Kirjahaku

Crime doesn’t stop for the holidays, as this anthology of gripping Christmas mysteries shows with its baffling robberies, mysterious deaths and family gatherings that go terribly wrong.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, cloth-bound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. The stories in Secrets in the Snow & Other Christmas Crime Stories have been selected and introduced by writer Matthew Booth.When snow falls and darkness comes early, it’s the perfect setting for murder and intrigue. And when family and friends gather in country houses for jolly festivities, they’re certainly not expecting guests and priceless jewellery to go missing. But it’s fertile ground for classic crime writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle, G. K. Chesterton and Dorothy L. Sayers who, amongst others, are showcased in this nail-biting collection.

It is the mid-1930s in the English village of Vale Thorn. Sir James Ravenwood, a collector of macabre artefacts and an expert in the occult, is hosting a weekend party at his country house, Warlock's Gate, in order to celebrate the unveiling of his latest treasure-a ceremonial dagger said once to have slain a vampire. Amongst the invited guests is a rival collector, Sebastian Lynch, a man who has been receiving strange threats against his life, in the shape of wooden dolls with skulls for faces and twine nooses tied around their necks. On the night before the unveiling of the dagger, Lynch is stabbed to death in Ravenwood's private museum at Warlock's Gate, despite the fact that the doors and the windows to the museum are all locked, the only keys have been stolen, and the house itself has been secured. It seems to be an impossible crime. One of the guests, Everett Carr, a retired judge haunted by a tragic past, has reason to suspect the truth, however, and he instigates his own investigation. When the killer strikes for a second time, Carr finds himself in a race against time to prove his theories and unmask the killer. His investigation will peel away the respectable veneer not only of the Ravenwood family but also of the houseguests, uncovering revenge, blackmail, illegitimacy, and personal tragedy, before the final secrets of Warlock's Gate are exposed.

The Icarus Club is one of London's most prestigious gentlemen's clubs, counting amongst its members the very elite of society. Beneath the veneer of respectability, however, there swarm dark secrets, tense rivalries, blackmail, and murder. Jacob Erskine is a man who can count many of the Icarus Club's members as his enemy. When Erskine is found shot dead in one of the reading rooms of the club, the police are baffled. Why was the dead man's body covered in bank notes? What is the relevance of a single feather found beside the body? Who had the opportunity to steal the revolver used to commit the crime from a locked desk? And who amongst them is a liar and a thief? Everett Carr, retired judge and reluctant amateur sleuth, thinks he knows the answers to some of those questions. But as Carr digs deeper into the mystery of Jacob Erskine's death, it becomes apparent that more than one person had a motive for wishing him dead. When a second murder occurs, Carr comes to realise that the killer is someone far more deadly than even he had anticipated. If Carr is to solve the murder, not only will he have to brave the very real dangers of the night, but he will also have to delve into the dark secrets of the past...

When William Lorrimer is found dead from a gunshot wound to the head, the inquest has no difficulty in returning a verdict of suicide. Lorrimer had lost the love of his life to another man, and he had written a letter to his former lover explaining why and how she had ruined his life. There could be no doubt that he killed himself. But when a mysterious stranger arrives in the village of Little Marsham, suspicions of murder soon begin to circulate. The woman, who has a close link to Lorrimer, is convinced that the verdict of the inquest was wrong. Lorrimer, she says, was murdered. At first, her claims are not taken seriously, but when she is found dead in the local churchyard, there can be no doubt that this time it is murder. Everett Carr has reasons of his own to be in Little Marsham, and when he hears of this brutal murder, he suspects that the truth of William Lorrimer's death has not yet come to light. As Carr begins to ask questions, it becomes clear that more than one person had a reason to murder Lorrimer, and that there is more than one secret in the village which someone might be prepared to kill to keep hidden. As his investigation brings him into personal danger, Carr finds himself in a desperate race to find a killer who may strike again at any moment...

The original Anthony Rathe stories of courtroom criminal cases appeared on American public radio, syndicated by the late Jim French through his Imagination Theater. When Anthony Rathe Investigates continues where the radio stories finished. Prosecuting criminal cases, barrister Anthony Rathe convinced a jury to imprison an innocent man, who subsequently took his own life. Horrified at his mistake, Rathe abandons his glittering legal career, vowing to truly serve justice. A series of cases come his way. These four stories, linked by how Rathe is racked with guilt over the suicide, explore crime from a different angle: determination to find the truth, no matter how inconvenient to the investigating officer, Inspector Cook. The reader is invited to join Rathe in solving these complex mysteries. The first story, Burial for the Dead, exposes sordid family history that led to a murder in a church. In A Question of Proof, Inspector Cook needs Rathe to unravel an underworld murder; in Ties that Bind Rathe solves a crime of passion; and in The Quick and the Dead, modern slavery intrudes into his own personal life.