Books by John Russell Fearn

Maria Black, M.A., Principal of Roseway College for Young Ladies, does not expect to come face to face with murder in her favorite cinema, when a stranger seated in Number 11 on Row A is found to be dead--shot through the head with a copper bullet! The baffling crime enables her to take on her role of detective and become, once again, Black Maria--the tireless crime solver. Determined to get to the root of the mystery, she works side by side with the stolid Inspector Morgan, local police chief. Together they follow a tangled trail that takes them behind the scenes of a cinema, examining the lives of hardworking folk who strive to maintain the entertainment industry--and eventually leads them into the recesses of a ruthless killer's dark mind. Another riveting classic British mystery torn from the pages of the pulps. Black Maria, Book Three.

Maria Black, Head of Roseway College for Young Ladies during World War II, and a textbook solver of crimes, finds herself faced with a problem after her own heart when the strange, haughty Frances Hasleigh, daughter of a somewhat mysterious British Major, enrolls in her school. Within a few days the girl is found hanged in a nearby wood, in circumstances that seem devoid of clues and without motive. Scotland Yard is called in to solve the horrifying crime, but Black Maria has her own unique system of finding a culprit. By degrees she follows a trail that leads her through a maze of intrigue. And then a second girl is found hanging in a school room...! The second novel in the classic Black Maria series!

When Ralph Black, chain store magnate, is found shot by his own gun in his locked library in his palatial home, the New York Police Department pronounces it suicide. However, his family members believe he was murdered. His sister in England, Maria Black, M.A., Headmistress of a girls' school, wants to discover the truth. She travels to America, and with her penchant for solving crimes, sets to work to trace the mysterious plot against Ralph. Can she unmask the amazing truth about her brother's death? Or will the first case of "Black Maria" also prove to be her last? Black Maria, Book One.