Twelve Mystery Stories

The mystery stories in this collection relate inexplicable episodes of madness and revenge, terror and obsession, the grotesque and the arabesque, the scientific and the supernatural. Sometimes we find ghosts or other phantoms at the heart of the mystery, but in other cases eerie incidents arise out of apparently everyday situations and these ordinary origins make the uncanniness even more chilling.
In Twelve Mystery Stories, Jack Adrian brings together works by well-known writers in the crime and mystery genre, such as Wilkie Collins and Arthur Conan Doyle, and rarer stories which have for decades been unavailable to readers. Here readers will find a vast array of detectives and villains, and a multitude of murder methods and motives.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0192880748
• ISBN13: 9780192880741
• Release Date: July 1998
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

"A Lurking Sense of Unease"

Here is another excellent collection from the "Oxford Twelves" series, this time from the well known anthologist Jack Adrian. Some of the stories in this book, like Conan Doyle's "The Story of the Man with the Watches" are conventional mysteries, but in many of the others the mystery is never fully explained and the reader is left with "a lurking sense of unease." The Victorian settings are cosily familiar and yet disquieting - the fog, hansom cabs, madness and ghosts. Prepare yourself for a real treat as you ponder the unknown in "Paul Vargas: A Mystery," witness a chess rivalry from beyond the grave in "The Horror of the Automaton," or tremble at the terrible secret of "The Yellow Box." As for "The Man with the Ebony Crutches," I would certainly not like to run into him on a dark and stormy night!

The Westing Game

This book was a great book. Although it can be a little confusing, it keeps you wanting to read it. It is a great story which talks about sixteen people gathering around for the reading of Samuel W. Westing's will. Only the will ends up being a game. You have to find out who killed Samuel W. Westing and who the real heir is. Do you want to play the game? Then read the book!