Bloomsbury Reader imprint: 830 books

HMS Medusa is an obsolete frigate with an ill-assorted crew and an insecure captain. Why has she been dispatched under secret orders to be a sitting duck in one of the most vital ports of the Mediterranean? Drawn into a close involvement with the Medusa's captain, Gareth Lloyd Jones, ex-adventurer...

First published in 1972, the tale is of an unimportant case. No crime had been committed. For Van der Valk the shady dealings of a prosperous Amsterdam jeweler were more of a private puzzle. Two bullets put to rest that incurable curiosity.

After the death of her notorious husband Van der Valk, Arlette has had to make a new life for herself, with a new city, new job, and now a new man. But being married to a detective for twenty years has left its mark, and the pull of her late husband's work draws her in. Her new husband, Arthur, has...

June 1890, Portugal. A child was born in somewhat curious circumstances. Until the age of sixteen, his life was a safe and happy one. At that point it changed suddenly, almost brutally. Handicapped by a physically freakish appearance, he not only survived but grew up to become a celebrated restaurateur. He...

Stories and adventures from an intimate knowledge of the playground of millionaires and international crooks. With personal introductions to each short story, giving their context and inspiration, this collection is a must-have for Wheatley fans as a glimpse into the writer's crafting process.

The Woman Who Had Imagination, H.E. Bates's fourth volume of stories, first published in 1934 (Jonathan Cape), is a fascinating collection of contrasts. The stories combine elements of realism and poetry, beauty and ugliness, tenderness and irony. Graham Greene, writing in the Spectator, lauded the...

A mysterious millionaire with a penchant for strange pets takes a flyer on a string of pearls and finds that death is the broker. Charlie Chan embarks on an incognito journey across the desert to find the answer to a question – a question posed by a dead parrot who spoke in Chinese . . . Chan...

Why won't you look in the mirror at midnight? What are you afraid of? Your own face? Or the thought that you might see something more than your own face, something dark and terrible and strange... Award-winning horror writer Graham Masterton brings you a collection of fourteen stories as fourteen...

Julia Winward has been missing for nearly a year. When her mutilated body is discovered in the Thames, her brother Josh travels to London from America, determined to find out what happened to her during that lost time. But nothing Josh discovers makes any sense and he soon unearths a terrible secret....

No one lives for very long in the houses they buy from Mr Vane. Neighbours complain of noises that chill the blood, and then deathly silence. Maybe the occupants have moved away, but then again, maybe they haven't. John has joined Mr Vane's estate agency. He thinks houses are for living in...

Bonnie's job – cleaning up after violent homicides – is not for the faint hearted. But for Bonnie it's a business she has built from the ground up; a service that she can be proud of. By day she sells make-up under her rather too amorous boss, a strange but necessary contrast to her gruesome night...

A collection of short stories from the master of spine-chilling terror The secretary seeking a cosmopolitan lifestyle in Europe's most sophisticated city; the architect whose secret life is about to become all too public; the delighted beneficiary of a superb inheritance: all very different...

First published in 1984, this is the story of how when Englishman Eyre Walker, newly arrived in Australia, meets the beautiful Charlotte Lindsay, romance quickly blossoms. But theirs is a relationship with fatal consequences. When a late-night tryst is interrupted by Charlotte's irate father, Walker's...

They were shrewd and uncompromising, the Watsons, and all the arrogance and acumen with which old Tom Watson had built up the family's banking business was there in his children and grandchildren. Their methods were as aggressive as their lifestyle was opulent, and they could stab each other in the...