In these stories of late Victorian England, Raffles is a gentleman thief, and with his friend, Bunny, commits daring burglaries. In THE CRIMINOLOGISTS' CLUB, students of crime invite Raffles and Bunny to dinner, ostensibly to discuss crime in sport. But with his usual insouciance, Raffles senses an opportunity for some amusement. Then, in A TRAP TO CATCH A CRACKSMAN, America's champion heavyweight boxer invents a trap to catch the cleverest cracksman and issues an irresistible challenge to Raffles. And in THE LAST WORD, a chance meeting, with an old and very dear friend, changes the whole course of Bunny's life...

These stories include THE ADVENTURE OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS CLIENT: a young lady appears to be in danger when Holmes is handed a note from Sir James Damery informing him that Baron Gruner is engaged to be married - and Holmes suspects that Gruner murdered his last wife... Then we find that Holmes has retired to the Sussex Downs, in THE ADVENTURE OF THE LION'S MANE. Out walking, he spots Fitzroy McPherson, a keen athlete, who staggers into view and collapses. His last words are 'the lion's mane', and his back bears the marks of someone who has been flogged...

In THE TRAGEDY OF BIRLSTONE, Holmes receives a coded message, from Porlock, 'the weak link in a chain leading to the controlling brain of the underworld' - Professor Moriarty. Holmes and Watson decipher the message as indicating that a man named Douglas, residing at Birlstone, is in danger. Then, assisting Inspector MacDonald of Scotland Yard, Holmes learns that Mr Douglas of Birlstone Manor has been murdered - however, the body belongs to another man. Then we read, in THE SCOWRERS, the intriguing account of the man whose body it should have been...

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES is a series of stories in which the great detective uses his superior deductive powers. In THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE, Holmes finds that an unusually large amount of gold Napoleons are the reason a group of thieves express a keen interest in a particular bank. Whereas, in THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND, a young woman's sister dies suspiciously - her last words: 'it was...the speckled band'. Holmes deduces what the 'speckled band' is and, in his inimitable way, penetrates many other mysterious, strange and sometimes frightening events.

Beautiful young Elinor Carlisle stood serenely in the dock, accused of the murder of Mary Gerrard, her rival in love. The evidence was damning: only Elinor had the motive, the opportunity and the means to administer the fatal poison. Yet, inside the hostile courtroom, one man still presumed Elinor to be innocent until proven guilty: Hercule Poirot was all that stood between her and the gallows...

The beautiful bronzed body of Arlena Stuart lay face down on the beach. But strangely, there was no sun and Arlena was not sun-bathing...she had been strangled. Ever since Arlena's arrival the air had been thick with sexual tension. Each of the guests had a motive to kill her, including Arlena's husband, but Hercule Poirot suspects that this apparent 'crime of passion' conceals something much more evil.

Beautiful Caroline Crale was convicted of poisoning her husband - but, just like the nursery rhyme, there were five other 'little pigs' who could have done it: Philip Blake (the stockbroker) who went to market; Meredith Blake (the amateur herbalist) who stayed at home; Elsa Greer (the divorcee) who had her roast beef; Cecilia Williams (the devoted governess) who had none; and Angela Warren (the disfigured sister) who cried all the way home. Sixteen years later, Caroline's daughter is determined to prove her mother's innocence, and Poirot just can't get that nursery rhyme out of his mind...

A far-from-warm welcome greets Hercule Poirot as he arrives for lunch at Lucy Angkatell's country house. A man lies dying by the swimming pool, his blood dripping into the water - and his wife stands over him, holding a revolver. As Poirot investigates, he begins to realise that beneath the respectable surface lies a tangle of family secrets, and everyone becomes a suspect.

In appearance Hercule Poirot hardly resembled an ancient Greek hero. Yet - reasoned the detective - like Hercules he had been responsible for ridding society of some of its most unpleasant monsters. So, in the period leading up to his retirement, Poirot made up his mind to accept just twelve more cases: his self-imposed 'Labours'. Each would go down in the annals of crime as an heroic feat of deduction.

A few weeks after marrying an attractive young widow, Gordon Cloade is tragically killed by a bomb blast in the London Blitz. Overnight, his wife Rosaleen finds herself in sole possession of the Cloade family fortune. Shortly afterwards, Hercule Poirot receives a visit from the dead man's sister-in-law, who claims she has been warned by 'spirits' that Rosaleen's first husband is still alive. Poirot has his suspicions when he is asked to find a missing person, guided only by the spirit world. Yet what mystifies Poirot most is the woman's true motive for approaching him...

Mrs McGinty dies from a brutal blow to the back of her head. Suspicion falls immediately on her shifty lodger, James Bentley, whose clothes reveal traces of the victim's blood and hair. Yet something is amiss: Bentley simply doesn't seem like a murderer! Could the answer lie in an article clipped from a newspaper just days before the death? With a desperate killer still free, Hercule Poirot will have to stay alive long enough to find out...

When Cora is savagely murdered with a hatchet, the extraordinary remark she made the previous day at her brother Richard's funeral suddenly takes on a chilling significance. At the reading of Richard's will, Cora was clearly heard to say: 'It's been hushed up very nicely, hasn't it?...But he WAS murdered, wasn't he?' In desperation, the family solicitor turns to Hercule Poirot to unravel the mystery...

Hercule Poirot doesn't need all his detective skills to realise something is troubling his secretary, Miss Lemon - she has made three mistakes in a simple letter. It seems an outbreak of kleptomania at the student hostel in which her sister works is distracting his usually efficient assistant. Deciding that desperate times call for desperate measures, the great detective agrees to investigate. Unknown to Poirot, however, desperation is a motive he shares with a killer...

Sir George and Lady Stubbs, the hosts of a village fete, hit upon the novel idea of staging a mock murder mystery. In good faith, Ariadne Oliver, the well-known crime writer, agrees to organize their murder hunt. Despite weeks of meticulous planning, Ariadne senses that something untoward is about to happen. Concerned, she summons her friend Hercule Poirot to investigate. She just can't tell him what...

Late one night, two teachers investigate a mysterious flashing light in the sports pavilion, whilst the rest of the school sleeps. There, among the lacrosse sticks, they stumble upon the body of the unpopular games mistress - shot through the heart from point-blank range. The school is thrown into chaos when the 'cat' strikes again. Unfortunately, schoolgirl Julia Upjohn knows too much. In particular, she knows that without Hercule Poirot's help, she will be the next victim...

An English country house at Christmas time should be the perfect place to get away from it all - but nothing is ever simple for Hercule Poirot, who finds a sinister warning on his pillow to avoid the plum pudding... This and four other baffling cases engage the 'little grey cells' of the great detective: the discovery of a corpse in a chest...an overheard quarrel that leads to murder...the strange case of a dead man's eating habits...and the puzzle of a victim who dreams of his own suicide.

Stenographer Sheila Webb expects to find a Miss Pebmarsh waiting for her services at 19, Wilbraham Crescent. Instead, she finds a room containing an unusual number of clocks - and the body of a man... When Miss Pebmarsh denies sending for her in the first place and declares that of the six clocks found, only two belong to her, it's clear they are going to need a very good detective. 'This crime is so complicated that it must be quite simple,' declares Hercule Poirot. But there's a murderer on the loose, and time is ticking away...

Three young women share a London flat. The first is a coolly efficient secretary. The second is an artist. The third interrupts Hercule Poirot's breakfast of BRIOCHE and CHOCOLAT confessing that she may be a murderer - and then promptly disappears. Slowly, Poirot learns of the rumour surrounding the mysterious third girl, her family - and her disappearance. Yet hard evidence is needed before the great detective can pronounce her guilty, innocent or insane...

At a Hallowe'en party, Joyce - a hostile thirteen-year-old - boasts that she once witnessed a murder. When no one believes her, she storms off home. But within hours her body is found, still in the house, drowned in an apple-bobbing tub. The next day, Hercule Poirot is called in to investigate. But first he must establish whether he is looking for a murderer or a double-murderer...

Hercule Poirot stood on the cliff-top. Here, many years earlier, there had been a fatal accident. This was followed by the grisly discovery of two bodies - a husband and wife - shot dead. But who had killed whom? Was it a suicide pact? A crime of passion? Or cold-blooded murder? Poirot delves back into the past and discovers that 'old sins leave long shadows'.

Hercule Poirot delighted in telling people that he was probably the best detective in the world. So turning back the clock to trace eighteen of the cases which helped establish his professional reputation was always going to be a fascinating experience. With his career still in its formative years, the panache with which Hercule Poirot could solve even the most puzzling mystery is obvious. Chronicled by his friend Captain Hastings, these eighteen early cases - from theft and robbery to kidnapping and murder - were all guaranteed to test Poirot's soon-to-be-famous 'little grey cells' to their absolute limit.

The crime-fighting careers of Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings have come full circle - they are back once again in the rambling country house where they solved their first murder together. Both Poirot and Styles Court have seen better days - but despite being crippled with arthritis, there is nothing wrong with the great detective's 'little grey cells'. However, when Poirot brands one of the seemingly harmless guests a five-times murderer, some people have their doubts. But Poirot alone knows he must prevent a sixth murder before the curtain falls...

In London a dense, yellow fog swirls through the streets. At 221B Baker Street, Sherlock Holmes sits in a cocaine-induced haze, deeply melancholic. His mood lifts when a young woman, Mary Morstan, visits regarding her father who had vanished ten years before. Four years later she began receiving a large, lustrous pearl every year. Now she has had an invitation to meet her unknown benefactor. She asks Holmes and Watson to accompany her, little knowing that others stalk London's fog-enshrouded streets: a one-legged ruffian with revenge on his mind, and his companion who places no value on human life...

Recently, there had been some strange goings on at Styles St Mary. Evelyn, constant companion to old Mrs Inglethorp, had stormed out of the house muttering something about 'a lot of sharks'. And with her, something indefinable had gone from the atmosphere. Her presence had spelt security; now the air seemed rife with suspicion and impending evil. A shattered coffee-cup, a splash of candle grease, a bed of begonias - all Poirot required to display his now legendary powers of detection...