This anthology of rare stories of crime and suspense brings together 16
tales by masters of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction for the first
time in book form, including a newly discovered Agatha Christie crime
story that has not been seen since 1922.
At a time when crime and thriller writing has once again overtaken the
sales of general and literary fiction, Bodies from the Library
unearths lost stories from the Golden Age, that period between the World
Wars when detective fiction captured the public's imagination and saw
the emergence of some of the world's cleverest and most popular
storytellers.
This anthology brings together 16 forgotten tales that have either been
published only once before - perhaps in a newspaper or rare magazine -
or have never before appeared in print. From a previously unpublished
1917 script featuring Ernest Bramah's blind detective Max Carrados, to
early 1950s crime stories written for London's Evening Standard by Cyril
Hare, Freeman Wills Crofts and A.A. Milne, it spans five decades of
writing by masters of the Golden Age.
Most anticipated of all are the contributions by women writers: the
first detective story by Georgette Heyer, unseen since 1923; an
unpublished story by Christianna Brand, creator of Nanny McPhee; and a
dark tale by Agatha Christie published only in an Australian journal in
1922 during her 'Grand Tour' of the British Empire.
With other stories by Detection Club stalwarts Anthony Berkeley, H.C.
Bailey, J.J. Connington, John Rhode and Nicholas Blake, plus Vincent
Cornier, Leo Bruce, Roy Vickers and Arthur Upfield, this essential
collection harks back to a time before forensic science - when murder
was a complex business.
