Cosy Crime: Gentle Mysteries

4.50 FROM PADDINGTON

by Agatha Christie

read by Rosemary Leach

running time 7hrs 35mins

Elspeth sees a man strangling a woman in a passing train. But who will take her story seriously? The indomitable Miss Marple of course.

THE ABC MURDERS

by Agatha Christie

read by Hugh Fraser

running time 6hrs

There's a serial killer on the loose, bent on working his way through the alphabet. And as a macabre calling card he leaves beside each victim the ABC Railway Guide open at the name of the town where the murder has taken place. There seems little chance of the murderer being caught - until he makes the vain mistake of challenging Hercule Poirot to frustrate his plans...

THE BEAST MUST DIE

by Nicholas Blake

read by John Leeson

running time 8hrs 45mins

From his idyllic country cottage in the Cotswolds, a detective fiction writer plots the perfect murder - one that he himself will commit.

CAPITAL CRIMES: LONDON MYSTERIES

by Martin Edwards (editor)

read by Jill Hetherington

running time 16hrs 30mins

A collection of 17 classic crime shorts with a London setting, offering a good mix of the well-known and the obscure. These stories cover all the sub-genres of crime and mystery fiction.

DAMSEL IN DISTRESS

by Carola Dunn

read by Elizabeth Goodrich

running time 8hrs

Daisy's chum, the Honourable Phillip Petrie, is totally smitten with Miss Gloria Arbuckle, daughter of a millionaire Yank. But before the enthusiastic suitor can pop the question, his beloved is abducted by kidnappers. As a distraught Mr Arbuckle begins assembling the ransom, Phillip enlists Daisy to help him recover his missing sweetheart.

ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER

by Agatha Christie

read by Hugh Fraser

running time 5hrs 30mins

Hercule Poirot is determined to solve an old husband and wife double murder that is still an open verdict. He delves back into the past and discovers that ‘old sin leave long shadows’.

FAINTLEY SPEAKING

by Gladys Mitchell

read by Pauline Phillips

running time 7hrs

Not long after the telephone call, Miss Faintley was murdered. It seemed at first unlikely that she, a prim, quiet schoolmistress, could have anything to do with crime. Yet Mrs Bradley's investigations led to some exciting discoveries.

GALE WARNING

by Dornford Yates

read by Richard Simpson

running time 10hrs 30mins

Jonathan Mansel heads a small private organisation dedicated to the detection of serious crime 'by methods sadly unavailable to the regular police'. An aristocratic member of his team is murdered and the avengers set out in pursuit of the killer.

HALLOWEEN PARTY

by Agatha Christie

read by Hugh Fraser

running time 6hrs 30mins

At a Hallowe’en party, thirteen-year-old Joyce boasts that she once witnessed a murder. When no-one believes her, she storms off. Within hours her body is found, drowned in an apple-bobbing tub. Hercule Poirot is called in, but first he must establish whether he is looking for a murderer or a double-murderer.

I AM HALF-SICK OF SHADOWS

by Alan Bradley

read by Sophie Aldred

running time 7hrs 15mins

With the family finances in a state, Flavia's father has rented Buckshaw to a film company for a location shooting. When the actors are talked into staging a benefit performance, old jealousies surface, and the leading lady is murdered! As the list of suspects grows, Flavia investigates.

JOLLY FOUL PLAY

by Robin Stevens

read by Katie Leung

running time 6hrs 25mins

Daisy and Hazel have returned to Deepdean for a new school term, but there's a new Head Girl, Elizabeth Hurst, and a team of Prefects - and these bullying Big Girls are certainly not good eggs. Then, after the fireworks display on Bonfire Night, Elizabeth is found - murdered. Many girls at Deepdean had reason to hate Elizabeth, but who might have committed such foul play? Can Daisy and Hazel solve this mystery? Book four in the series

THE KALAHARI TYPING SCHOOL FOR MEN

by Alexander McCall Smith

read by Hilary Neville

running time 6hrs 30mins

Precious Ramotswe faces competition from the new 'Satisfaction Guarantee Detective Agency' set up by Cephas Buthelezi. Meanwhile Mma Makutsi sets up a typing school for men and finds romance. Vol. 4 of the series

THE LABOURS OF HERCULES

by Agatha Christie

read by Hugh Fraser

running time 8hrs 45mins

In appearance Hercule Poirot hardly resembled an ancient Greek hero. Yet like Hercules he had been responsible for ridding society of some of its most unpleasant monsters. So leading up to his retirement, Poirot makes up his mind to accept just twelve more cases: his self-imposed ‘Labours’.

A MAIGRET CHRISTMAS: AND OTHER STORIES

by Georges Simenon

read by David Hobbs

running time 5hrs

It is Christmas in Paris, but beneath the sparkling lights and glittering decorations lie sinister deeds and dark secrets... This collection brings together three of Simenon's most enjoyable Christmas tales featuring Inspector Maigret and other characters from the Maigret novels.

A NECESSARY END

by Hazel Holt

read by Patricia Gallimore

running time 6hrs 30mins

While filling in for a friend at a local charity shop in the quiet English town of Taviscombe, Sheila Malory employs her detecting skills when the store's ill-tempered supervisor is found dead and everyone in town is a suspect.

THE OLD MAN IN THE CORNER

by Baroness Orczy

read by David Hobbs

running time 8hrs

Mysteries! There is no such thing as a mystery in connection with any crime, provided intelligence is brought to bear upon its investigation. So says a rather down-at-heel elderly gentleman to young Polly Burton of the Evening Observer, in the corner of the ABC teashop on Norfolk Street one afternoon. Once she has forgiven him for distracting her from her newspaper and luncheon, Miss Burton discovers that her interlocutor is as brilliantly gifted as he is eccentric - able to solve mysteries that have made headlines and baffled the finest minds of the police without once leaving his seat in the teahouse. As the weeks go by, she listens to him unravelling the trickiest of puzzles and solving the most notorious of crimes, but still one final mystery remains: the mystery of the old man in the corner himself. The Old Man in the Corner is a classic collection of mysteries, featuring the Teahouse Detective - a contemporary of Sherlock Holmes, with a brilliant mind and waspish temperament to match that of Conan Doyle's creation.

THE PALE HORSE

by Agatha Christie

read by Hugh Fraser

running time 6hrs 45mins

To understand the strange goings on at The Pale Horse Inn, Mark Easterbrook knew he had to begin at the beginning. But where exactly was the beginning? Wherever the beginning lies, Mark and his sidekick, Ginger Corrigan, may soon have cause to wish they’d never found it…

A QUARTER PAST DEAD

by T P Fielden

read by Eve Karpf

running time 8hrs 30mins

It's the late 1950s in tranquil Temple Regis, Devon. For Miss Judy Dimont, reporter for the local rag, it is all a trifle dull. But one morning, as the clock strikes the quarter hour, a woman is shot dead in one of Buntorama's upmarket holiday huts. Judy and her trusty moped, Herbert, are off like a shot to survey the scene of the crime. To have a story to write, Judy must solve the case - and the intrepid Miss Dimont will leave no pebble unturned until the truth is out!

THE RAILWAY DETECTIVE

by Edward Marston

read by Simon Prebble

running time 7hrs 30mins

In 1851 as London anticipates the grand opening of the Great Exhibition, the London to Birmingham mail train is derailed and robbed, killing the driver and some passengers. Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck of the new Police force fights to untangle a web of murder, blackmail and destruction.

SAD CYPRESS

by Agatha Christie

read by David Suchet

running time 6hrs

Beautiful young Elinor Carlisle stood in the dock, accused of the murder of Mary Gerrard, her rival in love. The evidence was damning: only Elinor had the motive and the means to administer the fatal poison. Yet one man still presumed Elinor was innocent until proven guilty: Hercule Poirot was all that stood between Elinor and the gallows…

TAKEN AT THE FLOOD

by Agatha Christie

read by Hugh Fraser

running time 6hrs 15mins

After marrying an attractive young widow, Gordon Cloade is tragically killed by a bomb blast in the London blitz. Overnight, the former Mrs Underhay finds herself in sole possession of the family fortune. Hercule Poirot receives a visit from the dead man’s sister-in-law claiming that Mrs Underhay’s first husband is alive. Poirot has his suspicions...

AN UNCERTAIN DEATH

by Hazel Holt

read by Maggie Stokes

running time 6hrs 30mins

Sheila Malory is swept up in the organization of the Taviscombe Festival, and has to spend more and more time in the company of the unpleasant Adrian Palgrave whose overbearing manner makes him unpopular with almost everyone. But the village is shocked when his lifeless and bloody body is found. Mrs Malory has impressive credentials when it comes to solving murders, but with so many suspects, she hardly knows where to begin.

WALK WITH CARE

by Patricia Wentworth

read by Judy Franklin

running time 11hrs

Young Jeremy Ware is suspected of stealing important papers, and Colonel Garrett of the Secret Service consults Benbow Smith about it. Even Rosalind Denny, still grieving for her late husband, suspects Jeremy. But when the young man, trying to exonerate himself, meets a beautiful sleepwalker in a cellar, matters quickly progress to a case of murder…

THE YELLOW DOG

by Georges Simenon

read by Terrence Hardiman

running time 4hrs

In the windswept seaside town of Concarneau, a local wine merchant is shot. In fact, someone is out to kill all the influential men and the entire town is soon sent into a state of panic. For Maigret, the answers lie with the pale, downtrodden waitress Emma, and a strange yellow dog lurking in the shadows...