The Best of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twenty of the very best tales from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fifty-six short stories featuring the arch-sleuth. Basing his selection around the author’s own twelve personal favourites, David Stuart Davies has added a further eight sparkling stories to Conan Doyle’s ’ Baker Street Dozen’, creating a unique volume which distils the pure essence of the world’s most famous detective.
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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Hound of the Baskervilles / The Valley of Fear
This volume contains two of the greatest Sherlock Holmes novels penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is the classic detective chiller. The Baskerville family is haunted by a phantom beast which roams the mist-enshrouded wilds of Dartmoor. Now the Hound seems to be stalking the young Sir Henry, the heir of the Baskerville estate. Is this devilish spectre the manifestation of the family curse? Or is Sir Henry the victim of a vile and scheming murderer? Only Sherlock Holmes can solve the mystery.
In The Valley of Fear a cipher message and a horrible murder begin this dark, powerful tale in which Sherlock Holmes faces his old arch enemy Professor Moriarty once more. The solution to the riddle lies far away from the disturbed calm of a country house in Sussex, halfway across the world in a location known as 'The Valley of Fear'.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - A Study in Scarlet
The hit BBC series "Sherlock" offers a fresh, contemporary take on the classic Arthur Conan Doyle stories, and has helped introduce a whole new generation of fans to the legendary detective. The debut episode took as its inspiration the very first Sherlock Holmes novel, "A Study in Scarlet" - and this new edition of Conan Doyle's novel will allow Sherlock fans to discover, or re-discover, the power of that classic story. "A Study in Scarlet" is the genre-defining work with which popular crime fiction was born. A potent mix of serial murder, suspense, cryptic clues, red herrings and revenge, the novel introduces us to the world-famous characters of Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson and Inspector Lestrade and sees Sherlock and Dr. Watson meet and join forces for the first time as they track a mysterious killer that stalks London's streets. In addition to the original text, this edition also has an introduction by Sherlock co-creator Steven Moffat, who explains how it inspired the Sherlock script.
Agatha Christie - What Mrs. McGillicuddy saw!
For an instant the two trains ran side by side. In that frozen moment, Elspeth McGillicuddy stared helplessly out of her carriage window as a man tightened his grip around a woman's throat. The body crumpled. Then the other train drew away. But who, apart from Mrs. McGillicuddy's friend Jane Marple, would take her story seriously After all, there are no other witnesses, no suspects, and no case -- for there is no corpse, and no one is missing. Miss Marple asks her highly efficient and intelligent young friend Lucy Eyelesbarrow to infiltrate the Crackenthorpe family, who seem to be at the heart of the mystery, and help unmask a murderer.
Agatha Christie - Parker Pyne Investigates
Mr. Parker Pyne states quite clearly that he is not a detective but 'a heart specialist'. Deception, accomplices and manipulation are all part of his method of operation and he works to cure unhappiness more frequently than to investigate crime.
Agatha Christie - The Mousetrap and Other Plays
Collects eight classic theatrical whodunnits, including mysteries surrounding the fatal reunion of two lovers, an act of kindness that leads to a charge of murder, and the daughter of a murderess investigating her mother's case.
Tasha Alexander - A Fatal Waltz
At her friend Ivy's behest, Emily reluctantly agrees to attend a party at the sprawling English country estate of Lord Fortescue, a man she finds as odious as he is powerful. But if Emily is expecting Lord Fortescue to be the greatest of her problems, she is wrong. Her host has also invited Kristiana von Lange, an Austrian countess who was once linked romantically with Emily's fiancé, the debonair Colin Hargreaves. What Emily believes will be a tedious evening turns deadly when Fortescue is found murdered, and his protégé, Robert Brandon - Ivy's husband - is arrested for the crime.
Determined to right this terrible wrong and clear Robert's name, Emily begins to dig for answers, a quest that will lead her from London's glittering ballrooms to Vienna's sordid backstreets. Not until she engages a notorious anarchist in a game of wits does the shocking truth begin to emerge: the price of exonerating Robert can be paid only by placing Colin in deadly peril. To save her fiancé, Emily must do the unthinkable: bargain with her nemesis, the Countess von Lange.
Tasha Alexander - A Poisoned Season
London's social season is in full swing, and the Victorian aristocracy can't stop whispering about a certain gentleman who claims to be the direct descendant of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. But he's not the only topic of wagging tongues. Drawing rooms, boudoirs, and ballrooms are abuzz with the latest news of an audacious cat burglar who has been making off with precious items that once belonged to the ill-fated queen.
Light gossip turns serious when the owner of one of the pilfered treasures is found murdered, and the mysterious thief develops a twisted obsession with Emily. But the strong-minded and fiercely independent Emily will not be shaken. It will take all of her considerable wit and perseverance to unmask her stalker and ferret out the murderer, even as a brewing scandal threatens both her reputation and her romance with her late husband's best friend, the dashing Colin Hargreaves.
A Poisoned Season is a delicious blend of sparkling romance, heart-pounding suspense, and rich historical detail that only Tasha Alexander could create.
Agatha Christie - A Caribbean Mystery
An exotic holiday for Miss Marple is ruined when a retired major is killed! As Jane Marple sat basking in the Caribbean sunshine she felt mildly discontented with life. True, the warmth eased her rheumatism, but here in paradise nothing ever happened. Eventually, her interest was aroused by an old soldier's yarn about a strange coincidence. Infuriatingly, just as he was about to show her an astonishing photograph, the Major's attention wandered. He never did finished the story!
Agatha Christie - The Secret Adversary
A crime novel in which two desperate youngsters, short of money and restless for excitement, place an advertisement saying they are willing to do anything and to travel anywhere, but their first assignment for a sinister client plunges them into more danger than they could have imagined.
Agatha Christie - Hickory Dickory Dock
An outbreak of kleptomania at a student hostel is not normally the sort of crime that arouses Hercule Poirot's interest. But when he sees the bizarre list of stolen and vandalized items - including a stethoscope, some old flannel trousers, a box of chocolates, a slashed rucksack and a diamond ring found in a bowl of a soup - he congratulates the warden, Mrs Hubbard, on a 'unique and beautiful problem'. And, reasons Poirot, if this is merely a petty thief at work, why is everyone at the hostel so frightened?
Sarah Rayne - Spider light
Following a shattering and all-too-public personal tragedy, Antonia Weston has come to the sleepy town of Amberwood seeking peace and anonymity. But that peace is soon threatened by a series of disturbing incidents—incidents that eerily echo a past she's trying to forget. As she struggles to rebuild her life, Antonia becomes drawn to the town's macabre history: the abandoned mill, Twygrist, with its brooding darkness, and the now-vanished Latchkill Asylum. Antonia's fascination with the linked histories of Latchkill and Twygrist has alerted someone from her own past. Someone who knows all about Twygrist's darkness. Someone prepared to use that knowledge in the most horrifying way.
Charles Dickens - The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Charles Dickens’s final, unfinished novel is in many ways his most intriguing. A highly atmospheric tale of murder, The Mystery of Edwin Drood foreshadows both the detective stories of Conan Doyle and the nightmarish novels of Kafka.
As in many of Dickens’s greatest novels, the gulf between appearance and reality drives the action. Set in the seemingly innocuous cathedral town of Cloisterham, the story rapidly darkens with a sense of impending evil. Central to the plot is John Jasper: in public he is a man of integrity and benevolence; in private he is an opium addict. And while seeming to smile on the engagement of his nephew, Edwin Drood, he is, in fact, consumed by jealousy, driven to terrify the boy’s fiancée and to plot the murder of Edwin himself. Though The Mystery of Edwin Drood is one of its author’s darkest books, it also bustles with a vast roster of memorable–and delightfully named–minor characters: Mrs. Billikins, the landlady; the foolish Mr. Sapsea; the domineering philanthropist, Mr. Honeythunder; and the mysterious Datchery. Several attempts have been made over the years to complete the novel and solve the mystery, but even in its unfinished state it is a gripping and haunting masterpiece.
Charles Dickens - Hunted Down
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) has produced some of the most memorable writings in the English language, including such well known works as "A Christmas Carol, Sketches by Boz, A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, Daivid Copperfield, Great Expectations, and The Pickwick Papers.
Dickens is famous for the characters he created and his descriptions. A man of tremendous energy, he spent hours a day walking the London streets from which his characters and scenes came.
Most of Dickens' work was in magazine serial form. Quiet Vision publishes not only Dickens' well known works but also many of his lesser known but still well crafted works.Dickens was fascinated by crime. Murders, especially, fascinated him, and the skills of the detectives engaged in solving them.
Robert B. Parker - Rough Weather
A hurricane hinders a kidnapping and Spenser goes on a search for the man responsible? the infamous Gray Man, who has both helped and hunted Spenser in the past.
Heidi Bradshaw is wealthy, beautiful, and well connected ?and she needs Spenser's help. In a most unlikely request, Heidi, a notorious gold digger recently separated from her latest husband, recruits the Boston P.I. to accompany her to her private island, Tashtego. The reason? To attend her daughter's wedding as a sort of stand-in husband and protector. Spenser consents, but only after it is established that his beloved Susan Silverman will also be in attendance.
It should be a straightforward job for Spenser: show up for appearances, have some drinks, and spend some quality time with Susan. But when Spenser's old nemesis Rugar?the Gray Man?arrives, Spenser realizes that something is amiss. A storm, a kidnapping, and murder tear apart what should be a joyous occasion, and Rugar is seemingly at the center of it all. The only thing is that the sloppy kidnapping is not Rugar's style?as Spenser knows from past encounters. With six dead bodies and more questions than he can process, Spenser begins a search for answers?and the Gray Man.
With its razor-sharp dialogue, crisply etched characters, and high-wire narrative tension, "Rough Weather" once again proves that ?Robert B. Parker is a force of nature? ("The Boston Globe").
Agatha Christie - They Do it with Mirrors
“They said it was an accident, but I think it was just temper!”
Ruth Van Rydock – They Do it With Mirrors
After a death threat, murder, and attempted poisoning, Ruth Van Rydock is so concerned for her sister’s safety that she invites her old friend Miss Jane Marple to visit them at their sprawling mansion home that they run as a rehabilitation school for boys; clearly a dangerous place to be even under normal circumstances. Can Miss Marple solve the case before Carrie-Louise is killed?
Agatha Christie - The Moving Finger
Lymstock is a town with more than its share of shameful secrets - a town where even a sudden outbreak of anonymous hate-mail causes only a minor stir.
But all that changes when one of the recipients, Mrs Symmington, commits suicide. Her final note says 'I can't go on' but still Miss Marple questions the coroner's verdict of suicide. Was this the work of a poison-pen? Or of a poisoner?
_Reviews_
"Beyond all doubt the puzzle in The Moving Finger is fit for experts."
_The Times_
Robert Galbraith - The Cuckoo's Calling
After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his long-time girlfriend and is living in his office.
Then John Landry walks through his door with an amazing story. His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, fell, famously, to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rockstar boyfriends, desperate designers, and every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.
You may think you know detective novels, but you've never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know the world of the wealthy and famous, but you've never seen it investigated by a detective like this one.
Agatha Christie - Witness for the Prosecution
Headlining this book is Witness for the Prosecution - Christie's highly successful stage play which won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best foreign play. A stunning courtroom drama, it tells the story of a scheming wife testifying against her husband in a shocking murder trial.
The wild beauty of a seaside house perched high on The Devonshire River Tern provides a stunning back-drop in Towards Zero - as a psychopathic murderer homes in on the unsuspecting victims.
Passion, murder and love are the deadly ingredients in Verdict, making it one of Christie's more unusual thrillers and prompting her to label it "the best play I have written with the exception of Witness for The Prosecution".
Go Back for Murder tells the story of the young and feisty Carla who, orphaned at the tender age of five, discovers her mother was imprisioned for murdering her father and determines to prove her innocence.
Iris Murdoch - A Severed Head
Martin Lynch-Gibbon believes he can possess both a beautiful wife and a delightful lover. But when his wife, Antonia, suddenly leaves him for her psychoanalyst, Martin is plunged into an intensive emotional re-education. He attempts to behave beautifully and sensibly. Then he meets a woman whose demonic splendour at first repels him and later arouses a consuming and monstrous passion. As his Medusa informs him, 'this is nothing to do with happiness'.
Agatha Christie - A Murder is Announced
The villagers of Chipping Cleghorn, including Jane Marple, are agog with curiosity over an advertisement in the local gazette which read: "A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6:30 p.m." Unable to resist the mysterious invitation, a crowd begins to gather at Little Paddocks at the ppointed time when, without warning, the lights go out ...