Classic Fiction Mysteries

Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to The Mysterious Affair at Styles and experience the compelling world of classic detective fiction, starring Belgian Hercule Poirot, private detective extraordinaire.

Maigret's old colleague becomes an unexpected rival in book 24 of the new Penguin Maigret series. In everyone's eyes, even the old ladies hiding behind their quivering curtains, even the kids just now who had turned to stare after they had passed him, he was the intruder, the undesirable. No, worse, he was fundamentally untrustworthy, some stranger who had just turned up from who knew where to do who knew what.

One morning the residents of an English estate, Styles, are horrified to find the lady of the manor in the throes of fatal strychnine poisoning. They seek the help of Poirot, a refugee who is staying in a nearby village after fleeing Belgium during World War I. On the day of her death, Mrs. Inglethorp was overheard arguing with an unknown man and became so upset that she altered her will, but no one can find a copy of it and a murderer is on the loose.

Liddy Crawford, best friend of food and cocktails columnist Hayley Powell, is getting married. The wedding is the talk of the town in Bar Harbor, Maine, including snide gossip about the age gap between the bride and her groom, local lawyer Sonny Lipton. But the cruelty of the comments is nothing compared to the nasty wedding-cake baker, Liddy's quarrelsome cousin Lisa. So when the belligerent baker is found facedown in a three-tier cake, the victim of a poisoned slice, there are more suspects in town than names on the guest list.

"Make me beautiful." That's what Marci wants from the old woman, not "inner beauty", but real, physical attractiveness to save her from being a teenage outcast. The woman offers a gift in the form of a story, a strange tale from 1940s Bosnia about a group of soldiers who terrorize a town of women and children, brutalize their priest, and murder a child.

The first English publication of Georges Simenon's compelling novel about summer escape and elusive obsessions. 'The island itself. Its throbbing heat as if in a bell jar under the sun, the scorpion in his son's bed, the deafening sound of cicadas.' During his first holiday on the island of Porquerolles, Dr Mahé caught a glimpse of something irresistible. As the memory continues to haunt him, he falls prey to a delusion that may offer an escape from his conventional existence - or may destroy him.

Can You Forgive Her? is the first of the six Palliser novels. Here Trollope examines parliamentary election and marriage, politics and privacy. As he dissects the Victorian upper class, issues and people shed their pretenses under his patient, ironic probe.

Beloved author Mary Stewart's long-lost novella, now available again for the first time in 40 years. In 1879 a wealthy young woman elopes with an impoverished fisherman, leaving her family, who live on the volcanic island of Lanzarote, distraught. In 1968, 23-year-old Perdita West, secretary to the famous author Cora Gresham, visits Lanzarote, the strangest and wildest of the Canary Isles, on a research trip. They meet Cora's estranged son, Mike, and fall in love with the unusual, beautiful little island.

What made Sherlock Holmes a household name and cultural icon? This very first collection of stories featuring the astute sleuth and his loyal assistant, Dr. Watson. In these twelve ingenious mysteries, Holmes is embroiled in betrayal, abduction, thievery, deception, and murder. Relying on logic, driven by instinct, and employing his uncanny powers of observation, Holmes cracks the cases that elude Scotland Yard. This Baker Street dozen by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is all the evidence listeners will need to understand why Sherlock Holmes is an enduring legend in detective fiction.

Mystery novelist Hazel Martin's maid suspects foul play when her childhood friend Doris jumps from the third-story turret of Farnsworth Abbey. Unable to resist an investigation, especially one that's staged to look like suicide, Hazel calls in help from her chauffeur, her cook, and even the mysterious butler her husband hired before his death. Hazel soon learns that Doris's death was no accident. Someone had a secret, and they wanted to keep it that way.

When her cozy hometown is visited by death, Emma's investigative skills are enlisted by a secretive ghost. But with the uncooperative spirit holding so much back, and with the handsome local doctor pressing Emma for answers, will she ever get to the bottom of the case? Or will the Hollow be forever haunted by the secrets of the past?

Late one night, a drawing teacher meets a mysterious woman dressed in white. Who is she, and what is her connection to the teacher's new pupil, a beautiful heiress? Serialized in 1859 - 1860, and first published in book form in 1860 it is still regarded still as one of the best plots in English literature. Told from multiple perspectives, the story is brought to life by its marvellous villains and complex, spirited and believable female characters.

This bundle includes The Curse of the Ancient Emerald and Tunnel of Secrets.

A new translation of Simenon's tense novel, audiobook fifteen in the Maigret series. "He recalled his travelling companion's agitated sleep - was it really sleep? - his sighs and his sobbing. Then the two dangling legs, the patent-leather shoes and hand-knitted socks... An insipid face. Glazed eyes. And Maigret was not surprised to see a grey beard eating into his cheeks...."

Sarah has been receiving threatening anonymous letters seemingly from a former lover. Just one day after revealing this information to her co-worker Nancy, Sarah is shot and found in her bedroom by one of her past flames, Donald. Desperate to clear any evidence of Donald's presence at the scene for her own infatuations, Nancy finds herself as the key suspect when she is discovered in the apartment. As the real killer uses the situation to their advantage, Bennett crafts a tense and nuanced story through flashbacks to Sarah's life and loves.

Whenever there's a mystery, the Find-Outers are on the case! This brilliant bumper audio collection, from bestselling author Enid Blyton, contains The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage, The Mystery of the Disappearing Cat and The Mystery of the Secret Room.

El edificio de la ópera de París, es un edificio de gran lujo, un verdadero monumento, que tiene la particularidad de haber sido construido sobre un lago subterráneo. Todos los empleados que trabajan en la ópera dicen que el edificio está encantado por un misterioso fantasma que provoca accidentes y que se supone que de vez en cuando aparece en un palco privado que tiene para los conciertos.

The Valens Legacy: Publisher's Pack 5 contains audiobooks nine and 10 in the series: Secret Treaties and It Ain't Easy....

The great financier, Sir Reuben Levy, disappears from his Park Lane home on a November night, apparently without a stitch of clothing, or even his spectacles. On the same night in a suburban bathroom in Battersea, an unknown body bearing a superficial resemblance to Sir Reuben is discovered, reclining in the bath tub, unseasonably dressed in nothing but a pair of pince-nez.

Big-game hunter Sanger Rainsford has washed ashore on isolated Ship-Trap Island in the Caribbean Sea. On the island he finds the palatial château of General Zaroff and his hungry hounds. There, Rainsford becomes party to a twisted sport. Zaroff hunts too. And his preferred game is human. The trapped and terrified Rainsford is given a three-hour advantage to disappear into the jungle. If he can survive for three days, he will be set free. Beyond that, there are no rules. It’s Rainsford’s need to survive versus Zaroff’s desire to kill. Time to play.