Showing results by author "R Austin Freeman" in All Categories

When a lawyers brother is brutally murdered in what seems to be a botched robbery, Ms Blake, a chance witness to the horrific event, finds her life threatened as she claims to be able to identify the killer. Medico-legal expert Dr Thorndyke and Robert Anstey, the KC, are drawn into the case with dual interests – assisting Thorndyke in his investigation and simultaneously protecting the courageous Ms Blake.

The great medical jurist Dr John Thorndyke must unravel three intricate cases, as a wealthy American attempts to prove a preposterous claim to an English earldom, based only upon a startlingly tall old family tale; a hundredweight of platinum, worth a fortune, is stolen; and, most bizarrely of all, a severed human head is discovered in a box in the left luggage office of London's Fenchurch Street Station...

A collection of 31 tales of mystery and murder from the career of the great scientific detective, Dr John Thorndyke. Including every story from John Thorndyke's Cases (1909), The Adventures of Dr Thorndyke (1912), Percival Bland's Proxy (1913), The Missing Mortgagee (1914), Dr Thorndyke's Case-book (1923), and The Puzzle Lock and Other Stories (1925)

Seven stories of mystery and adventure from R Austin Freeman; including an audacious theft from London's National Gallery; the sudden self-confidence of a normally timid curate; a very remarkable funeral; a ghostly lawyer's repentance; a lucky find for a rural bricklayer; and two investigations for the celebrated forensic detective Dr. John Thorndyke...

Enjoying his last day of holiday before entering upon the duties of his first professional appointment, newly qualified Dr. Stephen Gray discovers the body of Julius D'Arblay, beneath the surface of a shallow woodland pond. He befriends the dead man's daughter, and to help her seeks the aid of his old teacher the great forensic investigator Dr. John Thorndyke—who soon discovers that Mr. D'Arblay was the victim of a very calculated murder. And the murderer is now threatening both Miss D'Arblay and young Dr. Grey himself.

A man apparently sends an incriminating letter to his solicitor, by the simple mistake of placing it into the wrong envelope, and then he abruptly disappears—this, immediately following a sailing trip from Sennen Cove to Penzance with an old friend, the last person known to have seen the missing man alive. But when Dr. John Thorndyke agrees to investigate the disappearance on behalf of the man's wife, he soon begins to question the circumstances and to suspect a more sinister outcome...

While acting as a locum in London, young Dr. Strangeways is called to treat a woman following a violent attack by her drug-addled husband. A year later, as he begins a new practice in Rochester, he encounters the same woman again; but Mrs. Frood is now in hiding from her husband, who is actively searching for her in the area. And then, abruptly, she disappears into the evening fog, and the items she was carrying begin to turn up near the river—but there is no sign of a body.

Peerless medical jurist Dr. John Thorndyke unravels nine more tales of greed, deceit, theft, and murder—including the sinister meaning behind a pickpocket's discarded plunder; a man terrorized by a vengeful ghost; a young wife accused of poisoning her older husband; a body concealed beneath the floor of a cottage; and the case of an unknown criminal mastermind and a strong room with an impossibly complex lock...

Dr. Thorndyke is at his best, along with his friend Dr. Jervis, as they solve a series of mysteries and murders using logic and up-to-date criminal investigation methods. Trusting in science and the microscope, Dr. Thorndyke and Dr. Jervis travel together to aid the sometimes befuddled police.

In another of Freeman's revolutionary "inverted" detective stories, celebrated forensic investigator Dr. John Thorndyke examines the case of a man found dead in a cave at Margate, and the curious absence of the money lender attempting to make an insurance claim on the dead man's life.

Seven more tales of mystery for the great forensic investigator Dr. John Thorndyke, involving missing jewels, stolen bullion, a disappeared will, an ancient family tale of piracy and betrayal, the wrong hat, curious white footprints, and a body incinerated in a burning hay rick....

As Christmas approaches, Mr. Percival Bland finds his criminal enterprises unraveling. Fortunately, though, his plan of escape requires little beyond a set of human bones and a quantity of shin of beef. But will his scheme deceive the great forensic investigator Dr. John Thorndyke?

The Assyrian Rejuvenator, published in 1907, is one of R. Austin Freeman's novels written under the name Clifford Ashdown and the first to feature well-known protagonist Dr. Thorndyke—a medical-legal forensic investigator. In this tale, inflated claims about the powers of an expensive elixir put private investigator Romney Pringle in pursuit of a ruthless con man. The trickster has reason to believe that his customers won't complain, but Pringle sets out to destroy the crooked business.

When her beloved father is threatened with imprisonment over misappropriated trust funds, Helen Vardon agrees secretly to marry the man who holds her father's fate in his hand, to save both her father and herself from poverty and social disgrace. But the marriage merely precipitates a terrible personal disaster, and a series of events involving death and blackmail, which puts Helen herself under suspicion of murder. Can Dr. Thorndyke unravel the mystery in time to save her?

Introducing Dr. John Thorndyke and his friend Mr. Jervis. Together the sleuths solve through scientific means murders and mysteries, using logic and material evidence and Dr. Thorndyke's indispensable little green case.

When Robin Anstey KC comes upon the beautiful Miss Blake, who has been wounded while courageously attempting to detain a fleeing murderer, he calls upon his long-time legal collaborator Dr. John Thorndyke to investigate the killing. But what at first looks like a mere robbery gone wrong, leaving a scene awash with clues, in fact proves to be far from straightforward. And while trying to untie that knot, Thorndyke also interests himself in the still more complex mystery of Miss Blake's family inheritance, and the cat's eye pendant....

Someone is making very determined attempts to murder inoffensive newly-qualified Doctor Humphrey Jardine. Could this be related to the body which he discovered in Hampstead - and which when he returned with the police had entirely disappeared? Or perhaps the odd circumstances surrounding the death of Septimus Maddock may be the key? Fortunately, celebrated medical jurist Dr. John Thorndyke comes to the aid of his erstwhile student to unravel the mystery....

Dr. Strangeways meets the only woman he has ever really cared for, the hermit-like yet mysterious Angelina Frood, a striking young actress stalked by many demons. Tragedy strikes and the good doctor will do anything to solve the mystery. Following a chance encounter, he begins a correspondence with the famous Dr. Thorndyke, hoping that the medico-legal hybrid, a metaphorical centaur or merman, with a doctor's head and a lawyer's tail, can solve the case.

Overworked locum Dr. Jervis is called to the bedside of a gentleman who refuses to see a doctor except on the condition that the doctor must be told neither his name nor his address. After a strange ride in a closed carriage, Jervis finds his patient apparently suffering the effects of morphine poisoning, and departs with a sense of uneasiness. Anxious to trace the man again, Jervis consults his old friend and colleague, the eminent scientific investigator Dr. John Thorndyke.

Mr. John Bellingham, amateur Egyptologist, abruptly goes missing, leaving behind a strangely vexatious will that cannot be executed without proof or presumption of death. Mr Bellingham's family are left virtually penniless, and under suspicion of his murder. Two years later, young Dr. Paul Berkeley in the course of his duties befriends Mr. Bellingham's younger brother, and the latter's beautiful daughter, and takes their problem to his old friend and mentor the famous medical jurist Dr. John Thorndyke. Can Thorndyke determine what really became of John Bellingham?