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Elizabeth Bell runs a quiet household, with no family and no more than the usual number of servants. She passes her time thinking about crime and working on her biography of a relative. When a young cousin comes to stay, life in the house becomes uncharacteristically lively. First, cousin Judy burns a hole in Miss Bell's desk. Next, they spy a burglar on the staircase--a shadowy figure who vanishes without a trace. And finally, Sarah, the nurse, takes the dogs for a walk and never returns. But these mysterious goings-on take a dark turn when the vanished woman is found savagely murdered. According to the police, the killer must be part of the household, a fact which Ms. Bell struggles to believe. That is until more deaths follow, and the entire staff begins to look more threatening than the old lady ever could have imagined. An atmospheric whodunit bursting with family secrets and period details, The Door exemplifies the sort of aristocratic intrigue that made Mary Roberts Rinehart one of the bestselling and most beloved authors of her day.

For more than a year, Kit McKittrick languished in a Fascist prison in Spain where he was tortured by a limping jailor known only as Wobblefoot. He escaped with the help of a childhood friend from America who came overseas with him to fight for the Republican cause. When the two return to the United States, Kit goes West to heal, both physically and psychologically, while Louie remains in New York for the high society life of cocktails and cafes that he had enjoyed before his dangerous adventure. But Kit's convalescence is cut short when he learns that Louie has taken a long dive out of a high window. He's certain that his friend wouldn't have made the fatal fall without being pushed and, on a quest for vengeance, sets out for New York to get even with the killer. When he arrives, Kit discovers a host of suspicious characters that Louie left behind but he'll have to conquer his own past demons before he can achieve his gruesome goal. A revenge thriller elevated by psychological depth and haunting suspense, The Fallen Sparrow shows noir master Dorothy B. Hughes developing the style for which she is known today. Like her later masterpieces, In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse, this too was adapted for a now-classic film noir by the same title.

Professor Charles Grimaud is found dead in his study just moments after his housekeeper watched him greet a mysterious visitor and welcome him into the room. Yet no sign of the murderer or murder weapon can be found. The housekeeper saw no one leave through the door and the snow outside the only window remains unblemished. An equally puzzling murder has occurred outside, in the middle of the street: The illusionist Pierre Fley was walking alone in a snow-covered cul-de-sac when witnesses heard someone shout "The second bullet is for you!" followed by a gunshot. He is found dead, with the revolver that killed both Grimaud and himself by his side and no footprints in the surrounding snow but his own. It appears that both murders must have been committed by a specter?someone not only invisible but lighter than air. But if anyone can find a rational explanation, it is brilliant amateur sleuth Dr. Gideon Fell. In a 1981 survey of mystery experts, The Three Coffins (called The Hollow Man in the UK) was voted the best locked room mystery of all time. It is also celebrated for a scene in which Carr's iconic detective Gideon Fell delivers a speech expounding upon the dozens of methods and variations by which apparently impossible murders may be accomplished. Any fan of locked room mysteries and impossible crimes should consider this book required reading.

James Aloysius Piper, mostly known as Peter, is relentless when pursuing a story for his newspaper, the Herald. So when a woman's body is found burned beyond recognition in the marsh near El Cerrito, he is even more eager than the local authorities to uncover her identity and find out what happened to her. Helping to solve the case is clinical psychologist Dr. Cavanaugh, who uses cutting-edge forensic techniques to glean crucial information from a few strands of the woman's hair that escaped the flames. After Cavanaugh's discoveries tie the corpse to Sheila O'Shay, the missing wife of millionaire Don Ellsworth, it's up to Peter Piper to use all of his craft and charm as a reporter to coax out any secrets the couple may have been hiding.The Tule Marsh Murder was inspired by a real case that had captivated the San Francisco Bay Area public a few years earlier, and Dr. Cavanaugh is based on the pioneering forensic criminalist Edward Oscar Heinrich who became known as "America's Sherlock Holmes." Though Nancy Barr Mavity may not be remembered as vividly as her contemporaries, such as Mary Roberts Rinehart and Ellery Queen, her mystery novels were groundbreaking in their use of science in the detection of crime, with psychology and forensics frequently providing key clues to the solutions.