Free summaries
Crime, Thrillers and Mystery — page 8
550 public-domain crime, thrillers and mystery books, summarised. Page 8 of 12.
The Diamond Cross Mystery: Being a Somewhat Different Detective Story
Chester K. Steele
A quiet, atmospheric whodunit, this narrative follows a retired detective who is drawn into a complex murder investigation in a small, rain-drenched town.
Death, the Knight, and the Lady: A Ghost Story
H. De Vere (Henry De Vere) Stacpoole
A destitute narrator is dragged into an aristocratic estate where ancestral memory, altered identity, and an ancient family curse converge in a tragic sequence of events.
The Mysterious Murder of Pearl Bryan, or: the Headless Horror
Unknown
A pregnant young woman vanishes from her Indiana home, only to be found beheaded in a Kentucky orchard, igniting a sensational, coast-to-coast nineteenth-century murder investigation.
Nick Carter Stories No. 11, November 23, 1912: Nick Carter Strikes Oil
Nicholas (House name) Carter
A sudden fall from a hotel window leaves a visiting clergyman dead, setting off a high-stakes investigation on the Colorado frontier where an innocent rancher faces a framing for murder.
Nick Carter Stories No. 139, May 8, 1915: The Pressing Peril
Nicholas (House name) Carter
A seasoned New York detective uncovers a web of financial corruption involving a loan company, desperate clients, and an elaborate scheme to conceal a woman’s mysterious disappearance.
The Mystery of Arnold Hall
Helen M. Persons
This mystery follows a college freshman whose life at a dormitory is defined by unexplained windfalls, dangerous secrets, and the constant, scrutinizing gaze of an eccentric neighborhood benefactor.
A Stolen Name
Nicholas (House name) Carter
A master detective navigates a labyrinth of stolen identities, international espionage, and seductive danger, where the truth is as elusive as the shadows cast by the criminals he pursues.
The Spy
Richard Harding Davis
A man’s accidental arrival in a volatile foreign port leads him into the path of a desperate, boastful young spy. This encounter ends in a violent confrontation that forces a final, tragic truth from the boy's lips.
Two Wonderful Detectives
Old Sleuth
A retired banker entrusts a stranger’s fortune to a detective, launching a decades-spanning search to identify the rightful heir before the money is lost to time. This mystery unfolds through the keen instincts of Jack Alvarez, a master of disguise and deduction.
Heist Job on Thizar
Randall Garrett
The galaxy’s most daring jewel thieves are not merely interested in wealth; they thrive on the sophisticated, high-stakes game of outsmarting an enemy who believes they are already one step ahead.
The Case of the Golden Bullet
Auguste Groner
HOOK A humble, overlooked detective unravels the impossible murder of a professor, ultimately finding that the truth of the crime lies hidden within a macabre, golden secret.
The Coquette's Victim: Everyday Life Library No. 1
Charlotte M. Brame
A young man of noble birth and chivalric imagination risks his reputation and freedom to shield a woman he mistakenly believes is in distress. His idealism, however, is no match for the calculated manipulation of a socialite.
The Great Green Diamond
Inspector Stark
A stolen, cursed temple relic draws an explorer, a detective, and a band of desperate criminals into a web of vengeance, betrayal, and violence across New York City.
The Jade God
Alan Sullivan
The past is a living thing in this haunting mystery, where a house holds the memory of a murder and a cursed object exerts a strange, malevolent pull on all who enter its orbit.
Five Thousand Dollars Reward
A. Frank Pinkerton
A young man is falsely accused of murder, while a ruthless villain orchestrates a series of crimes to steal an heiress’s fortune. This fast-paced mystery unravels through layers of deception, disguises, and desperate narrow escapes.
Shadow, the Mysterious Detective
Police Captain Howard
A mysterious operative haunts the criminal underworld of 1880s New York, navigating a web of kidnappers and cutthroats to rescue an innocent girl from a terrifying fate. This relentless pursuit reveals that the most effective weapon against darkness is often a secret identity.
The Girl from Malta
Fergus Hume
HOOK A passenger on a steamer from Malta is found murdered, sparking a desperate race to uncover the killer among a group of travelers bound for England.
The North Shore Mystery
Henry Fletcher
When a prominent sportsman is found stabbed to death in a Sydney boarding-house, a webs of greed, racing schemes, and hidden villainy unravels across colonial Australia.
The Great Secret
E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
A quiet night at a London hotel spirals into a desperate international conspiracy when a stranger collapses in a traveler’s room, pulling an unsuspecting sportsman into a high-stakes game of shadows and statecraft.
The long arm of Fantômas
Pierre Souvestre
A master of disguise and a relentless inspector engage in a high-stakes game of shadows, where the villain wears the faces of his own pursuers. This relentless pursuit explores the terrifying ease with which identity can be stolen and trust manipulated.
The Monk of Hambleton
Armstrong Livingston
A ruthless tannery owner receives a cryptic, bloody warning from a figure in a monk’s habit, only to be found murdered shortly thereafter. A visiting detective must navigate a web of vengeful secrets to identify the killer among a household of suspects.
Cad Metti, The Female Detective Strategist
Old Sleuth
Underneath the brassy flash of dime-novel thrillers lies an unexpectedly slick game of shadows, disguises, and deadly counter-traps.
The Argosy, Vol. 51, No. 4, April, 1891
Various
This nineteenth-century miscellany offers a panoramic view of Victorian literary life, blending serialized mystery, travelogues, and reflections on everything from the nuances of etiquette to the haunting unpredictability of ghost stories.
Ashton-Kirk, Criminologist
John T. (John Thomas) McIntyre
A brilliant investigator navigates a web of deceit, jewel thieves, and family secrets to exonerate the wrongly accused in this intricate puzzle of Gilded Age crime.
Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo
E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
In the gilded, high-stakes world of Monte Carlo, an unassuming American becomes the linchpin in a clandestine struggle to prevent a catastrophic European war.
The Alien Dies at Dawn
Randall Garrett
A frantic pilot races against a ticking clock to prevent an unjust execution, knowing that if an innocent man dies, a human colony will be wiped out in retaliation.
The wolves and the lamb
J. S. (Joseph Smith) Fletcher
A naive young heir steps into a London underworld of calculated greed, unaware that his vast fortune has already been marked by the predatory figures circling his life.
The Datchet Diamonds
Richard Marsh
A man finds himself caught in a web of criminal intrigue after the famous Datchet diamonds vanish, leading to a desperate struggle for survival against a mysterious and ruthless gang.
The Clevedon Case
Nancy (Novelist) Oakley
A midnight visitor interrupts a quiet life, pulling an amateur investigator into a web of poisoning, blackmail, and aristocratic secrets. This intricate puzzle centers on the violent death of a baronet and the suspicious behavior of those closest to him.
The Hollow of Her Hand
George Barr McCutcheon
Trapped between grief and vengeance, a young widow shields the woman who killed her husband, turning a dark secret into a web of absolute control.
Deadly decoy
Randall Garrett
A security chief must outmaneuver two fanatical alien assassins who plan to destroy the Galactic Capitol using a unconventional, proximity-based weapon.
The Black Company
W. B. M. (William Blair Morton) Ferguson
A wealthy young former football star is framed for murder by a secret society of high-stakes extortionists using chess code, forcing him into a double identity to save the woman he loves.
The House in the Mist
Anna Katharine Green
The mist-choked atmosphere of a secluded, ominous mansion sets the stage for this gripping tale of inheritance, greed, and hidden identities. A young traveler stumbles into a gathering of desperate relatives, only to find himself caught in a web of dark family secrets and a long-deferred reckoning.
Bratton's Idea
Manly Wade Wellman
HOOK A lonely janitor discovers the secret to artificial life, only for his creation—a ventriloquist’s dummy—to turn the tables and lead a criminal underworld.
7 to 12: A Detective Story
Anna Katharine Green
A missing diamond necklace, a troubled young lover, and a detective who sees through quiet drawing-room posturing to the secrets buried underneath.
Cronus of the D. F. C
Biggle, Lloyd, Jr.
A temporal window on a police basement screen reveals a woman’s brutal murder, leaving detective Jim Forsdon five days to alter fate.
Stop Look and Dig
George O. (George Oliver) Smith
In a world where mental powers are common, a weary private investigator finds that telepathy and ESP have merely given criminals more sophisticated ways to ruin lives.
Punchinello, Volume 2, No. 29, October 15, 1870
Various
A sharp, satirical snapshot of 1870s New York, this periodical captures the era's anxieties through biting wit, absurd fiction, and a relentless mockery of social pretension.
The Case of the Registered Letter
Auguste Groner
A disgraced man uses his own suicide to frame a rigid engineering executive for murder, leaving an unassuming Viennese detective to untangle a dark plot of judicial pride and delayed vengeance.
The Phantom Friend: A Judy Bolton Mystery
Margaret Sutton
A fleeting encounter on a freezing Manhattan ice rink plunges a young woman and her close circle into a bewildering web of missing identities, media illusions, and international crime.
The Winning Clue
James Hay
A sharp, desperate cry shatters a quiet morning, pulling a disabled man into a murder investigation that evolves into a lethal game of intellect between two competing investigators.
One-Way Ticket to Nowhere
Leroy Yerxa
A daring rescue mission aboard a high-speed monorail takes a startling turn when a missing train’s passenger turns out to be the man he is supposedly trying to find.
The First Man on the Moon
Alfred Coppel
John Thurmon reaches the lunar surface, desperate to claim the title of the first human to set foot on the moon. To secure his legacy, he murders his colleague, Wayne, only to discover that history has already been written.
The Hemlock Avenue Mystery
Lily A. (Lily Augusta) Long
A young reporter’s chance encounter with a murder investigation turns his quiet city into a web of blackmail, secret identities, and high-stakes chivalry. This brisk mystery examines how far the innocent will go to protect the people they love.
Thornley Colton
Clinton H. (Clinton Holland) Stagg
Blind, wealth-favored, and possessing an astonishingly acute sensorium, an extraordinary investigator solves New York's most baffling mysteries using sheer intellect.
The Argosy, Vol. 51, No. 5, May, 1891
Various
Dark secrets from India, quiet English country churches, and the quiet rhythms of Breton villages fill the pages of a Victorian periodical.
Jim Hanvey, detective
Octavus Roy Cohen
HOOK A massive, slow-moving detective with fish-like eyes outwits the most sophisticated criminals not through force, but through a patient, disarming, and relentless psychological game.
Missing at Marshlands: Arden Blake Mystery Series #3
Cleo F. Garis
Three college friends look forward to a peaceful summer by the ocean, only to find themselves entangled in a web of suspicious characters, a missing Russian artist, and a priceless golden snuffbox.