Books in Pan Classic Crime series

The first detective novel, with Inspector Bucket the prototype of the literary detective—Bleak House is both a literary classic and a classic of crime The case of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce—a dispute over a vast fortune left by a miser who died intestate—has occupied the Court of Chancery for years. When Lady Dedlock faints upon recognizing the handwriting in one of the documents pertaining to the case, her sinister lawyer, Tulkinghorn, immediately suspects a hidden secret, and an opportunity for blackmail—but he is playing a dangerous game, and is soon found dead: a victim of murder. It is down to Detective Inspector Bucket to solve the mystery. Dickens was fascinated by the sensational crime cases of his day. His preoccupations—with crime and the legal system, with social injustice—are dramatically evident in Bleak House: at once a classic crime novel and a classic of world literature.

The painter John Lafcadio was brilliantly talented and, it appears, a bit psychic: Certain that his reputation would improve dramatically after his death, he left several paintings with his agent, along with the instruction that the widowed Mme. Lafcadio should wait a suitable interval and then begin doling out the work to a newly ravenous public, selling the paintings at the rate of one per year. Albert Campion, an old friend of the widow's, is among the guests at Lafcadio's fourth such posthumous vernissage. The event is a success for all but one of attendees -- a young artist who is brutally murdered while others are sipping champagne. Shortly thereafter the wife of another painter in the Lafcadios' circle is poisoned, and Campion begins asking questions -- a dangerous habit with a murderer around.

"Where was the detective story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it?" —Arthur Conan Doyle In The Murders in the Rue Morgue, all of Paris is in shock following the ghastly murder of two women—but with all witnesses claiming to have heard the suspect speak a different language, the police are stumped. When Dupin finds a suspicious hair at the crime scene, and places an advert in the newspaper asking if anyone has lost an "Ourang-Outang," things take an unexpected turn. In The Mystery of Marie Roget, Dupin and his sidekick undertake to solve the murder of the beautiful young woman who works in a perfume shop, whose body is found floating in the Seine. The Purloined Letter, the final story, finds Dupin engaged on a matter of national importance: a highly compromising letter has been pilfered from the Queen’s private drawing room. The police know who the unscrupulous culprit is, but they can not find the letter, and therefore are unable to pin the crime on him. It it is up to Dupin to solve the case—which he does, with characteristic flair. A master of rational deduction and intellectual insight, and protoype for Holmes and Poirot, Dupin sees things for what they are, rather than what they appear to be.

"The first real thriller." —Ken Follett While on a duck-hunting holiday sailing in the Frisian Isles, Carruthers and his friend Davies become suspicious of German naval activity off the North Sea Coast. The pair decide to investigate, are soon embroiled in a world of suspense and intrigue, and set about foiling nothing less than a plot to invade England. Initially published in 1903, this thriller proved a prescient vision of the Anglo-German conflict that was to culminate in World War I. This adventure is now regarded as the first—and one of the best—spy novels ever written, inspiring such later masters of the genre as John Buchan, Ian Fleming, and John le Carré.