Martin Edwards Books

A fabulous collection of short stories from some of the biggest and most exciting names in crime fiction, as the CWA takes you on an unforgettable mystery tour...

The main aim of detective stories is to entertain, but the best cast a light on human behaviour, and display both literary ambition and accomplishment. Even unpretentious detective stories, written for unashamedly commercial reasons, can give us clues to the past, and give us insight into a long- vanished world that, for all its imperfections, continues to fascinate. This book, written by award-winning crime writer and president of the Detection Club, Martin Edwards, serves as a companion to the British Library's internationally acclaimed series of Crime Classics.

Stephen Whyatt, an uneasy man who has been taping his wife's telephone conversations with her lover, comes to Harry Devlin's law office wanting information about getting a divorce. But when Harry takes him on, he gets more than he bargained for. Becky's boyfriend's voice on the tapes is oddly familiar, and as he listens Harry begins to fear that more is at stake than adultery. Is it part of the story that Stephen's sinister brother is scheming to sell the family business - which seems to mean more to Stephen than his marriage does? When adultery slides frighteningly toward a case of murder, a trespasser makes a shocking discovery: three dead bodies in a converted church. Events gather speed, and the police conclude it's a case of suicide and double murder. But Harry thinks they have it wrong - and he must unmask the real killer before time runs out.

Now revised and expanded for its first paperback publication, The Life of Crime was the winner of four major prizes for the best critical/biographical book related to crime fiction: the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity and H.R.F. Keating Awards; and was shortlisted for both the Agatha and Gold Dagger Awards

Murder Squad, a group of award-winning crime and mystery writers, celebrate their 21st birthday with a bang in this criminally good collection of short stories. With murderously moreish tales by Ann Cleeves, Martin Edwards, Kate Ellis, Margaret Murphy, Chris Simms and Cath Staincliffe, as well as John Baker, Chaz Brenchley and Stuart Pawson.

"Locked-room mysteries and other impossible crime stories have been relished by puzzle-lovers ever since the invention of detective fiction. Fiendishly intricate cases were particularly well suited to the cerebral type of detective story that became so popular during the 'golden age of murder' between the two world wars. But the tradition goes back to the days of Wilkie Collins, and impossible crime stories have been written by such luminaries as Arthur Conan Doyle, G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy L. Sayers and Margery Allingham. This anthology celebrates their work, alongside long-hidden gems by less familiar writers. Together these stories demonstrate the range and high accomplishment of the classic British impossible crime story over more than half a century."--Publisher description.

This first in a series of anthologies sponsored by the British Crime Writers Association features 22 short stories with urban themes. The editor notes that he was looking for stories that offered imaginative takes on the familiar idea of big-city cr

Following the great success of our Gothic Fantasy deluxe edition short story compilations, including Agents & Spies , Murder Mayhem and Lost Worlds , this latest in the series is packed with armchair detectives, murders in the vicarage, family secrets unravelling in gossipy ears, and the ingredients of a genteel bloodbath in an otherwise delightful village. Contains a fabulous mix of classic and brand new writing, with authors from the US, Canada, and the UK.

"Now tell us about your crime novel. Take my advice and don't try to be intellectual over it. What the public likes is blood." The Surrays and their five children form a prolific writing machine, with scores of treatises, reviews, and crime thrillers published under their family name. Following a rare convergence of the whole household at their Oxfordshire home, Ruth--middle sister who writes "books which are just books"-- decides to spend some weeks there recovering from the pressures of the writing life, while the rest of the brood scatter to the winds again. Their next return is heralded by the tragic news that Ruth has taken her life after an evening at the Surrays's hosting a set of publishers and writers, one of whom is named as Ruth's literary executor in the will she left behind. Despite some suspicions from the family, the verdict at the inquest is suicide--but when Ruth's brother Richard receives a letter from the deceased which was delayed in the post, he enlists the help of CID Robert Macdonald to investigate what could only be an ingeniously planned murder.

They halted close to the water's edge. This was their destination. This was the Serpent Pool. And here, six years ago, Bethany Friend's body had been found. The Lake District's cold case specialist, DCI Hannah Scarlett, is determined to uncover the truth behind an apparent suicide in the Serpent Pool some years ago.

Winner of the 2016 EDGAR, AGATHA, MACAVITY and H.R.F.KEATING crime writing awards, this real-life detective story investigates how Agatha Christie and colleagues in a mysterious literary club transformed crime fiction.

DCI Hannah Scarlett is an acknowledged expert in solving cold cases, but she is struggling under the weight of bureaucracy when Ramona Smith's disappearance from Bowness more than twenty years ago crosses her desk. The prime suspect was charged but found not guilty. Now the case has come back into the public eye as the result of a shocking tragedy on the Crooked Shore, the fount of dark legends south of the Lake District. A ruthless killer, who has already got away with one murder, plans further appalling crimes. DCI Scarlett finds herself racing against the clock as she strives to solve the mysteries and save innocent lives.

London, 1930. A spate of violent deaths - the details too foul to print - has horrified the capital and the smog-bound streets are deserted. But Rachel Savernake is on the killer's trail...

Third novel in the highly-acclaimed Harry Devlin crime series When Liverpool solicitor Harry Devlin watches fire destroy the studio of his client, tattooist Finbar Rogan, he suspects it is no accident. And when a bomb is planted under Finbar's car, Harry is left in no doubt. Someone hates Finbar enough to want him dead. Meanwhile, another client is provoking Devlin's curiosity. Why should Rosemary Graham-Brown and her husband suddenly be so anxious to leave their luxurious home and emigrate to Spain? After a brutal murder occurs, the two puzzles become interlinked. Piecing the clues together, Harry finally comes face to face with the shocking truth at a fatal confrontation on a foggy Hallowe'en.

Historian Daniel Kind is finding winter in the Lake District tough, especially as he fears that his girlfriend Miranda may just up and leave. She wouldn't be the first. Years ago, Emma Bestwick left and never came back, her disappearance never resolved, much to the chagrin of DCI Hannah Scarlett, head of the local Cold Case Review Team.

Originally published in 1931 by Hutchinson, London.

This new collection gathers together stories written over a span of about 65 years, during which British society, and life in country houses, was transformed out of all recognition. It includes fascinating and unfamiliar twists on the classic 'closed circle' plot.

A Gothic remaking of the classic country house murder mystery.

Yorkshire, 1630. A man vanishes from a locked gatehouse in a remote village. 300 years later, it happens again. Rachel Savernake investigates a locked-room puzzle in this Gothic mystery.

Death has come twice to Ravenbank, a remote community in England's Lake District, each time on Hallowe'en. Daniel Kind, a specialist in the history of murder, becomes fascinated by the old cases, and wonders whether the obvious suspects really did commit the crimes.

Twenty years ago, Malcolm Whiteley discovers his attractive wife Lysette is having an affair. Malcolm is under financial and emotional pressure, and he begins to disintegrate psychologically. When Lysette tells Malcolm their marriage is over, he snaps, and takes out the old Winchester rifle he has been hiding from Lysette...

"Today, translated crime fiction is in vogue -- but this was not always the case. A century before Scandi noir, writers across Europe and beyond were publishing detective stories of high quality. Often these did not appear in English and they have been known only by a small number of experts. This is the first ever collection of classic crime in translation from the golden age of the genre in the 20th century. Many of these stories are exceptionally rare, and several have been translated for the first time to appear in this volume."--Page 4 of cover

In the peaceful village of Old Sawrey, Warren Howe is brutally slaughtered with his own scythe by a mysterious hooded figure. Years later a tip-off sparks the interest of DCI Hannah Scarlett, head of the local Cold Case Review Team. With the help of historian Daniel Kind, Hannah digs and discovers that, in Old Sawrey, old sins cast long shadows.

A unique anthology for crime aficionados seven of the world s most notorious genuine murder mysteries retold by the most accomplished classic crime writers of their generation. A manipulative murderer who stalked the streets of Paris; a young wife who poisoned her eccentric husband; a bank cashier s mysterious suicide; a brutal double murder in New Zealand Seven of the world s greatest crime writers turn their hand to some of the world s most spine-tingling mysteries all of them astonishingly TRUE. This remarkable collection from the archives of the Detection Club follows The Floating Admiral, Ask a Policeman and Six Against the Yard back into print after more than 75 years, and shows some of the most accomplished authors of their generation retelling real-life murder mysteries with all the relish of the tastiest crime fiction."

A case of false identities, blackmail, and fedora-adorned doppelgängers, set in a grand home on Sepulchre Street, where nothing – and no one – is quite what it seems. The fourth in the Rachel Savernake Golden Age Mystery series.

Oxford historian and TV personality Daniel Kind and his new lover, Miranda, move to Brackdale, a valley in the Lake Distict, in the hopes of starting a new life. But when DCI Hannah Scarlett launches a cold case review into an old crime, Daniel and Hannah soon find themselves risking their lives as they search for a killer who is prepared to murder again to hide a shocking secret.

All the Lonely People was the curtain-raiser to a successful nine-book series featuring Liverpool solicitor Harry Devlin. Devlin finds himself number one suspect in a murder case that is far too close to home. The victim is his estranged wife, Liz, who is found murdered in a dingy alleyway. Determined to find her killer and prove his innocence, Harry begins a journey that takes him into the city's underworld and shatters forever his illusions about the woman he loved.

The smoking room on a transatlantic cruise ship is bound to be a hotbed of activity — but it’s less common for it to be the site of a murder. Yet, when the lights flicker aboard the luxury Meganaut, making its way from New York to Paris, this is precisely what happens; in the darkness, a gunshot rings out, and when the light is restored, a man is found dead. The situation becomes all the more curious when it’s discovered that the deceased had apparently ingested cyanide just seconds before being penetrated by the bullet. Luckily, for the other passengers, there are two detectives aboard the Meganaut, ready to leap into action. There are also four psychiatrists, and those psychiatrists convince the captain to let them take a stab at solving the crime, using their professional understanding of the human psyche to determine who could have been capable of such a crime — and why. But will they be able to deduce the puzzle’s solution before the killer strikes again?The first of seven novels by psychologist C. Daly King, Obelists at Sea is intelligent and enjoyable Golden Age mystery fare, featuring an atmospheric setting, carefully placed clues, and a complex whodunnit plot explained with sharp-witted ratiocination.

Following I REMEMBER YOU and set in Liverpool, the latest novel in the Harry Devlin series, in which the sleuthing lawyer investigates a 30-year old murder case. When another death occurs it becomes clear that someone does not want the truth to be discovered.

When a local arts charity, the Kavanaugh Trust, hires Liverpool lawyer and amateur detective Harry Devlin to contest the will of a former benefactor, little does Harry realise he's about to tackle his most intriguing case. Soon afterwards the Chairman of the Trust is found dead, fallen from the third floor window of a local hotel, and Harry cannot resist investigating further. What was Luke Dessaur doing there? Was it suicide? An accident? Or was he pushed? As Harry is about to discover, beneath the respectable facade of the Kavanaugh Trust lie shocking secrets.

Harry Devlin is playing a dangerous game when he gets involved with the wife of Liverpool's most ruthless villain. But he has another reason to look over his shoulder after two lawyers are brutally killed and Harry discovers he is being stalked by a stranger with a secret obsession.

A true master of British crime writing.' RICHARD OSMAN 'All the entertainment you'll need this Christmas. Wonderful stuff.' IAN MOORE 'A delight from the first page to the last.' DAILY MAIL Play along with the included Cluefinder to track the clues you spot and those you miss. Six guests linked to crime writing gather to solve the murder of a fictional author, with a life-changing prize at stake. Invited by the enigmatic Midwinter Trust, each participant has been carefully vetted, and with a snowstorm looming, vigilance is crucial. However, not everyone is committed to playing fair, and the temptation to add real murder to the mix is strong. This is an ideal gift for crime fiction enthusiasts and fans of Janice Hallett, Alexandra Benedict, and Alex Pavesi. Featured in the i newspaper's best new crime and thriller books for September 2025, it showcases Martin Edwards's extensive knowledge of British crime fiction. Critics praise it as 'excellent' and 'a real masterpiece,' perfect for fans of puzzles and escape rooms. With an acute sense of place and deep psychological insights, Edwards's work is celebrated by authors like Ian Rankin and Ann Cleeves. Discover more thrilling reads from the king of classic crime, all featuring a Cluefinder for aspiring detectives.

Obsah: Spolupráca rodič-lekár, Horúčka, Detská domáca lekárnička, Podávanie liečiv, Očkovanie, Starostlivosť o dieťa, Chorobné stavy v detstve-zoznam chorôb.