Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories, Volume 1


Read by LibriVox Volunteers

(4 stars; 54 reviews)

In the six volumes of the Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories, Julian Hawthorne presents us thrilling and mysterious short stories from all corners of the world. Some of the stories appeared in this collection for the first time translated into English, and many of them come from unexpected sources, such as the letters of Pliny the Younger, or a Tibetan manuscript. In the first volume, we find stories written by American authors. (Summary by Leni) (10 hr 55 min)

Chapters

Introduction 23:52 Read by Jim Jacobson
By the Waters of Paradise, part 1 21:01 Read by Jim Jacobson
By the Waters of Paradise, part 2 37:06 Read by Jim Jacobson
The Shadow on the Wall, part 1 18:10 Read by Ernst Schnell
The Shadow on the Wall, part 2 16:16 Read by Joyce Martin
The Corpus Delicti, part 1 35:34 Read by Sheri Elston
The Corpus Delicti, part 2 35:59 Read by Sheri Elston
An Heiress from Redhorse 17:07 Read by Katie Riley
The Man and the Snake 18:08 Read by Bill Cissna
The Oblong Box 28:58 Read by Linda Ferguson
The Gold Bug, part 1 46:36 Read by Katie Riley
The Gold Bug, part 2 50:19 Read by Katie Riley
Wolfert Webber, or Golden Dreams, part 1 25:16 Read by Eve Yarroll
Wolfert Webber, or Golden Dreams, part 2 30:05 Read by Bill Cissna
Adventure of the Black Fisherman, part 1 32:42 Read by KRAVE-llc
Adventure of the Black Fisherman, part 2 31:00 Read by KRAVE-llc
Wieland's Madness, part 1 34:17 Read by Bill Cissna
Wieland's Madness, part 2 36:04 Read by Bill Cissna
Wieland's Madness, part 3 32:56 Read by Jersey City Frankie
Wieland's Madness, part 4 46:39 Read by Bill Cissna
Wieland's Madness, part 5 36:56 Read by Kevin Vinck

Reviews

Fell short of my hopes


(3 stars)

This collection fell short of my expectations. This volume focused on American authors of detective and mystery stories, but the stories in most cases were just strange or eerie, with a few obvious exceptions. However, if you're looking for actual "detective" stories, this is not the volume for you. I'm going to try further volumes (there are six total), which focus on authors from different parts of the world. Hopefully the editor will stumble upon some actual mystery and detective stories.

What the hell is this?


(1 stars)

Not all are really mystery nor detective stories. None are the best stories in any category from any region. After many I wondered "Did the story really just end or did I miss something" & then went over the story again. The answer was always that the story did end & should never have started in the 1st place. At best I can say that out of all of them a couple of stories were fair.

Fell short of my hopes


(3 stars)

This collection fell short of my expectations. This volume focused on American authors of detective and mystery stories, but the stories in most cases were just strange or eerie, with a few obvious exceptions. However, if you're looking for actual "detective" stories, this is not the volume for you. (Where the heck is Anna Katherine Green, often referred to as the "mother of the American detective story"?!) I'm going to try further volumes (there are six total), which focus on authors from different parts of the world. Hopefully the editor will stumble upon some actual mystery and detective stories.


(5 stars)

I enjoyed all of the stories and readers.