A beautiful young woman is in shock. She calls John Strangeways, a medical lawyer who must piece together the strange disparate facts of her case and in turn, becomes fearful for his life. Only Dr Thorndyke, a master of detection, may be able to solve the baffling mystery of Angelina Frood.

At the time of Dickens' sudden death in 1870, he had completed six of the 12 monthly installments of Edwin Drood. Anxious readers on both sides of the Atlantic were stranded with what Don Richard Cox calls, the most popular unfinished novel ever written. Speculation about the book's conclusion soon began and, as the years have passed, literally scores of authors have tried their hands at completing the story, writing their own sequels, conclusions, parodies and alternative endings. There have been dozens of stage, radio, film and television versions as well. Mock trials have sought a legal solution to the puzzle, and even spiritualists have tried to contact the ghost of Dickens, hoping to discover what the author's plans really were.

Presents critical studies of more than 270 authors of detective and mystery fiction from around the world dating from the mid-eighteenth century to the present day.

This collection surveys 100 of the writerswho have made the most lasting contributionsto the genre. Most articles are 2,500words, with longer articles on such majorfigures as Raymond Chandler, DashiellHammett, Ellery Queen and Rex Stout.Handy, ready-reference listings aredesigned to accommodate the uniquecharacteristics of mystery and detectivefiction, including author?s pseudonyms,types of plots, principal series and principalseries characters, and even a glossaryof terms peculiar to the genre.Reference elements include a complete,up-to-date list of authors? works, a glossaryof mystery and detective fiction terms,annotated bibliographies, a time line, anindex of series characters and a list ofauthors by plot type.

Gives biographical, critical, and bibliographical information on thirteen mystery writers up to 1930.