A Speedy Death

The Clock Strikes Twelve

Patricia Wentworth · 259 pages

**Miss Silver investigates the murder of a great British industrialist.** Though they share a manor house, the Paradines are not close, and their patriarch does nothing to discourage the petty jealousies that divide wealthy families. A cold figure, James Paradine prefers work to his relations, but on New Year’s Eve he convenes the household. Valuable plans have been stolen from his office, and

They Do It with Mirrors

Agatha Christie · 198 pages

E-book exclusive extras:1) Christie biographer Charles Osborne's essay on They Do It with Mirrors;2) "The Marples": the complete guide to all the cases of crime literature's foremost female detective.A sense of danger pervades the rambling Victorian mansion in which Jane Marple’s friend Carrie Louise lives—and not only because the building doubles as a rehabilitation centre for criminal youths. On

No Wind of Blame

Georgette Heyer · 320 pages

Tragedy befalls the Carter family following an eventful visit from a Russian prince and a scandalous blackmail letter. The murder of Wally Carter generates a bewildering mystery: how does one shoot a man crossing a narrow bridge without being near the murder weapon when it is fired? The superlatively analytical Inspector Hemingway reveals his unnerving talent for solving a fiendish problem.

The Crime at Black Dudley

Margery Allingham · 211 pages

Tied Up in Tinsel

Ngaio Marsh · 259 pages

A Christmas pageant turns unholy. Holed up at Hilary Bill-Tasman's manor estate for Christmas, Troy Alleyn is to paint the man's portrait and, while she's there, view the Druid Christmas pageant. Along with a pack of eccentric guests, Troy enjoys the festivities-- until one of the pageant's players mysteriously disappears into the snowy night. Did the hired help-- each a paroled murderer from t

Sweet Poison

David Roberts · 288 pages

It is 1935 and the Duke of Mersham is hosting a party at his country house, when one of the guests is poisoned. Was it an accident or something more sinister? The Duke's younger brother, Lord Edward Corinth, and journalist Verity Browne set out to investigate.

Murder at Rutherford Hall

P.B. Kolleri · 216 pages

On a cold November evening, Lord Rutherford disappears suddenly and unaccountably while his breathtakingly beautiful young wife, Celia, flees Rutherford Hall with blood on her hands. Rachel Markham, Rutherford's niece, and Jeremy Richards, a Scotland Yard detective, team up to help the local police force unravel the mystery.

The Moonstone

Wilkie Collins · 444 pages

One of the first English detective novels, this mystery involves the disappearance of a valuable diamond, originally stolen from a Hindu idol, given to a young woman on her eighteenth birthday, and then stolen again. A classic of 19th-century literature.

The Murders of Richard III

Elizabeth Peters · 240 pages

In a remote English manor house, modern admirers of the much-maligned King Richard III -- one of Shakespeare's most extraordinary villains -- are gathered for a grand weekend of dress-up and make-believe murder. But the fun ends when the masquerade turns more sinister ... and deadly. Jacqueline Kirby, an American librarian on hand for the festivities, suddenly finds herself in the center of strang

Busman's Honeymoon

Dorothy L. Sayers · 397 pages

Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane marry and go to spend their honeymoon at Talboys, an old farmhouse in Hertfordshire which he has bought her as a present. The honeymoon is intended as a break from their usual routine of solving crimes (him) and writing about them (her), but it turns into a murder investigation when the seller of the house is found dead at the bottom of the cellar steps with seve

Cover Her Face

P.D. James · 254 pages

When a sly and sensuous young woman who had used her body and her brains to climb the social ladder is murdered by someone who had clearly decided that the wages of sin should be death, it falls to Inspector Adam Dalgliesh to find out who the killer is.

The Murder at Sissingham Hall

Clara Benson · 262 pages

The Siamese Twin Mystery

Ellery Queen · 325 pages

Ellery Queen and his father are driving through a mountainous area of the United States on vacation when they are forced by a forest fire to seek shelter in a private home on the top of a mountain. The home soon becomes impossible to escape due to the fire. Dr. Xavier's aerie is host to an unusual assortment of characters, including his family and guests, a pair of teenage boys who are "Siamese" o

An English Murder

Cyril Hare · 176 pages

A country house murder mystery classic, as a party find themselves snowed-in on Christmas Eve with a murderer among them... The snow is thick, the phone line is down, and no one is getting in or out of Warbeck Hall. All is set for a lovely Christmas, with friends and family gathered round the fire, except as the bells chime midnight, a murder is committed. But who is responsible? The scorned yo

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Alan Bradley · 375 pages

In his wickedly brilliant first novel, Debut Dagger Award winner Alan Bradley introduces one of the most singular and engaging heroines in recent fiction: eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison. It is the summer of 1950--and a series of inexplicable events has struck Buckshaw, the decaying English mansion that Flavia's family calls home. A dead bird is found

Hamlet, Revenge!

Michael Innes · 285 pages

Murder at Scamnum Court, the grandest of England's stately homes, a treasure-house guarded only by the marble deities that line its terraces. And murder during a performance of *Hamlet*, played on an Elizabethan stage erected in the Banqueting Hall, and with a cast that includes the Duke of Horton as Claudius, his duchess as Gertrude, and the greatest of English actors, Melville Clay, as Hamlet. A

Case for Three Detectives

Leo Bruce · 240 pages

Hag's Nook

John Dickson Carr · 190 pages

**Hag's Nook**, first published in 1933, is a detective novel by John Dickson Carr and the first to feature his series detective Gideon Fell. Tad Rampole is a young American traveling in England who, in a chance encounter on a railway platform, meets and falls in love with Dorothy Starberth. Rampole has a letter of introduction to Dr. Gideon Fell and both soon become involved in the affairs of

The Dark Side of the Road

Simon R. Green · 224 pages

The Art of Killing Well

Marco Malvaldi · 192 pages

Auntie Mayhem

Mary Daheim · 268 pages

Though lurching through London is ever so jolly, hostess on-holiday Judith McMonigle Flynn and her cantankerous cousin Renie are looking forward to an unharried weekend at a real English country manor. They find the estate taxing, however, what with vacationing relations crowding every nook and cranny of Ravenscroft House, while its awesomely aged mistress, Aunt Petulia, holds court—until a box of

Satellite People

Hans Olav Lahlum · 336 pages

Murder at Maypole Manor

L.B. Hathaway

Excitingly, Private Detective Posie Parker has been asked to accompany Inspector Richard Lovelace of New Scotland Yard on an undercover mission. Their destination is a glittering New Year's Eve party at Maypole Manor, the cliff-top home of Lord Robin Glaysayer. Among the twelve members of the house-party are a famous film star, an artist, an Italian nobleman, a government spy and a clairvoyant. Wi

Murder at Dareswick Hall

Margaret Addison · 246 pages