The Japanese mystery scene is packed with incredibly imaginative and original puzzlers, and Yukito Ayatsuji is one of the best in the business.
Astonishingly, this is only his second book to appear in English (after the equally amazing The Decagon House Murders), and it’s a tour-de-force of a country house mystery featuring gruesome murders, masked men, and a masterfully handled dual timeline.
A twisty and ingenious classic Japanese murder mystery from the author of The Decagon House Murders
Every year, a small group of acquaintances pay a visit to the remote, castle-like Mill House, home to the reclusive Fujinuma Kiichi, son of a famous artist, who has lived his life behind a rubber mask ever since a disfiguring car accident. This year, however, the visit is disrupted by gruesome murder, a baffling disappearance and the theft of a priceless painting.
The brilliant Kiyoshi Shimada arrives on the scene, but as he investigates the seemingly impossible events of that evening, death strikes again,…
Gladys Mitchell is an unjustly neglected “Queen of Crime” who deserves to be mentioned alongside Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L. Sayers, and the rest.
Her detective, Mrs. Bradley, is a brilliantly eccentric character – as was Mitchell herself! When Last I Died is a characteristically unorthodox Golden Age mystery that sees Mrs. Bradley spurred to investigate a haunted house by discovering a suspected murderer’s diary.
Mrs. Bradley has dealt with murderers before, but she has always dealt with them as a professional psychologist--coolly, scientifically, almost flippantly. Now, however, the brilliant old lady is fiercely determined to bring a cruel and ruthless murderer to bay. Various members of the Bradley household play significant roles in a case involving a special school where youthful offenders are sent in hopes of reforming them. First published in 1941.
Nobody writes historical mysteries quite like Paul Doherty, and his Brother Athelstan series is one of my absolute favourites.
But Doherty is so prolific that I am still catching up with his work, and The Anger of God is, in fact, the fourth tale to feature the sleuthing friar and his Falstaffian friend Sir John Cranston.
As you would expect from Paul Doherty, the medieval period is vividly evoked, and the plot is an incredibly complicated mystery featuring seemingly impossible murders, the theft of several severed heads, not to mention demonic possession!
The kingdom teeters on a knife edge, and one man would throw it into chaos...
Autumn, 1379. The power of the crown is invested in John of Gaunt, and the kingdom is seething with discontent. The French are attacking the southern ports and the peasants are planning a revolt organised by a mysterious leader who proclaims himself as 'IRA DEI', the anger of God.
When Gaunt's plans to win over the merchant princes of London are plunged into chaos by a series of bloody murders, he turns to Sir John Cranston to bring the assassin to book and to recover…
Illusionist turned sleuth Joseph Spector investigates a sinister conundrum at a 1930s theatre in this thrilling new mystery novel from Tom Mead.
1938, London. Young lawyer Edmund Ibbs has a new client: a woman accused of shooting her husband in the infamous 'Ferris Wheel Murder' case. The case proves to be a web of conspiracy when a second suspicious death occurs during a magic act at the crowded Pomegranate Theatre.
Also present is Joseph Spector, illusionist turned highly respected sleuth. And when another body is discovered later that same night, all evidence points to Ibbs. With time against him, can Spector uncover the guilty party?
