R Austin: 165 books

On a misty November night in London, Dr Thorndyke comes across an abandoned handbag in an old church. From examining the contents an address is found and so begins a mysterious trail leading to the owner and a violent murder. Enter into the world of ‘Mr Ponting’s Alibi’ where threats are made...

Harold Monkhouse is usually such an uncomplaining patient so when his brother Amos calls in one night, what he doesn’t expect is to see him at Death’s door. Suspicions aroused, he demands an urgent second opinion. And when Harold is later found dead from arsenic poisoning, Amos is left in no doubt...

Mr Pottermack is a law abiding, settled, homebody who has nothing to hide until the appearance of the shadowy Lewison, a gambler and blackmailer with an incredible story. It appears that Pottermack is in fact a runaway prisoner, convicted of fraud and Lewison is about to spill the beans, unless he...

Prologue To every woman there comes a day (and that all too soon) when she receives the first hint that Time, the harvester, has not passed her by unnoticed. The waning of actual youth may have passed with but the faintest regret, if any; regret for the lost bud being merged in the triumph...

It is the first week of July, in the year 1956, and four teenaged siblings are spending time on a rural farm in Arkansas; bored and restless. They, along with their parents are just beginning their summer vacationpaying the obligatory visit to the grandparents, and Uncle Romey, the adult son with...

John Gillum arrives in London from Australia apparently a wealthy man and then proceeds to cheerfully gamble his entire fortune away. During this period he cultivates the friendship of Mortimer, the bank official after meeting him at the scene of a murder near the bank. He mentions in conversation that he felt suicide was a very understandable option to someone who had lost everything...

The medico-legal forensic investigator, Dr. Thorndyke, becomes embroiled in an astonishing case when a man is found underwater in a pond one morning. This wickedly entertaining detective story reveals that the victim was murdered through a lethal injection and someone out there is trying to cover it up.

then I was none too soon; for, as I halted on the threshold of my room, the study door opened again and the two men strode across the hail.   "You are taking a ridiculously wrong-headed view of the whole affair," I heard Mr. Otway declare.  ...

These are two short stories from the collection THE GREAT PORTRAIT MYSTERY: "PERCIVAL BLAND'S PROXY" and "THE MISSING MORTGAGEE", wherein the brilliant medical investigator, Dr. Thorndyke, solves murderous crimes. Percival Bland was an uncommon criminal. He knew that his...

I have been asked to make my contribution to the curious history of the disappearance of Mr. Daniel Penrose, and I accordingly do so; but not without reluctance and a feeling that my contribution is but a retailing of the smallest of small beer. For the truth is that of that strange disappearance...

Through the open door of a library, Helen Vardon hears an argument that changes her life forever. Helen's father and a man called Otway argue over missing funds in a trust one night. Otway proposes a marriage between him and Helen in exchange for his cooperation and silence. What transpires is a captivating...

A beautiful young woman is in shock. She calls John Strangeways, a medical lawyer who must piece together the strange disparate facts of her case and in turn, becomes fearful for his life. Only Dr Thorndyke, a master of detection, may be able to solve the baffling mystery of Angelina Frood.

Through the open door of a library, Helen Vardon hears an argument that changes her life forever. Helen's father and a man called Otway argue over missing funds in a trust one night. Otway proposes a marriage between him and Helen in exchange for his cooperation and silence. What transpires is a captivating...

What would you do if you opened a package to find a man’s head? What would you do if the headless corpse had been swapped for a case of bullion? What would you do if you knew a brutal murderer was out there, somewhere, and waiting for you? Some people would run. Dr Thorndyke intervenes.