After Arthur Penfold’s wife reveals she is leaving him to care for her ailing aunt, he sets upon a path of murder and deceit to avoid the social embarrassment of a second marital breakdown. But the purchase of a poetry book triggers a sequence of events that begins to unravel both Arthur and a seemingly open-and-shut murder case.

A short story from British Library Crime Classic The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories. Inspired by the unsolved Peasenhall murder case of 1902, 'Blind Man’s Hood' shows Carter Dickson’s penchant for true crime. When Rodney Hunter and his wife, Muriel, arrive late to a Christmas party in rural Kent, they are unsettled to find the isolated stately home open and empty of guests. While they await the party’s return, they are welcomed in by a mysterious hostess who regales them with the dark legend of Jane Waycross.

Private detective Francis Quarles visits a man with a valuable collection of manuscripts written by murderers. During his stay, the man is killed after drinking cyanide-laced port. A cryptic literary clue in the front page of a book offers the only indication of who may be responsible.

Inspired by a newspaper competition, a group of people discuss enigmatic remarks they have overheard but do not know the meaning of. The phrase ‘Grey’s ghost was black’ sparks much intrigue and speculation, as series detective John Appleby recounts the mysterious tale of an author, his ghost writer and his ghost writer’s ghost.

There is no better hiding place for clues - or red herrings - than inside the pages of a book. With Martin Edwards as librarian and guide, delve into an irresistible stack of tales perfect for every book lover and armchair sleuth, featuring much-loved Golden Age detectives such as Nigel Strangeways, Philip Trent and Detective Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn. But listeners should be warned that the most riveting tales often conceal the deadliest of secrets.

A struggling writer battles constant interruptions during his day, until a final visit from unexpected guests pushes him to his breaking point. A tongue-in-cheek nod to Edmund Crispin’s own troubles as a writer, this short story is both an ironic commentary on what it means to ‘work for yourself’ and arguably one of Crispin’s most personal pieces of crime fiction.

A short story from the British Library Crime Classic collection Final Acts. Detective novelist Dorothy L. Sayers presents a look at morality and motive as playwright John Scales grows angrier and more resentful towards the actor who reinvented his script, and must decide how far he will allow his hatred to take him.

Spring, 1918. The Great War is at a crucial stage, the Germans are making one last push into France, and the Allies are struggling to hold them back. Battle lines are shifting, and men, and their machines, are being sent up and down the front to shore up defenses. Major Heathcliff Lennox, and his batman Greggs, are told to report to their new HQ. They set off on a sunlit day to fly the distance, but the enemy is never far away, and disaster strikes. They're sent crashing to the ground behind enemy lines, where life, death, and love await.

"Albert dear, we are going to have a quiet family party at home here for the holiday, just ourselves and the dear village. It would be such fun to have you with us." Faced with an invitation he can't refuse, Albert Campion is spending Christmas with the Turretts at Pharaoh's Court, along with the Welkins and Mike Peters, a young man trying to shake off his father's reputation. But when Santa Claus is implicated in a burglary, Campion's skills are put to use.

A short story from British Library Crime Classic The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories. When Alfred Caithness extends his stay at Dingle House for Christmas, it is not only due to the bad weather. He is in need of a loan from his wealthy cousin Herbert, and he is in love with his wife, Barbara. But events take a dark turn after Herbert refuses to help him....

While hot on the heels of serial coupon-racketeer Gordon Ginner, Chief Inspector MacDonald of Scotland Yard receives word of an intriguing incident up in Lancashire – the summer cottage of local farmer Giles Hoggett has been broken into, with an assortment of seemingly random items missing which include a complete reel of salmon line, a large sack, and two iron dogs from his fireplace. What first appears as a simple break-in quickly spirals into a mystery of contested land grabs for fishing between farmers, made all the more enticing to MacDonald when a body is then found in the river.

The village of Badger's Drift is the essence of tranquillity. But when resident and well-loved spinster Miss Simpson takes a stroll in the nearby woods, she stumbles across something she was never meant to see, and there's only one way to keep her quiet. Miss Simpson's death is not suspicious, say the villagers. But Miss Lucy Bellringer refuses to rest: her friend has been murdered. She is sure of it.

Detective Inspector Humbleby explains to series-favourite Gervase Fen why the police like blackmail cases when relaying the story of two American brothers, Saul and Harry Colonna, and their boating fun that ended in disaster.

Cherringham - a quiet town in the Cotswolds. Nothing ever happens there, or so it seems - until one morning a woman's body is found in the river. A terrible accident, according to the police. But is this true? Sarah believes there must be more to it. In Jack, a former NYPD homicide detective, she finds a partner who is willing to start investigating with her. They soon find out that things are not as clear as the police want them to be ... This first - of many cases brings Sarah and Jack together in an unlikely partnership.

Chief Inspector Macdonald has been invited to a treasure hunt party at the house of the Graham Coombe, the celebrated publisher of Murder by Mesmerism. The clues of the hunt have been devised by Coombe's thriller-writer friends, disguised on the night under literary pseudonyms. The fun comes to an abrupt end, however, when 'Samuel Pepys' is found murdered in the telephone room in bizarre circumstances.