Indeed, he read very little except detective stories, which he devoured at a rate of one a day. Ronald Knox, The Motive
Every evening Richard Viner read aloud to his aunt, Miss Bethia Penkridge, from detective novels which suited her taste for the sensational. Viner’s protests that events in detective stories never occur in real life is meet with several true life stories from Miss Penkridge, stories of crimes she has come across. Later, while on his …
Continue reading The Middle of Things by J. S. Fletcher (1922)
Work in the pictures department of National Press Archives has been severely disrupted of late. Frank Morningside, an archive assistant, has been the recipient of a series of pranks and increasingly malicious poisoned pen letters. When the situation becomes intolerable and begins to influence his work, Toby Lorn, a close friend the Heldars and head …
Continue reading Answer in the Negative by Henrietta Hamilton (1959)
During the anniversary tea party of the Zion Chapel in Swarebridge the Alderman Harbuttle begins behaving in an unusually good-humored manner. He leads the assembly in his annual game of crocodile, through the chapel’s winding halls until the revels are brought to an abrupt end when Harbuttle suddenly drops into the darkness of a trapdoor …
Continue reading Death Stops the Frolic by George Bellairs (1943)
Gentleman adventurer Peter Kerrigan is a man with a somewhat ambiguous idea of the boundaries between what is legal and what is not. When Kerrigan sees a pickpocket extract a wallet from a gentleman he impulsively steals it back and finds a letter pertaining to a transaction which will leave the writer “worth at least …
Continue reading The Shakespeare Murders by A. G. MacDonnell (1929)
The Fisherman’s Rest hotel lies in Aberllyn, a Welsh fishing village and is filled with ardent fishermen, and fisherwomen. One such individual is the plump, wealthy and rather vulgar Mrs. Ruby Mumsby. While she goes out for the fishing every day, the popular opinion is that she is more interested in landing a new husband …
Hugh Rowland found Brenda White outside of the wire cage. Inside is a wet clay tennis court, in the center of which lies the body of Frank Dorrance, strangled by his own scarf. The footprints of Frank and Brenda can be seen going out to the body, but only one set coming back, Brenda’s. She …
Continue reading The Problem of the Wire Cage by John Dickson Carr (1939)