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...

Ruben Hornby ist verzweifelt: Der Abdruck seines Daumens, den man am Tatort findet, belastet ihn schwer. Und doch schwört der junge Mann, unschuldig zu sein. Für Scotland Yard aber liegt der Fall buchstäblich auf der Hand: Hornby stahl die Diamanten aus dem Safe seines Onkels, verletzte sich in einem Moment der Unachtsamkeit und hinterließ dabei unfreiwillig den Daumenabdruck, der den Täter zweifelsfrei identifiziert. Hornby greift in seiner Not nach einem letzten Strohhalm: Dr. John Evelyn Thorndyke.

Vesper Harrow verlässt London, um einige Tage im Ferienhaus ihrer Eltern am Meer zu verbringen. Doch in Hensgrove verliert sich jede Spur der Neunzehnjährigen. Dr. Thorndyke macht sich auf den. Weg, das ungewisse Schicksal des Mädchens aufzuklären. Jäh muss er begreifen, dass er in diesem Fall mit den herkömmlichen Methoden nicht weiterkommt - denn sein unsichtbarer Gegner. verwandelt Hensgrove und das abgelegene New Inn 31 in eine lebendige Hölle. Einzig die mysteriöse Berenice scheint die Wahrheit zu kennen, doch auch sie hütet ein blutiges Geheimnis...

Kairo, 23. August 1902: Professor Charles Bellingham verschwindet spurlos aus dem Haus seines Cousins. Zwei Jahre später soll Bellingham offiziell für tot erklärt werden, damit sein letzter Wille vollstreckt werden kann. Doch Bellinghams Tochter Charlotte hat kein Interesse daran, ihr rechtmäßiges Erbe anzutreten. Ihr brennt nur eines auf der Seele: Was ist mit ihrem Vater geschehen? - Da erfährt Sie von Dr. John Evelyn Thorndyke und bittet ihn um Hilfe. Gemeinsam mit Christopher Jervis begibt Dr. Thorndyke sich auf Spurensuche ins Nildelta.

Helen Vardon gesteht, die Schuld am Tod ihres Mannes auf sich geladen zu haben. Für Scotland Yard ist der Fall eindeutig: Die grausame Frau machte ihrem Mann das Leben zur Ehe-Hölle und trieb ihn mit allen Mitteln suggestiven Psycho-Terrors in den Selbstmord. Einzig Dr. Thorndyke, der mit diesem Fall aus medizinischer Sicht betraut wird, hegt Zweifel am Wahrheitsgehalt dieses Geständnisses.

Dr. Letizia Jardine gerät ins Visier eines Unbekannten. Dieser scheint fest dazu entschlossen, sein blutiges Werk an der jungen Medizinerin zu vollenden. Als die Schlinge des Fremden sich immer enger um Dr. Jardine zusammenzieht, gibt es nur noch einen Mann, der ihr helfen kann: Dr. John Evelyn Thorndyke. Gemeinsam mit seinem Freund und Kollegen Dr. Christopher Jervis nimmt Thorndyke die Ermittlungen auf, um Letizia Jardine zu retten. Schnell steht für Thorndyke fest, dass die Frau ein Geheimnis hütet, das dem Unbekannten zum Verhängnis werden könnte. Aber noch schweigt die stumme Zeugin.

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....