When a spiritual medium is murdered in a locked hut on a haunted estate, Sir Henry Merrivale seeks a logical solution to a ghostly crime. Plague Court is old and crumbling, long neglected after its lord, hangman’s assistant Louis Playge, fell victim to the black death hundreds of years before. Famously haunted by Playge’s ghost, the property finally has a new owner and banishing the spirit is the first order of business. And when the medium employed with this task is found stabbed to death in a locked stone hut on the grounds, surrounded by an untouched circle of mud, the other guests at Plague Court have every reason to fear an act of supernatural violence—for who among them would be diabolical and calculating enough to orchestrate such an impossible execution? Enter Sir Henry Merrivale, an amateur sleuth of many talents with deductive powers strong enough to unspool even the most baffling crimes. But in the creepy, atmospheric setting of Plague Court, where every indication suggests intervention from the afterlife, he encounters a seemingly-illogical murder scene unlike anything he’s ever encountered before . . . Reissued for the first time in years, The Plague Court Murders is the first novel in the Sir Henry Merrivale series. Originally published under the name Carter Dickson, it is a masterful example of the “impossible crime” novel for which John Dickson Carr is known. “Very few detective stories baffle me nowadays, but Mr. Carr’s always do.” —Agatha Christie

Famed crime solver Dr. Gideon Fell attends a housewarming party in the English countryside, but a ghost spoils the fun in Golden Age mystery master John Dickson Carr’s stylish, baffling mystery novel The house is called Longwood, and its history is wet with blood. It is closed up for good in 1920, when a massive chandelier falls, crushing an eighty-year-old butler. Oddly enough, the old chandelier was sturdy, and there was no way it could have fallen unless the butler leapt and swung on it. Was he mad? Suicidal? Or was he being pursued by something from beyond the grave? Seventeen years later, Longwood is purchased by Martin Clarke, a rakish young man with a taste for the supernatural. He invites his friends for a paranormal housewarming, but it is not long before the festivities turn gruesome. Chairs fly, guns fire on their own, and a mysterious fire threatens to engulf the whole mansion in flames. Clarke and his guests came for a ghost hunt—but could it be that the ghost is hunting them? The Man Who Could Not Shudder is the 12th book in the Dr. Gideon Fell Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order. The Man Who Could Not Shudder is the 12th book in the Dr. Gideon Fell Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

It is no ordinary murder case that brings the famed French detective Monsieur Bencolin out of retirement, but one that involves a midnight rendezvous on a steamy Paris night, a broken love affair, and four different murder weapons found in the secret villa where the body is discovered. Rose Klonec, whose corpse bears the mark of a particularly horrible wound, had connections - and old lovers - throughout Paris, and soon the number of suspects grows to match the number of possible weapons ...

Jimmy Answell is summoned for an audience with Avory Hume. The two men are later discovered after witnesses break into Hume's study - a room with bolted steel shutters and a heavy door locked on the inside. Answell is found lying unconscious and Hume stabbed to death with an arrow. How can young Answell not be guilty? Sir Henry Merrivale investigates and reconstructs the crime in the courtroom.

Discover the captivating treasures buried in the British Library's archives. Largely inaccessible to the public until now, these enduring crime classics were written in the golden age of detective fiction. With an introduction by Martin Edwards and featuring the Dickson Carr short story "The Shadow of the Goat" We are thrilled to welcome John Dickson Carr into the Crime Classics series with his first novel, a brooding locked room mystery in the gathering dusk of the French capital. In the smoke-wreathed gloom of a Parisian salon, Inspector Bencolin has summoned his allies to discuss a peculiar case. A would-be murderer, imprisoned for his attempt to kill his wife, has escaped and is known to have visited a plastic surgeon. His whereabouts remain a mystery, though with his former wife poised to marry another, Bencolin predicts his return. Sure enough, the Inspector's worst suspicions are realized when the beheaded body of the new suitor is discovered in a locked room of the salon, with no apparent exit. Bencolin sets off into the Parisian night to unravel the dumbfounding mystery and track down the sadistic killer. Penned during the golden age of mysteries, this thrilling investigation brings a detective face to face with the darkest parts of Paris. And after the thrilling conclusion of the locked room mystery, sit back and enjoy the short story "The Shadow of the Goat", also included in this exclusive British Library crime classic.

The renowned criminologist and author of The Outsider delivers a penetrating study of serial killers as a uniquely modern phenomenon. In this fascinating study, Colin Wilson explores the roots of the serial killer mindset, and the origins of this terrifying modern personality. The term "serial killer" is still relatively new, coined by the FBI to describe those who murder repeatedly and obsessively, usually with a sexual motive. Who are these killers? What social and psychological pressures drive them to their crimes? Can we understand and learn to predict their behavior? Wilson offers revealing profiles of some of the most infamous killers in modern history: from Jack the Ripper to Jeffrey Dahmer, the monster of Milwaukee; Reginald Christie to Dennis Nilsen, who killed for company; the Boston Strangler to Donald Gaskins, who murdered more than 100 victims; as well as Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker and many more.