John Carr

On the eve of his wedding to Evelyn Cheyne, who he met and fell in love with during the course of The Unicorn Murders, former spy Kenwood Blake is summoned to Devon by spymaster Sir Henry Merrivale, and asked to take part in an undercover operation. Despite being assured he’ll be back in London in time for the wedding the following morning, Blake is unconvinced.Once in Torquay, he is sent to investigate Paul Hogenauer, a local scientist of German heritage, who has been dabbling in spiritualism and the occult – a man Merrivale and Devon’s Chief Constable Colonel Charters suspect of anti-British espionage. But, on entering his house, he finds Hogenauer dead in a chair in his sitting room, showing all the signs of strychnine poisoning.When he finds Hogenauer’s friend and confidant Dr Keppel dead in his hotel room in Bristol, also apparently from strychnine poisoning, he has a seemingly impossible mystery to unravel. Can he solve the clues, bring the killer to justice and still get to the church in time to get married in the morning?

The diplomat Sir George Ramsden is returning to Britain from France with the mysterious "unicorn" in tow. The legendary thief Flamande has declared that he will be on the same flight as Ramsden, in disguise, and that the unicorn will be his. His arch-rival and head of the Srete Nationale, Gasquet, has assured the public that he too will be on the plane to thwart his nemesis. Meanwhile, holidaying in Paris, the ex-spy Kenwood Blake runs into Evelyn Cheyne and is swept into a perilous chase ending at the Chateau de l'Ile on a stormy night. Here, Ramsden's plane has made an emergency landing, and Henry Merrivale has joined the party. When the castle is cut off by the flooding river, the stage is set for a battle of wits between two masters of disguise in Flamande and Gasquet, as a bizarre and seemingly impossible murder among the party casts suspicion in every direction and the mystery of the unicorn is revealed. Carter Dickson's brilliantly intricate mystery was first published in Britain in 1936; it remains a testament to his unique talent for wrangling audacious levels of devilishness into a masterpiece.

Impossible crime stories have delighted readers since the invention of detective fiction as puzzle-lovers sought more cerebral entertainment. Following on from Miraculous Mysteries, CWA Diamond Dagger Award-winning crime writer Martin Edwards brings together a whole new casebook of mystifying locked room mysteries and impossible crimes. Featuring more great stories by John Dickson Carr, Julian Symons and Margery Allingham alongside newly rediscovered writers, this selection of stories will bring you more insight into one of the most celebrated and dazzling sub-genres of detective fiction.

One of the greatest locked-room murder mysteries of all time, hailing from 1938, returns to baffle a new bevy of armchair detectives. James Answell, visiting his father-in-law Avery Hume in his locked study, has the misfortune to wake up from a drugged-Whisky swoon to find his host dead, skewered with an arrow. He is, of course, prime suspect. After setting up this devilish scenario, unravels an ingenious courtroom thriller, in which the razor-sharp amateur detective (and barrister) Sir Henry Merrivale stars in all of his outlandish glory - and the mystery of the 'Judas Window' is revealed.

"There will be ten teacups at number 4, Berwick Terrace, W. 8, on Wednesday, July 31, at 5 p.m. precisely. The presence of the Metropolitan Police is respectfully requested."Writing as Carter Dickson, the master of the locked room mystery John Dickson Carr returns to the Crime Classics series, pitching his series amateur detective Henry Merrivale against a seemingly watertight mystery: after the police are sent a note warning them about a forthcoming crime, a man is shot in a room on the top floor of a Kensington townhouse a house watched from all sides during the murder. Surely nobody could have gotten in or out? And yet the man is dead, and just like the last time the police received a note like this, there are ten teacups set out at the scene of the crime. H.M. is drawn to unravel this bizarre crime, as the mysterious significance of the ten teacups in murders past and present pushes the police to their limits.

"...az Aranyboszorka. Ha megfejtjük, hogyan működött az automata a tizenhetedik században, máris megoldottuk az ügy mélyén lapuló titkot." A harmincas években egy angol vidéki kastélyban felbukkan egy férfi, aki azt állítja magáról, hogy ő a birtok ura, akinek személyazonosságát, feleségét és javait egy szélhámos bitorolja évek óta. Hamarosan kiderül, hogy mindkét férfi részletes ismeretekkel rendelkezik olyan tényekről, amelyeket csak a valódi örökös tudhat, így az igazság kiderítése nem egyszerű. Vajon melyikük a csaló?Dr. Gideon Fellnek nemcsak ezt a kérdést kell megválaszolnia, mert a bűnügy felfejtése során hamarosan egy megmagyarázhatatlan haláleset történik a birtokon, amit hárman is látnak, mégsem egyértelmű, hogy öngyilkosság vagy gyilkosság történt. A rendőrségi nyomozást rendszeresen segítő tudóson nem fognak ki a rejtélyes körülmények, noha lépésről lépésre fény derül arra, hogy az események szoros kapcsolatban állnak a sátánizmussal, a boszorkánysággal és a kastélyban megbúvó titokzatos robottal - az Aranyboszorkával.