Crime and Mystery Short Stories and Anthologies

Edited by Martin Edwards.
Published on September 10, 2026.
British Library Publishing, 352 pages.

A mouth-watering feast of crime fiction, including stories of mushroom murders, brown bread spread with bacillus botulinus, and tales in which the identity of killers is proved by a purchase of fillet steak or an inexpert knowledge of fine wines. This new collection from British Library Crime Classics features some of the greatest mystery tales from the Golden Age of detective fiction to be based around food and drink. Complete with a well-stuffed introduction from expert editor, anthologist and crime author Martin Edwards, detailing the fascinating role of what we imbibe to the genre, this anthology includes tales from the likes of Dorothy L Sayers, Michael Gilbert and EC Bentley, and is sure to leave readers hungry and wanting more.

Edited by Tony Medawar.
Published on September 24, 2026.
Collins Crime Club, 352 pages.

A brand new anthology of previously unpublished and uncollected supernatural mysteries by some of the masters of the Golden Age – thrills, spills and chills perfect for Halloween. It is said that books are written to bring sunshine into our dull, grey lives – to show us places we want to escape to, lives we want to live, people we want to love. But there are also stories that can only be found in the deepest, darkest corners of the library.

Stories about the unexplained, of lost souls, of things that go bump before the silence. Before the screaming. And some stories just disappear.

Stories printed in old newspapers, broadcast live on the wireless, sometimes not even published at all – these are the stories you cannot find on even the dustiest of library shelves. This follow-up volume to the bestselling Ghosts from the Library resurrects forgotten tales of the supernatural by some of the most accomplished mystery authors of all time.

Close the windows. Draw the curtains. Just don’t let the lights go out…

Edited by Cecily Gayford.
Published on November 6, 2025.
Profile Books, 256 pages.

A collection of classic crime stories, edited by Cecily Gayford.

Evening draws in; families reunite, fires are lit, curtains snapped shut. But what is hiding in the shadows beyond the warm living-room glow, where the light won't reach? And what surprises will creaks in the night bring on Christmas morning?

Weaving together celebrated stories of murder and mayhem from the greatest writers in the genre, Murder in Wintertime brings a chill that will linger beyond the last frost. From suspicious slips on the ice to Yuletide games gone awry and footprints that disappear under blankets of snow, these sinister goings-on will keep you up late on the long, dark nights...

Featuring celebrated authors such as Catherine Aird, Carter Dixon, Peter Lovesey and more.

By Otto Penzler.
Published on June 11, 2026.
Penguin, 512 pages.

Fourteen impossible mysteries from the masters of the Golden Age detective story.

Locked-room mysteries have baffled and delighted readers for generations. They present the reader with a seemingly impossible crime – a body found inside a windowless room that’s been locked from the inside, for example – before revealing an ingenious and satisfying solution.

This unique collection features fourteen of the most puzzling locked-room mysteries from some of the finest writers in the genre, including household names like John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen, and Cornell Woolrich. Selected by Edgar Award-winning anthologist Otto Penzler, this book takes the reader on an unforgettable journey into the Golden Age of mystery writing.

By Edmund Crispin.
Published on July 30, 2026.
Collins Crime Club, 240 pages.

A collection of short stories featuring Gervase Fen, orinigally published in 1979.

Dandelions and hearing aids, a bloodstained cat, a Leonardo drawing, a corpse with an alibi, a truly poisonous letter … These are just some of the unusual clues that Oxford don/detective Gervase Fen and his friend Inspector Humbleby are confronted with in this sparkling collection of short mystery stories by one of the great masters of detective fiction.

Edited by Agatha Christie.
Published on September 12, 2024.
Harper Collins, 368 pages.

For lovers of the supernatural and the macabre comes this collection of ghostly and chilling tales from Agatha Christie. Acknowledged the world over as the undisputed Queen of Crime, in fact she dabbled in her early writing career with mysteries of a more unearthly kind – stories featuring fantastic psychic visions, spectres looming in the shadows, encounters with deities, eerie messages from the Other Side, even a man who switches bodies with a cat… This haunting compendium gathers together all of Christie’s spookiest and most macabre short stories, some featuring her timeless detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Finally together in one volume, it shines a light on the darker side of Agatha Christie, one that she herself relished, identifying ten of them as ‘my own favourite stories written soon after The Mysterious Affair at Styles, some before that’.

Contains 20 stories:
• The Last Séance
• In a Glass Darkly
• The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb
• SOS
• The Fourth Man
• The Idol House of Astarte
• The Gipsy
• Philomel Cottage
• The Dream
• The Lamp
• Wireless
• The Mystery of the Blue Jar
• The Blue Geranium
• The Wife of the Kenite
• The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael
• The Call of Wings
• The Red Signal
• The Flock of Geryon
• The Dressmaker’s Doll
• The Hound of Death