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Crime, Thrillers and Mystery — page 3
122 public-domain crime, thrillers and mystery books, summarised. Page 3 of 3.

The Count's Millions
Emile Gaboriau
A sudden death leaves a massive Parisian fortune up for grabs, framing an innocent man and sending an abandoned heiress into a network of ruthless conspirators.

The Secret of Sarek
Maurice Leblanc
A master of disguise navigates the jagged cliffs of Brittany to dismantle a century-old conspiracy of blood, greed, and ancient superstition. The legendary gentleman thief intervenes in a family’s tragic cycle of kidnapping and revenge to unmask a monstrous adversary.

The mystery at Lilac Inn
Carolyn Keene
When a friend’s inheritance is stolen, a young woman’s weekend excursion transforms into a high-stakes investigation. She must outsmart clever criminals to recover a fortune before it is lost forever.

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab
Fergus Hume
A man is found dead in a hansom cab, his life taken by a silent, unseen hand. In the bustling streets of colonial Melbourne, a web of secrets and social facades threatens to condemn the innocent.

Mysteries of the missing
Edward H. (Edward Henry) Smith
The siren call of the unknown draws men and women into shadows from which they never return, leaving behind only fractured narratives and the enduring ache of uncertainty.

She Stands Accused
Victor MacClure
A collection of historical true-crime accounts, this volume examines the lives and legal downfalls of women accused of notorious deeds. It explores the blurred lines between guilt, reputation, and the harsh machinery of justice.

A cowboy detective : a true story of twenty-two years with a world-famous detective agency
Charles A. Siringo
The career of a frontier lawman takes a sharp turn into the shadows when he trades his spurs for a private investigator’s badge, spending two decades hunting outlaws across the American landscape.

The Black Tortoise: Being the Strange Story of Old Frick's Diamond
Christian Sparre
A stolen diamond, a suspicious photograph, and a web of false accusations entangle a private detective and the woman he loves. This narrative of deception unfolds across the quiet villas and courtrooms of Norway.

An Historical Mystery (The Gondreville Mystery)
Honoré de Balzac
A fearless young royalist aristocrat and her devoted bailiff clash with Napoleon's imperial police in a high-stakes struggle of political conspiracy, framed kidnapping, and sacrificial devotion.

Mademoiselle of Monte Carlo
William Le Queux
A handsome young Englishman finds himself accused of a crime he did not commit after a shadowy figure is shot just as she is about to reveal the secret behind his father’s tragic death.

The bungalow mystery
Carolyn Keene
Caught in a terrifying storm on Moon Lake, an adventurous young woman saves a life and stumbles into a web of deceit, identity theft, and stolen fortunes hiding inside a secluded lakeside bungalow.

The Professor's Mystery
Wells Hastings
A chance encounter on a late train plunges an upstanding college professor into a web of dark family secrets, cryptic threats, and spiritualist deception.

Cleek, the Master Detective
Thomas W. Hanshew
A master thief abandons his shadowy past for love, turning his chameleon-like talent for disguise and deduction into a force for justice alongside Scotland Yard.

The Mysteries of Paris, illustrated with etchings, Vol. 1
Eugène Sue
Darkness and light collide in the shadowy underworld of nineteenth-century Paris, where a noble disguised as a commoner seeks to rescue the forgotten and punish the cruel.

Strong poison
Dorothy L. (Dorothy Leigh) Sayers
A dead lover, a tincture of arsenic, and a woman on trial for her life leave an aristocratic sleuth fighting the clock—and his own heart—to expose the real killer.

The crime code
William Le Queux
Framed for a bloody crime and hunted across London, an aspiring politician plunges into a underground network of international thieves, secret codes, and stolen identities, desperate to prove his innocence and rescue the woman he loves.

The Clique of Gold
Emile Gaboriau
A young woman is driven from her home by a scheming adventuress, while her fiancé sails into a web of state-sponsored traps in the Far East.

The Riddle of the Night
Thomas W. Hanshew
A master of disguise, once an underworld legend, returns to the shadows to solve a high-stakes murder that threatens to ruin an innocent family.

Initials Only
Anna Katharine Green
A man washing his hands in the snow on a winter night sets a trap for a brilliant, dangerous mind. This is a tale of obsession, secret invention, and the silent, deadly games played between a hunter and his prey.

The Shape of Fear
Elia Wilkinson Peattie
The specters in these tales are not merely shadows in a room; they are the lingering manifestations of human longing, guilt, and the stubborn persistence of memory. This collection of stories explores how the living are haunted by the unresolved business of the dead, blending the eerie with the deeply domestic.

Red Masquerade: Being the Story of the Lone Wolf's Daughter
Louis Joseph Vance
HOOK A master thief turned intelligence operative must infiltrate a criminal syndicate’s plot to topple the British Empire while navigating the dangerous, conflicting allegiances of his own long-lost daughter.

The stainless steel rat
Harry Harrison
A master thief finds that in a galaxy of absolute order, the ultimate challenge is not stealing—but being recruited by the very man who outsmarted him.

The Darrow Enigma
Melvin L. (Melvin Linwood) Severy
A physician finds himself entangled in a bizarre murder investigation where the victim’s death seems impossible, forcing him to rely on a brilliant, eccentric friend to unravel the truth.

The French powder mystery
Ellery Queen
A high-society murder inside a department store showroom turns into a labyrinthine puzzle of missing keys, illicit drug rings, and a final, desperate bluff.

Through the Wall
Cleveland Moffett
A disgraced detective fights to reclaim his reputation by solving a seemingly impossible murder. He navigates a web of high-society secrets, shadowy criminals, and a city that feels as dangerous as it is grand.

The Black Box
E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
A trail of mysterious thefts, missing bones, and sudden violence draws an urban criminologist into a shadowy web where no suspect is quite what they seem.