English eccentric Barrington Shakeshaft has retired from a colourful life of swashbuckling adventure to live in a caravan in the paddock of his daughter's home in Sussex. He amuses himself by perpetrating benign hoaxes on gullible journalists and duping greedy art dealers with forged paintings done in the style of famous painters.When police announce a fresh appeal for witnesses on the first anniversary of the unsolved murder of a schoolboy, Shakeshaft...

Former police detective Michael McLaren is looking forward to spending Christmas at his grandfather's ancient Hall. Not only because it will be his first holiday with his grandfather and uncle, but also with his lady love, Melanie.Everything seems perfect for the Scottish Highland getaway. Even Mother Nature is contributing snow, adding a festive and romantic overtone to the gathering. But McLaren's holiday plan gets snowed under when a dead man is...

For the sake of honey, Bognor investigates a cabal of treasonous monks As the friars of the abbey gather for group prayer, Brother Luke stays in the garden. His tardiness is not due to an overenthusiasm for his potatoes, but to the fact that he is lying face down in the dirt, strangled to death by his own crucifix. For Simon Bognor, this will prove inconvenient. A special investigator attached to the British Board of Trade, Bognor knows that Brother...

"Five men occupied their usual places in a first-class carriage, but the sixth place was empty..." It is most unusual for the sixth man, Mr. Parador, to be late. The five commuters are wondering what happened to him, when a strange-looking man enters the compartment, dressed in black and wearing dark glasses. When he is told that the sixth seat is taken, he replies, in a deep sepulchral voice, "He won't be coming." He was right. Parador does not come,...

Cuando Astrid acepta inscribirse en la web de citas, tal y como le pide su hermana y tomar así el control de su vida sentimental, parece una gran idea, aunque al principio no le guste, pero es fácil de hacer y consigue matar dos pájaros de un tiro: silenciar las constantes charlas de su controladora hermana y obligarle a salir del hospital donde trabaja. Pero… ¿Qué sucedería si esa decisión aparentemente trivial, inspirase al mal absoluto...

One man will stop at nothing to obtain a priceless jewel that has eluded men with dreams of riches and glory for centuries   James Waring stares into the darkness of a cavern at a remote shrine in Annam. He's given his pursuers the slip and is about to behold a gem that few men have ever seen. It is a sacred stone-the only one of its kind in the world. The magnificent blue, green, red, and gold jewel is nearly within his grasp. But as his hand finally...

Bognor braves the frost to discover who has murdered Canada's richest man In his lavish private train car, Sir Roderick Farquhar draws a bath. When it has been filled to his satisfaction, the portly captain of industry tips in three drops of bath oil and lowers himself into the steam. Within seconds, the poison in the oil has stopped his heart and ruined Simon Bognor's winter.   A special investigator for Britain's Board of Trade, Bognor makes the...

Hailed by Agatha Christie as "the king of the art of misdirection," John Dickson Carr presents a thrilling murder mystery that has the redoubtable Dr. Gideon Fell tracing clues from London to Sussex to South Africa. Mystery novelist Christopher Kent accepts a friend's outlandish bet and sets out to travel from Johannesburg to London with nothing but the cash in his wallet and the clothes on his back. He arrives with twenty-four hours to spare, his...

This is one of Sgt. Beef's most interesting and perplexing cases. It involves a murder, but one in which no body can be found. Young Rogers announces to Beef and others assembled in a local pub that he has committed a murder-then takes his own life. But where is the victim? How did it happen? "I always supposed," says Beef. "a murder case started with a corpse, and then you had to find out 'oo done it. This time we know 'oo's done it, but we can't...

Ein Begegnis voller Poesie entspinnt sich vor den Toren der Burg Silbleincastell. Diese birgt das Geheimnis um einen Klan, welcher sich seit alters der Hege der unnahbaren Windhunde verschrieben hat. Dessen jüngstem Abkömmling, dem gemütvollen Ugo, eignet ein besonderes Talent: Wie niemandem sonst gelingt es ihm, eine Anziehung auf die leidenschaftlichen Beutegreifer auszuüben, womit er jeden anderen Reiz in den Schatten stellt. Die Gabe ist Teil...