Yellowbacks – serie

How does a man escape from himself...? A classic masterpiece of American noir fiction.George Stroud is a hard-drinking, tough-talking, unscrupulous journalist working for tyrannical Earl Janoth's media empire. And he's involved with the wrong woman - his boss's mistress, Pauline Delos. One day, as Stroud escorts Pauline home, he spies his boss returning from a trip. The next day, Pauline is found dead in her apartment.Janoth knows someone saw him enter Pauline's apartment on the night of the murder; he knows it must have been the man Pauline was seeing on the side; but he doesn't know his identity. To get his hands on the man and pin the crime on him, Janoth assigns his best investigative reporter and most trusted employee to track him down: George Stroud...

Discover the first adventures of the most iconic detective of all time.This quintessential collection includes many of the famous cases that made the legendary Sherlock Holmes one of fiction's most popular creations. Set against the foggy backdrop of London and the English countryside, each story unravels an exciting new mystery, from mistaken identity and ominous omens to counterfeit currency and daring robberies. First published in the Strand magazine in the early 1890s, these stories cemented Holmes and Watson as behemoths of detective fiction – and this is where it all began.Part of a boldly designed series of classics, with wider margins for notes, this book is perfect for design-lovers and students alike. With bold, eye-catching graphic covers by Evi O Studio, this collection aims to introduce a selection of the most celebrated works of the last thousand years to a new audience. Featuring tales of adventure, fiction from the 19th and 20th centuries, feminist writings, and reflections on art, politics, philosophy and the origins of man, this is a small, wide-reaching and essential collection.'Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.'

A hardboiled novel of luck and ironyYou Play the Black and the Red Comes Up follows the wanderings of a Depression drifter (Dick) as he bums his way from Oklahoma to Los Angeles in search of his son and runaway wife. There he commits one crime, plans another, and is ironically arrested for something he didn't do. Populated with memorable characters like the mad L.A. Deco, decadent film director Quentin Genter, divorcee Mamie, Patsy, who gilds her sandals with radiator paint and a string of crooks, shysters, and loopy saints – You Play the Black and the Red Comes Up was a bestseller when originally published in 1938, a lost noir classic.

Contains 'The Innocence of Father Brown', 'The Wisdom of Father Brown' and 'The Incredulity of Father Brown'."I caught him, with an unseen hook and an invisible line which is long enough to let him wander to the ends of the world, and still to bring him back with a twitch upon the thread."Father Brown is a detective like no other. A catholic cleric blessed with incredible detection abilities, he is frequently confronted with crimes that only he can solve. G.K. Chesterton was already a literary heavyweight before he created Father Brown and to him these were "ephemeral" and light stories, but the Father Brown series has become his most lasting and memorable work. Along with volume 2, this is the only truly complete edition that includes 'The Donnington Affair', 'The Vampire of the Village' and 'The Mask of Midas' as well as original illustrations.

A priest who's also a master criminalConstantine Dix is a model English clergyman. Fine, upstanding, of moderate habits and fully committed to helping society's least fortunate as someone of his calling should be. But there's one major difference between Dix and other clergymen – he is also one of the most talented thieves in all of England.These twelve stories are a key addition to twentieth century detective and crime fiction.

Murder in a crowded public place and no one saw a thing...A man slowly sinks to the ground standing in line to obtain a ticket to a stage musical. And he has a silver dagger neatly plunged into his back. But how was he stabbed when no one around him witnessed the crime? With the wit and guile that have made Inspector Grant a favourite of crime buffs, the inspector sets about discovering just how a murder occurred among so many witnesses, none of whom saw a thing.The Man in the Queue (aka Killer in the Crowd) is the first of the author's novels starring the popular Inspector Alan Grant.

Step into the realm of supernatural detectives!A collection of supernatural detective short stories by the author M.P. Shiel. Prince Zaleski the mysterious exiled Russian, spends his time in his ruined abbey, surrounded by strange artefacts, including a partially unwrapped mummy. He solves cases mostly without even having to leave the abbey – when he "might sometimes be induced to take an absorbing interest in questions that had proved themselves too profound, or too intricate, for ordinary solution". "Zaleski is Sherlock – demented" – HG WellsCumming's King Monk Shiel's The Pale Ape and Other Pulses collection presented a second extraordinary figure, Cummings King Monk who has a longer section with three component short stories that have been called Shiel's "subversive take on the crime story genre".

"This isn’t an ordinary murder. The dead man was the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the murder was in the House of Commons." The clock is Big Ben, above the Houses of Parliament. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is ready to present his non populist budget. Arriving a little late, he makes his preliminary speech, sipping from a glass of claret-and-seltzer as he talks. But it is a speech he is never to finish – for Edgar Reardon suddenly topples to the floor, dead. Battling to keep any scandal to a minimum, Inspector Ripple and Amos Petrie uncover a conspiracy that goes to the very heart of government – and a murder so ingenious as to shock even an investigator of his experience with its audacity.Below the Clock returns to classic Golden Age writing with an ingenious whodunit set at the heart of the political establishment.

Enter Richard Hannay and the beginning of 'the chase' adventureAdventurer Richard Hannay, just returned from South Africa, is thoroughly bored with London life – until he is accosted by a mysterious American, who warns him of an assassination plot that could completely destabilize the fragile political balance of Europe. Initially sceptical, Hannay nonetheless harbours the man – but one day returns home to find him murdered. An obvious suspect, Hannay flees to his native Scotland, pursued by both the police and a cunning, ruthless enemy – the 'on the run' trope that was to influence countless others. His life and the security of Britain are in grave peril, and everything rests on the solution to a baffling enigma: what are the 'thirty-nine steps'? A classic, the book featured on Guardian's Best 100 English Novels list at #42.