Tom Brown's Body
By Gladys Mitchell

Mrs. Beatrice Bradley came to the village of Spey to interview the local witch but ended up investigating a murder when an unpopular junior history master at the local boys’ school is found dead. Gerald Conway was universally disliked by both masters and students, so finding his murderer proves a daunting task indeed, but Mrs. Bradley is more than up to it, especially given her great fondness for and understanding of young boys. Further, she’s able to work with her favorite nephew, Detective Inspector David Gavin, who is called in from Scotland Yard to investigate. Together they uncover a nest of rivalries and secrets among the staff, more than one of whom has ample reason to want Conway dead. 

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Shadow on the Wall
By H.C. Bailey

Lady Rosnay has insisted that Reginald Fortune attend her fancy dress ball, but the merriment is disrupted when the old lady takes a tumble down the stairs and loses her diamond tiara. She is strangely unruffled by the incident, which intrigues Reggie, who is also almost certain she was pushed. But the mischief is just getting under way. Two murders follow, and Reggie, along with his friend Lomas, head of Scotland Yard’s C.I.D., begin investigating in earnest. Their suspects include Simon Osmond, a rising young politician whose plans to marry Lady Rosnay’s niece, Alix Lynn, have been vetoed by the imperious old lady, as well as the headstrong Alix herself.

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The Crooked Hinge
By John Dickson Carr

Twenty-five years ago John Farnleigh, the heir to the baronetcy of Mallingford and Sloane, then a young and wild boy exiled to America, survived the sinking of the Titanic. It’s now 1937,  two years after he returned to England to claim his inheritance. Only is he really the heir? Another man has just shown up also claiming to be John Farnleigh, explaining that, as boys, the two men switched identities as the ship was sinking. The key to solving the mystery lies with an old set of fingerprints taken by young Farnleigh’s tutor. But before the two men’s fingerprints can be compared one member of the household has his throat cut in plain sight by an unseen hand. First published in 1938, The Crooked Hinge is considered one of the best books by the acknowledged master of the locked room and impossible crime.

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The Judas Window
By Carter Dickson

Only young James Answell could have committed the murder. After all, he was found unconscious in the locked room next to the body of the murdered man. His clothes were disheveled from an apparent struggle. His fingerprints were found on the murder weapon, an arrow from  the victim’s collection. Furthermore, he was heard arguing with the dead man, whose daughter he wished to marry. Just about everyone is convinced that James is headed for a date with the hangman. Everyone except Sir Henry Merrivale, H.M. to his friends and associates. He’s convinced that the real murderer used a “Judas window” to commit the crime. First published in 1938, The Judas Window is  considered by many to be the best locked room mystery of all time. Carter Dickson is, of course, the pseudonym of John Dickson Carr, the universally acknowledged grand master of the form.                             

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Henrietta Who?
By Catherine Aird

When middle-aged Grace Jenkins is struck down and killed by a motorcar on a country road outside the quiet village of Larking, it turns out that nobody really knew who she was. And young Henrietta Jenkins’ identity is also thrown into question when she learns that the woman who raised her as her own could not have been her mother. Then it is discovered that Grace Jenkins’ death was no accident. It’s the kind of knotty problem that is right up Inspector C.D. Sloan’s alley, and while he and his men crisscross Calleshire County to solve it, Henrietta is comforted by young Bill Thorpe, who doesn’t care one bit who she really is. “Aird... gives readers a fine taste of life in the English countryside,” wrote the Chicago Sun-Times of this book, originally published in 1968 and the second to feature polite, persistent Inspector Sloan.

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Coffin, Scarcely Used
By Colin Watson

There were surprisingly few mourners at Harold Carobleat’s funeral, just his widow and a handful of prominent Flaxborough citizens, including newspaper publisher Marcus Gwill. When Gwill’s naked body is found electrocuted some months later, its mouth stuffed with marshmallows, Inspector Purbright and his cherubic assistant, Sergeant Love, begin to suspect the two deaths are connected. But what are they to make of a series of peculiar coded advertisements that has been appearing in the Flaxborough newspaper? And why is the doctor’s surgery so busy after hours? Remember, this is Flaxborough, a “high-spirited town... like Gomorrah,” where anything can happen, and usually does. First published in 1958, this is the first of eleven satirical mysteries featuring Purbright, Love, and other denizens of this anything but peaceful East Anglian town.

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