Showing results by narrator "Gordon Griffin" in All Categories

This is Freeman’s third mystery featuring pathologist-detective Dr John Thorndyke. Whilst presenting a new invention for increasing the efficiency of gas-buoys with his laboratory assistant Polton, Thorndyke is dragged into a mystery involving an elderly seafaring man who has gone missing in the fog.

Gogol's great comic masterpiece paints an hilariously satirical picture of provincial life in 19th century Russia. Its publication in 1847 not only provided inspiration for succeeding generations of Russian writers, but fanned the already flickering flames of social discontent which were eventually to flare up and consume Russia in the revolution of 1917.

It is a shock to the staff at the Barleybridge Animal Hospital when Dan, one of the farm vets, is seriously injured in a car accident. It is even more of a shock when Scott Spencer, back from Australia, steps in to cover for him. Scott slips seamlessly into the Practice routine, not guessing what secrets are about to be revealed: secrets that will turn his life upside down and amend his callous attitude towards women.

For the faithful, religion remains a guiding force for every aspect of life. An understanding of the world's major religions is not only essential to the study of history, but also in order to comprehend today's complex global community. The Story of Religion introduces the six most dominant world faiths, explaining the origins, philosophies, and evolution of these incredibly influential belief systems. Discover how intricately these religions are entwined in the state of the world today.

A collection of Peter Fleming’s essays written for The Spectator.

After battling for justice in his first recorded case, Sergeant Caleb Cluff makes a swift return to duty in this book. The story opens one wet and windy night, with the discovery of a young woman's corpse, in a passageway in the Yorkshire town of Gunnarshaw. The deceased is Jane Trundle, an attractive girl who worked as a shop assistant. She yearned for the good life, and Cluff finds more money in her handbag than she would have earned in wages.

A short story from British Library Crime Classic The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories. When Alfred Caithness extends his stay at Dingle House for Christmas, it is not only due to the bad weather. He is in need of a loan from his wealthy cousin Herbert, and he is in love with his wife, Barbara. But events take a dark turn after Herbert refuses to help him....

Detective Inspector Frank Elder's first case was unsolved. A dead woman, lying on a bed, immaculately dressed. The murderer was never found: free to kill again. Eight years later, Elder's estranged wife contacts him in his Cornish hideaway. Her friend's sister Claire has mysteriously disappeared. Elder reluctantly agrees to help. Then Claire is found dead, arranged with meticulous detail on her bed, and it doesn't take long for Elder to make the connection.

A short story from British Library Crime Classic Deep Waters. The character that made Bailey’s name is the medically trained detective Reggie Fortune, and he’s at his best in this short story investigating a murder and the disappearance of a nurse at a mysterious stately home.

Detective Inspector Humbleby explains to series-favourite Gervase Fen why the police like blackmail cases when relaying the story of two American brothers, Saul and Harry Colonna, and their boating fun that ended in disaster.

Lord Thurlby can only ever recall previous visits of Lavinia Muir, his mother’s goddaughter, with a shudder. So it is with undisguised horror that he hears she is to come and stay again. Her arrival on the common stage, accompanied by the flirtatious Isobel Macclesfield, does nothing to allay his fears. When he learns that Lavinia has become entangled with the rakish Lord Riseholm, his reservations appear to be justified.

A short story from British Library Crime Classic Deep Waters. When a man is found dead on his yacht on the Thimble River, an inlet off the Solent, series detective David Wintringham must draw on his nautical knowledge to track down the killer....

Following the split from her husband, Helen Pascoe decides to take her children away from London to live in a lovely old house near Falmouth. The family are beginning to feel happy and settled, when the local community is stunned by a murder. A young man has been found stabbed at the crossroads of two narrow lanes - a place where legend says a gibbet once stood. It is DCI Channon's territory, and he soon finds that the victim is connected to the Pascoe family, as well as to other residents of the once humble fishing village.

The Mallorcan police receive an anonymous call to say that a body has been found at the foot of a steep wall of rock. Hoping it is an accident, Alvarez makes cursory enquiries only to find that the medical evidence reveals this could be a murder. Alvarez uncovers several possible motives seeming to draw in just about every English person on the Island – but he refuses to countenance that Mary, the dead man’s niece, to whom he becoming uncomfortably close, could be guilty.

It is 1827, and in the town of Redditch life is harsh for the poor. When a young serving woman is found drowned in the canal, her widowed mother believes her daughter has been murdered and appeals to the Parish Constable, Thomas Potts, for help. Physically weak and bookish by nature, Tom Potts is to many people an object of derision. But concealed behind his timid façade is intelligence, experience and a fierce passion for justice.

Charlotte Honeyman jilts her long-time swain, and on the spur of the moment marries a stranger. His pride damaged and his matrimonial plans upturned, sea captain Nick Thornton threatens to take revenge. Charlotte’s younger sister, Marianne, takes pity on Nick and secretly boards his ship, where she meets with an accident. Nick regards Marianne as the perfect tool with which to get his own back, but in the process falls in love....

It is 1896. In an alternative history where Babbage’s difference engines have become commonplace, Captain Charles Maddox, wrongly convicted of a murder and newly arrested for treason, is rescued from execution by a covert agency called the Map Room. Maddox is given the choice of taking his chances with the authorities or joining the Map Room as an agent and helping them uncover a possible conspiracy surrounding the 1888 Ripper murders. Seeing little choice, Maddox accepts the offer and joins the team of fellow agents Church and Green.

As the shadows lengthen over the June grass, all England is heading for Epsom Downs - high life and low life, society beauties and Whitechapel street girls, bookmakers and gypsies, hawkers and acrobats, punters and thieves. Whole families stream along the Surrey back-roads, towards the greatest race of the year. Hopes are high, nerves are taut, hats are tossed in the air - this is Derby Day.

When four postcards are sent anonymously to the staff of an advice centre, each with the word “murder” scribbled in a foreign language and the same precise OS map reference, the police are called. DCI Hennessey and his team of detectives visit the sinister location and make a chilling discovery: The body of a professional man who had been reported missing ten years earlier. Who sent the postcards, and why so long after the crime?

A short story from British Library Crime Classic Deep Waters. Four amateur yachtsmen are toasting the completion of a trip from Falmouth to Spain in adverse weather conditions with a well-earned glass of cognac. But with just one mouthful, one of the friends drops dead. Who could be behind the poisoning, and why?