Showing results by narrator "Cathy Dobson" in All Categories

Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916) is better known by the pen name Saki. He remains hugely popular as a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirised Edwardian society and culture. The Interlopers is the story of two sworn enemies who find themselves trapped and injured under a fallen tree in a forest at night.

Max Carrados is called in to investigate a mysterious ghost which haunts an empty flat in Massingham Mansions in London. Every night gaslights are seen in the apartment, even though the gas has been disconnected. Also water runs in the bath every night, even though the water supply has been turned off. Carrados quickly realises that the detectives on the case are barking up the wrong tree....

Joseph Smith Fletcher (1863-1935) was a British journalist and author. He wrote more than 230 books on a wide variety of subjects, both fiction and nonfiction. He was one of the leading writers of detective fiction in the Victorian golden age of the short story. This collection brings together some of the finest and most diverse examples of Fletcher's genius. 'The Ivory God' is the tale of a failing writer who acquires a strange ivory carving of an Indian god. He becomes convinced that the statue is communicating with him, taking possession of him, even writing through him.

A newly qualified doctor receives a call from his first patient - a mysterious woman who is deeply distressed and who is covered in a thick black veil. She tells him a confusing story about a dying man who she wishes the doctor to visit the following day, although she assures the doctor that the patient will certainly be dead by then. The young doctor agrees that he will make the visit at nine on the next morning...and finds himself on the strangest professional call of his entire life.

Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) was an English author, born in one of the Five Towns which form the background of so many of his witty stories. 'The Fire of London' is an unusual mystery story about a case of fraud and blackmail. Bruce Bowring, a businessman of dubious integrity, has been running what amounts to a Ponzi scheme in the heart of the city of London. At the start of our story, Bowring receives a mysterious telephone call from a stranger, warning him that his house will be burgled that evening....

Robert Barr (1849-1912) was a Scottish-Canadian short story writer and novelist, born in Glasgow, Scotland. 'The Hour-Glass' is a mysterious ghost story. An avid antique collector buys an ancient and defective hourglass from a curiosity shop. When he takes it home and starts to examine it, he is startled by a strange visitor who claims to be the real owner of the hourglass. His story is a very bizarre one.

'A Bracelet at Bruges' is a mystery story about a lost diamond bracelet. Initially there does not appear to be any mystery about the loss. Kitty Sartorius, the famous actress, visiting Bruges with her friend Eve Fincastle, had just passed the valuable trinket to her new acquaintance Madame Lawrence to look at, when the latter accidentally dropped the jewellery into the canal. But despite the best efforts of the Bruges police department to drain the bottom of the canal over several days, the bracelet does not reappear.

The Welsh Triads (Trioedd Ynys Prydein, 'Triads of the Island of Britain') are a group medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and traditional history in the form of wise sayings. The triads are terse statements of three related facts - probably to make them easier to remember. The oldest triads predate Christianity, their origins lost in the dark ages. Yet they show clearly that far from being barbarians, our ancient forefathers lived according to an advanced level of philosophy and ethics.

Seven famous and sensational true crime stories retold by classic crime writers.

Herbert Armstrong was a Welsh solicitor who murdered his wife by administering arsenic. His life was marked by love affairs and dubious business dealings. It is also probable that his hatred of his dull, respectable existence in a tiny rural village was one of the motives for his terrible crime. This story of the crime and trial of Armstrong is told by Edgar Wallace, who reported from the courtroom. On behalf of a newspaper syndicate, Wallace offered the convicted man £5,000 for his confession. The offer was refused.

Edgar Alfred Jepson (1863-1938) was an English author best known for his adventure and detective fiction. He also wrote supernatural and fantasy stories. 'The Battersea Flat Mystery' is the true story of a particularly unusual unsolved murder in the Battersea area of London. A man is found shot on the stairs outside the empty flat below the one where his ex-mistress lives and where his son is visiting for supper. A mysterious stranger is seen running from the scene.

The Cafè of the Broken Heart is situated near the cemetery at Monmartre. When a widow calls by on the last day of the year and asks for a private room to grieve on the third anniversary of the death of her late husband, she is irritated to learn that the room is already occupied. She gets into conversation with the other mourner - a young artist - and discovers that he has a very strange story to tell.

Andrew Lang (1844-1912) was a Scottish poet and novelist who was also a collector of folk and fairy tales. 'The House of Strange Stories' is the tale of an evening after dinner when the various members of a house party take turns to relate a ghost story which they have experienced themselves. The stories become stranger and stranger as the evening goes on.

'The Signal' is the story of two peasants who work as track walkers on the railway, Semyon Ivanov and Vasily Stepanych. Semyon is grateful for his job and the hut and the vegetable patch which goes with it, but Vasily is discontented with his lot and constantly complains, including to his employers. This grumbling irritates the railway officials and eventually the situation escalates, driving Vasily to take terrible revenge on the state railway.

A wonderful collection of 50 phenomenal stories by the world’s great short story writers.

A young novelist is in the process of serialising a racy novel in the Fleet Street Magazine. It tells the story of a Duchess who murders her husband by giving him cheap sherry, in the knowledge that his constitution will not stand such rough liquor. The author is surprised to find a mysterious advertisement in the personal column of The Times which addresses the author of the sherry story and exhorts him to contact a certain firm of solicitors. On making enquiries, the author is invited to a remote stately home to stay with a genuine mysterious duchess who also harbours a guilty secret.

Peter Christen Asbjørnsen (1812-1885) was a Norwegian writer, scholar and collector of traditional folktales. Peter Gynt is the story of a hunter who gets the better of a group of trolls who like to take over peoples' farms.

'The Parrot' is the tale of a newlywed couple. Soon after the marriage, the husband must go away on business, so he gives his wife a parrot to keep her company while he is away. But another man sees the young wife at the window and falls in love with her. He engages the help of the woman who lives downstairs to try to seduce the young wife. But each time the woman is on the point of going with her neighbour, the parrot offers to tell her a story. So enchanting and absorbing are the parrot's tales that the young wife never leaves the house until her husband's return.

'East of the Sun and West of the Moon' is a fairy tale from Norway. A poor family is visited one night by a white bear who promises to make them rich if they will give him their youngest daughter. At first the girl refuses, but over several days she is persuaded to go with the bear. She is carried away on his back to a marvellous castle, where she learns that the bear turns into a prince at night.

'The Curse of the Seven Children' is a fairy tale about a king and queen who already have six sons. When the seventh child is due, the king must travel away. He tells his wife that when the baby is born, she should hang a lance out of the window if it is a boy and a distaff if it is girl. Shortly after this the queen bears a daughter. But a mistake is made, and a lance is hung out of the window. Desperate for a daughter, the king returns and curses his seven sons. When he realises his mistake it is already too late. Only the baby princess can save her brothers....