Black Editions: 227 books

Written during the Edwardian period, these seventeen stories, fables and parables were composed for the entertainment and instruction of its author's pupils at Eton college. Each uses supernatural and fantastic elements to illuminate their author's Christian belief in the endurance of light and morality...

A deceased sailor whose corpse will not stay where it is put; a close encounter with a mermaid; a hotel plagued by ghostly reminders of a terrible murder; a country house haunted by the victim of a witch... Originally published in 1889, this is a classic collection of four ghost stories, written by the Queen's Surveyor of Pictures, Sir John Charles Robinson.

When Tryphena Sabine unexpectedly inherits the imposing mansion of Tanglewood on the Yorkshire Moors, terrible memories are awakened of her unhappy girlhood, a doomed love affair, and the unwelcome attentions of Reginald Jarrald - ominously known as the Shadow Hunter. But when she reaches Tanglewood...

Dr. Hextall receives a call in the early hours of the morning to attend the beautiful Paquita Tress, who has accidentally wounded herself while attempting to shoot Kesteven, a friend of her brother Darrell. Paquita is convinced that Kesteven is not only a bad influence on her brother, but actively...

First published in 1901, Barry Pain's collection of short stories plays deftly with an array of supernatural and macabre ideas - the Roman soldier who encounters a nameless horror when he falls through a crack in the earth; ordinary people driven mad by their obsession with other people's crimes;...

Dora Myrl is a modern young woman of astonishing accomplishments, having been educated at Cambridge and trained as a medical doctor. Her profession, however, is that of private investigator - a lady detective whom men underestimate at their peril! In these twelve tales Dora pits her wits against villainous...

Barnibush Hall, in the English county of Daneshire, is the home of the Reverend William Crow. It is also haunted by several alarming apparitions - as the Reverend's great-nephew Tom Bracondale discovers when he inherits the property unexpectedly. First, a séance conjours a dog-faced elemental, who...

It is the summer of 1894. The Garry Street murder is the talk of London, and no one is more baffled than Gerald Conway, in whose library the dead man's body was discovered, stabbed. The only clue to the man's identity seems to be the gold bangle containing a small carbuncle, worn on the dead man's...

Paul Beck is the greatest detective in England, though he would never admit it. Modest and unassuming, Beck attributes his success to luck and common sense, insisting that the solution to most mysteries can be gained by the application of a 'rule of thumb'. But his clients know better and Beck is...

These two short crime novels from the Victorian period depict a threatening night-time London, where murder lurks in the fog...  In Fergus Hume's The Piccadilly Puzzle (1889), the private detective Dowker is called upon to investigate the death of a beautiful woman, whose body is found...

The English village of Warcastor is a hotbed of gossip and scandal. While Iris May’s shameless flirtations are the object of universal scorn, the mystery of her mother’s past life is everywhere discussed. When Iris disappears, the villagers assume that she has eloped with the local Squire. But...

When Rudolph Carrant falls to his death near his home on the Kent coastline, very few mourn his loss. But was his death accidental? Or was he pushed? Carrant’s cousin is convinced the young man was murdered, and when Inspector Dillock of the Yard is called in to investigate, he discovers that there is no shortage of suspects…

One summer evening, Rupert Hendle, Squire of the English village of Barship, is visited by the Vicar, the Reverend Leigh. The clergyman has some terrible news to impart - during his researches into local history, he has uncovered an old will that disinherits the present Squire in favour of Rupert's...

A man is found poisoned at the foot of Cleopatra's Needle on London's Embankment, apparently having taken his own life. His identity is a mystery that Octavius Rixton (alias Octavius Fanks, detective) is determined to solve. A mysterious cryptogram leads Fanks to believe that oriental antiquities...