A fingerprint book

First published in 1901, The Black Mask is the second collection of stories detailing the exploits and intrigues of gentleman thief A. J. Raffles in late Victorian London. Raffles was E. W. Hornung's most famous character.

Scotland at the outbreak of the Second World War: a series of mysterious deaths, a motley crew of characters, some heavy-handed humour concerning a particularly potent blend of Scotch whisky and a pair of squabbling academics. Not one, but two "locked room" puzzles solved by series detective Dr. Gideon Fell.

The interplay of incident and personalities in Brimberley village takes in the death of Liz Artside's husband in World War I, the current outbreak of burglaries, and Liz's fears about her son, Tim, and his unexplained activities. Explosions to do away with suspected betrayers; a dust-up in a London eating place; a disgustingly rich lieutenant of police lead to a most irregular untangling. Chatty and chipper.

> GAMBLING WITH DEATH Ten minutes after the Duc de Saligny entered the card room of the elegant Parisian gambling house, the police burst in - and found the Duc's severed head, standing upright on the stump of its neck, staring at them from the center of the room. >ENTER HENRI BENCOLIN >Both doors to the card room had been watched and guarded, yet the murderer had gone in and out without having been seen by anyone! But the flamboyant prefect of police, Henri Bencolin, was willing to bet if the Duc had lost his head over a losing hand, the killer was ready to deal another game of death. And the wily detective had an ace up his sleeve that might - with luck - provide the winning combination for bringing the headstrong killer to justice.

> Till Death Do Us Part is frequently found high up in reviewers’ top ten lists, boasting a fiendishly clever locked-room setup and payoff. >Crime author Dick Markham is in love again; his fiancée the mysterious newcomer to the village, Lesley Grant. When Grant accidentally shoots the fortune-teller through the side of his tent at the local fair –following a very strange reaction to his predictions –Markham is reluctantly brought into a scheme to expose his betrothed as a suspected serial husband-poisoner. >That night the enigmatic fortune teller – and chief accuser – is found dead in an impossible locked-room setup, casting suspicion onto Grant and striking doubt into the heart of her lover. Lured by the scent of the impossible case, Dr Gideon Fell arrives from London to examine the perplexing evidence and match wits with a meticulous killer at large.

> A Christmas party in Hampstead is rudely interrupted by violent death. Can the murderer be one of the relatives and intimate friends celebrating the festive season in the great house? The stockbroker sleuth Malcolm Warren investigates, in another brilliantly witty mystery from this hugely enjoyable master of crime.

Contains two Inspector Maigret novels: "Maigret in Montmartre" and "Maigret's mistake".

> Malcolm Warren, stockbroker and amateur detective, can never resist a mystery. So he soon succumbs when an old Oxford friend with a rather shady reputation begs him to investigate the disappearance of a cantankerous uncle from a suburban Gothic mansion. Their search starts a hilarious trail which, thanks to careful perusal of railway timetables, leads them from seedy seaside hotels and gloomy Cornish coves to the Arts and Crafts Shop of South Mersley Garden City, until it finally lures the unsuspecting sleuth to a damp and sinister destination ... >An absorbing and gleeful puzzle, Death of His Uncle displays all the wit, atmospheric detail, and knowing observation of human nature which have won Kitchin a devoted following among lovers of classic detective fiction.

It was lovely Margaret Reeve who told Arthur Crook about the strange happenings in the Poulden household. Edwin Poulden, druggist in a small English village, lost his wife very suddenly following a bilious attack after a meal of mushrooms. Six months after that dreadful occurrence, Blanche Bannerman, an elderly paying guest in the Poulden home, took sick and, in Poulden's words, was unconscious. But young Patsy, Poulden's ward, overheard him talking to Miss Bannerman about terms he could not meet. That same night, when Margaret stopped in Miss Bannerman's room to see how she was feeling, Patsy's pet cat came tearing out of the room. A little while later Miss Bannerman was found lying dead on the floor. The inquest established Miss Bannerman's death as the combined effect of a terrible scare from the cat that she detested and a concussion caused by a fall. But two sudden deaths in the Poulden household in the space of six months seemed too coincidental to the sleuthing genius of Arthur Crook. Things got far beyond what he thought was in store for him when, in his little red sports car, he decided to find out if this might be a question of murder.

Would you marry the man you love if he were suspected of shooting his first wife? That was Helen Wayland's problem. Blanche French had died of a gunshot wound, and a jury could not decide if it was accident, suicide or murder. Helen made her choice, but two years later a second woman died in mysterious circumstances, and once again Paul French's name was involved. It was thanks to Arthur Crook, that intrepid legal champion of lost causes, that the astonishing truth about both deaths was finally established and innocence vindicated.