Books in the British Library Crime Classics series

Detective stories from the golden age and beyond have used European settings - cosmopolitan cities, rural idylls and crumbling chateaux - to explore timeless themes of revenge, deception and haunting.

In the seeming tranquility of Regency Square in Cheltenham live the diverse inhabitants of its ten houses. One summer's evening, the square's rivalries and allegiances are disrupted by a sudden and unusual death - an arrow to the head, shot through an open window at no. 6.

We are thrilled to welcome John Dickson Carr into the Crime Classics series with his first novel, a brooding locked room mystery in the gathering dusk of the French capital featuring Inspector Bencolin. Also includes the short story 'The Shadow of the Goat'.

Martin Edwards has selected gems of classic crime from Denmark to Japan and many points in between. Fascinating stories give an insight into the cosmopolitan cultures (and crime-writing traditions) of diverse places including Mexico, France, Russia, Germany and the Netherlands.

While hunting for silverware to steal, amateur thief Ted Lyte stumbles upon a locked room containing seven dead bodies.Seven Dead is an atmospheric crime novel first published in 1939.

Two mysteries of the kind John Bude does best, with well-drawn and authentic period settings and a satisfying whodunit structure, following the traditional rules and style of the Golden Age of the genre.

Entreated by the Belgian financier D'Aunay to investigate the gruesome and grimly theatrical death of actor Myron Alison, the Inspector Bencolin and his accomplice Jeff Marle find themselves at the imposing hilltop fortress Schloss Schadel, in which a killer lurks amongst a small group of suspects.

This British Library anthology uncovers the best mysteries set below the surface and atop the waves, including stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, William Hope Hodgson and R. Austin Freeman.

Excellent Intentions is a classic crime novel laced with irreverent wit, first published in 1939.

'The death was an odd one, it was true; but there was after all no very clear reason to assume it was anything but natural.' First published in 1943, Raymond Postgate's wartime murder mystery combines thrilling detection with rich characters and a fascinating depiction of life on the home front.

Staffordshire in the 1950s. Within the clay tanks at the pottery company Shentall's, a body has been found. Amid cries of industrial espionage and sabotage of this leader of the pottery industry, there is a case of bitter murder to solve for Inspector Hedley Nicholson.

This unorthodox novel from 1934 is by a gifted crime writer who, wrote Dorothy L. Sayers, 'handles his characters like a "real" novelist and the English language like a "real" writer - merits which are still, unhappily, rarer than they should be in the ranks of the murder specialists.'

This new collection gathers together stories written over a span of about 65 years, during which British society, and life in country houses, was transformed out of all recognition. It includes fascinating and unfamiliar twists on the classic 'closed circle' plot.

This classic crime novel from 1952 evokes all the sunlit glamour of life on the Riviera, and combines deft plotting with a dash of humour

Duchlan Castle is a gloomy, forbidding place in the Scottish Highlands. Late one night the body of Mary Gregor, is found in the castle, stabbed to death in her bedroom - but the room is locked from within and the windows are barred. The only clue to the culprit is a silver fish's scale, left on the floor next to Mary's body.

When the show opens at the Grosvenor Theatre to a packed house, Brandon Baker is killed by a real bullet. When another member of the company is found dead, initial appearances suggest a straightforward case of murder followed by suicide. But there is, of course, more to it than that!

Dr James Earle and his wife live in comfortable seclusion near the Hog's Back, a ridge in the North Downs in the beautiful Surrey countryside. When Dr Earle disappears from his cottage, Inspector French is called in to investigate. At first he suspects a simple domestic intrigue - and begins to uncover a web of romantic entanglements

A collection of 14 vintage mysteries from the likes of Arthur Conan Doyle, GK Chesterton, Anthony Berkeley, Phyllis Bentley among others.

When a body is found at an isolated garage, Inspector Meredith is drawn into a complex investigation where every clue leads to another puzzle: was this a suicide, or something more sinister? A classic mystery novel set amidst the stunning scenery of a small village in the Lake District.

In the peaceful seaside town of Broadgate, an impossible crime occurs. The operator of the cliff railway locks the empty carriage one evening; when he returns to work, a dead body is locked inside - a man has been stabbed. Jimmy London, a newspaper reporter, is first on the scene and is quick on the trail for clues.

This richly characterised and elegantly written crime novel from 1933 is a true forgotten classic.