Showing results by narrator "Gordon Griffin" in All Categories

A short story from British Library Crime Classic The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories. Each year the Christmas card arrives from 'Leech', an unknown member of Timothy Trent’s family asking for money in return for their silence. But this year he’s determined to find out who is behind the cruel Christmas request and put an end to it once and for all....

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.

When the body of a middle-aged woman is found frozen beside a canal towpath, it looks like a simple case of death by misadventure. But marks on her neck and a carefully-hidden piece of paper point towards foul play. George Hennessey and Somerled Yellich assemble their team, and quickly begin their investigation into this unusual murder. But as the case progresses they discover that the victim, who was originally from Canada, may not have been all she seemed.

The opening of an archaeological exhibition brings with it intrigue and evil as a fabled cursed golden death mask lives up to its dark past and death strikes at the exhibition. While digging up pieces of history, these archaeologists have also been burying secrets - deadly ones - and it's up to Jasper to uncover the truth before the murderer strikes again.

Liverpool lawyer Harry Devlin never knew that five short lines could change his life - until he receives a notice announcing his sudden death on Midsummer's Eve. Someone wants him dead and he has only seven days to find out who it is.

In the autumn of 1817, the arrival of the Ipswich coach and its occupants – a strange, ill-assorted company – changed the lives of those who lived at the Fleece Inn forever…. Will Oakley, landlord and host, with his two daughters, beautiful Myrtle, and the repellent Harriet, waited to receive his guests. Along with the usual farmers, merchants and the “quality”, there were others who fitted into none of these categories.

When the snow thaws on London’s Hampstead Heath after a harsh winter, a ghoulish discovery is made that marks the start of a very dangerous case for Detective Inspector Harry Vicary. The body of a man is found on top of a shallow grave containing the battered remains of a young woman. There are no suspicious marks on his corpse and he appears to have frozen to death in a case of misadventure. But what is his connection to the remains below?

Five years after Duncan Percival is left in a vegetative state following a vicious attack, he finally dies. The case has now become a murder investigation, and DCI Hennessey and DS Yellich are brought in to renew the evidence and re-interview the suspects. As they delve deeper, bodies start turning up, and the detectives are drawn into York’s criminal underworld where grasses are punished and the gruesome Chelsea Smile is the favoured method of retribution…

A raving, bedraggled girl is found sheltering in a barn near the Parish of Tardebigge in Worcestershire. Then the decomposing body of a small boy is unearthed by poachers in a nearby wood. Constable Thomas Potts is called upon to investigate both cases, which appear to be connected to a wagon-load of children known to have been abducted from the Poorhouse. Meanwhile Thomas’ engagement to buxom barmaid Amy Danks is threated by his widowed mother’s hatred of his sweetheart, and by the many duty calls upon his time.

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.

It's a steamy, sultry day in a Mediterranean summer. Wealthy lawyer Terrence, his wife Cathy, their daughter Lucy, and a doctor are relaxing on the yacht that is Terence's pride and joy. Suddenly, a storm whips up from nowhere.

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....

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.

George Hennessey is beginning to accept the inevitable - that age is catching up with him and he needs to delegate to his young up-and-coming team. But there is no substitute for experience as he marshals his troops to investigate two parallel murders committed 20 or so years apart. First, a young man limps back from his father's funeral to report a murder he only now feels able to disclose. But naturally things are not quite as straightforward as they seem.

180 AD. North of the Wall, Sarmatian warrior Kai and his adopted tribe, the Votadini, struggle for survival, cast into unfamiliar lands by Roman reprisals. When news arrives that an old enemy is in charge of the Votadini's hated foes, a confederation of tribes known as the Painted People, and has roused them to action, Kai heads south towards the Wall, hoping to ally with the Romans against this resurgent threat. Meanwhile, the Romans have heard tales of butchery and mayhem beyond the Wall.

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.

A poignant imagining of Thomas Hardy’s relationship with his last muse. A celebrated author, in the winter of his life, awaits a visit from a beautiful young actress – the leading lady in a staging of his most famous tragedy. But his wife is troubled. An anxious and sickly woman, she watches the growing intimacy between her husband and the young woman, and becomes tormented by the idea that they will betray her.

During the long hot summer of 1976, a brilliant young Cambridge mathematician arrives in a remote village in the Lake District and takes on a job as a farm labourer. Painfully awkward and shy, Spencer Little is viewed with suspicion by the community and his only real friendship is with scruffy, clever 10-year-old Alice. When he saves Alice from a wild-fire, the locals at last begin to accept him, but as he is drawn deeper into their lives, he also becomes aware of their secrets - and of the difficulty of keeping his own.

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.

A short story from British Library crime classic Deep Waters. Narrated in the first person by Robert Beringer, a writer of sea stories, 'A Question of Timing' describes how he narrowly stops a murder on the bank of the Thames.