‘Lyle Canvey, metallurgy, Arthur Stranack, mechanics, Rupert Eddis, chemistry, detested one another. This deep dislike was temperamental, admitted by each to be unjustified. They had not even the excuse of jealousy?"each was proud of the others?™ achievements.?™ Three scientists who share a lock-keeper?™s house are all suspects in a murder. They work and live together yet they detest one another, but all detest their employer. It proves difficult to ascertain who is telling the truth and who is not. The police hear the same story from each man, but surely only one must be guilty of the murder, one must be aiding and abetting, and one must be innocent.

Readers of our Macabre and Ghost Stories MEGAPACK™ ebook series will surely enjoy this volume, which assembles the complete contents of two early British horror anthologies, Uncanny Stories (1916) and More Uncanny Stories (1918) both of which were assembled from tales originally published in Pearson’s Novel Magazine. Most of the contributors are little known today, but a couple—including Roy Vickers—went on to have distinguished careers in the mystery field.

Colonel Crisp is summoned to Watlington Lodge by a mysterious caller to investigate the murder of Lord Watlington. Lord Watlington, a self-made millionaire, elevated into the Peerage, decided that the woman his nephew -- and sole heir -- plans to marry is not a suitable mate. But it is this decision that eventually sets the stage for his death. When he arrives at Watlington Lodge, the Colonel encounters bewildering clues in his search for the killer . . . Roy Vickers, a master of characterization and sparkling dialogue, is at his best in this fast-moving tale of intrigue.

It could happen in any normal English town . . . A young wife complains of her husband?™s fussy little habits; but trying to mend his ways leads to the gallows . . . A businessman with the best intentions befriends an elderly old woman, with no thought of robbing her ?" let alone killing her . . . A kind-hearted young man kisses a woman out of chivalry, leading to the destruction of two lives . . . And a lonely old woman learns a lesson of how to deal with her enemies from the actions of her only friend ?" a cat . . . Praise for Roy Vickers?™ short story collections ‘Roy Vickers is one of the masters of the detective short story . . . he has produced stories that rank with the finest contemporary crime writing?™ New York Times ‘The beauty of these meticulous tales lies in their similarity to real life crime. Each story, you feel, could have happened?™ Dublin Evening Herald

Here in one volume are ten of the best of Roy Vickers celebrated Department of Dead Ends detective stories. These are detective stories with a difference; the 'inverted' type of detective story. Knowing from the start who the murderer is, the reader is presented with the motive, the workings of the criminal's mind, the crime itself, and all the clues. The 'surprise' in Mr Vickers's stories is, of course, supplied by the way in which his murderers are detected; and this is where the Department of Dead Ends comes in – that repository of files which were never completed, of investigations without a clue and clues which led nowhere. From time to time, quite illogically, Inspector Rason finds a connection between happenings in the outside world and the objects in his Scotland Yard museum, a rubber trumpet, maybe, or a bunch of red carnations. Then events move inexorably to their appointed end. 'One of the half-dozen successful books of...