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Mystery, Crime, and Suspense Stories

Gothic, Fantasy, and Adventure

Literary Classics

Children's and Family Classics

Memoir and Nonfiction

The Bible

The Mysterious Affair at Styles is British author Agatha Christie’s first published novel, written in the middle of World War I in 1916. It introduces Hercule Poirot, who is called in to solve the poisoning death of rich elderly Emily Inglethorp, the owner of Styles Court estate.

A murder takes place at a weekend party hosted at Chimneys, the home of Lord Caterham. Can Scotland Yard solve the crime? Christie’s 1925 novel has been called “a first-class romp,” “a romance,” “a treasure hunt,” and “a thriller,” in addition to being a classic murder mystery.

Anne Beddingfield is young, beautiful, and on her own, and she’s on the hunt for adventures in London. At the tube station, a man falls and gets electrocuted on the rails, and a mysterious man in a brown suit examines the body before sprinting off, leaving behind a cryptic clue. Can Anne find him, and the killer?

Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958) was considered the American Agatha Christie, and The Circular Staircase was her first bestseller. It tells the story of spinster Rachel Innes, who along with her adopted niece and nephew, are challenged by strange crimes, including murder, in a house they have rented for the summer.

Jack Knox, attorney-at-law, falls in love with his newest client, the beautiful Margery Flemming, who hires him to find her missing father, a crooked politician. When Margery’s elderly aunt disappears, leaving only a bloody handprint behind, Knox looks to Margery’s suspicious fiancé. Can Knox find her missing relatives and win over her heart?

Arsène Lupin, the gentleman thief, has finally met his equal. A crime is committed at the home of Deputy Daubrecq, and two of Lupin’s accomplices are arrested and sentenced to death by the guillotine. Daubrecq is cunning and menacing, and he foils Lupin at every step. Can Lupin save his honor, as well as his friends from death?

S. S. Van Dine

S. S. Van Dine created an influential 12-novel crime series starring amateur sleuth, art connoisseur, and New York dandy Philo Vance. In this first book, Manhattan high society is abuzz after playboy stockbroker Alvin Benson is found dead in his mansion, a bullet hole in his head, in a room locked from the inside. Ballistics experts and detectives can’t solve the crime, but Vance is on the case. This is the first book in the Philo Vance series.

Margaret Odell is the “Canary” in the title, a beautiful scheming showgirl, nightclub singer, and lady of the night who has been found murdered in her apartment. Her enemy list is long—many men had reason to want her dead. Amateur detective and New York dandy Philo Vance is on the scene, bringing his trademark grasp of the intricacies of human nature to solve the crime. This is the second book in the Philo Vance series.

J. S. Fletcher

A quiet cathedral town in England, a hotbed of local gossips, and people who are not quite who they seem to be, is the setting for this murder mystery, including a man apparently thrown from the cathedral to his death. Pemberton Bryce, a character you’ll love to hate, investigates the mystery in hopes of winning over young Mary Bewery’s hand in marriage. Is Mary’s guardian and the village doctor, Dr. Mark Ransford, the murderer? 

The Last Stroke was published in 1896 by Chicago socialite Emma Murdoch van Deventer, under the pen name of Lawrence L. Lynch. This detective story opens with the mysterious disappearance of a small-town schoolmaster, Mr. Charles Brierly, who is later found shot to death, devastating his fiancé and brother. He appeared to have no enemies, so who killed him? A professional detective from Chicago named Francis Ferrars is on the case.

A group of five young people gather in a Merchester house to take part in the annual lawn tennis tournament. The summer is miserably hot, tempers fly, and suddenly one young woman dies in her bed from poisoning, ostensibly from some Chinese herbs Dr. Wallace has in the house. Is he the murderer, or is it the housemaid, the cook, or one of the other young competitors? This 1920s detective story is the first of six mystery novels by Francis Everton, and has all the charm of the time, including intricate plotting and the clever deduction of clues by local detectives from Scotland Yard.

Lord Peter Wimsey receives news that his sister Mary's fiancé has been found shot dead outside the Wimseys' shooting lodge at in Yorkshire. The Duke of Denver, who happens to be Lord Peter’s brother Gerald, has been arrested for the murder and put on trial. Lord Peter and his close friend Inspector Charles Parker search the lodge’s grounds to clear the Duke’s name. But will the clues clear him, or condemn him? The second in Dorothy L. Sayer’s Lord Peter Wimsey series.

From Dorothy L. Sayers, the mistress of the Golden Age of mystery, comes the third book featuring the brilliant and debonair detective Lord Peter Wimsey. A wealthy old woman dies much sooner than her doctor expected. Was it a sudden illness—or was it murder? And if murder, whodunit—her nurse or her niece in charge of her care, or? Wimsey is joined by Miss Climpson, a chatty spinster with a knack for asking the right questions, to solve the case.

In Silas Blackburn’s eerie and isolated country estate, there’s an abandoned room that everyone avoids because of its troubling history involving the deaths of family members. When Blackburn is found dead—locked inside the room—the most obvious suspect is his grandson Bobby, who has a motive for murder—his grandfather had recently threatened to cut him out of his will. But Bobby remembers nothing of the night.

Roger Sheringham is a crime columnist for the Daily Courier newspaper. When a woman dies after being pushed off a Hampshire cliff-top, Sheringham’s editor sends him to investigate. He takes his young cousin Anthony with him, who promptly falls in love with the chief suspect. Sheringham is determined to solve the case before Scotland Yard can—but then there’s a second murder!

Michael Lanyard is an international jewel thief, nicknamed "the Lone Wolf" by the authorities. After a successful heist in England, Lanyard is approached by four criminals calling themselves "the Pack,” who want Lanyard to join them. He makes enemies of them when he says no. In the meantime, he falls in love with a young American woman, Lucy, who works for one of the criminals as his nurse. He vows to straighten up his life for her, starting a series of events that lead to him being framed for murder, nearly murdered himself, at risk in a car chase, and finally in a near deadly biplane adventure, as he and Lucy try to escape to France to start a new life. This is the first of eight books which were made into 24 films between 1917-1949.

In the second of eight Lone Wolf novels, Michael Lanyard is seeking revenge for the death of his wife and child in the early days of WWI, leaving him bitter about the Germans, and one spy in particular. He boards a ship to America and finds himself embroiled in espionage and intrigue involving German agents and a mysterious woman named Cecelia Brooke. Lanyard races against time to fulfill his promise and exact revenge, ending in final encounter in New York City.

The third book in the Lone Wolf series finds Michael Lanyard leaving the British Secret Service and wandering around Southern France, where he meets a woman who has been victimized by a crime organization. Lanyard’s attempts to right the wrong take him from France and across the Atlantic on ship filled with dangerous rogues and a beautiful woman who promises romance.

The Leavenworth Case (1878) is the first known detective novel published by a woman, American Anna Katharine Green, who later inspired Agatha Christie. When retired merchant Horatio Leavenworth is found shot dead in his New York mansion, his nieces are the prime suspects. Green introduces us to detective Ebenezer Gryce, who will feature in a series of novels to follow. 

Anna Katharine Green created the first female detective in American fiction—the spinster sleuth Amelia Butterworth. When her next-door neighbors are away on vacation, a mysterious man and a woman enter the house late one night. Butterworth sees the man leave later that night, but the woman does not. Curiosity gets the better of her, and she enters the house the next day, only to find the woman dead, crushed by a cabinet. Green’s famous Detective Gryce is on the case, but Miss Amelia can’t help herself, rivaling with Gryce to solve the crime.

The Whispering Pines country clubhouse in upstate New York is the scene of the murder of Rosamund Trent, and the main suspect—at least in the beginning—is her fiancé Oliver Donaldson, who is in love with Rosamund’s sister. Detective Ebenezer Gryce is called in to investigate the case, and his discoveries lead to a long-standing family feud and several other potential suspects, including Rosamund’s brother and a mysterious man who’s been lurking around the family’s estate.

A newly married woman has been found shot to death in an empty mansion she inherited as a child—a mansion known for three previous untimely deaths. Although first the investigation concludes it was a suicide, until a young detective proves the woman was killed, and her newlywed husband, who is rumored to have loved another woman, and his sister are primary suspects.

Green's last published detective novel, The Step On the Stair is typical of her earlier mysteries. Quenton is in love with Orpha, and thinks their marriage has been approved by her guardian. Imagine his shock when her engagement to Edgar is announced. Jealousy rears its ugly head. But then Quenton is made aware of gossip and superstition, which may affect his position in the household. Finding the lost will after their uncle's death could answer all their questions.

A museum director discovers a teenage girl dead with an arrow through her heart. The only witness to the crime? An older woman who hovers over her, whispering in the girl's ear and offering nonsense answers to the director's questions. All the museum’s visitors are locked inside while the case is investigated. A strange twist—why are the victim’s relatives sacrificing so much to protect the murderer? Detective Gryce, now in his 80s, is on the case.

Mr. Gillespie has collapsed and died, and is determined to have been poisoned. Before his death, he sends a letter to Arthur Outhwaite, a lawyer, via his young granddaughter, implicating one of his three sons. Anna Katharine Green’s famous Detective Gryce and his assistant Sweetwater investigate the case with Outhwaite. This is a tale of love, betrayal, and the complexities of family dynamics set in New York City.

A lovely young heiress drops dead in a New York hotel. The police only find a small hole and her letter opener. The coroner rules it suicide, but her father doesn’t believe it, and hires Inspector Gryce and his assistant, Sweetwater, to solve the case. Among her belongings—letters signed with initials only, O.B. Who is O.B., and what, if anything, does he have to do with her death?

The small New York town of Shelby is shaken by a brutal murder, and a local inn-keeper is convicted and hanged. Twelve years later, "a woman in purple" who was married to the executed man shows up at the house of the judge who had sentenced the inn-keeper to be executed, convinced that he husband wasn’t guilty, but the judge isn’t having it. The woman takes a job as a maid and secretly uses her position to get proof of her husband’s innocence—but the evidence points her in a troubling direction.

The spinster sleuth Miss Amelia Butterworth is back! After her success in solving a crime in That Affair Next Door, New York detective Mr. Gryce calls upon her help to discover why several people have vanished into thin air while walking on the same country road. The plot is full of twists and turns, with a very satisfying ending.

When rich Mr. Dashwood dies, his second wife and their three daughters are left poor as his estate is passed down to his son from his first marriage. They rent a modest cottage, and the two older girls come of age and experience love and heartbreak under trying circumstances.

Persuasion tells the story of Anne Elliot, a twenty-seven-year old Englishwoman whose family is forced for financial reasons to rent their home to an Admiral and his wife. The twist? Seven years ago, Anne broke off her engagement to the wife’s brother. Will love bloom again?

Charlotte Bronte

Willa Cather

My Ántonia tells the story of immigrant Ántonia Shimerda and Virginia-transplant Jim Burden, both of whom find themselves uprooted to start new lives in the difficult plains of Nebraska in the late 19th century. Published in 1918, it is Cather’s most famous novel.

Kate Chopin

Charles Dickens

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published in the United States in 1885, and is considered an American classic. It was also one of the first novels to be written in vernacular English, the local dialect of the South. The novel tells the story of a young runaway, Huckleberry Finn, and the people and places he visits along the Mississippi River, including, for a significant part of his journey, a runaway slave named Jim.

Gothic, Supernatural, and Adventure

Mary Shelley

For over 200 years, the story of Victor Frankenstein and the monster he created has captured the attention of readers all over the world. This masterpiece of gothic fiction was conceived by Mary Shelley when she was only 18 years old, and completed when she was 20. Originally published anonymously, her name soon became known, and forever remembered.

Gaston Leroux

In the 1880s, the Paris Opera House is haunted by what some think is a ghost or a phantom, but who turns out to be a masked figure who lives below the theatre in the catacombs. What happens when he falls madly in love with Christine, an innocent and young soprano?

Jack London

Robert Louis Stevenson

Children and Family Classics

J. M. Barrie

The Darling children have adventures with Peter Pan, the boy who never grows up. He and his fairy Tinker Bell take the children to Neverland where they live with the Lost Boys and battle Captain Hook.

L. Frank Baum

This American fairytale was published in 1900, and tells the adventures of a young girl from Kansas who is swept up in a cyclone with her dog Toto and finds herself in the magical Land of Oz. Scarecrows, witches, lions, tin men, flying monkeys, munchkins, and the Wizard are among the main cast of characters.

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Originally published in 1911, The Secret Garden tells the story of the selfish and entitled ten-year-old orphan Mary Lennox, who is transformed after her discovery of the secret garden at Misselthwaite Manor through the healing power of nature and friendship.

Lewis Carroll

Lucy Maud Montgomery

Anne of Green Gables is considered a classic children’s novel enjoyed by people of all ages. The novel tells the story of 11-year-old orphan Anne Shirley sent to live with two middle-aged siblings. The novel has sold over 50 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 36 languages.

This is the second book after Anne of Green Gables, and follows Anne Shirley from age 16 to 18 during the two years when she serves as the sole school teacher at Avonlea. Her ideals get tested as she seeks to improve her students, and her village. 

Anna Sewell

Black Beauty was composed in 1877 by English author Anna Sewell in the last years of her life. It was an immediate best-seller, and in its lifetime, has sold over 50 million copies. Told from the perspective of the horse, Black Beauty, it was written to introduce kindness, sympathy, and understanding for animals.

MEMOIR AND 

Helen Keller

The Story of My Life, published in 1903, is Helen Keller’s autobiography of the first 22 years of her life, particularly her relationship with Anne Sullivan, the teacher who helped Helen, struck deaf and blind at 19 months of age, unlock language and communicate with the world.

Harriet Jacobs

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is one of the few surviving slave narratives written by a woman. It tells the story of Harriet Jacobs, born in 1813, who lived a life of servitude in North Carolina until she was set free and reunited with her children in the North. After writing her book, Jacobs continued to help those left behind by slavery, including founding two schools for black students.