The unrivalled Albert Campion returns to solve another shocking murder - classic crime fiction at its very best

The unrivalled Albert Campion returns to solve another shocking murder - classic crime fiction at its very best

Mystery, murk and sinister secrets -- classic British crime writing at its best.

Mystery, murk and sinister secrets -- classic British crime writing at its best.

When Albert Campion is called by the fiancee of an old college friend to investigate the disappearance of her uncle, he little expects the mysterious spate of death and dangers that follows among the bizarre inhabitants of Socrates Close, Cambridge. He and Stanislaus Oates must tread carefully, and battle some family dynamics, to solve the case.

Murder of a stranger or a relative, in a quiet English town or a crowded American city. It happens everywhere for all kinds of reasons. Short stories by some of the finest modern crime writers.

Albert Campion sets out to plumb the secrets of Saltey, an ancient hamlet on the Essex marshes. Once the haunt of smugglers, now it hides a secret rich and mysterious enough to trap all who enter - and someone in the village is willing to terrorise, murder and raise the very devil to keep that secret to themselves.

Detective, Albert Campion goes into the eccentric Palinode household, where there have been two suspicious deaths. And, if poisoning were not enough, there are also anonymous letters, sudden violence and a vanishing coffin. Meanwhile, the Palinodes go about their nocturnal business and Campion dices with danger in his efforts to find the truth.

Amateur detective Albert Campion awakes in hospital accused of attacking a police officer and suffering from acute amnesia. All he can remember is that he was on a mission of vital importance to His Majesty's government before his accident. On the run from the police, he struggles to put the pieces together while the fate of England is at stake.

Appearance and reality are not always the same. Timothy Kinnit is rich, handsome and well-bred. He seems to have everything. Then, on the eve of his elopement, he learns that he was adopted, and he is desperate to know who he really is. Someone seems no less keen to stop him finding out.

First, there is a skeleton in a jacket, then a corpse in a golden aeroplane. After another body, Albert Campion nearly makes a fourth. Both the skeleton and the corpse have died with suspicious convenience for Georgia Wells. Georgia's best friend happens to be Valentine, Campion's sister. In order to protect Valentine, he must unravel the story.

A British claim to a tiny Balkan state leads Campion on a race against time in the village of Pontisbright -- classic British crime writing at its best.

Campion's glorious summer in Pontisbright is blighted by death. Amidst the preparations for Minnie and Tonker Cassand's fabulous summer party, a murder is discovered and it falls to Campion to unravel the intricate web of motive, suspicion and deduction with all his imagination and skill.

A quiet, ruthless killer strikes in London's theatreland. Superintendent Luke thinks he has seen the pattern before. Mr Campion wonders what became of the old couple in the country bus who must have witnessed the crime. The trail leads to an eccentric museum in west London, and to a scrapyard in the East End.

Jack Havoc, jail-breaker and knife artist, is on the loose on the streets of London once again. In the faded squares of shabby houses, in the furtive alleys and darkened pubs, the word is out that the Tiger is back in town, more vicious and cunning than ever. It falls to Albert Campion to pit his wits against the killer and hunt him down through the city's November smog before it is too late.

Sunshine, parties and a murder; a typical summer for Campion -- classic British crime writing at its best.

Albert Campion is summoned to the village of Kepesake to investigate a particularly distasteful death. The body turns out to be that of Pig Peters, freshly killed five months after his own funeral. Soon other corpses start to turn up, just as Peters's body goes missing. It takes all Campion's coolly incisive powers of detection to unravel the crime.

Campion returns from three years work for the War Office in Europe to find that Lugg, his manservant, has brought him an unusual gift: the black silk nightdress-clad body of a dead woman, an apparent suicide. Now, Campion must assist Detective Chief Inspector Oates and Superintendent Yeo in unravelling a tangled plot of deception and murder.

What starts as a light-hearted, slightly crazy wild-goose chase becomes something much more dangerous, nasty and sinister.

Fact catches up with fiction when the secret of telepathic communication is discovered. But the device at the centre of the mystery is in the possession of two schoolboys and whether they stole it or invented it, there are powerful interests who will kill to get hold of it. Albert Campion faces as deadly a challenge as any in his career.