Books in the British Library Crime Classics series

Written in the last years of the author's life, this previously unpublished novel is a tribute to Lorac's enduring skill for constructing an ingenious puzzle, replete with memorable characters and gripping detective work. This edition also includes an introduction by the CWA Diamond Dagger Award-winning author Martin Edwards.

First published in 1932 at the height of crime fiction's Golden Age, this macabre and atmospheric dives into the murky underground of Parisian society presents an intelligent puzzle delivered at a stunning pace. This new edition also includes 'The Murder in Number Four', a rare Inspector Bencolin short story.

An early gem from one of the great writers of the classic crime genre, in which Inspector Bencolin must tread the streets of a foggy London in search of a fictional bogeyman, Jack Ketch, who appears to be on a murder spree.

On a foggy night in London, a party has gathered in an artist's studio during the wartime blackout. When the brutal murder of the miser next door is discovered by his infantryman nephew, it's not long before Inspector Macdonald of Scotland Yard is at the scene, untangling alibis from the studio party and with the fate of the soldier in his hands.

Two dead bodies and a Christmas stocking weaponised. A Postman murdered delivering cards on Christmas morning. A Christmas tree growing over a forgotten homicide. Martin Edwards compiles an anthology filled with tales of seasonal suspense where the snow runs red, perfect to be shared between super-sleuths by the fire on a cold winter's night.

The murder, a brutal stabbing, definitely took place on Guy Fawkes' night. It was definitely by the bonfire on the village green. There were definitely a number of witnesses. And yet, was it definitely clear to anybody exactly what they had seen? In the writhing, violent shadows, it seems as if the truth may have gone up in smoke.

Four men were due to fly to Dublin. When disaster struck and the plane went down over the Irish sea, only three of them were on board. With the identities of the flyers scattered to the winds, the police turn to the patchy account of the Wade family, whose memory of their past few days must hold the key to this elusive and tense mystery.

Hardback edition with an additional essay by President of the Detection Club, Martin Edwards. Adrian Gray was born in May 1862 and met his death through violence, at the hands of one of his own children, at Christmas, 1931. This fascinating and unusual novel tells the story of what happened that dark Christmas night; and what the murderer did next.

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.

In London's Bloomsbury, Inspector Julian Rivers of Scotland Yard looks down at a dismal scene. Here is the victim, burnt to a crisp. Here are the clues - clues which point to a good climber and expert skier, and which lead Rivers to the piercing sunshine and sparkling snow of the Austrian Alps to crack the case.

Talented sportsmen inexplicably go absent without leave, crafty gamblers conspire in the hope of making a killing, and personal rivalries and jealousies come to a head on fields of play... The classic stories in this new British Library anthology show that crime is a game for all seasons.

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.

Chief Inspector Brett Nightingale and Sergeant Beddoes find the body of Princess Olga Karukhin, who fled from Russia at the time of the Revolution. Taking place in the three days leading up to Christmas, Nightingale's enquiry takes him to a gramophone shop and a jewellers, culminating in the wrapping of the mystery on Christmas Eve.

The detectives in this collection are masters of scientific deduction, whether they are identifying the perpetrator from a single scrap of fabric, or picking out the poison from a sinister line-up. The Measure of Malice collects tales of rational thinking to prove the power of the human brain over villainous deeds.

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'.

First published in 1944 Fell Murder sees E.C.R. Lorac at the height of her considerable powers as a purveyor of well-made, traditional and emphatic detective fiction. The book presents a 'return of the prodigal' mystery set in the later stages of the Second World War amidst the close-knit farmerfolk community of Lancashire's Lune valley.

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.

Everyone says that Sister Monica, warden of a children's home in rural Devon, is a saint - but is she? When her body is found drowned in the mill race, Chief Inspector Macdonald faces one of his most difficult cases in a village determined not to betray its dark secrets to a stranger.

Superintendent Littlejohn is summoned to Surrey to investigate murder by explosion in Bellairs' novel of small-town grudges with calamitous consequences.

A masterful and atmospheric mystery combining high stakes courtroom drama with a search for evidence in a war-torn Europe, where the roots of the central deadly crime lie buried.

A masterpiece of the genre in which Inspector Hazlerigg must unravel a gruesome murder at the heart of the double-crossing, high-stakes microcosm of a London law firm.

This classic locked-room mystery with a closed circle of suspects is woven together with a thrilling story of escape from an Italian POW camp, as the Second World War nears its endgame and a handful of British prisoners prepare to flee into the Italian countryside.

Originally published in 1932, this was the only mystery novel to be written by Ellen Wilkinson, one of the first women to be elected to Parliament. Wilkinson offers a unique insider's perspective of political scandal, replete with sharp satire.

This atmospheric novel of family secrets, first published in 1964, is by a winner of the CWA Diamond Dagger.

With neglected stories by John Bude and E. C. R. Lorac, as well as tales by little-known writers of crime fiction, Martin Edwards blends the cosy atmosphere of the fireside story with a chill to match the temperature outside. This is a gripping seasonal collection sure to delight mystery fans.

This atmospheric mystery set against the backdrop of 1945 blackout London sees Lorac's CID man MacDonald pit his considerable wits against a host of characterful suspects. Also includes the Lorac short story, 'Permanent Policeman'.

This book tells the story of crime fiction published during the first half of the twentieth century. The diversity of this much-loved genre is breathtaking, and so much greater than many critics have suggested.

A darkly humorous depiction of fraught family ties, The Murder of My Aunt was first published in 1934.

Jim Henderson is one of six guests summoned by the mysterious Edwin Carson, a collector of precious stones, to a weekend party at his country house, Thrackley.