The Pit-Prop Syndicate

A sacred Indian diamond vanishes from a country house and Sergeant Cuff of Scotland Yard is called in to find it. Often named the first full-length detective novel in English, it is told by a chain of witnesses who each hold part of the truth.

Wilkie Collins

A ruthless financier is found shot on his estate, and the painter and journalist Philip Trent races Inspector Murch of Scotland Yard to explain it. A clever turn on the detective story, with a solution that keeps shifting until the final pages.

E. C. Bentley

A cask unloaded at the London docks holds gold coins and a woman's body. Inspector Burnley of Scotland Yard and the Paris police follow shipping records, timetables and alibis in the novel that made Crofts the master of the police procedural.

Freeman Wills Crofts

A clerk is murdered in a Hatton Garden diamond office and Inspector Joseph French of Scotland Yard gets his first case. Patient, methodical and very human, French follows the trail across Europe one clue at a time.

Freeman Wills Crofts

Sir William Ponson is found drowned near his manor, and every suspect seems to have a perfect alibi. Inspector Tanner of Scotland Yard takes them apart one by one in a classic puzzle of times, trains and footprints.

Freeman Wills Crofts