Showing results by author "R. Austin Freeman" in All Categories

Valuable diamonds are missing, and the thumbprint of one Reuben Hornby is discovered in some blood at the bottom of the safe from where they were taken. An open and shut case, surely. Or is it? For reasons known only to himself, Doctor John Thorndyke has some doubts about the evidence. But to prove the innocence of a young man he must make his case in open court through the use of the latest Edwardian science. Will Dr. Thorndyke succeed, or will the case of the red thumb mark prove to be not only his first case but also his last?

In this two-part mystery, first a determined and uncompromising young Englishman traveling under the name 'John Walker' arrives in West Africa, on the run from events back home. Soon, he finds himself embroiled in adventure and romance by land and by sea. Meanwhile, in part two, the equally implacable forensic detective Dr. John Thorndyke investigates the theft that provoked 'Walker' to flee England in the first place and soon discovers unexpected mysteries.

A wonderful collection of 30 of the greatest detective and mystery stories ever written. Featuring all the great classic sleuths, including Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown, Max Carrados, Dr. Thorndyke and Madame Rosika Storey. 1. 'Who killed Charlie Winpole?' By Ernest Bramah 2. 'The Blue Cross' by G. K. Chesterton 3. 'The Problem of the Five Marks' by Melville Davisson Post 4. 'The Comedy at Fountain Cottage' by Ernest Bramah 5. 'The Mysterious Card' by Cleveland Moffett 6. 'The Card Unveiled' by Cleveland Moffett

While acting as a locum in London, young Dr. Strangeways is called to treat a woman following a violent attack by her drug-addled husband. A year later, as he begins a new practice in Rochester, he encounters the same woman again; but Mrs. Frood is now in hiding from her husband, who is actively searching for her in the area. And then, abruptly, she disappears into the evening fog, and the items she was carrying begin to turn up near the river—but there is no sign of a body.

The Magic Casket describes a classic case for Dr. Thorndyke. It tells the story of an ordinary and apparently quite worthless metal casket, which conceals a mysterious secret which nearly costs a young woman her life.

Enjoying his last day of holiday before entering upon the duties of his first professional appointment, newly qualified Dr. Stephen Gray discovers the body of Julius D'Arblay, beneath the surface of a shallow woodland pond. He befriends the dead man's daughter, and to help her seeks the aid of his old teacher the great forensic investigator Dr. John Thorndyke—who soon discovers that Mr. D'Arblay was the victim of a very calculated murder. And the murderer is now threatening both Miss D'Arblay and young Dr. Grey himself.

This third collection of vintage detective stories includes tales by authors like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, R. Austin Freeman, and Emile Gaborioux.

Mr. John Bellingham, amateur Egyptologist, abruptly goes missing, leaving behind a strangely vexatious will that cannot be executed without proof or presumption of death. Mr Bellingham's family are left virtually penniless, and under suspicion of his murder. Two years later, young Dr. Paul Berkeley in the course of his duties befriends Mr. Bellingham's younger brother, and the latter's beautiful daughter, and takes their problem to his old friend and mentor the famous medical jurist Dr. John Thorndyke. Can Thorndyke determine what really became of John Bellingham?

Dr. Strangeways meets the only woman he has ever really cared for, the hermit-like yet mysterious Angelina Frood, a striking young actress stalked by many demons. Tragedy strikes and the good doctor will do anything to solve the mystery. Following a chance encounter, he begins a correspondence with the famous Dr. Thorndyke, hoping that the medico-legal hybrid, a metaphorical centaur or merman, with a doctor's head and a lawyer's tail, can solve the case.

Stephen Gray, medico, è intento a raccogliere campioni di flora e fauna da uno stagno, quando ai suoi occhi si offre uno spettacolo raccapricciante. Appena sotto la superficie scorge il volto cereo di un uomo, il resto del corpo quasi completamente nascosto dalle piante. Si tratta dello scultore Julius D'Arblay, che la notte precedente non è rientrato a casa. Sembra esclusa l'ipotesi dell'incidente, data la scarsa profondità dello specchio d'acqua, o del malore improvviso, essendo improbabile che la vittima fosse andata a passeggiare al buio in un luogo così isolato; resta da valutare quella del suicidio.

A man apparently sends an incriminating letter to his solicitor, by the simple mistake of placing it into the wrong envelope, and then he abruptly disappears—this, immediately following a sailing trip from Sennen Cove to Penzance with an old friend, the last person known to have seen the missing man alive. But when Dr. John Thorndyke agrees to investigate the disappearance on behalf of the man's wife, he soon begins to question the circumstances and to suspect a more sinister outcome...

As Christmas approaches, Mr. Percival Bland finds his criminal enterprises unraveling. Fortunately, though, his plan of escape requires little beyond a set of human bones and a quantity of shin of beef. But will his scheme deceive the great forensic investigator Dr. John Thorndyke?

When her beloved father is threatened with imprisonment over misappropriated trust funds, Helen Vardon agrees secretly to marry the man who holds her father's fate in his hand, to save both her father and herself from poverty and social disgrace. But the marriage merely precipitates a terrible personal disaster, and a series of events involving death and blackmail, which puts Helen herself under suspicion of murder. Can Dr. Thorndyke unravel the mystery in time to save her?

Richard Austin Freeman (1862-1943) was a British writer of detective stories, mostly featuring the medico-legal forensic investigator Dr. Thorndyke. Freeman used some of his early experiences as a colonial surgeon in West Africa in his novels. The Case of the White Footprints is a murder mystery set in Margate. A lady has been found dead in her room in a boarding house.

R. Austin Freeman's famous forensic investigator, Dr. John Thorndyke, is asked by a former student to help on his first murder case. A prostitute has been murdered, and it seems a woman has done the heinous deed. Dr. Thorndyke helps find the actual murderer with the evidence available.

When irascible clergyman Amos Monkhouse, visiting from the North, finds the condition of his invalid brother Harold so much worse than he had expected, he calls in a specialist. But when Harold then suddenly dies an investigation reveals that he was poisoned with arsenic. The police can make nothing of the conflicting evidence beyond the certainty that only someone in the dead man's immediate domestic circle could be responsible. A childhood friend of Harold's wife, young barrister Rupert Mayfield, convinced that there must be another explanation, enlists the help of Dr John Thorndyke to lift the shadow that hangs over his friends.

This is Freeman’s third mystery featuring pathologist-detective Dr John Thorndyke. Whilst presenting a new invention for increasing the efficiency of gas-buoys with his laboratory assistant Polton, Thorndyke is dragged into a mystery involving an elderly seafaring man who has gone missing in the fog.

Nine more cases of theft and murder for the great "scientific investigator" Dr. John Thorndyke. Including a woman harassed over a Japanese casket of dubious artistic merit; an allegation of murder where the victim has already been cremated; a Suffragist accused of theft and murder; a man found drowned in a ditch, and a woman found with her throat cut; the grizzly contents of a salesman's sample box; a mysterious death and a missing ornament; and a man blown to pieces in an explosion.

Introducing Dr. John Thorndyke and his friend Mr. Jervis. Together the sleuths solve through scientific means murders and mysteries, using logic and material evidence and Dr. Thorndyke's indispensable little green case.

During the last part of the nineteenth century, the detective story took off as a popular genre as literary magazines vied with each other to draw in readers with gripping page-turners by the likes of Arthur Conan Doyle, G. K. Chesterton, Guy Boothby and Wilkie Collins. This collection brings together some of the great detectives of the Victorian era, from the master sleuth himself, Sherlock Holmes, to the mild mannered Father Brown, to the feisty J. G. Reeder.