The D'Arblay Mystery is the tenth volume in the Dr. Thorndyke series of Victorian-era forensic mysteries and one of the best. It has a solid and intricate plot, plenty of suspense, strong and sympathetic characters, and actual detection work--not always a necessary element for early mystery novels. Includes an introduction by Karl Wurf.

Power, money, murder . . . Investigating a seemingly accidental death leads DCI Bill Slider and his team down a dark path in this gripping British police procedural. The woman lies dead at the foot of the stairs. It's obvious what happened: she tripped and fell. But PC D'Arblay, called to the dilapidated West London villa by an anonymous tip-off, can't shake the feeling that's exactly what someone wants him to think. It was the deep head wound that killed her - but her dying fall left no blood trail, so what was it she hit her head on? DCI Slider, of the Shepherd's Bush murder squad, is soon convinced D'Arblay's right. But with no motive, no murder weapon and no idea even who the victim is, Slider faces steep odds to get a result . . . while each painstaking step towards the truth brings him closer to a ruthless, evil killer. The Bill Slider series is in "a league of its own" (Publishers Weekly Starred Review). If you haven't met Slider and his team yet, why not start now?

Before Kathy Reichs's Temperance Brennan and Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta, there was Dr. Thorndyke, the first ever fictional forensic scientist. The only evidence against young Reuben Hornby in a jewel theft is his thumb print smeared in blood. It is enough to convict him of the crime until physician Dr. John Thorndyke dares to ask and answer the question, Can a fingerprint be forged?"

A beautiful young woman is in shock. She calls John Strangeways, a medical lawyer who must piece together the strange disparate facts of her case and in turn, becomes fearful for his life. Only Dr Thorndyke, a master of detection, may be able to solve the baffling mystery of Angelina Frood. 'Bright, ingenious and amusing'- The Times Literary Supplement.

Excerpts from and citations to reviews of more than 8,000 books each year, drawn from coverage of 109 publications. Book Review Digest provides citations to and excerpts of reviews of current juvenile and adult fiction and nonfiction in the English language. Reviews of the following types of books are excluded: government publications, textbooks, and technical books in the sciences and law. Reviews of books on science for the general reader, however, are included. The reviews originate in a group of selected periodicals in the humanities, social sciences, and general science published in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. - Publisher.

Dr. John Thorndyke is a medical jurispractitioner, originally a medical doctor, he turned to the bar and became one of the first, in modern parlance, forensic scientists. His solutions are based on his method of collecting all possible data (including dust and pond weed) and making inferences from them before looking at any of the protagonists and motives in the crimes. Table of Contents: Introduction Meet Dr. Thorndyke Novels The Red Thumb Mark The Eye of Osiris The Mystery of 31 New Inn A Silent Witness Helen Vardon's Confession The Cat's Eye The Mystery of Angelina Frood The Shadow of the Wolf The D'Arblay Mystery A Certain Dr. Thorndyke As a Thief in the Night Mr. Pottermack's Oversight Pontifex, Son and Thorndyke When Rogues Fall Out Dr. Thorndyke Intervenes For the Defence: Dr. Thorndyke The Penrose Mystery Felo De Se? The Stoneware Monkey Mr. Polton Explains The Jacob Street Mystery Short Stories Percival Bland's Proxy The Missing Mortgagee The Man with the Nailed Shoes The Stranger's Latchkey The Anthropologist at Large The Blue Sequin The Moabite Cipher The Mandarin's Pearl The Aluminium Dagger A Message from the Deep Sea The Case of Oscar Brodski A Case of Premeditation The Echo of a Mutiny A Wastrel's Romance The Old Lag The Case of the White Footprints The Blue Scarab The New Jersey Sphinx The Touchstone A Fisher of Men The Stolen Ingots The Funeral Pyre The Puzzle Lock The Green Check Jacket The Seal of Nebuchadnezzar Phyllis Annesley's Peril A Sower of Pestilence Rex v. Burnaby A Mystery of the Sand-Hills The Apparition of Burling Court The Mysterious Visitor The Magic Casket The Contents of a Mare's Nest The Stalking Horse The Naturalist at Law Mr. Ponting's Alibi Pandora's Box The Trail of Behemoth ...

Richard Austin Freeman (1862-1943) was a British writer of detective stories, mostly featuring the forensic investigator Dr. Thorndyke. He introduced the inverted detective story; a crime fiction in which the commission of the crime is described at the beginning, usually including the identity of the perpetrator, with the story then describing the detective's attempt to solve the mystery. Many of the Dr. Thorndyke stories involve genuine, but often quite arcane, points of scientific knowledge, from areas such as tropical medicine and toxicology. Table of Contents: Dr. Thorndyke Novels The Red Thumb Mark The Eye of Osiris (The Vanishing Man) The Mystery of 31 New Inn A Silent Witness Helen Vardon's Confession The Cat's Eye The Mystery of Angelina Frood The Shadow of the Wolf The D'Arblay Mystery A Certain Dr. Thorndyke As a Thief in the Night Mr. Pottermack's Oversight Pontifex, Son and Thorndyke When Rogues Fall Out (Dr. Thorndyke's Discovery) Dr. Thorndyke Intervenes For the Defence: Dr. Thorndyke The Penrose Mystery Felo De Se? (Death at the Inn) The Stoneware Monkey Mr. Polton Explains The Jacob Street Mystery (The Unconscious Witness) Other Novels The Golden Pool: A Story of a Forgotten Mine The Unwilling Adventurer The Uttermost Farthing (A Savant's Vendetta) The Exploits of Danby Croker The Surprising Experiences of Mr. Shuttlebury Cobb Flighty Phyllis