The Ponson Case

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

Two amateurs notice something wrong at a timber business that ships pit props across the Channel. When a murder follows, Inspector Willis of Scotland Yard takes over and turns their hunch into a full smuggling investigation.

Freeman Wills Crofts