Classic Mysteries

Another collection of little-known mystery stories by such icons of Golden Age mystery fiction as Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Marjorie Allingham and Edmund Crispin

Direct download: BodiesFromTheLibrary2.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:07pm EDT

Two stories, "The Morning of the Monkey" and "The Night of the Tiger," mysteries resolved by Judge Dee involving theft, banditry and murder.

Direct download: MonkeyAndTheTiger.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:43pm EDT

On Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, Rabbi David Small finds the hidden key to trapping a killer. 

Direct download: SaturdayTheRabbiWentHungry.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:28pm EDT

Written well after the end of the British Golden Age of Detection, "A Six-Letter Word for Death" manages to combine a puzzle-plot mystery (with a real crossword puzzle to be solved), a classic "country house" mystery and a secret "club" of authors, all tied together with a good murder.

Direct download: SixLetterWordForDeath.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:06pm EDT

It took Nero Wolfe to demonstrate to police that a mysterious death was actually a case of murder. And that's when life became dangerous for Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.

Direct download: FerDeLance.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:33pm EDT

James Teasdale was living a second life running a carnival game when he was murdered - and his respectable family knew nothing about it until it ended with a knife in the back.

Direct download: BodyInTheDumbRiver.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:50pm EDT

The explosion that killed 3 men had plenty of possible suspects. What it seemed to lack was any reason for the explosion. Superintendent Littlejohn and Inspector Cromwell would have to chase down an elusive motive for a shadowy killer.

Direct download: SurfeitOfSuspects.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:08pm EDT

Eighteen stories, including a few starring Allingham's regular detective, Albert Campion. All the stories have the wit and style readers have come to enjoy in Allingham's books.

Direct download: AllinghamMinibus.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:52pm EDT

The murder was apparently impossible, taking place in a locked and bolted room. And when they broke into that room, everything in the room - including the victim's clothes - had been turned backwards.

Direct download: ChineseOrangeMystery_EDITMASTER.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:52pm EDT

The charismatic cult leader was seen through a window apparently murdering his victim - but when police broke in, only the body of his victim was there.

Direct download: NineTimesNine.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:05pm EDT

As a Resistance fighter, Victoria Lamartine escaped from the Gestapo during World War II. Could she now escape from a charge of murder?

Direct download: DeathHasDeepRoots.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:31am EDT

Why were the town's residents so determined not to reveal the secrets about Sister Monica to the strangers investigating the murder?

Direct download: MurderInTheMillRace.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:02pm EDT

The Crown Prince was being blackmailed, a young woman was murdered while at the dentist's - and a mysterious gem known as the Peacock's Eye  Different threads leading to an unknown destination.

Direct download: MysteryOfThePeacocksEye.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:25pm EDT

Martin Edwards selects eleven classic short mystery stories, most from the Golden Age of English Detective Fiction, to provide some sinister holiday fare.

Direct download: ChristmasCardCrime.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:56pm EDT

Hearing a warning of murder can be unnerving. Hearing it in your own voice could push you into insanity.

Direct download: PuzzleForFools.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:51pm EDT

Did tension between regular army officers and "fighting" officers lead to murder?

Direct download: CaseOfTheFightingSoldier.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:50pm EDT

It began with a minor embezzlement - but it ended with disappearances and multiple murders.

Direct download: DeathInDarkGlasses.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:18pm EDT

In this Agatha Christie thriller, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford must identify two Nazi spies known only as "N" and "M" who are plotting the German invasion of England during World War II.

Direct download: NOrM.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:55am EDT

The victim was stabbed inside a locked and bolted room, and witnesses insisted nobody could have entered - or left - the room. Police Lt. Marshall needs help from an inquisitive nun, Sister Ursula, to uncover the truth.

Direct download: RocketToTheMorgue.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:14pm EDT

Banker Franklin Shore had run away from his wife a decade ago. Now somebody claiming to be Franklin Shore was on the phone, asking a family member to help him meet with lawyer Perry Mason. Unfortunately, murder intervened.

Direct download: CaseOfTheCarelessKitten_Rev1.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:46pm EDT

Oswald Preston was a very unpleasant man. But was that sufficient reason to murder him on the train?

Direct download: TwoTicketsPuzzle.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:37pm EDT

The millionaire philanthropist died on her way to the operating room - strangled while waiting for the surgery. Ellery Queen realized that in order to determine the WHO, he'd need to uncover both the WHY and the HOW.

Direct download: DutchShoeMystery.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:44pm EDT

The head of a critical military research team disappears, followed by murder. But there's more to Colonel Brende's abduction, and it could affect Britain's chances for survival in World War II.

Direct download: CaseOfTheKidnappedColonel.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:35pm EDT

The body of a headless corpse turns up in a Parisian canal, and Inspector Maigret must find out who was killed - and why.

Direct download: MaigretAndTheHeadlessCorpse.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:35pm EDT

Someone is stealing hats and other headgear - top hats, barrister's wigs and such - and leaving them in strangely appropriate places. Surely leaving one on top of a murder victim's body was not appropriate?

Direct download: MadHatterMystery.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:44am EDT

The great Australian author Mervyn Blake is dead - and nobody knows what killed him. But DI Napoleon Bonaparte will find a most unusual way for a determined murderer to kill.

Direct download: AnAuthorBitesTheDust.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:08pm EDT

More than a dozen short stories, many featuring Margery Allingham's most popular character, Albert Campion, including several of her earliest tales.

Direct download: ReturnOfMrCampion.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:40am EDT

There’s an awful lot going on behind the closed doors of Flaxborough – lots of greed and corruption, and the usual assortment of sexual peccadilloes not to mention possible fraud on the part of various dubious charities - and, of course, murder.

Direct download: CharityEndsAtHome.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:12am EDT

Inspector Littlejohn knew he had to find a solution quickly before a determined murderer could strike again.

Direct download: KnifeForHarryDodd.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:01pm EDT

Sixteen short stories, all virtually unknown, by some of the finest and best-known writers of Britain's Golden Age of Detective Fiction.

Direct download: BodiesFromTheLibrary.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:29pm EDT

Did the powerful piano music played by their neighbor hold the secret of two murders?

Direct download: MusicTellsAll.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:36am EDT

Maigret takes time off from work to investigate a murder on his own, to help a schoolteacher who traveled to Paris to enlist Maigret's aid.

Direct download: MaigretGoesToSchool.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:07am EDT

Sixteen stories, mostly of murder, a fair amount of seeming impossibilities - and Gervase Fen to show why they're not as impossible as they may seem.

Direct download: BewareOfTheTrains.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:34pm EDT

The fifth and final collection of Edward D. Hoch's marvelous stories featuring Dr. Sam Hawthorne, who delights in solving crimes that seem to be impossible.

Direct download: ChallengeTheImpossible.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:16am EDT

Private investigator Ludovic Travers and his friend and frequent colleague, Scotland Yard Superintendent George Wharton, uncover strange and deadly doings at an English seaside resort.

Direct download: CaseOfTheHavenHotel.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:45am EDT

Murder in a locked room, an impossible disappearance, and a lot of residents who seem to be living in fear. Former detective Charles Venables must follow sometimes gruesome clues to find the secrets behind the terrors of the Garden Hotel.

Direct download: PassTheBody.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:50pm EDT

some "bright young people" are invited to a late night gathering after a charity ball - but what they find is hardly what they expect: the wrong owner of the house, a vanishing lady, and a champagne-stealing young constable are pieces of a puzzle, and so is the uninvited guest: Death.

Direct download: AndDeathCameToo.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:58am EDT

In only a few minutes time, Ruth Miller, moving to a new apartment in a lovely boarding hotel called Hope House, saw her dream of peace and happiness transformed into a horrible nightmare. What had happened - and was anyone else safe from the madness there?

Direct download: DeathOfADoll.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:50pm EDT

Adrian Gray died violently, at the hands of one member of his family. Will the killer be able to deflect suspicion and get away with murder? Or will the unexpected play a significant role in the course of events?

Direct download: PortraitOfAMurderer.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:42pm EDT

Carolyn Crale was convicted of poisoning her husband. She died in prison. Sixteen years later, her daughter came to Hercule Poirot and asked him to find evidence that her mother was innocent - or that would prove her guilt.

Direct download: FiveLittlePigs.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:35pm EDT

Maigret's wife and doctor wanted him to take a vacation - and Maigret had to find a way to stay informed about a murder investigation.

Direct download: MaigretEnjoysHimself.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:06am EDT

A holiday pantomime of the folk story of Dick Whittington and his cat has an unexpected ending: the actress playing Dick Whittington dies onstage - victim of cyanide poisoning.

Direct download: Who_Killed_Dick_Whittington.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:49pm EDT

The very odd behavior of the woman calling herself "Harriet Hall" seemed frightening to members of the Dene family. But who uncovered Harriet's secret life - and did it lead directly to murder?

Direct download: StrangeCaseOfHarrietHall.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:11pm EDT

Chief Inspector Macdonald will have his hands full as he tries to determine who has done what and to whom...

Direct download: MurderByMatchlight.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:44pm EDT

A posthumous collection of more than two dozen stories by Edmund Crispin, written with the author's signature style of clever plotting and witty writing.

Direct download: FenCountry.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:31pm EDT

The Manciples were a delightfully eccentric family - but could one of them have murdered a particularly unpleasant neighbor?

Direct download: MurderFantastical.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:47pm EDT

Christine Clay's name may be known and loved by fans around the world, but when she is found dead on the beach, Inspector Alan Grant must find out who hated her enough to kill her.

Direct download: ShillingForCandles.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:23pm EDT

Did the accused man really commit the murder - and was it all revealed in his answers to the psychiatrist's questions?

Direct download: ColourOfMurder.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:33pm EDT

It began with accusations of embezzlement, and the number of both suspects and potential motives just kept growing.

Direct download: DarkGarden.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:16pm EDT

Even Nero Wolfe knows that it's hard to keep someone from being murdered if the killer is determined enough. Here are three examples... 

Direct download: TroubleInTriplicate.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:36pm EDT

Andy Rowan stands convicted for a murder he says he didn't do. Only schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers believes him - but can she prove it before Rowan's date with the electric chair?

Direct download: GreenAce.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:25pm EDT

1