Martin Edwards Libri

Blurb:Running the length and breadth of the British Isles, this illustrated map and guide plots 51 real-life locations from books and stories from the Golden Age Of Detective Fiction - the period roughly between the end of the first world war and the end of the second. The titans of the genre are represented here - Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Dorothy L Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Anthony Berkeley - along with many less heralded authors.This Deadly Isle charts corpses countrywide, from the Home Counties to the Hebrides, all painstakingly documented in a map redolent of the era. Written and researched by crime novelist, critic and historian Martin Edwards, This Deadly Isle reveals the variety of settings into which the genre was adapted and the vast number of stories written, many of them still little known.

The main aim of detective stories is to entertain, but the best cast a light on human behaviour, and display both literary ambition and accomplishment. Even unpretentious detective stories, written for unashamedly commercial reasons, can give us clues to the past, and give us insight into a long- vanished world that, for all its imperfections, continues to fascinate. This book, written by award-winning crime writer and president of the Detection Club, Martin Edwards, serves as a companion to the British Library's internationally acclaimed series of Crime Classics.

The Caribbean Out-Islands are a long way out, just over the horizon. Christopher Columbus made landfall here. Atlantis is said to lie beneath the waves. The Out-Islands have been safe-havens for pirates, escaped slaves and the super-rich. Although these islands are mostly uninhabited today, they carry names like Paradise Island, Peace and Plenty Island and Eleuthera Island. When the ice-caps melt they will disappear forever. Martin Edwards lived close to the Out-Islands for a number of years. Although he never found the time to visit them, they are still there, a long way out, but just over the wide horizon. The Out-Islands is a book about Paradise and its discontents, about homesickness and utopian longing, about travellers and tourists, surfers, swimmers and drowned sailors.

"Behind the stage lights and word-perfect soliloquies, sinister secrets are lurking in the wings. The mysteries in this collection reveal the dark side to theatre and performing arts: a world of backstage dealings, where unscrupulous actors risk everything to land a starring role, costumed figures lead to mistaken identities, and on-stage deaths begin to look a little too convincing. . . This expertly curated thespian anthology features fourteen stories from giants of the classic crime genre such as Dorothy L. Sayers, Julian Symons and Ngaio Marsh, as well as firm favourites from the British Library Crime Classics series: Anthony Wynne, Christianna Brand, Bernard J. Farmer and many more. Mysteries abound when a player's fate hangs on a single performance, and opening night may very well be their last"-- Provided by publisher

For Martin Edwards - Royal Marine, Special Forces survivor, soldier of fortune, thwarter of terrorists and much much more besides - life has been one big world of trouble.

Stephen Whyatt, an uneasy man who has been taping his wife's telephone conversations with her lover, comes to Harry Devlin's law office wanting information about getting a divorce. But when Harry takes him on, he gets more than he bargained for. Becky's boyfriend's voice on the tapes is oddly familiar, and as he listens Harry begins to fear that more is at stake than adultery. Is it part of the story that Stephen's sinister brother is scheming to sell the family business - which seems to mean more to Stephen than his marriage does? When adultery slides frighteningly toward a case of murder, a trespasser makes a shocking discovery: three dead bodies in a converted church. Events gather speed, and the police conclude it's a case of suicide and double murder. But Harry thinks they have it wrong - and he must unmask the real killer before time runs out.

Now revised and expanded for its first paperback publication, The Life of Crime was the winner of four major prizes for the best critical/biographical book related to crime fiction: the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity and H.R.F. Keating Awards; and was shortlisted for both the Agatha and Gold Dagger Awards

With Martin Edwards as librarian and guide, delve into an irresistible stack of bibliomysteries, perfect for every booklover and armchair sleuth, featuring much-loved Golden Age detectives Nigel Strangeways, Philip Trent, Detective Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn, and others. But readers should be warned that the most riveting tales often conceal the deadliest of secrets... "If much of the action is set in a bookshop or a library, it is a bibliomystery, just as it is if a major character is a bookseller or a librarian." --Otto Penzler A bookish puzzle threatens an eagerly awaited inheritance; a submission to a publisher recounts a murder that seems increasingly to be a work of nonfiction; an irate novelist puts a grisly end to the source of his writer's block. There is no better hiding place for clues--or red herrings--than inside the pages of a book. But in this world of resentful ghost writers, indiscreet playwrights, and unscrupulous book collectors, literary prowess is often a prologue to disaster.