Christianna Brand
Author
Language
English
Appears on list
Formats
Description
"Hands down one of the best formal detective stories ever written."— Kirkus Reviews, STARRED review
This Golden Age masterclass of red herrings and tricky twists, first published in 1944, features a tense and claustrophobic investigation with a close-knit cast of suspects.
"You have to reach for the greatest of the Great Names (Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen) to find Christianna Brand's rivals in
...Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
In the English countryside, one of the well-mannered guests at Pigeonsford Estate may be a murderer in this series debut by an Edgar Award–nominated author.
As war rages in Europe, the citizens of London flee to the country. At Pigeonsford, a group of guests plays cards, drinks tea, and acts polite—but Grace Morland knows the strong emotions that lurk beneath the placid social surface. She’s painfully in love with...
As war rages in Europe, the citizens of London flee to the country. At Pigeonsford, a group of guests plays cards, drinks tea, and acts polite—but Grace Morland knows the strong emotions that lurk beneath the placid social surface. She’s painfully in love with...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
First published in Britain in 1949, Brand's exuberant novel is still regarded as one of the great masterpieces of the classic mystery genre for its fiendishly constructed puzzle, memorable setting, dumbfounding acts of misdirection and thrilling denouement. This edition includes an introduction by award-winning author Martin Edwards.
"A very neat version of the 'sealed room' mystery... provides [Miss Brand] with excellent opportunities to indulge...
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
From the Golden Age author of Green for Danger. “You have to reach for the greatest of Great Names to find Brand’s rivals in the subtleties of the trade” (The New York Times).
Sir Richard’s family has spent years waiting for him to die, but despite his weak heart, the old man simply refuses to cooperate. In the meantime, he makes their lives miserable by changing his will every few months,...
Sir Richard’s family has spent years waiting for him to die, but despite his weak heart, the old man simply refuses to cooperate. In the meantime, he makes their lives miserable by changing his will every few months,...
5) Fog of Doubt
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
The Golden Age author of Green for Danger delivers “a mystery in the classic Christie-Carr-Queen manner . . . An outstanding tour de force” (The New York Times).
Few were disappointed when Raoul Vernet was found with his head bashed in, dead in a pool of his own blood. On vacation in England, the Belgian seducer comes to visit Matilda, an old flame from a few years before. She agrees despite...
Few were disappointed when Raoul Vernet was found with his head bashed in, dead in a pool of his own blood. On vacation in England, the Belgian seducer comes to visit Matilda, an old flame from a few years before. She agrees despite...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
A London writer falls into a trap of romance and false identityKatinka Jones spends her days beautifying, trying out the latest ointments, corsets, and creams in order to pass the information on to the thankful readers of Girls Together. When not immersed in a mud bath, she answers advice letters, and none are so compelling as those of Amista, a Welsh girl in love with a modern-day Heathcliff. Amista's dramatic stories and beautiful...
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
An island republic goes to insane lengths to canonize its most famous resident Juanita di Perli was a young woman when she decided to live the rest of her life on a table-top. She called it God's will, but for the order of nuns that sprang up around her, Juanita's devotion was a curse. For decades they did the bidding of the holy grouch, and the entire island of San Juan el Pirata sighed with relief when she died. Twenty years later, the islanders...
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
Inspector Cockrill's dull vacation is jolted by a Mediterranean murder From the moment he steps on the plane, Inspector Cockrill loathes his fellow travelers. They are typical tour group bores: the dullards of England whom he had hoped to escape by going to Italy. He gives up on the trip immediately, burying his nose in a mystery novel to ensure that no one tries to become his friend. But not long after the group makes landfall at the craggy isle...
Author
Language
English
Description
While running for her life, a failed actress comes across a dead body. Sari Morne had a shot at stardom, a five-year deal with a European film studio, and a starring role in an Italian romance that was poised to become a classic. But the film flopped, and Sari wasted her big break, disappearing from the set to flirt with her new beau: Prince Aldo, heir to a dukedom. Three years later, she is washed up, and all she has left from her romance is a ring...
Author
Language
English
Description
A young widow proves that modesty can be deceptive when she becomes the toast of London. The Marchesa goes to the theater accompanied only by her maid. She dresses in pure white, without any jewels or powder to compete with her golden hair and blue eyes. In the London society of King George III, this modesty is enough to cause a sensation. Night after night, every bachelor in London sends her flowers, hoping to win an audience with this mysterious,...
Author
Language
English
Description
Five courses of delectable depravity from mystery's master chef. Playing Othello is hard on any actor, but for the great James Dragon, the role is toxic. During the play's run, he must reenact the horrible crime that took his own wife's life. Every person in the audience thinks that Dragon killed his real-life wife, and when the curtain rises they wonder if tonight will be the night when Othello finally cracks. "After the Event" is just the first...
Author
Language
English
Description
One woman has the answer to history's strangest maritime mystery Though history would remember her as the Marie Celeste, the ship's name was Mary Celeste. She was a brig - square-rigged, a hundred feet long, large enough for a crew of nine, and sturdy enough to cross the Atlantic and bring profits home to its masters - a beautiful ship that was destined for tragedy. On December 4, 1872, the Mary Celeste is found adrift off the coast of Portugal with...
13) The Lethal Sex
Author
Language
English
Description
THE FAIRER SEX? NOT THESE LADIES...The female of the species is absolutely deadlier than the male in these 14 cunningly-crafted tales of suspense, crimes of passion, and murder, all by women writers. Edited by MWA Grandmaster and bestselling mystery author John D. MacDonald, these bone-chilling stories show the depths both men and women will stoop to get what they want. Christianna Brand brings us a story of two sisters who engage in the ultimate...
Author
Language
English
Description
Eighteen short stories - chilling, lovely, and sad - from a modern master of the form For days she has been terrified that the phone will ring. Whenever she picks it up, the voice is there - breathing, cursing at her, terrifying her with words alone. Tonight, though, it isn't the phone that rings, but the doorbell. A man has come to inquire about buying her dresser, but as soon as he opens his mouth, she knows he is the man who has been tormenting...
Author
Language
English
Description
Fifteen perfectly constructed tales of death both well-planned and chaotic. Mr. de Silva begins the day sipping his coffee, reading the Times, and trying to decide how to murder his wife. After two years of marriage, he's simply fed up, and has decided to move on to someone younger, slimmer, and prettier. The trouble is, he wants to keep his wife's money. Killing her is the neatest solution. So begins "The Rose," a three-page masterpiece that was...
16) Starrbelow
Author
Language
English
Description
A young Italian woman travels to eighteenth-century England to wage war on polite society in this sweeping historical saga of mystery, scandal, and romance. Sophia Devigne is a child of Venice, as much a part of the wonderful island city as the canals themselves. If it were up to her, she would never leave, but her family has other ideas. For the sake of her British father's honor, she's being sent to London to make her societal debut. Her father...
Author
Language
English
Description
Inspector Charlesworth investigates a strange murder in a dress shop The sales room at Christophe et Cie is staffed by five young women. Each is beautiful in her own way-and each could be a murderer. One morning, two of the women purchase some oxalic acid to clean a stain off a Panama hat. No one knows how the poison gets into Miss Doon's system, but it doesn't take long to kill her. When Inspector Charlesworth steps into the little shop, he finds...
Author
Language
English
Description
A governess comes to Wales to work in a house with a ghostly past. For four hundred years, the squires of Aberdar have lorded over this gloomy patch of Wales. In Elizabethan times, the house burst with life, love, and intrigue, as gentlemen schemed endlessly in the shadow of the Virgin Queen's court. But now the house is dark, populated only by two darling twins, their ghastly Belgian aunt, and their father, whose grief for their departed mother is...
Author
Publisher
HarperCollins Publishers
Pub. Date
2021
Language
English
Formats
Description
This annual anthology of rare stories of crime and suspense brings together tales from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction for the first time in book form, including a short novel by Christianna Brand. Mystery stories have been around for centuries—there are whodunits, whydunits and howdunits, including locked-room puzzles, detective stories without detectives, and crimes with a limited choice of suspects. Countless volumes of such stories have...
Author
Publisher
HarperCollins Publishers
Pub. Date
2018
Language
English
Formats
Description
This anthology of rare stories of crime and suspense brings together 16 tales by masters of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction for the first time in book form, including a newly discovered Agatha Christie crime story that has not been seen since 1922. At a time when crime and thriller writing has once again overtaken the sales of general and literary fiction, Bodies from the Library unearths lost stories from the Golden Age, that period between the...