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...

A gang of jewel thieves has come to the attention of the police. Will Dr. Thorndike be able to find the leader and the jewels? It would seem that the jewel merchant has a strong room with a puzzle lock where there are too many combinations to solve. But can it be done.

In this collection of short stories, the reader learns the killer’s identity long before the brilliant medical detective takes the stage. These are brilliant early examples of open secrets where the question is not who, but how will they be caught?

Wierni towarzysze w dzieciństwie – Manasses, syn Hiskiasza, i Jozue, syn pałacowego zarządcy – od początku są przygotowywani do panowania nad Judą. Jednak niespodziewana śmierć ojca Manassesa rozpala w jego sercu gniew na Boga. Gdy Manasses obejmuje władzę, jego brak pewności siebie prowadzi go w stronę czarnoksięstwa. W obawie przed spiskiem występuje przeciwko przywódcom z czasów panowania ojca.Gdy jego rządy przybierają brutalny charakter, Jozue i jego rodzina doświadczają...

Kiedy do Nehemiasza docierają wieści, że mur Jeruzalem jest zburzony, a jego bramy płoną ogniem, mężczyzna szuka Bożego przewodnictwa w poście i modlitwie. Kierowany Bożą wolą, rezygnuje ze stanowiska podczaszego perskiego króla Artakserksesa. Wyrusza do Jerozolimy, aby odbudować mur, symbol potęgi jego narodu. Nehemiasz nie spodziewał się jednak wszystkich niebezpieczeństw, jakie go czekają. Przywódcy okolicznych narodów stają się jego zaciekłymi wrogami, planują zabić go i ...

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...

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...

R. Austin Freeman was one of the best mystery writers ever and this book is one to prove it. Harold Monkhouse is a very sick man but no one including his doctor seems to know what is wrong with him. When he is found dead of arsenic poisoning, his brother demands an investigation and everyone in the household is a suspect. Who was behind this cruel death; the loving wife, Barbara; her friend, Madeline or Wallingford, the rather eccentric secretary? They all inherit something...

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...

The twins are living in relatively straightened circumstances, as their father has died, and get up to all kinds of mischief, while being governed by their own set of values. The children, however, have little dread of poverty, for when ever they desire a luxury, such as a bicycle, or a fur stole for their mother’s Christmas present, they devise some means to raise the necessary funds, and they stop at nothing from inducing a rich great-aunt to endow a home for cats to poac...

Po dziesiątkach lat wygnania przepowiednie zaczynają się spełniać: król Cyrus oznajmia, że Żydzi mogą wrócić do Jerozolimy. Kapłan Iddo jest przekonany, że jest to znak odzyskanej Bożej przychylności. Żydzi zbyt długo żyli w Babilonie i wielu z nich, łącznie z synami Iddo, utraciło swoją wiarę. Dlatego niewielu decyduje się zostawić wszystko i ruszyć w drogę powrotną – wrócić do swojego domu i swojego Boga. Ich podróż do Ziemi Obiecanej nie jest łatwa. Gdy trudności zaczynają...

Caroline Fletcher, córka zamożnych ludzi, wychowuje się w przekonaniu, że niewolnictwo jest ustanowione przez Boga i nie ma w nim niczego złego. W pewnym momencie zauważa okrucieństwo i niesprawiedliwość posiadania niewolników. Kocha swoją służbę jak członków rodziny. Jednocześnie jej ojciec oraz narzeczony, Charles St. John, walczą o Konfederację, jej ukochany styl życia i tradycje.Bohaterka znajduje się w narodzie podzielonym na części. Jest rozdarta między tymi, których ko...

Przyjmując Boże Prawo, król Hiskiasz zapewnił swojemu krajowi pomyślność. Jednak realizowanie woli Jahwe nie jest proste. Wymaga podejmowania niepopularnych decyzji, tak w wymiarze życia osobistego, jak i polityki. Główny wróg judzkiego państwa żąda hołdu i daniny. Król znajduje się w bardzo niebezpiecznej sytuacji...Juerusza, młoda Żydówka wywieziona przez Asyryjczyków w dalekie kraje, na własne oczy widzi, do czego przerażający przeciwnik jest zdolny. Potężne wojsko podąża ...

NAJWYŻSZY CZAS, BY ZWIERZĘTA WZIĘŁY SWÓJ LOS WE WŁASNE ŁAPY  Niewinne zwierzęta mają kłopot: temperatura rośnie, poziom wód się podnosi, ich pokarm znika. Ktoś musi wkroczyć i uratować te istoty walczące o przetrwanie. Ktoś musi zapobiec globalnej katastrofie. Tym kimś jest… Bractwo Zagrożonych.  Jeden supersilny NIEDŹWIEDŹ POLARNY. Jeden ŁUSKOWIEC z talentem technicznym. Jeden wyjątkowo sarkastyczny NARWAL. I ORANGUTAN z wielkim marzeniem.  Ci niezwy...

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...

„The Eye of Osiris”, published in 1911, was the second of R. Austin Freeman’s many Dr. Thorndyke mystery novels. Here the great expert in medical jurisprudence will encounter the mysteries of ancient Egypt – without ever leaving London. The cast of characters is rich in Egyptologists. A wealthy old man, John Bellingham, collector of Egyptian antiquities, has disappeared without a trace. His brother is also an Egyptologist, as is his niece and the lawyer who executed his wil...

In this novel, Dr. Thorndyke builds a card house of wild speculations to solve a perplexing murder case, astonishing all observers, including the police. The victim is Julius D ’Arblay, an artist highly skilled at the rare French art of making wax-work figures and portrait masks. D’Arblay has a beautiful daughter, which leads to a romance with a young Dr. Grey who discovers the father’s body and brings the case to Dr. Thorndyke’s attention. Before the end of the story, the ...

"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...

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 ...

This book is a collection of short stories about one of Sherlock Holmes’ most prominent rivals: Dr. Thorndyke and Jervis. Doyle’s characters may be better, but Freeman spins a lot of mysteries based on reasoning.

Dr. Thorndike is a physician and lawyer who lectures on medical jurisprudence. He is also a Grade A detective with a first-rate brain and excellent powers of observation, as well as a talent for scientific analysis. He aids the purposes of justice by reading out a completely unforeseen decision from a set of clues that the authorities have misinterpreted.

A suburban train runs over a man lying on the rails. Passengers at the nearest station recognize the famous gem dealer Oscar Brodsky as the deceased. Was it an accident, suicide or murder? In less than half a day, Dr. Thorndike, known for his scientific method of solving crimes, solves the mystery.