On a dismally foggy night in Hampstead, London, a curious party has gathered in an artist's studio to weather the wartime blackout A civil servant and a government scientist are matching wits in a game of chess, while an artist paints the portrait of his characterful sitter, bedecked in Cardinal's robes at the other end of the room. In the kitchen, the artist's sister is hosting the charlady of the miser next door. When the brutal murder of said...

Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder Four men were due to fly to Dublin. When disaster strikes and the plane goes down over the Irish sea, only three of them were onboard. With the identities of the flyers scattered to the winds, the police turn to the Wade family, whose patchy account and memory of their past few days hold the key to this elusive and tense mystery. Who was the man who didn't fly? And what did he have to gain...

"An unusually rewarding anthology whose most dangerous species remain Homo sapiens."- Kirkus Reviews Feline friends, canine companions and aviary associates are often the truest reflections of their owners and have played a crucial role in classic crime fiction-be they detectives, or delinquents. Martin Edwards reaches into the British Library of Crime Classics to collect mysteries featuring an animal cohort. Guilty Creatures celebrates an often-overlooked...

When an old flame comes calling, Hugh Everton is powerless to resist. Hugh Everton was intent on nothing more than quietly drinking in the second-rate hotel he found himself in on England's south coast-and then in walked his old flame Lucy and her new husband and ex-judge, Gregory Bath. Entreated by Lucy to join her party for an evening back at the Bath residence, Hugh is powerless to resist, but when the night ends with the judge's inexplicable...

"A one-of-a-kind treat from the golden age."- Kirkus Reviews From music conductor turned crime fiction novelist, Sebastian Farr, comes an epistolary tour de force that hits the perfect murderous crescendo for music and crime fiction aficionados alike. During a performance of Strauss' tone poem 'A Hero's Life', the obnoxious conductor, Sir Noel Grampian, is shot dead in full view of the Maningpool Municipal Orchestra. He had many enemies, musicians...

"… and what a motive! Murder to save one's artistic soul… who'd believe that?" Behind the stage lights and word-perfect soliloquies, sinister secrets are lurking in the wings. The mysteries in this collection reveal the dark side to theatre and performing arts: a world of backstage dealings, where unscrupulous actors risk everything to land a starring role, costumed figures lead to mistaken identities, and on-stage deaths begin to look a little...

First published in a limited run in 1934, this exceedingly rare and fast-paced bibliomystery set against the landscapes of Yorkshire is long overdue its return to print. The note read: "Will the gentleman who took by mistake a copy of Bunyan's Life and Death of Mr. Badman, return it as soon as possible, as the book is in demand." On holiday in Keldstone visiting his nephew, Jim, blanket manufacturer Athelstan Digby agrees to look after the old...

James Bennett has been invited to stay at White Priory for Christmas among the retinue of the glamorous Hollywood actress Marcia Tait. Her producer, her lover, the playwright for her next hit and her agent are all here, soon to become so many suspects when Tait is found murdered on a cold December morning in the lakeside pavilion. Only the footprints of her discoverer disturb the snow which fell overnight – and which stopped just shortly after Marcia...