The Golden Ball and Other Stories


Agatha Christie - 1971
    Vincent and his family to magnificent estate? How desperate is Joyce Lambert, a destitute young widow whose only recourse is to marry a man she despises? What unexpected circumstance stirs old loyalties in Theodora Darrell, and unfaithful wife about to run away with her lover? In this collection of short stories, the answers are as unexpected as they are satisfying. The Queen of Crime takes bizarre romantic entanglements, supernatural visitations, and classic murder to inventive new heights.Contents:The Listerdale MysteryThe Girl in the TrainThe Manhood of Edward RobinsonJane in Search of a JobA Fruitful SundayThe Golden BallThe Rajah's EmeraldSwan SongThe Hound of DeathThe GypsyThe LampThe Strange Case of Sir Arthur CarmichaelThe Call of WingsMagnolia BlossomNext to a Dog

A Perry Mason Casebook: The Gilded Lily / The Daring Decoy / The Fiery Fingers / The Lucky Loser


Erle Stanley Gardner - 1993
    The case of the sulky girl -- The case of the careless kitten -- The case of the fiery fingers.

The Guilty Ones


Ross Macdonald - 1952
    Reginald Harlan, M.A. Of course Archer generally didn't like people whose names started with a single syllable. Harlan hired Lew to find his sister. A respectable school mistress that has run off with a bohemian artist type. But he finds more than what he expected when he has a corpse literally dumped on him!

Grey Mask


Patricia Wentworth - 1928
    Charles turns to Miss Silver to uncover the strange truth behind Margaret's complicity, and the identity of the terrifying and mysterious individual behind the grey mask.

Sherlock Holmes: The Ultimate Collection


Arthur Conan Doyle - 2009
     Links to free, full-length audio recordings of the novels and stories in this collection. An individual, active Table of Contents for each book accessible from the Kindle "go to" feature. Perfect formatting in rich text compatible with Kindle's Text-to-Speech features. A low, can't-say-no price! Forty-Eight Complete WorksFour novels and forty-four short stories starring Sherlock Holmes, in order and unabridged. Books included:Novels: A Study in Scarlet The Sign of the Four The Hound of the Baskervilles The Valley of Fear Short Story Collections: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes The Return of Sherlock Holmes His Last Bow Additional Fan ResourcesAlso included are special features for any Holmes enthusiast, including: A list of films and television series starring the character Sherlock Holmes. A Reading Guide to additional books about Sherlock Holmes by other authors. Links to free, full-length audio recordings of all the novels and short stories in this collection.

Death Is a Lonely Business


Ray Bradbury - 1985
    Trying not to miss his girlfriend (away studying in Mexico), the nameless writer steadily crafts his literary effort--until strange things begin happening around him.Starting with a series of peculiar phone calls, the writer then finds clumps of seaweed on his doorstep. But as the incidents escalate, his friends fall victim to a series of mysterious "accidents"--some of them fatal. Aided by Elmo Crumley, a savvy, street-smart detective, and a reclusive actress of yesteryear with an intense hunger for life, the wordsmith sets out to find the connection between the bizarre events, and in doing so, uncovers the truth about his own creative abilities.

Bitter End


Rex Stout - 1997
    "Bitter End" is the first story to receive the shorter novella-length treatment. These shorter cases are unjustly considered inferior to the novels by some critics (and even some fans), but they simply are, for the most part, faster reads of adventures with well-developed plots and characters that compare very favorably with the full length novels, though if they are roughly one third in length. "Bitter End," the first novella length adventure featuring Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, appeared in the November 1940 issue of "The American Magazine" and marked the beginning of a long relationship between Rex Stout and that publication that lasted uninterrupted for 15 years. The story, which is dark and complex, explores the family, business and personal relationships of the owners and employees of a specialty food manufacturer. Wolfe has a personal encounter with one of their products that has been poisoned and feels compelled to investigate. After its first appearance in The American Magazine, the novella was published in book form in a collection titled "Corsage: A Bouquet of Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe" first and later in the book titled "Death Times Three." This eBook includes, as a bonus, the short story "Out of the Line" that was published first in "All-Story Cavalier Weekly" and is not available anywhere else in electronic format.

The McBain Brief


Ed McBain - 1982
    First Offense2. Skin Flick3. The Prisoner4. Every Morning5. One Down6. Kiss Me, Dudley7. Chinese Puzzle8. The Interview9. Accident Report10. Hot Cars11. Eye Witness12. Chalk13. Still Life14. A Very Merry Christmas15. Small Homicide16. Hot17. Kid Kill18. Death Flight19. The Confession20. The Last Spin

Striding Folly


Dorothy L. Sayers - 1972
    Each of the stories introduces a different side of the twentieth century's most ingenious detective hero.This book also features a biographical essay by Janet Hitchman, Sayers' first biographer.

The Four Just Men


Edgar Wallace - 1905
    A device in the members' smokeroom and a sudden magnesium flash that could easily have been nitro-glycerine leave Scotland Yard baffled. Even Fleet Street cannot identify the illusive Manfred, Gonsalez, Pioccart and Thery - FOUR JUST MEN dedicated to punishing by death those whom conventional justice can not touch.

Death from a Top Hat


Clayton Rawson - 1938
    Beautifully handled, a true classic. - The Mystery Lover's Companion, Art Bourgeau

Best Detective Stories of Cyril Hare


Cyril Hare - 1959
    Among them, The Story of Hermione, in which the eponymous character grows rich from the all too convenient deaths of several relatives, has been called one of the most chilling short stories ever written. Sister Bessie describes vividly the agonies of a blackmail victim and the desperate crimes he commits in the hope of freeing himself from his tormentor. Miss Burnside's Dilemma describes the predicament of a person who uncovers a piece of unscrupulous, but entirely legal chicanery by someone she had previously admired. A Life for a Life explores the possibility of atonement for one's earthly sins after death.

The Club of Queer Trades


G.K. Chesterton - 1905
    Chesterton first published in 1905. Each story in the collection is centered on a person who is making his living by some novel and extraordinary means (a "queer trade").

Carnacki, the Ghost Finder


William Hope Hodgson - 1913
    Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder is a collection of supernatural detective short stories by author William Hope Hodgson.

The Simple Art of Murder


Raymond Chandler - 1944
    Contains Chandler's essay on the art of detective stories and a collection of 8 classic Chandler mysteries.