Showing titles in Traditional Detectives

It's 1961 and the Queen is planning her state visit to Italy aboard Britannia. But before she goes, an unreliable witness claims to have seen a brutal murder from the royal train. Did it really happen, and could the victim be a missing friend of Princess Margaret's new husband, Tony Armstrong Jones?

In this sequel to Under an English Heaven, newlywed American Ellie Kent is looking forward to her first English village Christmas, but a missing Oxford student and an abandoned baby soon draw her away from the fireside into danger. When a body is discovered on Boxing Day, Ellie comes to believe all these events may be linked through a group of teenage girls who identify with Shakespeare's tragic Ophelia. The police scoff at her theory, so Ellie pursues her own investigation to identify their secret Hamlet, who may be a killer.

Tom Large is an accountant with issues, issues which are not helped when he stumbles across the body of Denise Knight. The police are treating Denise’s death as misadventure, but Tom’s cleaner, Liz Thorne, won’t accept that. She declares it to be murder, and little by little, she drags Tom out of his comfort zone as they try to establish the truth of what really happened to Denise. The unconventional pair of sleuths are doing well until Tom’s daughter reveals an earth-shattering secret.

Clive Merrison stars as Holmes, with Michael Williams as Watson, in these four adventures from the unique, fully dramatised BBC canon of Conan Doyle stories: A Study In Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Valley of Fear.

1957 - A young woman is found dead in a mews house a mile from Buckingham Palace, wearing only silk underwear and a a diamond tiara. An older man is discovered nearby, garrotted and pierced through the eye with a long, sharp implement. According to the police, a high society card game was going on downstairs that night. One of the players surely committed the murders, but each of them can give the others an alibi.

The odd couple of detection, the brilliant but cranky Arthur Bryant and John May of London's Peculiar Crimes Unit, return in a tense, atmospheric new thriller that keeps you guessing right to the end. This time the detectives are up against a series of bizarre murders that defy human understanding, and a killer no human hand may be able to stop.

A body in the back of a taxi begins an elegantly constructed mystery, perhaps the finest of Marsh’s 1930s novels. The season had begun. Débutantes and chaperones were planning their luncheons, teas, dinners, balls. And the blackmailer was planning his strategies, stalking his next victim. But Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn knew that something was up. He had already planted his friend, Lord Robert Gospell, at the scene. But someone else got there first....

Slashed paintings and a mysterious death, an accused fiancé and the reappearance of a long-dead husband - Black Plumes is another classic crime drama from Margery Allingham. 'Margery Allingham stands out like a shining light.' - Agatha Christie.

Clive Merrison stars as Holmes, with Michael Williams as Watson, in this collection from the unique, fully dramatised BBC Radio 4 canon. These 12 stories range from Holmes' very first case to the epic struggle between Holmes and Moriarty high above the Reichenbach Falls.

As Jane Marple sat basking in the Caribbean sunshine she felt mildly discontented with life. True, the warmth eased her rheumatism, but here in paradise nothing ever happened. Eventually, her interest was aroused by an old soldier's yarn about a strange coincidence. Infuriatingly, just as he was about to show her an astonishing photograph, the Major's attention wandered. He never did finish the story.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson return in six further adventures which display the great detective's brilliance once more. In these adventures set across the span of the duo's lives at 221b Baker Street, Holmes and Watson travel from the highest realms of society to the lowest dens of criminality across London in pursuit of the solution to a host of baffling mysteries.

Hettie Bagshot has bitten off more than any cat could chew. As soon as she launches her No. 2 Feline Detective Agency, she's bucketed into a case: Furcross, a home for slightly older cats, has a nasty spate of bodysnatching, and three of the residents have been stolen from their graves. Hettie and her sidekick, Tilly, set out to reveal the terrible truth. In a haze of catnip and pastry, Hettie steers the Furcross Case to its conclusion, but will she get there before the body count rises - and the pies sell out?

Dr. Arthur Calgary takes a ferry across the Rubicon River to Sunny Point, the home of the Argyle family. A year before, the matriarch of the family was murdered and a son, Jack, was convicted and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison. Dr. Calgary is surprised when his revelation has a disturbing effect on the family: it means one of the family is a murderer.

An original story from the creator and writer of the hit BBC One TV series Death in Paradise, featuring on-screen favourite detective DI Richard Poole. Supermodel Polly Carter was famed for her looks and party-girl lifestyle. Now she's dead, apparently having thrown herself from the clifftop near her home on the island of Saint-Marie. Those who knew her say Polly would never have killed herself...and when he is called in to investigate, DI Richard Poole is inclined to agree there is more to Polly's death than meets the eye.

Is the ‘perfect murder’ possible? Can that crime be committed with such consummate care, with such exacting skill, that it is unsolvable—even to the most astute investigator? In this unique collection, legendary crime writers Margery Allingham, Anthony Berkeley, Freeman Wills Crofts, Ronald Knox, Dorothy L. Sayers and Russell Thorndike each attempt to create the unsolvable murder, which Superintendent Cornish of the CID then attempts to unravel.

Marcus Didius Falco discovers that rank brings problems, the most gruesome of which is a corpse buried under the tiles of his new bath house. The contractors have fled to Britain where, as the Fates have it, Falco is ordered. A local chief and ally of the Romans is having a Palace built by the Emperor Vespasian. However, the project is running late, and fatal accidents keep happening. Falco, troubleshooting for the Emperor, is without an ally and now next on the list for assassination.

Jude has never been averse to a bit of a flutter; her friend Carole, on the other hand, thinks that the local betting shop is a den of iniquity. But when Jude stumbles upon the body of a Polish immigrant, Tadeusz Jankowski, the race is on to find his killer. The odds aren’t looking good. No one seems to know anything about the mysterious Tadeusz - even his sister can’t shed any light on what he was doing in Fethering.

Agatha is taken aback when she finds a new woman ensconced in the affections of her attractive bachelor neighbour, James Lacey. The beautiful Mary Fortune is superior in every way, especially when it comes to gardening - and with Carsely Garden Open Day looming, Agatha feels this deficiency acutely.

Jazz-loving Policeman Charlie Resnick is one of the most popular characters in contemporary crime fiction. This thrilling collection brings together three dramatisations and two original radio stories starring the Nottingham-based detective, all scripted by his creator, award-winning author John Harvey.

Agatha Christie's most famous murder mystery, recorded by the director and star of the blockbuster film adaptation, Kenneth Branagh. Just after midnight, a snowdrift stops the Orient Express in its tracks. The luxurious train is surprisingly full for the time of the year, but by the morning it is one passenger fewer. An American tycoon lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside. Isolated and with a killer in their midst, detective Hercule Poirot must identify the murderer - in case he or she decides to strike again.