Showing titles in Traditional Detectives

One cold November day, a mysterious figure appears on the village green in Three Pines, causing unease, alarm and confusion among everyone who sees it. Chief Superintendent Armand Gamache knows something is seriously wrong, but all he can do is watch and wait, hoping his worst fears are not realised. But when the figure disappears and a dead body is discovered, it falls to Gamache to investigate.

In 1360, the Great Bridge over the River Cam is close to collapse. To repair it will cost the town and the University dear, especially if its rotten wood is replaced by more durable stone. As arguments rage over raising the money other, equally heated, differences are coming to the boil over the election of a new chancellor. While the majority support Brother Michael for the post, at least one of his opponents aims to seize it by fair means or foul. Then the discovery of a body under the bridge and the disappearance of two scholars throws a more sinister shadow over both disputes.

An Adam Dalgliesh Mystery. Set on the banks of the River Thames in the literary world, P. D. James' Original Sin is the ninth Adam Dalgliesh mystery and a brilliant work of crime fiction from the best-selling author of Death Comes to Pemberley. The Peverell Press, a 200-year-old publishing firm housed in a dramatic mock-Venetian palace on the Thames, is certainly ripe for change.

Following a mysterious explosion, the offices of Excelsior Joinery Company are no more; the three directors are killed and the peace of a quiet town in Surrey lies in ruins. When the supposed cause of an ignited gas leak is dismissed and the presence of dynamite revealed, Superintendent Littlejohn of Scotland Yard is summoned to the scene. But beneath the sleepy veneer of Evingden lies a hotbed of deep-seated grievances. Confounding Littlejohn's investigation is an impressive cast of suspicious persons, each concealing their own ax to grind.

A classic Christie mystery. Read by Hugh Fraser who plays Hugh Fraser in the popular TV series. At a Hallowe’en party, Joyce – a hostile thirteen-year-old – boasts that she once witnessed a murder. When no-one believes her, she storms off home. But within hours her body is found, still in the house, drowned in an apple-bobbing tub. That night, Hercule Poirot is called in to find the ‘evil presence’. But first he must establish whether he is looking for a murderer or a double-murderer…

The Secret of Annexe 3 is the seventh novel in Colin Dexter's Oxford-set detective series. Morse sought to hide his disappointment. So many people in the Haworth Hotel that fateful evening had been wearing some sort of disguise – a change of dress, a change of make-up, a change of partner, a...

Soon after Gwenda moved into her new home, odd things started to happen. Despite her best efforts to modernise the house, she only succeeded in dredging up its past. Worse, she felt an irrational sense of terror every time she climbed the stairs. In fear, Gwenda turned to Miss Marple to exorcise her ghosts. Between them, they have to solve a 'perfect' crime committed many years before.

World famous concert pianist Felix Lansman has a collection of postcards sent to him anonymously. He is sure they are from the love of his life, Jamie McLeash. But Jamie disappeared six years ago - the night Felix’s father was murdered. Police failed to make any arrests and the case was closed. Was Jamie a suspect and if so, why is he sending the postcards? Felix wants Ian to find out.

The Mystery of the Yellow Room is Gaston Leroux's masterpiece, and it turned out to be his most successful book during his lifetime. It is one of the classics of early twentieth century detective fiction.

Death is Now My Neighbour is the twelfth novel in Colin Dexter's Oxford-set detective series. As he drove his chief down to Kidlington, Lewis returned the conversation to where it had begun. 'You haven't told me what you think about this fellow Owens – the dead woman's next-door neighbour.'...

Jazz-loving Policeman Charlie Resnick is one of the most popular characters in contemporary crime fiction. This thrilling collection brings together three dramatisations and two original radio stories starring the Nottingham-based detective, all scripted by his creator, award-winning author John Harvey.

Agatha Christie's most famous murder mystery, recorded by the director and star of the blockbuster film adaptation, Kenneth Branagh. Just after midnight, a snowdrift stops the Orient Express in its tracks. The luxurious train is surprisingly full for the time of the year, but by the morning it is one passenger fewer. An American tycoon lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside. Isolated and with a killer in their midst, detective Hercule Poirot must identify the murderer - in case he or she decides to strike again.

Dave Robicheaux has been warned that he's on somebody's hit list, and now the homicide detective is trying to discover just who that is before he ends up dead. Meanwhile he has taken on the murder investigation of a young black girl found dead in the Bayou swamp. Robicheaux uncovers a web of corruption that leads him to a terrifying confrontation with the one horror he fears most of all.

In the late 1800's and early 1900's, the usefulness of consulting detectives in the war against crime was very well established by Mr. Sherlock Holmes. By the early Twentieth Century, Holmes had retired to Sussex, and the void he left behind in London was capably filled by a number of other noted criminal specialists: Solar Pons, Hercule Poirot, Dr. John Thorndyke, Father Brown, Albert Campion, and Lord Peter Wimsey, to name a few. But another who made a name for himself with his unique skills tends to receive less attention today: Max Carrados.

Lucy Angkatell invited Hercule Poirot to lunch. To tease the great detective, her guests stage a mock murder beside the swimming pool. Unfortunately, the victim plays the scene for real. As his blood drips into the water, John Christow gasps one final word: "Henrietta". In the confusion, a gun sinks to the bottom of the pool. Poirot's enquiries reveal a complex web of romantic attachments. It seems everyone in the drama is a suspect, and each a victim of love.

With her Curiosity Shop open for business, Alice Carroll is finally settling into life in the picturesque Cotswold village of Little Pride. But then her old life comes knocking… Alice’s ex boyfriend, Steven, who dumped her to travel the world, has run out of money and asks Alice to sell off his collection of chess sets. Alice decides to host a tournament to showcase the boards, and her plan seems to be working. That is, until chess pieces begin to mysteriously disappear. And when a body is discovered outside the tournament, Alice realises that the victim was a pawn in another game.

Brought to you by Penguin. The sequel to the Times Thriller of the Year bestseller, This is the Night They Come for You. The past is coming for Chief Inspector Taleb. He may not know it but he will soon enough. And the past in Algeria is venomous, vengeful and relentlessful, designed to consume...

Tuesday nights have suddenly turned quite ridiculously noisy in the country town of Chalmsbury, where the good folk are outraged at having their rest disturbed. It begins with a drinking fountain being blown to smithereens - next the statue of a local worthy loses his head, and the following week a giant glass eye is exploded. Despite the soft-soled sleuthing of cub reporter Len Leaper, the crime spate grows alarming.

Meet Cordelia Gray: twenty-two, tough, intelligent and now sole inheritor of the Pryde Detective Agency. Her first assignment finds her hired by Sir Ronald Callender to investigate the death of his son Mark, a young Cambridge student found hanged in mysterious circumstances. Required to delve into the hidden secrets of the Callender family, Cordelia soon realises it is not a case of suicide, and that the truth is entirely more sinister.

An early morning dog walk along the river ends with a shocking discovery. When the body of a man is fished out the River Thames near Windsor, it looks like a straightforward accidental death from drowning following an excess of alcohol. The only problem is that this man died eighteen months ago in a train crash. Was the first death just a case of mistaken identity or was it more complex than that? The Breakfast Club Detectives set out to discover where the victim spent the last year and a half and why his nearest and dearest thought he had died.