PDF Books in Mystery & Detective Fiction
The Aspern Papers
by Henry JamesThe Aspern Papers is a novella by American writer Henry James, originally published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1888, with its first book publication later in the same year. One of James's best-known and most acclaimed longer tales, The Aspern Papers is based on the letters Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote to Mary Shelley's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, w..
After Dark
by Wilkie CollinsAfter Dark is a collection of six short stories by Wilkie Collins, first published in 1856. It was the author's first collection of short stories. Five of the stories were previously published in Household Words, a magazine edited by Charles Dickens. The stories are titled as belowLeaves from Leah's diaryThe traveler's story of a terribly strange b..
Blind Love
by Wilkie CollinsBlind Love is Wilkie Collins’s final novel. Although he did not live to complete the work, he left detailed plans for the last third of this absorbingly plotted novel which were faithfully executed by his colleague, the popular author Walter Besant. The novel is set during the Irish Land War of the early 1880s and tells the story of Iris Henley, an..
The Dead Alive
by Wilkie CollinsThe Dead Alive, also called John Jago’s Ghost, is a novella written in 1874 by Wilkie Collins based on the Boorn Brothers murder case. It was reprinted with a side-by-side examination of the case by Rob Warden in 2005 by Northwestern Press. This novel is based on the true-life Boorn Brothers murder conviction case of 1819. Jesse and Step..
The Guilty River
by Wilkie CollinsThe Guilty River isn’t concerned with the supernatural, but with heredity. It is a mystery which betrays a certain fear of characteristic inheritance. Collins was not alone in this exploration. Like organic memory, heredity was a subject written about in literary and scientific circles alike, and at times the two were in direct conversation. Thomas..
The Haunted Hotel - A Mystery of Modern Venice
by Wilkie CollinsWilkie Collins's ghost story was set in 1860 and published in book form with 'My Lady's Money'. It was dedicated to his friends Mr and Mrs Sebastian Schlesinger. Apart from supernatural elements, the story contains detective procedures and an insurance fraud relying on substituted identity that anticipates the later Blind Love (1890).&n..
I Say No
by Wilkie CollinsI say No is a Mystery story published in 1884 with the heroine turning detective, to reveal the truth about the death of her father. The plot relies heavily on coincidence and, as in The Law and the Lady, a supposed murder turns out to have been suicide...
Jezebel's Daughter
by Wilkie CollinsJezebel's Daughter is a sensational novel published in 1880 and dedicated to Alberto Caccia, Collins's Italian translator. Based on the 1858 play, The Red Vial, Collins's attempt to write for 'the masses' resulted in an unduly melodramatic tone. The novel, however, is notable for the way it handles the treatment of lunatics and the ment..