Mystery Stories
Classic Whodunnits and Detective Fiction
Mystery stories offer readers the thrill of solving a "whodunnit" in a single sitting. From the birth of the detective genre with Edgar Allan Poe's analytical tales to the ingenious puzzles of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, these stories have captivated readers for nearly two centuries.
The genre evolved through the "Golden Age" of detective fiction, when writers like Agatha Christie and Mary Roberts Rinehart (often called "the American Agatha Christie") perfected the art of the fair-play mystery. R. Austin Freeman pioneered the "inverted" detective story, revealing the criminal at the start and challenging readers to discover how they'd be caught.
Whether you prefer locked-room mysteries, psychological suspense, or the classic battle of wits between detective and criminal, this collection features the finest examples of the genre from its greatest practitioners.
