific progress, the idea of a vindictive past able to reach out and violate the present held a special potential for terror. Throughout the nineteenth century, fictional ghost stories developed in parallel with the more general Victorian fascination with death and what lay beyond it. Though they were as much a part of the cultural and literary fabric of the age as imperial confidence, the best of the stories still retain their original power to surprise and unsettle. In Victorian Ghost Stories, the editors map out the development of the ghost story from 1850 to the early years of the twentieth century and demonstrate the importance of this form of short fiction in Victorian popular culture. As well as reprinting stories by supernatural specialists such as J. S. Le Fanu and M. R. James, this selection emphasizes the key role played by women writers--including Elizabeth Gaskell, Rhoda Broughton, and Charlotte Riddell--and offers one or two genuine rarities. Other writers represented include Charles Dickens, Henry James, Wilkie Collins, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and R. L. Stevenson. There is also a fascinating Introduction and a chronological list of ghost story collections from 1850 to 1910.Includes:The old nurse's story by Elizabeth GaskellAn account of some strange disturbances in Aungier Street by J.S. Le FanuThe miniature by J.Y. AkermanThe last house in C-Street by Dinah MulockTo be taken with a grain of salt by Charles DickensThe Botathen ghost by R.S. HawkerThe truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth by Rhoda BroughtonThe romance of certain old clothes by Henry JamesPichon & Sons, of the Croix Rousse by AnonymousReality or delusion? by Mrs Henry WoodUncle Cornelius, his story by George MacDonaldThe shadow of a shade by Tom HoodAt Chrighton Abbey by Mary Elizabeth BraddonNo living voice by Thomas Street MillingtonMiss Jéromette and the clergyman by Wilkie CollinsThe story of Clifford House by AnonymousWas it an illusion? by Amelia B. EdwardsThe open door by Charlotte RiddellThe captain of the "Pole-star" by Sir Arthur Conan DoyleThe body-snatcher by Robert Louis StevensonThe story of the rippling train by Mary Louisa MolesworthAt the end of the passage by Rudyard Kipling"To let" by B.M. CrokerJohn Charrington's wedding by E. NesbitThe haunted organist of Hurly Burly by Rosa MulhollandThe man of science by Jerome K. JeromeCanon Alberic's scrap-book by M.R. JamesJerry Bundler by W.W. JacobsAn Eddy on the floor by Bernard CapesThe tomb of Sarah by F.G. LoringThe case of Vincent Pyrwhit by Barry PainThe shadows on the wall by Mary E. WilkinsFather Macclesfield's tale by R.H. BensonThurnley Abbey by Perceval LandonThe kit-bag by Algernon Blackwood

    Inspector Wilkins is called in to investigate, but it's going to take some intricate sleuthing to uncover who killed whom and why.

    Watson, it is only now that, owing to his recent death, the full biography and facts of his life can be brought before the public. This volume brings together for the first time every known fact that can be fully authenticated about the life of one of the world's most extraordinary men, and reveals much more about him that has not been heretofore generally known. From twenty years' research into every possible source, the author has written as definitive an account as could ever be assembled. Sherlock Holmes was born on January 6th, 1854, the third and last son of Siger and Violet Holmes, of North Riding, Yorkshire. He traveled widely on the continent as a boy, where he learned six languages. Displaying most unusual talents at an early age, he attended an English boarding school, and in 1872 entered Oxford. He soon decided to train himself to become a consulting detective, and before long he was starting to take cases. Except for a period when he was an actor, he pursued his chosen career thereafter and of course became famous after Dr. Watson started to write about him. This book reveals far more than Watson ever could, including the whole story of his running battle with the infamous Professor Moriarty, his dangerous brush with Jack with Ripper, his long association and love for Irene Adler, the question of his own son, and the story of his retirement, the writing of his great book, and the circumstances of his death. In short, this book contains everything that can be told about Holmes. It is a marvelous reconstruction from very scattered sources, and the amazing but always scrupulously accurate story of a great man.Contents:1: Genteel gypsies: 1854-64 --2: Old Sherman, Winwood Reade, Maitre Bencin, and Professor Moriarty: 1864-72 --3: Oxford and Cambridge: 1872-77 --4: Montague Street: 1877-79 --5: On stage and off in England and America: 1879-81 --6: Early days on Baker Street: 1881-83 --7: First Mrs Watson: 1883-86 --8: Woman: November 1886-May 1887 --9: Orange Pips, red-headed men, and a blue carbuncle: May-December 1887 --10: Back to Baker Street: January 1888 --Interruption: Three stories from the London Times: August 10, September 1, September 10, 1888 --11: To meet Mr Mycroft Holmes: Wednesday, September 12, 1888 --12: Sign of the four: Tuesday, September 18-Friday, September 21, 1888 --13: Dr James Mortimer and Sir Henry Baskerville: Tuesday, September 25-Saturday, September 29, 1888 --Interruption: Two stories from the London Times: October 1 and 2, 1888 --14: Horror Hound: Sunday, September 30-Saturday, October 20, 1888 --15: Jack the Harlot Killer: Friday, November 9-Sunday, November 11, 1888 --16: Second Mrs Watson: 1819-90 --17: Final problem? Friday, April 24-Monday, May 4, 1891 --Entr'acte: Dr Watson, writer --18: Meeting in Montenegro: June 1891 --19: Venture into the unknown: 1891-93 --20: Return of Sherlock Holmes: Thursday, April 5, 1894 --21: Game's afoot again: 1894-95 --22: Crowded years: 1896-1902 --23: Third Mrs Watson: July 1902-October 1903 --24: Sussex Downs: 1909 --25: His last bow: Sunday, August 2, 1914 --Epilogue: Sherlock Holmes walks at sunset: Sunday, January 6, 1957 --Appendix 1: Chronological Holmes --Appendix 2: Bibliographical Holmes: a selective compilation.

    John Watson investigate a series of previously unrecorded cases in this new collection of original tales. In the Scottish Highlands and Afghanistan, in the cases of a dying doctor and a mooning sentry, of a black basalt bird and white chalk horse, popular contemporary mystery writers—among them Sharyn McCrumb, Carolyn Wheat, Anne Perry and Malachi Saxon, Jon L. Breen, Bill Crider, Colin Bruce—craftily celebrate the mind, methods, and manners of the peerless Sherlock Holmes. In addition, with one foot in the Victorian age and the other in the computer age, Christopher Redmond illuminates the vast possibilities that new technology offers Sherlockians in "Sherlock Holmes on the Internet," while in "A Sherlockian Library" editors Jon Lellenberg and Daniel Stashower provide a new list of fifty essential titles on Arthur Conan Doyle and the Holmes canon. Finally, an essay by mystery novelist Philip A. Shreffler explores one of English literature's most famous friendships in "Holmes and Watson, the Head and the Heart."(front flap)

    From a previously unpublished 1917 script featuring Ernest Bramah’s blind detective Max Carrados, to early 1950s crime stories written for London’s Evening Standard by Cyril Hare, Freeman Wills Crofts and A.A. Milne, it spans five decades of writing by masters of the Golden Age.Most anticipated of all are the contributions by women writers: the first detective story by Georgette Heyer, unseen since 1923; an unpublished story by Christianna Brand, creator of Nanny McPhee; and a dark tale by Agatha Christie published only in an Australian journal in 1922 during her ‘Grand Tour’ of the British Empire.With other stories by Detection Club stalwarts Anthony Berkeley, H.C. Bailey, J.J. Connington, John Rhode and Nicholas Blake, plus Vincent Cornier, Leo Bruce, Roy Vickers and Arthur Upfield, this essential collection harks back to a time before forensic science – when murder was a complex business.

    When her locked door is finally broken down by her father and a servant, they find the woman on the floor, badly hurt and bleeding. No one else is in the room. There is no other exit except through a barred window. How did the attacker escape?First published in 1907, this intriguing and baffling tale is a classic of early 20th-century detective fiction. At the heart of the novel is a perplexing mystery: How could a crime take place in a locked room which shows no sign of being entered? Nearly a century after its initial publication, Leroux's landmark tale of foul play, deception, and unbridled ambition remains a blueprint for the detective novel genre. Written by the immortal author of The Phantom of the Opera, this atmospheric thriller is still a favorite of whodunit fans everywhere."The finest locked room tale ever written." — John Dickson Carr, author of The Hollow Man.

    His arrogance and abrasive manner had alienated his wife, her sister, his house guests, his wayward son, even a desperate friend. Of course, his attentions to one attractive young guest in plain view of her husband simply multiplied the possible suspects in his murder.

    Feared but not loved, Manderson has no one to mourn him when the gardener at his British country estate finds him facedown in the dirt, a bullet buried in his brain. There are bruises on his wrist and blood on his clothes, but no clue that will lead the police to the murderer. It will take an amateur to—inadvertently—show them the way. Cheerful, charming, and always eager for a mystery, portrait artist and gentleman sleuth Philip Trent leaps into the Manderson affair with all the passion of the autodidact. Simply by reading the newspapers, he discovers overlooked details of the crime. Not all of his reasoning is sound, and his romantic interests are suspect, to say the least, but Trent’s dedication to the art of detection soon uncovers what no one expected him to find: the truth. Delightfully irreverent yet ingeniously plotted, Trent’s Last Case is widely regarded as a masterwork of the mystery genre.

    A virtuoso violinist is brutally killed in his home. Black magic symbols cover the walls. The dead man's maid swears she heard three musicians playing before the murder.But with no way in or out of the locked practice room, the puzzle makes no sense...Fearing a national panic over a copycat Ripper, Scotland Yard sends Inspector Ian Frey to investigate under the cover of a fake department specializing in the occult. However, Frey's new boss - Detective 'Nine-Nails' McGray - actually believes in such nonsense.McGray's tragic past has driven him to superstition, but even Frey must admit that this case seems beyond reason. And once someone loses all reason, who knows what they will lose next...

    Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder is a collection of supernatural detective short stories by author William Hope Hodgson.

    Dalgliesh is drawn into a case that is "pure Agatha Christie." . . . A "pedantic, respectable, censorious" clerk's secret taste for pornography is only the first reason he finds for not coming forward as a witness to a murder . . . A best-selling crime novelist describes the crime she herself was involved in fifty years earlier . . . Dalgliesh's godfather implores him to reinvestigate a notorious murder that might ease the godfather's mind about an inheritance, but which will reveal a truth that even the supremely upstanding Adam Dalgliesh will keep to himself. Each of these stories is as playful as it is ingeniously plotted, the author's sly humor as evident as her hallmark narrative elegance and shrewd understanding of some of the most complex--not to say the most damning--aspects of human nature. A treat for P. D. James's legions of fans and anyone who enjoys the pleasures of a masterfully wrought whodunit.From the Hardcover edition.

    Contains Chandler's essay on the art of detective stories and a collection of 8 classic Chandler mysteries.

    Created after the Metropolitan Police’s spectacular failure to capture Jack the Ripper, The Murder Squad suffers rampant public contempt. They have failed their citizens. But no one can anticipate the brutal murder of one of their own . . . one of the twelve . . .When Walter Day, the squad’s newest hire, is assigned the case of the murdered detective, he finds a strange ally in the Yard’s first forensic pathologist, Dr. Bernard Kingsley. Together they track the killer, who clearly is not finished with The Murder Squad . . . but why?Filled with fascinating period detail, and real historical figures, this spectacular debut in a new series showcases the depravity of late Victorian London, the advent of criminology, and introduces a stunning new cast of characters sure to appeal to fans of The Sherlockian and The Alienist.

    Edited by award-winning author and editor Michael Sims, The Penguin Book of Gaslight Crime presents, for the first time, the best crime fiction from the gaslight era gathered in a single volume. All the legendary thieves are present - from Colonel Clay to Get Rich Quick Wallingford - burgling London and Paris, coming New York and Ostend, laughing all the way to the bank. Also featured are stories by distinguished writers from outside the mystery and detective genres, including Sinclair Lewis, Arnold Bennett, and William Hope Hodgson.

    Here, her chronicles continue with a Christmas story, a tale of robbery and attempted murder, and a narrative of Brother Cadfael's early years.