Private Investigators

London, 1941: Miss Jane Treen is at her desk, strong black coffee in hand and fluffy ginger cat by her side, when her top-secret government work is interrupted by an urgent call to Devon. A woman has been found dead in a lake in a place where she shouldn’t have been. Jane needs to gather the clues and find the killer before someone else from the agency gets hurt… Shy and handsome code-breaker Arthur Cilento is bewildered by the arrival of the efficient Miss Treen and her cat Marmaduke.

London is abuzz as the beautiful Ray Marcable’s final shows at the West End approach. Before she jets off to perform in America everyone in the city is clamoring to see her once more. The lines wrap around the street and crowds are tightly knit together. One fateful night, just as he is nearing the box office, a man drops to the ground—dead. Although a knife protrudes from his back and there were countless potential witnesses, no one knows the poor man and no one saw who did the deadly deed. It is up to Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard to solve this case.

Edgar Allan Poe gilt als Ikone der amerikanischen Kurzgeschichte und Mitbegründer dieser literarischen Gattung. Die Elemente des Mysteriösen, Phantastischen, Unbegreiflichen, Grotesken, Rätselhaften, Transzendentalen schwingen immer als subtiles Klanggebilde in seine Erzählungen mit und regen aufgeschlossene Gemüter zum Nachdenken über all die unzähligen Dinge, die wir nicht imstande sind auch nur annähernd zu erklären, wohltuend an. In der vorliegenden Geschichte stellt Poe eindrucksvoll seine humoristischen Fertigkeiten unter Beweis.

Forbidden from pursuing her calling, Shadow Holmes, the great-granddaughter of Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s older—and smarter—brother, works for her father selling real estate in Miami. To compound matters, Shadow has no idea her father is the director of The Bee, a clandestine British spy agency, until she and her parents are poisoned by the bewitching—and decidedly evil— Professor Jane Moriarty.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring his fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. It was first published on 14 October 1892; the individual stories had been serialised in The Strand Magazine between July 1891 and June 1892. The stories are not in chronological order, and the only characters common to all twelve are Holmes and Dr. Watson. The stories are related in first-person narrative from Watson's point of view. In general the stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes identify, and try to correct, social injustices.

Red Harvest is a hardboiled classic that set the standard for gritty, no-nonsense crime fiction. Written by Dashiell Hammett, this explosive novel follows an unnamed detective—referred to only as “The Continental Op”—as he arrives in a corrupt industrial town known as “Poisonville.” Hired to clean up the city, he quickly finds himself in the middle of a brutal gang war. Betrayals, double-crosses, and brutal power plays spiral into chaos as the Op’s relentless quest for justice leads to a blood-soaked reckoning.

When Mick is almost killed by Oxford's influential chief planner Conrad, the near-miss and ensuing violence awaken his sense of justice. Conrad colludes with venerable St Mark's College in their sale of a 650-acre farm for development. Strategically located in the OxCam Growth Arc, the development will involve bulldozing a nature reserve and its dormice. Mick joins in the protest. Meanwhile Conrad's wife Kimberly demands a divorce and extends a helping hand to Mick. But tragedy strikes when two people, believed to be Conrad and Kimberly, die in a suspected arson attack on their home.

The Adventure of the Retired Colourman (1926), one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 12 stories in the cycle collected as The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes is hired by a retired art supply dealer from Lewisham, Josiah Amberley, to look into his wife's disappearance. She has left with a neighbour, Dr. Ray Ernest, taking a sizeable quantity of cash and securities. Amberley wants the two tracked down.

The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger (1927), one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 12 stories in the cycle collected as The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. Holmes is visited by Mrs. Merrilow, a landlady from South Brixton who has an unusual lodger who never shows her face. She saw it once accidentally and it was hideously mutilated.

The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place is the last of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. The story is part of the series The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes first published in the Strand Magazine from October 1921–April 1927. The original title The Adventure of the Black Spaniel was changed before publication. Head trainer John Mason from Shoscombe Old Place, a racing stable in Berkshire, comes to Holmes about his master, Sir Robert Norberton. Mason thinks he has gone mad.

Arsène Lupin is a fictional gentleman thief and master of disguise created in 1905 by French writer Maurice Leblanc. The character was first introduced in a series of short stories serialized in the magazine Je sais tout. The first story, The Arrest of Arsène Lupin, was published on 15 July 1905. Lupin was featured in 17 novels and 39 novellas by Leblanc, with the novellas or short stories collected into book form for a total of 24 books.

The first four books in the Amazon best-selling Mackenzie and Manny killer mystery series. Mackenzie August's new life doesn't suit him. When he quit the LAPD to open up a private shop, he expected to settle into a quieter lifestyle, hiring out to law firms, home by dinner. Now, however, the feisty detective is bored and missing the action of a hot homicide investigation. It's a good thing, because the sleepy city is about to erupt...

An invitation to his high school reunion prompts Dwayne Morrow to return to his small-town roots to reconnect with friends he hasn’t seen in fifteen years. Before the festivities can even begin, his best friend is found murdered in his car, and the local police show little interest in pursuing the case.

The Adventure of the Creeping Man (1923) is one of 12 Sherlock Holmes short stories (56 total) by Arthur Conan Doyle in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes first published in Strand Magazine October 1921 - April 1927. A man named Trevor Bennett comes to Holmes with a most unusual problem. He is Professor Presbury's personal secretary, and Mr. Bennett is also engaged to the professor's only daughter, Edith. Professor Presbury is himself engaged to a young lady, Alice Morphy, a colleague's daughter, although he himself is already 61 years of age.

The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone is one of 12 Sherlock Holmes short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in the Strand Magazine October 1921. Watson arrives at 221B Baker Street where the page boy Billy shows him a wax effigy of Holmes placed near a curtained window in the sitting room. The effigy produces a shadow on the curtain that, when viewed from outside, is the unmistakable profile of Sherlock Holmes. Using this visual trick, Holmes aims to give a perfect target to a would-be murderer with a rifle.

The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier (1926) is one of 12 Sherlock Holmes short stories (56 total) by Arthur Conan Doyle in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes first published Strand Magazine October 1921 - April 1927. This story is one of only two narrated by Holmes rather than Doctor Watson - the other one being The Adventure of the Lion's Mane. Not surprisingly, Dr. Watson does not appear in either story.

The Adventure of the Three Gables is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, collected as one of 12 in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in The Strand Magazine in 1926 as a serial. The story begins with a visit to 221B Baker Street from Steve Dixie, a black man and a cowardly ruffian who warns Sherlock Holmes to keep away from Harrow.

The Adventure of the Illustrious Client (1924) is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and one of the 12 stories collected as The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. Sir James Damery comes to see Holmes and Watson about his illustrious client's problem (the client's identity is never revealed to the reader, although Watson finds out at the end of the story; it is heavily implied to be King Edward VII).

FEAT DESCLord Robert St. Simon's new American bride, Hatty Doran, has disappeared almost immediately after the wedding. The servants had prevented an old love interest of his from forcing her way into the wedding breakfast, Hatty had been seen in whispered conversation with her maid, and Inspector Lestrade arrives with the news that Hatty's wedding dress and ring have been found floating in the Serpentine. Holmes quickly solves the mystery, locating Hatty at a hotel with a mysterious, "common-looking" man who had picked up her dropped bouquet after the ceremony.

After a series of attacks on the Ottoman administration in Palestine, Sherlock Holmes receives an order from the British government: he is to travel to Jerusalem with Dr. Watson to track down the disruptors and prevent any further destabilization of the region.

The Valley of Fear is the fourth and final Sherlock Holmes novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is loosely based on the Molly Maguires and Pinkerton agent James McParland. The story was first published in the Strand Magazine between September 1914 and May 1915. The first book edition was copyrighted in 1914, and it was first published by George H. Doran Company in New York on 27 February 1915, and illustrated by Arthur I. Keller. The novel starts with Sherlock Holmes receiving a cipher message from Fred Porlock, a pseudonymous agent of Professor Moriarty.

The Problem of Thor Bridge is a Sherlock Holmes murder mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, first published in 1922 in The Strand Magazine. Neil Gibson, the Gold King and former Senator from "some Western state", approaches Holmes to investigate the murder of his wife Maria in order to clear his children's governess, Grace Dunbar, of the crime. It soon emerges that Mr. Gibson's marriage had been unhappy and he treated his wife very badly. He had fallen in love with her when he met her in Brazil, but soon realised they had nothing in common.

Everyone at the party had a secret. Someone killed to keep theirs. London, 1922. Draper’s daughter Marjorie Swallow is 24, independent, and determined to live life to the full. A secretarial post with enigmatic American detective Mrs Jameson looks just the ticket. And soon she’s in the thick of it. When the bohemian party they attend ends in murder, there is no shortage of suspects. Half of Bloomsbury wanted Mrs Norris dead – but who wielded the knife? Was it the handsome but troubled artist? The vivacious young actress? Or even the aristocratic lady novelist?

Jason Davey, professional musician and amateur sleuth, never expected his fan meeting at The Shard to end in a devastating plunge. But when Marcus Merritt jumps to his death after handing Jason a program from his last tour, Jason finds himself on a week-long quest to retrieve a stolen collection of scores by England's most famous composer. As he delves deeper into the puzzle, Jason discovers that the clues are linked to the 14 themes in Elgar's Enigma Variations, and his journey takes him from Derbyshire to London's hidden music venues in a dangerous chase.

The Naval Treaty, one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 12 stories in the cycle collected as The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Doyle ranked "The Adventure of the Naval Treaty" 19th in a list of his 19 favourite Sherlock Holmes stories. Dr. Watson receives a letter, which he then refers to Holmes, from an old schoolmate, now a Foreign Office employee from Woking who has had an important naval treaty stolen from his office.