Raymond Chandler's cynical world-weary private eye is drawn into the brutal murder of his drinking buddy's wife. Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a Detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers don't shoot", was published in 1933 in Black Mask, a popular Pulp Magazine. His first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published seven novels during his lifetime (an eighth, in progress at the time of his death, was completed by Robert B Parker). All but Playback have been made into motion pictures, some more than once. In the year before his death, he was elected president of the Mystery writers of America Chandler had an immense stylistic influence on American popular literature.

Kipps The Story of a Simple Soul is a novel by H .G Wells, first published in 1905. It was reportedly Wells own favorite among his works, Arthur "Artie" Kipps, an illegitimate orphan. In Book I, "The Making of Kipps", he is raised by his aged aunt and uncle, who keep a little shop in New Romney on the southeastern coast of Kent He attends the Cavendish Academy – "a middle-class school"

Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as the villain of the Penny Dreadful serial The String of Pearls (1846–1847). The original tale became a feature of 19th-century Melodrama and London Legend. A Barber from Fleet Street, Todd murders his customers with a straight razor and gives their corpses to Mrs Lovett, his partner in crime, who bakes there flesh into meat pies. The tale has been retold many times since in various media.

Claims that Sweeney Todd was a historical person are disputed strongly by scholars, although possible legendary prototypes exist.

a medieval Mystery Novel by Ellis Peters, first of four novels set in the disruptive year of 1141. It is the ninth in and was first published in 1984.

The Sheriff of Shropshire is wounded and taken prisoner by Welsh on the side of Empress Maud in a major battle. His return requires an exchange, bringing two lively young Welshmen into the castle where the Sheriff's daughter resides. Welshmen on the border with England see opportunities for their own benefit as the chaos in England continues, with the King captured.

This novel received some enthusiastic and positive reviews at the time of publication. The plot includes "a denouement that combines rough justice and love triumphant."

A body is found and a body is lost - but whose body has appeared in a bath in Battersea and where is the body of famous financier Sir Reuben Levy, who went to bed one night in his flat in Park Lane and simply disappeared?

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is the final novel by Charles Dickens. It is a mystery indeed; the serial novel was just half completed at the time of Dickens' death - leading to much speculation on how it might have ended.

It is May 1137, and the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul in Shewsbury seems to be in spiritual (and financial) straights because they have no sacred relics to attract pilgrims. However, a rather too-convenient vision of an obscure Welsh female saint, St. Winnifred, sends a group of the Brothers, headed by the ambitious Prior Robert and including the Welsh-born Brother Cadfael, to the village of Gwytherin, where the saint is supposed to be buried.