When a guest at Stowe House is found dead, killed by a lethal dart, suspicion naturally falls on the resident collector of poisoned weapons from tribes in South America. With the entire house party as potential suspects, what part did the woman explorer play in this sinister tragedy? The local police are baffled, and call on the help of an amateur, whose recent assignment working with bushmen in Africa brings new insight into an increasingly unconventional investigation.

This beautifully illustrated edition brings together some of the finest works by Vernon Loder, a master craftsman of Golden Age detective fiction. With a talent for intricate plots, sharp dialogue, and atmospheric settings, Loder's mysteries remain a compelling experience for readers who enjoy clever puzzles wrapped in polished prose. In Between Twelve and One, a mysterious death during the midnight hours sets the stage for a suspenseful investigation full of secrets and twists. The Vase M...

When Colonel Coppe, an elderly bachelor, inherits a fortune from his father, he is keen to do right by his large extended family. As well as setting up his various nieces and nephews in appropriate professions, he takes care to make the necessary provisions in his will. Everyone is content - until, that is, the Colonel becomes engaged to a local widow, Mrs. Brown. On the evening the Colonel announces his engagement, and the terms of his new will, one of the family resorts to murder in orde...

When Inspector Gibbs investigates the murder of Old Farson of Hance House, he faces one of the most difficult cases of his career. As a moneylender, all of Farson's debtors are under suspicion: but which of them knew that Farson had unexpectedly returned from London that night? And which of them possessed the medical knowledge necessary to deliver such a precise wound to the heart? The police are convinced that aspiring young archaeologist Harry Marish is the obvious suspect. Harry's uncle...

MR TOBIAS MANDER’S NEW STORES in Gaffikin Street had been a public wonder from start to finish. From the moment that this almost unknown man from the west country had visualised the idea of a store that would beat all other stores for cheapness combined with luxury, a highly-paid press-agent had seen to it that the country should join vicariously in the building and equipment.

The little town of Martley is alive with gossip concerning Julius Hennessy, who has been spending a great deal of time on the golf links with the young and pretty wife of Mr. Holt the solicitor. Mrs. Hennessy, meanwhile, has also been exciting gossip, on account of the amount of time she has been spending on the river fishing in the company of Bill French. Thomas Brown, a man whose interest in criminology has led to a growing friendship with Captain Maylem of the local police, has also att...

Sir Leonard Craysh knows there'll be trouble when his wife announces that she has included Alexander McDowell, the radical Labour MP, on the list of guests that she has invited to stay at their country estate for the weekend. But when McDowell is found murdered in local woodland, even Craysh is taken aback. Could political differences really have provoked one of his house-guests to murder? Or is the motive altogether more personal?Originally published in 1932, this is a vintage Bri...

When the body of a murdered deaf-mute vagrant is found in a West End square, Scotland Yard have trouble finding a motive for the deed. When the body of another deaf-mute, apparently a suicide, is found in the grounds of a Hendon hotel, the police are even more baffled. Are the crimes related? And did the first murder have anything to do with a recent spate of jewel robberies in the houses near where the body was found? These are the questions that Superintendent "Paddy" Mix and C...

Mander's Stores is the newest department store in London. But when its owner and a young shop-worker are discovered murdered amongst the mannequins of the window display, the Store becomes the centre of a decidedly less savoury kind of sensation. Inspector Devenish of the Yard investigates and finds evidence of blackmail, fraudulent patents, tangled love affairs and embezzlement. Devenish is soon forced to admit that there might possibly be such a thing as too many clues...Original...

In the midst of Corton Magna horse show, a man is struck down and killed by the hoofs of a horse. Why should a normally quiet animal suddenly have become a killer? Then a groom discovers a tiny wound in the horse’s hide, and when Inspector Chace is called in to investigate, he has a difficult question to answer—was the man’s death accidental or murder? Originally published in 1935 in Collins’s celebrated “Crime Club” imprint, this is a classic British mystery from the ‘golden...

When a policeman patrolling a country market in the sleepy village of Sulcote spots a car parked illegally on the Green, he knows he must wake the sleeping occupant and move him along. But the policeman is in for a shock. The Sulcote constabulary are about to encounter their first murder investigation for over a century - and the victim is a Chief Inspector from Scotland Yard...  Originally published in 1933 in Collins's celebrated 'Crime Club' imprint, this is an intrigu...

Marsh House, Upperton, England—Hay Smith, editor of The Daily Record, is been dead in the private study of Sir James Sitheby. In his hands are the torn fragments of confidential Foreign Office documents. How Smith came to possess these documents is a mystery, but not as much of a mystery as which of Sir James’s house-guests murdered the editor. So when Inspector Brews arrives at the scene soon after the tragedy, having been summoned to Marsh House by a mysterious telephone call from Hay Sm...