Doktor McKenzie Sanders żyła pełnią życia, miewała niezobowiązujące romanse i było jej z tym dobrze. Gdy jakiś układ zaczynał się komplikować, odpuszczała i szła do przodu. Zawsze znajdował się ktoś następny. Tegoroczne święta chętnie spędziłaby w ramionach Lance’a. Przystojny, dowcipny, cieszył się uznaniem wszystkich. Miał tylko jedną wadę: był jej kolegą z pracy i nie chciała tracić jego przyjaźni. Mimo to umówili się na romans. Dwa miesiące, a potem każde pójdzie swoją dr...

Grecki potentat Nikolai Drakos poznał Ellę Palmer w niesprzyjających okolicznościach. Zarysowała mu samochód, zrobiła awanturę, a gdy mimo to Nikolai, zafascynowany jej temperamentem, zaproponował randkę, wyśmiała go. Nikolai nie może o niej zapomnieć. Gdy rok później znajduje w prasie jej zdjęcie u boku swego największego rywala, postanawia, że tym razem nie odpuści. Zwłaszcza że chce nie tylko zdobyć Ellę, ale i upokorzyć Cyrusa… 

Grecki milioner Sander Volakis poślubił Tally, ponieważ była w ciąży. Śmierć dziecka przy narodzinach okazała się próbą, której nie sprostali. Gdy po roku spotykają się podczas sprawy rozwodowej, Sander prosi żonę o drugą szansę. Tally nie wyjawia prawdziwych powodów, dla których się zgadza. A Sander również ma swoje tajemnice.  

Sander Volakis na prośbę rodziców jedzie do posiadłości znajomych pod Londynem. Przybywają tam też inni weekendowi goście, a wśród nich Tally Spencer, która natychmiast wpada mu w oko. Jest inna od kobiet, z którymi zwykł się spotykać – naturalna, nieprzewidywalna, intrygująca. Postanawia ją uwieść. Nie wie, na co się porywa… 

Sycylijski milioner Luciano Vitale nie zamierzał się żenić, ale chciał mieć dziecko. Zapłacił Jemimie Barber, by mu je urodziła, lecz ona uciekła z jego synem. Luciano odnajduje ją po ośmiu miesiącach. Odkrywa, że jest oszustką, złodziejką i pracuje dla agencji towarzyskiej. Jednak gdy przychodzi do jej domu, widzi kobietę, która z miłością i troską zajmuje się jego synem. Słusznie podejrzewa, że coś tu nie gra… 

Gaetano Leonetti nie chce nawet myśleć o małżeńskich kajdanach, jednak jego dziadek uczyni go prezesem rodzinnego banku tylko wtedy, gdy wnuk się ustatkuje. Chcąc przechytrzyć dziadka, Gaetano zawiera układ z Poppy Arnold, która pracuje w jego rezydencji. Mało powściągliwy styl bycia i sposób ubierania się z pewnością nie czynią z niej dobrej partii, dlatego właśnie ją Gaetano przedstawia jako swoją narzeczoną. Ma nadzieję, że kiedy dziadek pozna Poppy, zmieni zdanie co do oż...

The pioneering creator of the inverted detective story, R. Austin Freeman was a popular Edwardian author of novels and short stories featuring Dr. Thorndyke, a pathologist-detective. Freeman’s detective and mystery tales offered an innovative approach to the genre, selling thousands of copies on both sides of the Atlantic. Robert Hawke is a man on the run. After returning from business in London, he finds that a sworn enemy, Will Colville, has been shot dead and the murder ...

Richard Austin Freeman, the doyen of the scientific division of detective writing is best known for his character Dr. John Thorndyke. A close and careful investigator and the outstanding medical authority in the field of detective fiction, R. Austin Freeman not only tested the wits of the reader but also inspired many modern detective forensic methods. „Shuttlebury Cobb” is a completely different sort of book. In it Freeman demonstrates his sense of humor and whimsy as he f...

In this tightly plotted novel, we follow the bizarre career of a man who loathes criminals. After Humphrey Challoner finds his wife killed by the bullet of a robber in his home, he vows to catch the man. Mr. Challoner is a wealthy savant, and he saved the fingerprints of the robber as well as some of the robber’s strange hair which Challoner’s wife had in her hand. For twenty years Humphrey hunts for the killer, in the process revenging himself on London’s criminals class i...

"When Rogues Fall Out” incorporates some wonderful conundrums to hoodwink and hinder the cleverest of crime readers. This book contains three interconnected stories. In the first, a respectable collector of antiques falls victim to temptation. In the second a police inspector is found dead in suspicious circumstances in a railway tunnel. This section includes an interesting „essay” on the early use of fingerprint evidence. The third is a classic locked room mystery where so...

Dr.Thornedyke’s methods of detection are characterised by investigations of apparently irrelevant facts and lengthy explanations of his train of hypothetical reasoning. In this novel, Dr. Thorndyke’s ability to identify fish scales and rope material sets his investigation in motion. The crime is the murder of an aristocrat staged to look like a suicide. There are really two stories alternating, which eventually become one. We watch Dr. Thorndyke follow a thin and improbable...

R. Austin Freeman’s mysteries are often divided into two parts, the first dealing with events leading up to a murder, followed by Dr. Thorndyke’s investigation. In this case, the first part, about a beautiful woman who poses as a serious artist, then disappears, is delightful. It details the friendship between Thomas Pedley and Loretta Schiller. The second part is written in the first person with Jervis, Thorndyke’s assistant, being the narrator as usual. A peaceful, pleasa...

This novel begins with Robert Englefield, a young Englishman, taking on a job with a vessel sailing for northern Africa. Once there, Englefield is placed in the position of running the store through which the captain sells and trades his goods. As Englefield spends more and more time at this outpost on the African coast, he hears stories a legendary mine in the interior of Africa where the priests capture unwary travelers and blind them to prevent escape. Purely out of curi...

First, there are two seemingly unrelated events: the murder of a constable in pursuit of a diamond thief and the attempt to poison a potter by using arsenic. The connection lies in the presence of Dr. Oldfield, a Dr. Thorndyke’s former student, who happened to find the constable body and served as the consulting physician of the potter. Dr. Oldfield once again found a trace of murder: ashes of cremated human human body in the dustbin at the potter’s studio. The police tries...

„The Penrose Mystery”, fist published in 1936, is definitely up to the high standard of the wonderful Dr. Thorndyke series. Penrose is an eccentric old man in possession of some dazzling gems, which he won’t insure. When Dr. Thorndyke is alerted to a burglary at his house, a scrap of paper is found with the word ‘lobster’ on it along with two Latin words. Meanwhile, Penrose has fled in panic after a car accident. The police believe he’s gone into hiding to avoid a manslaugh...

This novel is an excellent example of the inverted detective story, a modern form that R. Austin Freeman is credited with inventing. You know from the beginning who the guilty party is, but watching Dr. Thorndyke figure it out is amazing. And watching the perpetrator think that he is getting away with his crime, while watching Dr. Thorndyke close in on him is well-done literary irony. The fun comes not from being baffled, but from watching Thorndyke’s mind at work and obser...

Originally written in 1907, „The Red Thumb Mark” opens the series by R. Austin Freeman featuring Dr. Thorndyke, who is a sort of Sherlock-Holmes type character. A single fingerprint is found at the scene of a crime. When the police are able to identify that fingerprint, the case seems closed. But Dr. Thorndyke, the detective/barrister/medical doctor who takes on defense of this suspect, thinks he can disprove the prosecution’s case, based on that same fingerprint. It does n...

Mr. Pottermack, wrongly convicted for forgery of checks, has escaped from jail, made his fortune in the US and come back to England to find his fiance. The only one who is cleverer than Mr. Pottermack is Freeman’s detective, Dr. Thorndyke. In this novel, the sympathetic, engaging and enterprising Mr. Pottermack commits the perfect crime, only to discover that a perfect crime is the last thing in the world he wants. Then Mr. Pottermack comes up against the legendary Dr. John...

A daring daylight art theft from a crowded museum, a secret document centuries old, and a hidden treasure, these are the elements of the title story in this collection of tales by R. Austin Freeman. Though best known for his famous forensic sleuth, Dr. John Thorndyke, Freeman also on occasion wrote stories featuring other characters. In addition to „The Great Portrait Mystery”, this collection features four more of these tales which show a more whimsical and humorous side o...

Angelina Frood, a striking young ex-actress, has gone missing and her new friend Dr. Strangeways, a good-hearted young doctor and the narrator of the story, is determined to find out what has happened and along the way enlists the assistance of Dr. Thorndyke. The local police Sergeant is hot on the trail, as items of clothing and jewellery belonging to Angelina are discovered. There’s serious trouble ahead, but fortunately Dr. Thorndyke, the great medico-legal expert, will ...

R. Austin Freeman’s character Dr. Thorndyke is considered the first modern forensic scientist in literature. This is one of the oddities of detective fiction. The first part of this story is an „autobiography” of Thorrndyke’s lab assistant Polton. Polton, Dr. Thorndyke’s lab assistant and a servant has graced every Thorndyke mystery with his mechanical ingenuity, his sumptuous meals and teas, and his crinkly smile. The second part is a mystery tale, which builds on some of ...

John Gillum arrives in London from Australia apparently a wealthy man and then proceeds to cheerfully gamble his entire fortune away. During this period he cultivates the friendship of Mortimer, the bank official after meeting him at the scene of a murder near the bank. He mentions in conversation that he felt suicide was a very understandable option to someone who had lost everything. When Gillum’s body is found, the inquest duly returns a verdict of suicide and blackmail ...

This is a delightful Thorndyke mystery full of suspicious happenings, like the ugly human head found in a box checked at a railway station cloakroom. Other peculiar things are afoot too. A rich American gentleman has come to London to make a claim for an earldom, based on some far-fetched „evidence.” His lawyers seem particularly unsavory. And there’s been a daring robbery of precious platinum, with a British vessel somehow implicated. The plot evolves around all these susp...

Helen Vardon narrates her own story and one in which Dr. Thorndyke barely features until the final chapters. Helen Vardon contracts to a marriage without full knowledge of the circumstances regarding her father’s financial status. This leads to a dastardly trail of intrigue and deception and ends in murder. Dr. Thorndyke appears at the eleventh hour but does he save the day? Dr. Thornedyke is left to piece together the clues in this enticing mystery. This novel is a departu...