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For The Penguin Book of Murder Mysteries, writer and anthologist Michael Sims did not summon the usual suspects. He sought the unfamiliar, the unjustly forgotten, and little-known gems by writers from outside the genre. This historical tour of one of our most popular literary categories includes stories never before reprinted, features rebellious early “lady detectives," and spotlights former stars of the crime field—Austrian novelist Auguste Groner and prolific American Geraldine Bonner among them.

Weaving together hints of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty with a shimmering thread of dark magic, this twist on classic fairy tales will hold readers spellbound from start to finish. On the eve of her wedding, a young queen sets out to rescue a princess from an enchantment. She casts aside her fine wedding clothes, takes her chain mail and her sword and ventures into the tunnels under the mountain towards the sleeping kingdom. This queen will decide her own future – and the princess who needs rescuing is not quite what she seems.

In a distant future, Trevor "Lex" Alexander was shaping up to be the next great race pilot until a fixed race got him banned from the sport. Reduced to making freelance deliveries, he thinks his life can't get any worse. That's when a package manages to get him mixed up with mobsters, a megacorp, and a mad scientist. Now his life depends on learning what their plans are, and how he can stop them.

Following his last adventure, Trevor "Lex" Alexander's life has managed to return to normal. He's back to splitting his time between delivering packages and transporting passengers, along with the occasional foray into testing highly experimental equipment. He's even gotten back together with his girlfriend, Michella Modane, who has been launched to stardom by her coverage of the Bypass Gemini incident. Yes, things are going quite well for Lex. But in his life, luck like this never lasts long.

Colin Graves lives a normal middle-class life until he finds a story outline at his friend Taylor Knight's apartment entitled With Three You Get Murder. The three main characters are oddly similar to himself, his wife, Maddy, and Taylor. The wife and friend have the customary affair, and the husband finds a home six feet under. Writers often use people they knew as the basis for story characters. Of course it was nothing more. But bit by bit Colin notices things that spark his suspicions.

When Ornax Milwok decided he wanted an adventure, he set his sights on the most unlikely place to have it in. Earth! Not only does Earth lie clear across the galaxy, the whole planet has been strictly off limits for at least the last 200 years! But for young Ornax, getting there was simply a challenge to overcome - a challenge he finds the solution to in a chance meeting with an intergalactic trader named Captain Goldtooth. Alas, the friendly captain of the space schooner Forbidden Weighs is not all that he seems to be.

After butting heads with the megacorporation known as VectorCorp, it was only a matter of time before Lex Alexander and his girlfriend, Michella Modane, would face the consequences. It is remarkable what a single corporate agent with the resources of a multiglobal conglomerate can do to a person's career. In the space of a few days, Lex is looking for work, and Michella is feeling pressure from the network to ease off the hard-hitting stories. Not one to be silenced, Michella quickly hatches a plan.

Trevor "Lex" Alexander's life has been less than blessed. In the past year he's had to battle corrupt corporations, deranged techno-terrorists, and a robotic scourge. Now he's received the opportunity to finally return to the racing career that had been cut short by some poor decisions. One could excuse him for not wanting to be embroiled in another insane adventure when he is so close to returning to his life's calling. Sometimes the call of duty will not be denied.

Described by Len Deighton as ‘a classic writer of espionage fiction’, Ted Allbeury based his many acclaimed spy novels on his own real-life experiences. In World War II, he served as an intelligence officer with Special Operations Executive, and subsequently ran agents across the border between East and West Germany during the Cold War. He began writing in his fifties, and went on to pen over 40 bestselling books, five of which are dramatised here alongside three plays specially written for BBC Radio and two bonus documentaries.