Penguin crime fiction

Contains: "Maigret's Boyhood Friend", "Big Bob", and "November".

Mystery novel in the Emmy & Henry series Chief Superintendant Henry Tibbett and his wife investigate the shooting of an imprudent ambassador's wife at a Washington reception, travelling both to Washington D.C. and to the Caribbean

Contains: "Maigret and the Madwoman", "The Glass Cage", and "The Man on the Bench in the Barn".

Detective Héctor Belascoarán Shayne weary from coping with his mother's death and his lover's flight, is involved in three perplexing cases: murder in a corruption filled factory, violent threats against the teenage daughter of a former porn star, and a missing person case involving Emiliano Zapata!

Frank Cairnes, a popular detective writer who now embarks on a real-life crime of his own, determined to hunt down the runaway motorist who killed his small son Martin.

338 pages ; 23 cm

"A Dave Brandstetter story involving a male prostitute who entices his young lover to commit a series of crimes leading up to a murder"--Best Books for Public Libraries, c1992, p. 389.

Contains: "Maigret and Monsieur Charles", "The Disappearance of Odile", and "The Cat".

Detective.

Archie Goodwin sits in for a friend at a charity dinner dance for unwed mothers, and one of the guests drops dead on the dance floor. The young woman was depressed and known to carry poison - but Archie is sure that this was murder.

Perhaps it was ordained that Louis Schweitzer, who had for twenty years been a quiet, orderly man—a translator for the international organization Europahaus—should have been bicycling through the sunny pasture at the moment the man in the ditch croaked out "Thirst." Louis found the source of the feeble voice, a man in pain, whose life was beginning to ebb, a man much out of place in that rural setting, lying face down in a ditch in city clothes. A man in trouble—how bad the trouble was Louis didn't realize at once, but he had recognized him as a Russian. The man refused Louis' help; instead ordered him to go to a nearby quince tree and dig in its roots. Louis was down on one knee digging when something made him look up. A second man was standing there, smiling and pointing a pistol at him. If the man had shot Louis at once, hadn't taken the time to enjoy smiling at him, a Louis who had been dead for twenty years wouldn't have come back to life, wouldn't have left the pistol-holding man with two neat holes in his head. And wouldn't have found the buried silver box—and in it the Dresden Green, all forty carats of it. Dresden—Louis' nightmare. Dresden—destroyed in a rain of fire—and only the Green survived. The Dresden Green, and with it Louis' quiet life, splintered into danger.

The head of a research establishment is found murdered. But there is an even bigger shock in store when another body is found mummified in his cellar. What is the connection between them? Things certainly aren't what they seem, and Supt. Dunn must delve deep into the lives and personalities of those involved with the dead man before he can hope to find a solution.

From classicmysteries.net: "We are told quite often that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Certainly the intentions of the lawyers working to protect the assets of a very large (and very English) estate from taxation had the best of intentions. Without a change to the legal trust which had originally been set up, the heirs of a five million pound estate would have to pay more than three million in taxes. A little practical - and perfectly legal - editing of the trust agreement would reduce that bill very considerably. No, the intentions were certainly good. It was hardly their fault that someone decided a certain short cut along that well-paved road was going to be needed." And when that shortcut involves murdering one of the beneficiaries, Oxford legal scholar Hilary Tamar is called upon by her young friends practicing at Lincoln's Inn to unravel the mystery before the murderer eliminates another inconvenience - permanently.

Father Brown, full-time Catholic priest and part-time amateur detective, returns in this third collection of short stories. Unlike the first two collections, this time Father Brown is investigating alone; his sidekick, the former criminal Flambeau, is nowhere to be seen. Father Brown has to solve a murder (including his own!) in each story, and since several also appear to involve the supernatural, he has ample opportunity to elaborate on his thoughts concerning it. As with the first two collections, Chesterton is often as concerned with the moral of the story as with the mystery itself. Most of the stories were previously published in The Pall Mall Magazine, though one appeared in Cassell’s Magazine and another was written specifically for this collection.

Penguin Classic Crime, 1964 edition, 212 pp. The epub version had significant errors but the .pdf was okay. I found the version in Innes trilogy a bit more readable though. One of Innes "fantastical" mysteries.

Contains: "Maigret Has Doubts", "Maigret and the Minister", and "The Old Man Dies".

Is a famous mystery writer unwittingly orchestrating an actual murder?

When portrait-painter and occasional detective Charles Honeybath pays a visit to his old friend Edwin Lightfoot, there are a few surprises in store. Edwin's irksome wife is packing her bags, while Edwin is indulging in an eccentric game of pretence - acting the part of a long-dead petty criminal named Flannel Foot. Days later, when Edwin disappears, Honeybath finds himself with a mystery to solve and some decisions to make about his life - will he be lured by his intended haven?

From a review by "Drew Brainiard" on Amazon.com: Seventeen-year old Alan Tarr lies in an abandoned beach house,his legs in casts, waiting for the man who tried to kill him....BACKTRACK is beautifully written with fully-realized (memorable) characters, exquisitely evoked mood, and biting humor. Written in the days when authors didn't have to pad with extraneous subplots and other filler, every word counts in this little gem of a book; if I had to pick my favorite Hansen mystery it would be BACKTRACK, and the story of Alan Tarr who comes to Hollywood to discover what became of his father....Effectively alternating between 'Now' and 'Then' chapters, we follow Alan's journey of discovery...to the inevitable showdown.

"And the young woman of the house," asked Dr. Hood, with huge and silent amusement, "what does she want?" "Why, she wants to marry him," cried Father Brown, sitting up eagerly. "That is just the awful complication." "It is indeed a hideous enigma," said Dr. Hood. "This young James Todhunter," continued the cleric, "is a very decent man so far as I know; but then nobody knows very much. He is a bright, brownish little fellow, agile like a monkey, clean-shaven like an actor, and obliging like a born courtier. He seems to have quite a pocketful of money, but nobody knows what his trade is. Mrs. MacNab, therefore (being of a pessimistic turn), is quite sure it is something dreadful, and probably connected with dynamite.

From amazon dot com: "This psychological suspense thriller concerns the police investigation of a series of brutal torture-killings at a boys' school. The presence of an ambassador's son at the school adds the problem of political terrorism. It's a serious book about an ugly subject, but well written and shot through with Gilbert's characteristic sanity and good humor." Set in rural England in the eary 1970s, a vastly different place than that of today.

The new lawyer Henry Bohun had joined the firm to work on insurance cases, not murders, but... "At eleven o'clock this morning a partner in this firm of solicitors — what's their name? — Horniman, Birley and Craine, opened one of their deed boxes. The box was supposed to contain papers relating to a trust. What they found was one of the trustees. Name of Smallbone — Marcus Smallbone — very dead."

The first of the acclaimed Ripley novels, this clever psychological thriller introduces the reader to Tom Ripley and his extraordinary modus operandi. Accepting a commission from a wealthy businessman to travel to Italy in an attempt to convince his wayward son to return to the United States, Ripley gradually develops a plan to assume the young man’s identity along with his bank account.

> Portrait painter Charles Honeybath is intrigued when he is visited by a mysterious Mr Peach and is commissioned to paint an anonymous, aristocratic sitter, known only as 'Mr X', whom relatives claim is insane. Under cover of night, Honeybath is taken to the house and asked to stay while he completes his work; but when he returns to his studio, he discovers that the bank next door has been robbed and that he is under suspicion!

The Simney family, of Hazlewood Hall, have a dubious history. Sir George Simney, who was travelling in Australia before the baronetcy fell to him, sleeps with a shotgun by his side. When he is found dead in the library, the Reverend Adrian Deamer will not rest until he has discovered who is responsible. This is an absorbing tale narrated by Simney's widow, Nicolette, and by young Harold, who has just joined the C.I.D. (From Goodreads)

"A long queue had formed for London's favourite musical comedy, but as the line began to move forward, one man keeled over, a small silver dagger neatly plunged into his back. So begins Inspector Alan Grant's first spectacular case."--Provided by publisher.

The witty chronicles of a stable of young London barristers, narrated by their former tutor, an academic scholar of indeterminate gender. These stories are Bertie Wooster only with brains; Rumpole if he were young and good looking; Mary Poppins unencumbered with kiddies. You will laugh.

Colonel Ffolliot Petticate's predicament begins when his novelist wife, Sonia, drowns during a sailing trip in the English Channel. A dramatic cover-up ensues in a tale full of humour, irony and devastating suspense.

The thrilling ninth classic installment in the Martin Beck detective series from the 1960s – the novels that have inspired all crime fiction written ever since.Widely recognised as the greatest masterpieces of crime fiction ever written, these are the original detective stories that pioneered the detective genre.Written in the 1960s, they are the work of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo – a husband and wife team from Sweden. The ten novels follow the fortunes of the detective Martin Beck, whose enigmatic, taciturn character has inspired countless other policemen in crime fiction. The novels can be read separately, but do follow a chronological order, so the reader can become familiar with the characters and develop a loyalty to the series. Each book will have a new introduction in order to help bring these books to a new audience.

Harriet Shaw, pupil at a proper English boarding school, is persuaded to participate in a midnight skinny-dipping party by two less than proper schoolmates. Alas for Harriet, she finds herself not only separated from her clothes and facing possible expulsion, but also the inadvertent key witness to a murder.

Businessman Carl Carson decides to make a dash for South America to escape the economic slump, leaving his home and his barmy wife. But he has a problem - if his company were seen to be drawing in its horns, it wouldn't last a week. His solution is his wife's favourite delusion - an imaginary son, named Robin. Carson plans to stage a fictitious kidnapping - after all, what could be more natural than a father liquidating his assets to pay the ransom demand? Unfortunately, Carson has a rather astute neighbour - Sir John Appleby, ex-Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

Canadian detective Benny Coopermann is hired to keep an eye on Norbert Patten, the absolute despot of a highly suspect religious cult, the Ultimate Church. Benny follows him to Big Crummock Lake where Patten goes to escape whilst the U.S. Supreme Court investigates his finances. An unwise choice as a hide-out, for it's a part of his distant past, and now the past begins to catch up with him. And this yields a complex mystery which keeps the wily Benny guessing.

Weir, H. C. Cinderella's slipper. Ottolengui, R. the nameless man. Ottolengui, R. The Montezuma emerald. Flynt, J. and Walton, F. Found guilty. Futrelle, J. The scarlet thread. MacHarg, W. and Balmer, E. The man higher up. MacHarg, W. and Balmer, E. The Axton letters. Adams, S. H. The man who spoke Latin. Lynde, F. The cloud-bursters. Pidgin, C. F. and Taylor, J. M. The affair of Lamson's cook. Reeve, A. B. The campaign grafter. Anderson, F. I. The infallible Godahl. Davis, R. H. The frame-up.

Bernhard Gunther, a private investigator in Germany in 1938, is hired by a rich widow to discover who has been blackmailing her, and by the Berlin police to track down a serial killer, and runs into bizarre psychotherapy and medicinal practices and Nazi occultism.

Gilbert is a common man who, one day, finds his wife has deserted him due to their boring life.

Here's riches! Twenty-six detective stories by the great Edmund Crispin—a splendid hoard, if sadly posthumous. Most of them feature his don-detective, Gervase Fen, and/or his almost equally sharp-witted friend and (unofficial) colleague, Inspector Humbleby of Scotland Yard. And all of the stories are as taut as a highly strung bow, and score a remarkable series of bull's-eyes. They turn upon a fine assortment of clues—dandelions and hearing aids, Sunday pub closing in Wales, a bloodstained cat, a Leonardo drawing. There are devices and tricks of extraordinary ingenuity—murder by letter, a circular literary forgery. And cleverest of all, perhaps, there are the many variations on faked alibis and switched victims—the alibied corpse that gives the killer an alibi, or the faked alibi that breaks an alibi. There seems no limit to the intricacy of Edmund Crispin's invention or the sparkle of his wit. And certainly none to the sheer delight that his puzzles provide.

Contains: "Maigret and the Millionaires", "The Venice Train", and "The Innocents".

What kind of research was really going on at Milton Manor Clinic? What exactly was Formula 10? If it hadn't been for the blundering intervention of a cheap con-man on the run, Appleby would never have uncovered the sinister secret of Operation Pax.

It began with a breath of suspicion--erupted into a whirlwind of danger and intrigue. This is the fascinating and complex story of a perfectly ordinary English bookseller who knew a great deal about literature but very little indeed about scientists, politics, or spies. Motivated by his increasing obsession with a most unusual woman, he probes deeply into the mystery that surrounds her and, in finding the answers to the puzzle of her life, almost forfeits his own. In a fast-moving tale that begins in London and moves to Madiera, E. X. Ferrars penetrates the diverse but converging worlds of a wide variety of characters. Only one thing is constant--somewhere there is a murderer at large.

É na saga do Padre Brown que Chesterton atinge o cume da beleza artística como se verá por este A Inocência do Padre Brown reunião de doze contos admiráveis e impecáveis, entre os quais, todavia, ouso destacar muito especialmente A Cruz Azul e O Martelo de Deus , é na saga do Padre Brown que Chesterton atinge o cume da beleza artística. Tudo aqui concorre para tal: um uso brilhante das aliterações e do ritmo permitidos pela língua inglesa; uma riqueza vocabular que vai de par com uma grande profundidade, digamos, retórica (em o Martelo de Deus, por exemplo, diz o Padre Brown: A humildade é a mãe dos gigantes); um humor (finíssimo) e um drama cuja mescla tem parentesco, por um lado, com o Cervantes de D. Quixote e, por outro, com o Dickens de tantas obras; metáforas usadas na medida certa e no momento certo; tudo sempre contra um pano de fundo cristão ao mesmo tempo leve e grave, como convinha com a ideia que Chesterton queria simbolizar por esta saga. O que o leitor tem agora nas mãos A Inocência do Padre Brown, primeiro livro da saga é um tesouro. É obra de arte pura e simplesmente perfeita, e contribui grandemente para sua formação global.

Murder at Scamnum Court, the grandest of England's stately homes, a treasure-house guarded only by the marble deities that line its terraces. And murder during a performance of Hamlet, played on an Elizabethan stage erected in the Banqueting Hall, and with a cast that includes the Duke of Horton as Claudius, his duchess as Gertrude, and the greatest of English actors, Melville Clay, as Hamlet. And a victim of no less eminence than the Lord Chancellor. - from back cover

Un animal peut-il se transformer en criminel ? Ou devenir un justicier impitoyable ? Impossible, direz-vous. Et pourtant, quand vous aurez lu ce livre, vous ne regarderez plus jamais les animaux - ni les humains - de la même façon. Baignant dans un climat de cruauté parfois tempéré par une note d'humour, ces treize récits vous feront découvrir un aspect stupéfiant de l'univers de Patricia Highsmith. Ce n'est pas la première fois qu'apparaît dans la littérature le thème des animaux qui se retournent contre l'homme. Mais l'art consommé de Patricia Highsmith, son extraordinaire don d'observation, la vérité des situations et des personnages, l'amour évident que l'auteur éprouve pour les bêtes, toutes ces qualités font de ce recueil un livre où, à chaque page, se lit en filigrane une terrible leçon : souvent, ce n'est pas l'animal qui est le plus bestial. [Payot]

Contains: "M and the Headless Corpse", "The Man with the Little Dog", and "The Little Saint".