Classic Mysteries

The cult calling itself the Children of Osiris - COO or just COO-ism for short - finds itself battling over its High Prophet and the question of who should succeed him - a battle that will prove to be quite deadly.

Direct download: DeathMakesAProphet.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:56pm EDT

The party ended early, as guests ran to escape a powerful blizzard. But they couldn't escape a determined killer.

Direct download: DancingDeath.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:49am EDT

Gregory Matthews was a singularly nasty and unpleasant person - but was that motive enough for somebody to poison him?

Direct download: BeholdHeresPoison.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:16pm EDT

When Councillor Henry Grayling got off the train, he was carrying a payroll. When he got to his house, the payroll was missing - and the councillor was dying, apparently of poison.

Direct download: SomebodyAtTheDoor.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:40pm EDT

"The show must go on" - but when one of the actors dies onstage, even that great producer, Douglas B. Douglas, admits, "You can't carry on with the show with a man dying on stage. Drop the curtain!" A biting satire of theatrical excess from the Golden Age of English Detective Fiction.

Direct download: QuickCurtain.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:55pm EDT

An unforeseen accident brought a thirteenth guest to Lord Aveling's hunting party - and then there was murder...

Direct download: ThirteenGuests.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:46pm EDT

When a crow drops a human finger at the feet of a couple of hikers, police find themselves searching for the rest of the body - and needing to figure out who or what might have been responsible.

Direct download: HarmsWay.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:37pm EDT

The case began with a dead dog that may have scared wholesale jeweler Leander Hill to death. And it would grow to be more fantastic that a Hollywood blockbuster. Ellery Queen's new novel was going to be delayed as he struggled to make sense of a story that seemed to get more incredible with each new development.

Direct download: OriginOfEvil.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:43pm EDT

The shooting that spoiled the gathering at the country house in Hampshire was no accident. Good thing Sergeant Ridgway was on hand to take over the investigation - but could he follow the clues to a logical conclusion?

Direct download: MysteryOfTheSkeletonKey.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:28pm EDT

Colonel Anthony Gethryn has been called home to London by his wife, who wants her husband to investigate the case of Daniel Bronson, accused and sentenced to hang for the murder of a man named Blackatter by shooting him in the back of the head. Gethryn believes Bronson is innocent - but without new evidence, the execution will be carried out in five days. A harrowing thriller by Philip Macdonald.

Direct download: Noose.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:38pm EDT

The renowned artist John Lafcadio had left instructions which should have kept his art in the public eye for many years. A murderer had different priorities. A Classic Mysteries review.

Direct download: DeathOfAGhost.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:11pm EDT

On the Classic Mysteries podcast, reviews of three mystery novellas featuring the gargantuan Wolfe and the far more agile Archie.

Direct download: TripleJeopardy.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:05pm EDT

Two unrelated cases solved by Detective Inspector Littlejohn, issued as a double volume by the British Library Crime Classics series. One deals with a cold case of murder everyone thought had been solved more than 20 years ago. The other presents the murder of a town's well-respected "bonesetter."

Direct download: DeadShallBeRaised.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:56pm EDT

An international club of great detectives meet to share some stories about their fight against crime.

Direct download: CrimeClub.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:10pm EDT

A woman is on trial for her life, charged with the murder of her nephew. The ultimate decision about her fate will rest in the hands of ten men and two women, the members of the British jury who will try her. How they reach their verdict is shown in harrowing detail.

Direct download: VerdictOfTwelve.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:11pm EDT

The secret of Kraken Street appears and vanishes with the street itself - and one of its secrets seems to be murder.

Direct download: PhantomPassage.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:05pm EDT

Amelia Peabody is a strong-minded, no nonsense amateur archeologist. But who's responsible for the mysterious behavior of an Egyptian mummy?

Direct download: CrocodileOnTheSandbank.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:58pm EDT

A busybody may learn more than it's good to know. That may be why Miss Tither was murdered, her body left in the vicar's cesspool - not nice at all!

Direct download: DeathOfABusybody.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:21am EDT

Charles Hayward wanted to marry Sophia Leonides, who lived with her family in a crooked little house named Three Gables. First, however, he had to find a murderer...

Direct download: CrookedHouse.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:35am EDT

Familiar writers - Agatha Christie, G. K. Chesterton, Arthur Conan Doyle and many more - offering lesser-known tales of crime on the continent.

Direct download: ContinentalCrimes.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:30am EDT

"As a study in criminal aberration it is[...]of particular interest, while in singularity of horror and in perversity of ingenious method it is probably unique."

Direct download: Scarweather.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:28pm EDT

A small English village in the grip of World War II deals with a series of unexplained violent deaths.

Direct download: BrazenTongue.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:05pm EDT

Constantly changing your will to disinherit your relatives can be extremely hazardous to your health...

Direct download: CrookedWreath.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:48pm EDT

An indispensable history and guide to traditional mysteries, especially from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, with thought-provoking commentary from Martin Edwards. Intended as a companion to the British Library Crime Classics series.

Direct download: StoryOfClassicCrime.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:24pm EDT

He knew himself only as "William Smith," but had no memory of his life before the war. Now somebody was trying to kill him - and only Miss Silver could find out why.

Direct download: CaseOfWilliamSmith.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:42pm EDT

Prudence Pinsent, daughter of the Master of Prince's College, Cambridge, finds herself involved in a drug smuggling investigation that could come very close to home - and could result in murder.

Direct download: IncredibleCrime.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:09pm EDT

Like it when a crime seems impossible? Footprints in the sand? Bodies in locked rooms or disappearing out of closely-watched rooms? Here's a collection of crimes that couldn't have happened - but did.

Direct download: MiraculousMysteries.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:52pm EDT

To quote from the book, “For a scream in the early hours of the morning in Soho, even from a female throat, to stop dead in his tracks a hard-boiled constable who had worked in that cosmopolitan quarter for years, had to be something entirely out of the ordinary, as, indeed, this one was!”

Direct download: AScreamInSoho.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:20pm EDT

Gossip, jealousy and hatred among the guests at a classic British Country House gathering ultimately result in murder.

Direct download: MysteryAtStowe.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:51am EDT

The murder in the British Museum Library's Reading Room was shocking - and proved to be part of a much larger plot indeed.

Direct download: MurderInTheMuseum.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:31pm EDT

Two police investigators working on two unrelated cases are quite sure they know who committed the crimes. Unfortunately, they're wrong...

Direct download: BodyUnidentified.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:12pm EDT

The old servant supposedly committed suicide. To Superintendent Pibble, it looked more like murder - and some charming English eccentricities looking more and more like straightforward madness.

Direct download: OldEnglishPeepShow.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:59pm EDT

Found guilty of murder and sentenced to die, his case was hopeless. Then Nero Wolfe stepped in...

Direct download: MightAsWellBeDead.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:27am EDT

Mrs. Bradley must find out who is guilty of murder - and who may be planning to do it again.

Direct download: EchoingStrangers.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:37pm EDT

Two crimes merge into a single search for a missing young man through the French town of St. Antoine and the dangerous alleys of Marseilles.

Direct download: CrimeCoast.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:47pm EDT

Not all honeymoons are happy - even if you're rich, beautiful and famous, you can't always get what you want...

Direct download: DeathOnTheNile.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:23am EDT

Unfamiliar stories from familiar authors, plus some excellent choices from the work of lesser-known mystery writers, all wrapped in a neat package by mystery author and historian Martin Edwards.

Direct download: CrimsonSnow.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:31pm EDT

A tramp breaks into a deserted house, looking for a place to stay - and finds the odd things happening in that house are matched or exceeded by the even odder things happening in the opposite house across the street.

Direct download: HouseOpposite.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:45pm EDT

A writer of lurid melodrams finds himself living in one in this century-old classic.

Direct download: SevenKeysToBaldpate.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:28am EDT

Was somebody cooking the books at the National Calculating Company? Accountant Clarence Fortinbras was just the man to find out - until he met an untimely end.

Direct download: AccountingForMurder.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:54pm EDT

Inspector Bobby Owen searches for a missing young man who may have become too dangerous to live.

Direct download: SecretsCantBeKept.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:58pm EDT

When evil things happen to members of the Dain family and their friends, is it bad luck - or a family curse?

Direct download: DainCurse.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:45pm EDT

Ellery Queen and his father, trapped by a forest fire, are forced to take refuge in a mountain-top house - where a determined killer is also on the scene.

Direct download: SiameseTwinMystery.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:42pm EDT

“As a gentlewoman, the thought of eavesdropping was extremely repugnant to Miss Silver. As a detective engaged upon a case of attempted murder, she treated her scruples with exemplary firmness.”

Direct download: LonesomeRoad.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:31pm EDT

Mrs. Bradley has a pretty good idea who the killer is. The real question is how to find convincing evidence for a conviction.

Direct download: DeathCapDancers.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:50pm EDT

The last of six novels written by Earl Derr Biggers about Inspector Charlie Chan of the Honolulu police force.

Direct download: KeeperOfTheKeys.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:27pm EDT

Julius Anthony's disappearance is a real mystery. He had no enemies worth pursuing, no secrets worth hiding or sharing. So why was he abducted?

Direct download: HeDiesAndMakesNoSign.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:21pm EDT

Stranded at the monastery during a violent storm, Judge Dee finds murder most cruel and madness among the Taoist monks.

Direct download: HauntedMonastery.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:18am EDT

There's nothing like a murder to give you a better perspective of your own problems with the tax collector. Another fast, funny book from the late Sarah Caudwell.

Direct download: ThusWasAdonisMurdered.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:16pm EDT

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