Roger Sheringham Cases

The renowned British crime writer's classic locked-room Golden Age mystery that introduced amateur sleuth Roger Sheringham. A party at Layton Court, the country house of Victor Stanworth, is disrupted when the host is found shot through the forehead in his own library, a suicide as far as the police are concerned. After all, the gun is found in his hand, a note has been left, and the room is locked from the inside. But one of the guests, author Roger Sheringham, has his doubts. The bullet wound is not positioned where it could have been easily self-inflicted. With a house full of partygoers and servants, suspects abound. It will take Sheringham's sharp wit and fearless investigating to deduce who brought the festivities to a fatal end. The founder of the Detection Club in London, along with Agatha Christie and other writers, Anthony Berkeley wrote numerous novels, sometimes using the pseudonyms Francis Iles and A. Monmouth Platts. The Layton Court Mystery is his first book in the Roger Sheringham Cases, which includes The Poisoned Chocolates Case and The Silk Stocking Murders, among other titles.

'The Layton Court Mystery'' by Anthony Berkeley is a classic Golden Age locked-room mystery, introducing amateur sleuth Roger Sheringham, about the apparent suicide of wealthy Victor Stanworth at his country estate, Layton Court, which Sheringham investigates, uncovering hidden secrets among the party guests and proving it's a cleverly disguised murder, much to the police's confusion.

Roger Sheringham detects a snag in a series of suspected suicides in this classic mystery from "the most brilliant of Agatha Christie's contemporaries" (Publishers Weekly).   The founder of the Detection Club-whose members included Agatha Christie, Hugh Walpole, and Dorothy L. Sayers among others-Anthony Berkeley was one of the luminaries of mystery fiction's Golden Age. His creation of gentleman sleuth Roger Sheringham helped usher in a new era of psychological detection.   In The Silk Stocking Murders, Sheringham is hard at work as the Daily Courier's resident criminological expert, when he receives a letter from a vicar whose daughter is missing in London. Unable to resist helping the desperate man, he discovers that the chorus girl hanged herself with her own stocking. When two copycat suicides occur, including that of a society beauty, Sheringham looks beyond the obvious to uncover the diabolical plan of a homicidal maniac . . .   Praise for the writing of Anthony Berkeley   "Detection and crime at its wittiest-all Berkeley's stories are amusing, intriguing, and he is a master of the final twist." -Agatha Christie   "There never was another writer of detective stories who managed to make his red herrings smell so good." -The Observer   "Anthony Berkeley is the supreme master not of the 'twist' but of the 'double-twist.'" -The Sunday Times

First published in 1928, public domain in the US and Canada. A Roger Sheringham mystery from Golden Age author Anthony Berkeley When the daughter of a country parson goes missing in London, Roger Sheringham receives a letter from her father pleading for help. As the amateur sleuth investigates, he discovers that the girl is already dead, found hanging from a door by her own silk stocking. It is presumed suicide, but when more young women are found dead in the same manner, questions arise. Was it merely copycat suicide, or will the case lead Sheringham into a maze of murder?

From "a master of the fair-play puzzle tales," amateur detectives take turns solving the murder of a woman by a box of candy gifted by her hapless husband (Publishers Weekly).   Graham and Joan Bendix have succeeded in making the eighth wonder of the modern world, a happy marriage. So when the devoted husband brings home a box of chocolates to his beloved wife and she dies hours later, no one is sorrier or sadder than he is.   It's a murder that has Scotland Yard stumped, making it the perfect crime for Robert Sheringham to bring to his Crime Circle, a group of discerning amateur sleuths eager to exercise their crime solving skills on a real case. As each member of the club proposes a solution, the pieces of this mystery puzzle are illuminated, until the final thrilling conclusion.   "All Berkeley's stories are amusing, intriguing and he is a master of the final twist." -Agatha Christie

First published in 1929 and set in 1920s London in which a group of armchair detectives, who have founded the "Crimes Circle", formulate theories on a recent murder case Scotland Yard has been unable to solve. Each of the six members, including their president, Berkeley's amateur sleuth Roger Sheringham, arrives at an altogether different solution as to the motive and the identity of the perpetrator, and also applies different methods of detection (basically deductive or inductive or a combination of both). Completely devoid of brutality but containing a lot of subtle, tongue-in-cheek humour instead, “The Poisoned Chocolates Case” is one of the classic whodunnits of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. As at least six plausible explanations of what really happened are put forward one after the other, the reader, just like the members of the Crimes Circle themselves, is kept guessing right up to the final pages of the book.

"{Anthony Berkeley's} tale of petty rivalries, affairs, and revenge plots is so deliciously entertaining. {Murder in the Basement is} a pioneering example of the "whowasdunin" that, like that corpse in the basement, richly deserves exhumation."- Kirkus Reviews When two newlyweds discover that a corpse has been buried in the basement of their new home, a grueling case begins to trace the identity of the victim. With all avenues of investigation approaching exhaustion, a tenuous piece of evidence offers a chance for Chief Inspector Moresby and leads him to the amateur sleuth Roger Sheringham, who has recently been providing cover work in a school south of London. Desperate for evidence of any kind in the basement case, Moresby begins to sift through the manuscript of a satirical novel Sheringham has been writing about his colleagues at the school, convinced that amongst the colorful cast of teachers hides the victim-and perhaps their murderer. A novel pairing dark humor and intelligent detection work, this 1932 mystery is an example of a celebrated Golden Age author's most inventive work. This edition includes an introduction by CWA Diamond Dagger Award–winning author Martin Edwards.

"A witty and tricky plot and a genuinely shocking conclusion."-Publishers Weekly, Starred Review A mystery dinner theater party thrown by local author with a taste "for rather gruesome humor" requires guests come dressed as infamous killers-Jack the Ripper, Dr. Crippen, and the like. Whatever could go wrong? Know-it-all amateur criminologist Roger Sheringham settles in for an evening of beer, small talk, and analyzing his companions. Ena Stratton, the host's sister-in-law, catches his attention. Her erratic mood swings and loud, gossipy talk is winning her more than a few enemies amongst the guests. When she's found dead, it's clear that one of the partygoers helped her to an early grave. Noticing a key detail that could implicate a friend in the crime, Sheringham decides to meddle with the scene and unwittingly makes himself a suspect. Tightly paced and cleverly defying the conventions of the classic detective story, Anthony Berkeley's dark sense of humor and taste for the macabre drive this 1933 classic. This edition includes an introduction by CWA Diamond Dagger and Edgar ® Award-winning author Martin Edwards.