Written during the first flowering of detective fiction, these tales of a blind sleuth combine intellectual thrills with imagination and style. Ten mysteries range in settings from Edwardian London through the early 1920s.

This early work by Ernest Bramah was originally published in 1914 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introduction. 'Max Carrados' is a collection of Bramah's classic detective tales. Ernest Bramah Smith was born was near Manchester in 1868. He was a poor student, and dropped out of the Manchester Grammar School when sixteen years old to go into the farming business. Bramah found commercial and critical success with his first novel, The Wallet of Kai Lung, but it was his later stories of detective Max Carrados that assured him lasting fame.

Frederic Dannay (1905-1982) was--with his partner Manfred Lee--the creator of the Ellery Queen detective novels and short stories. Dannay was also a literary historian and critic, and the editor of the renowned Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Queen--both a pen name and the fictional protagonist of the stories--was also a vital force behind the continuing popularity of crime fiction in the early to mid-20th century, after the deaths of Arthur Conan Doyle, G.K. Chesterton, Melville Davisson Post, and other Old Masters of the genre. This book presents the first critical study of Ellery Queen's role in the preservation of the detective short story. Many of the writers, characters and stories EQMM championed are covered, including such celebrated authors as Allingham, Ambler, Ellin, Innes, Vickers, and even William Butler Yeats.

Intriguing compilation of crime fiction from 1905 to 1921 includes G. K. Chesterton's "The Blue Cross," "The Ninescore Mystery" by Baroness Orczy, Mary Roberts Rinehart's "The Papered Door," plus 12 other tales.

Bruce Murphy's Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery is a comprehensive guide to the genre of the murder mystery that catalogues thousands of items in a broad range of categories: authors, titles, plots, characters, weapons, methods of killing, movie and theatrical adaptations. What distinguishes this encyclopedia from the others in the field is its critical stance.

H.C. Bailey's detective Reggie Fortune was one of the most popular protagonists of the Golden Age of detective fiction. Fortune appeared in nine novels yet it was in a series of 84 short stories that were published from 1920 to 1940 where he truly shone, combining elements of several popular archetypes--the eccentric logician, the forensic investigator, the hard-boiled interrogator, the psychological profiler, the defender of justice. This critical study examines the Fortune stories in the context of other popular detective fiction of the era. Bailey's classics are distinguished by well-clued puzzles, brilliant sleuthing, vivid description and social critique, with Fortune evoking images of Don Quixote and the Arthurian Knights in his pursuit of truth and justice in an uncaring world.

At last, _Up Through an Empty House of Stars_ brings together the best of the never before collected SF reviews and articles that helped build David Langford's towering reputation since 1980. Complementing the review columns collected in _The Complete Critical Assembly_ and the knockabout essays and squibs in _The Silence of the Langford_, this volume's 100 glittering selections mix serious critical insight with the inimitable Langford wit. In 2002 David Langford won his sixteenth Hugo award as Best Fan Writer, for critical and humorous commentary on SF. In the same year his occasionally scandalous SF newsletter _Ansible_ won its fifth Hugo. Langford also received the 2001 Hugo for best short story, and the 2002 Skylark Award. Here he shines a unique light on classics like Ernest Bramah, G.K. Chesterton, Robert Heinlein and Jack Vance, and analyses major SF -- and major clunkers, and minor eccentrics -- of the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, continuing to the latest by such current stars as Gene Wolfe and China Mi, ville. Plus witty asides on crime fiction and its SF links, gleeful examination of writing so bad it's almost good, and (even at his most serious) turns of phrase to make you laugh aloud

This volume contains some of the best, most memorable and most 'gentlemanly' - gentlemen detectives! The character has long been a staple of crime fiction, particularly in the short stories of the British Golden Age (an era of classic murder mystery novels, mostly penned in the 1920s and 1930s). The heroes of these adventures are both gentlemen by conduct, as well as in stature, and never fail to 'crack the case.' With typically eccentric and unusual hobbies, almost always conducted in the confines of an English country house, their exploits certainly make for entertaining reading. This book contains such well known classics as 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue' by Edgar Allen Poe, 'On Duty with Inspector Field' by Charles Dickens, 'The Adventure of the Speckled Band' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and 'The Hammer of God' by G. K. Chesterton .... as well as many more besides. We hope the reader enjoys this carefully-selected collection of detective fiction.