Edward D. Hoch was a legend. A prolific writer of almost 1000 short stories, featuring more than 15 series characters, he was a master of the classical detective mystery. Among is most imaginative tales was The Will-'O-the-Wisp-Mystery. interlocked short stories which can be read independently but culminating in an unexpected but fairly clued resolution. The series was suggested by Frederic Dannay, editor of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, with the author kept secret - they were written by Mr. X - but anyone familiar with Hoch style would immediately recognize their creator.

A too-little-known Hoch detective was the Roman Catholic priest, Father David Noone. Even though he appeared in only seven mysteries, Hoch returned to the character for some forty years. Hoch himself was a devout Catholic and used that background effectively in the Noone stories. The detection is often centered on Noone's inner-city parish but (unexpectedly) he does solve a crime in a circus.

Yes, indeed, a legend.

One of the most enjoyable resurgences in mystery fiction has been the return of the locked room mystery, a crime scene where the victim is found in a secure space with no visible means of entrance or egress. Crippen & Landru has published some of the best locked rooms mysteries with collections by John Dickson Carr and Edward Hoch. While locked rooms have been around since Edgar Allan Poe, we are enjoying the new generation of talented mystery authors.

One of these clever new authors is Tom Mead, who pens the Joseph Spector series. In three novels and numerous short stories, Mead has shown that Golden Age mysteries are not gone-or forgotten. Spector appears in all but two of the stories in this collection. (One of non-Spector works is The Wager, the additional chapbook included with the clothbound signed and numbered edition.) Three of the remaining stories are new- never been published until now.

So read the brand-new stories here and match wits with Joseph Spector - and Tom Mead.

JUST ONE MORE THING! Lieutenant Columbo - short and unkempt, shapeless raincoat flapping open, unlit cigar in his hand - turns towards the murderer who is certain that this undistinguished plainclothesman will never see through his perfect crime. Then - just one more thing and the murderer realizes that his murder plot has unraveled.

Columbo, played by the marvelous Peter Falk, appeared as a made-for-television movie in 1968, then the long-running series in 1971 - and kept coming back over the decades. One of the finest detective series ever to appear on television, Columbo was created by William Link and his late collaborator Richard Levinson. With The Columbo Collection, Link has written 12 brilliant new stories in which murderers try to get away with murder but come up against the rumpled but unflappable Lieutenant Columbo.

Toni L.P. Kelner has been writing thoughtful mysteries for over thirty years. She won an Agatha Award for her short story Sleeping With the Plush and her story Baby Trap was selected for inclusion in Best American Mystery and Suspense 2024, edited by S.A. Cosby and Steph Cha. Kelner's short fiction has also been nominated for the Anthony, the Macavity, and the Derringer.

Toni L.P. Kelner and Leigh Perry are two authors in one.

As Toni L.P. Kelner, she's the author of eleven novels: eight Laura Fleming mysteries set in Byerly, a small North Carolina town filled with Laura's extended family members, and three Where are they now? mysteries, about a freelance entertainment reporter who specializes in stories about the formerly famous. She's also the co-editor of seven urban fantasy anthologies with Charlaine Harris. Kelner has won the Agatha Award and an RT BookClub Lifetime Achievement Award, and has been nominated for the Anthony, the Macavity, and the Derringer. Her story Baby Trap was selected for inclusion in Best American Mystery and Suspense 2024, edited by S.A. Cosby and Steph Cha.

As Leigh Perry, she writes the Family Skeleton series about Georgia Thackery, an adjunct English professor, and her family's unusual family skeleton. Which is a skeleton. Named Sid. Sid walks, talks, and tells bad bone jokes. Together, Georgia and Sid solve crimes.

Both Leigh and Toni write short stories, and The Skeleton Rides a Horse and Other Stories is their first team-up.

No matter which name she's using, she lives north of Boston with fellow writer Stephen P. Kelner, Jr. and their daughters: a graphic artist and a flute finisher. The family has many books.

Get ready for cocktails and cats. One of the best light-hearted mystery series has a flair for murder. Richard and Frances Lockridge are best known for their married characters, Jerry and Pam North, who appeared in twenty-six novels, movies, TV, and Broadway. They also wrote books featuring Lt. Heimrich, Nathan Shapiro, and others. Aided by their Siamese cats, they helped Lt. Bill Weigand of the NYPD solve mysteries throughout the Big Apple.

Whether Jerry is solving crimes in the literary scene of Manhattan or Lt. Heimrich is answering a call about a murder, this collection contains all their known short stories, including one with Pam and Jerry North and others featuring Lt. Heimrich. The introduction is by Crippen & Landru Publisher Jeffrey Marks.

Marcia Talley has caught readers' eyes since the beginning of her career when she won the Malice Domestic Grant (now known as the William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grant.) They chose her wisely. For these last three decades, Marcia Talley has marveled readers with her novels-and her short stories. Each of these works is humorous, thoughtful, and surprising. That is why, over these years, she has won and been nominated for a variety of mystery short story awards.

Here, you'll meet an average Joe just trying to sell his house, an island lad infatuated with Sherlock Holmes, a burnt-out mystery novelist, as well as a variety of classic characters who step out of the pages of Shakespeare and Dickens into devious new roles. The four stories featuring the irresistible Marjorie Ann are sure to delight. This year, when Marcia will be the Guest of Honor at the Malice Domestic Conference, it seems appropriate to present all her short works in a single collection. Crippen & Landru is fortunate to be able to do so.

Though Ethel Lina White caught the attention of Alfred Hitchcock in the 1930s, the author was once as well known as the Crime Queens. During her short career from 1927 to her death in 1944, she wrote seventeen novels and many short stories. However, White has been forgotten over the years.

Her books were not in print and her name was practically unheard of, even though they play a major role in the development of psychological suspense subgenre.Recently, the British Library's Crime Classics released Fear Stalks the Village and The Wheel Spins, two of the best works by White.

The attention was tremendous, and a generation discovered her again. Crippen & Landru is proud to publish Blackout and Other Tales of Suspense, the first collection of White's works. The collection includes a short story that would later become the genesis for The Wheel Spins.

In 1930, Anthony Berkeley Cox (1893-1971) founded London's Detection Club, whose members swore that their detectives shall well and truly detect the crimes presented to them, using those wits which it may please you to bestow upon them. The Detection Club pledged never to conceal a vital clue from the reader.

Anthony Berkeley's novels and short stories featuring Roger Sheringham and Inspector Moresby are among the finest examples of the fair play, challenge-to-the-reader tradition of the Golden Age.

The title story in The Avenging Chance has long been considered one of the greatest formal detective stories. This book also collects all the additional cases of Sheringham and Moresby.

This enlarged edition includes - for the first time- the newly discovered short stories, The Bargee's Holiday and Hot Steel.

Cover illustration by Gail Cross. Lost Classics design by Deborah Miller. Cover by Christina Luboski.

A Véry Unique Collection

Pierre Véry (1900-1960) spent his life as a writer. He fell into mystery writing after winning a genre award for his work. Among his many creations was Les veillées de la Tour Pointue, a quirky collection that breaks the fourth wall. The narrator, who happens to be Pierre Véry, finds and publishes a series of mysteries.

While many of Véry's works were made into films, this book has never been published in English. A few of his novels, including The Murder of Father Christmas, have been released in English.

But no more. Best-selling author and Renaissance man Tom Mead translated this book to English and wrote a fascinating look at Véry. He kept the humor and strange scenarios intact so the reader can see the talent of this little-known author.

Tom Mead is a Derbyshire mystery writer and aficionado of Golden Age Crime Fiction. His debut novel, Death and the Conjuror, was an international bestseller and its sequel, The Murder Wheel, was described as brilliant in a Publishers Weekly starred review and a delight by the Daily Mail. His third novel, Cabaret Macabre, will be published in 2024.

Ellery Queen is the American Detective Story

So wrote the great critic Anthony Boucher about the contributions of Ellery Queen to the mystery story. Queen appeared in novels and short stories, in movies and on television, on the radio and even in comic books. His creators, Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee, dominated the mystery world through their works as novelists, critics, anthologists and editors.

In honor of the 95th anniversary of the first Ellery Queen novel, Crippen & Landru is proud to publish the first new Ellery Queen book in almost 50 years. The Tragedy of Errors is the lengthy and detailed plot outline for the final, but never published EQ novel, containing all the hallmarks of the greatest Queen novels--the dying message, the succession of false solutions before the astonishing truth is revealed, and scrupulous fairplay to the reader.

The Tragedy of Errors and Others also contains the six hitherto uncollected Ellery Queen short stories and a collection of essays, tributes, and reminiscences of Ellery Queen, written by family members, friends and some of the finest current mystery writers.