Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in Traditional Detectives

Nineteen tales of murder and mystery in the first three books to feature H.C. Bailey's golden age detective Mr. Reginald 'Reggie' Fortune: surgeon and general practitioner, a man interested in everything, but not in anything in particular, and with a vast store of eclectic knowledge that makes him the ideal man to advise the Criminal Investigation Department of Scotland Yard, and shine a light upon the darkest of deeds.

When irascible clergyman Amos Monkhouse, visiting from the North, finds the condition of his invalid brother Harold so much worse than he had expected, he calls in a specialist. But when Harold then suddenly dies an investigation reveals that he was poisoned with arsenic. The police can make nothing of the conflicting evidence beyond the certainty that only someone in the dead man's immediate domestic circle could be responsible. A childhood friend of Harold's wife, young barrister Rupert Mayfield, convinced that there must be another explanation, enlists the help of Dr John Thorndyke to lift the shadow that hangs over his friends.

The eclectic surgeon-detective Mr. Reggie Fortune solves a fourth collection of Golden Age mysteries, including: the sudden disappearance of a husband; a skillful but oddly undiscriminating cat burglar; a jewel theft at a society party; a cryptic inscription on an ancient oak chest; a fatal poisoning and a troubled woman; and the whimsical theft of a Persian kitten—which leads Mr. Fortune to a far more chilling and sinister crime.

While visiting his old friend Flambeau, Father Brown attempts to explain to an inquisitive American the 'secret' of his detective method, by means of eight stories of crime, murder, and obsession, including: a poet accused of the murder of a magistrate; stolen jewels and stolen fish; a theatre manager dead in a locked room; a mourner shut away in a castle; and the case of the worst crime in the world.

This is a perfect puzzle of a detective novel published in 1926. It contains speculation about Government officials, lawyers, and police. Even if you think you’ve worked out what is happening and your mind is switched on to this sort of novel, you will be very surprised at the ending!

In this two-part mystery, first a determined and uncompromising young Englishman traveling under the name 'John Walker' arrives in West Africa, on the run from events back home. Soon, he finds himself embroiled in adventure and romance by land and by sea. Meanwhile, in part two, the equally implacable forensic detective Dr. John Thorndyke investigates the theft that provoked 'Walker' to flee England in the first place and soon discovers unexpected mysteries.

A third collection of mysteries to challenge H C Bailey's golden age sleuth, the eclectic Mr. Reginald Fortune, advisor to Scotland Yard's Criminal Investigation Department on all things medical, scientific—and downright strange. Including a vendetta against Mr. Fortune himself; an athletic hero accused of murder; a young man who wants to confess, but does not know to what; anonymous letters to an unpopular civil servant; the strange persecution of an archaeologist and his secretary; and the unexplained death of a war profiteer...

A collection of 31 tales of mystery and murder from the career of the great scientific detective, Dr John Thorndyke. Including every story from John Thorndyke's Cases (1909), The Adventures of Dr Thorndyke (1912), Percival Bland's Proxy (1913), The Missing Mortgagee (1914), Dr Thorndyke's Case-book (1923), and The Puzzle Lock and Other Stories (1925)

Mystery, murder, deception, obsession, and vendetta abound in Chesterton's third collection of eight adventures for the unassuming but insightful Father Brown; including a happily temporary demise for the little priest himself; a millionaire killed with an arrow from heaven; another disappeared from a sealed room; a maniac determined to possess a precious relic; and a decaying family and a mysterious portrait.

Seven more cases for HC Bailey's eclectic golden age sleuth Mr Reginald Fortune: surgeon, general practitioner, and advisor to Scotland Yard wherever surgery, medicine or kindred sciences can elucidate what is or is not crime. Including: a sudden death at Royal Ascot; a young doctor accused of a diamond theft; a strange country house burglary; an incident at the British Museum leading to a far darker crime; a vanished actress; and a diabolical murder at an orphanage, linked to an apparently accidental death and a near-fatal poisoning.

Seven stories of mystery and adventure from R Austin Freeman; including an audacious theft from London's National Gallery; the sudden self-confidence of a normally timid curate; a very remarkable funeral; a ghostly lawyer's repentance; a lucky find for a rural bricklayer; and two investigations for the celebrated forensic detective Dr. John Thorndyke...

The engagement of effervescent Mally Lee to handsome, well-connected Roger Mooring is not going well. They quarrel constantly and Mally's idea is to spend time apart and delay the wedding. She has no money of her own and hopes to find a job, which materializes when Sir George Peterson hires her to be a governess to his daughter. She happily heads to London and all is well until Sir George and his odious secretary, Paul Craddock, accuse her of the theft of a diamond brooch and an important paper.

Enjoying his last day of holiday before entering upon the duties of his first professional appointment, newly qualified Dr. Stephen Gray discovers the body of Julius D'Arblay, beneath the surface of a shallow woodland pond. He befriends the dead man's daughter, and to help her seeks the aid of his old teacher the great forensic investigator Dr. John Thorndyke—who soon discovers that Mr. D'Arblay was the victim of a very calculated murder. And the murderer is now threatening both Miss D'Arblay and young Dr. Grey himself.

The Pothunters was Wodehouse's first published novel and the first of a number of early school stories. Life at the fictional St. Austin's public school is thrown into confusion when the cricket pavilion is burgled, and two of the school's silver sports trophies (or "pots" in the language of the schoolboys) are stolen. The hunt for the missing trophies piques the interest of the boys, their school masters, and even a Scotland Yard detective, and is played out against the idyllic background of Edwardian public school life.

First published in 1924 the Baroness was very popular as a crime writer and she certainly was very successful and her writing is excellent. She wrote The Scarlett Pimpernell and The Old Man in the Corner and her female detective Molly is a precursor for many a modern 20th century detective. This is a continuation of a previous group of mysteries and I notice no one has narrated them yet so I thought, they're good, and they show life in the early 20th century with all its flaws. The use of the English language is interesting too. My how we've changed!

The Return of Sherlock Holmes picks up where the previous collection of Holmes stories left off: with the great detective's return from the dead in "The Empty House." This and the twelve other stories in the anthology—including "The Dancing Men," "The Solitary Cyclist," "The Six Napoleons," and "The Second Stain"—are absolute classics of detective fiction centered on the genius Holmes and his loyal friend and companion Dr. Watson

A man apparently sends an incriminating letter to his solicitor, by the simple mistake of placing it into the wrong envelope, and then he abruptly disappears—this, immediately following a sailing trip from Sennen Cove to Penzance with an old friend, the last person known to have seen the missing man alive. But when Dr. John Thorndyke agrees to investigate the disappearance on behalf of the man's wife, he soon begins to question the circumstances and to suspect a more sinister outcome...

Biff Brewster receives a mysterious, urgent telegram from his uncle, Charles Keene, from Martinique, asking him to come quickly. Biff's parents reluctantly allow Biff to make the trip. During the airline trip, Biff meets another boy, Derek, who looks like Biff. After making friends on the flight, they decide to play a trick on Biff's uncle by exchanging identities. The exchanged identity backfires as Biff is kidnapped by thieves hoping to find and steal a pearl fishery that Dere's father has discovered.

Deception, mystery, romance, inheritance—this novel has it all! Written by Anna Katharine Green and published in 1923, it is one of her best. Wealthy Edgar Quenton Bartholomew has a beautiful daughter, a great estate, and vast business holdings. It is his final wish that the man who marries his daughter will inherit it all. When he dies it is thought to be of natural causes until a young woman viewing the casket cries out that he appears to be poisoned ... and the investigation begins! Where is his final will? Who poisoned him?

While acting as a locum in London, young Dr. Strangeways is called to treat a woman following a violent attack by her drug-addled husband. A year later, as he begins a new practice in Rochester, he encounters the same woman again; but Mrs. Frood is now in hiding from her husband, who is actively searching for her in the area. And then, abruptly, she disappears into the evening fog, and the items she was carrying begin to turn up near the river—but there is no sign of a body.