Black Editions: 227 books

When eighteen-year-old orphan Bertram Leicester loses everything due to a failed investment, he has no choice but to turn to writing for a living. His experiences as a struggling writer in late-Victorian London, his spiritual anxieties, and the relationships that foster his dawning sense of identity all form the basis of Francis Adams's fin de siècle coming of age story.

When he accidentally kills a friend in an argument over a game of cards, Adrian Lancaster is at his wits' end. He seeks refuge in an old house in Hampstead, the home of an aged recluse whose incredible proposition might offer the escape route that Adrian so desperately seeks - but at a terrible price......

First published in 1921, this classic anthology of ghost stories was written by W.J Wintle , whilst he was a lay brother at the abbey on Caldey Island, Wales. Wintle wrote these stories for the entertainment of the children at the abbey's school - but adult readers will find much to enjoy in this...

One night in April, the residents of Sandycroft, Colonel Bernage's country estate, are changed forever when Captain Darvill is found stabbed in the smoking-room. But who was the culprit? Could it be Bernage's niece, who was covertly married to the dead man? Or the Colonel's brother, who has wrestled...

Colonel Mauleverer's sons are being murdered. Each month one of the five young men is found killed with a noose placed grotesquely around the neck after death. With only one son remaining, the Colonel calls upon the services of Dennis Yardley, the private detective, to keep the boy safe. His investigations...

When Captain Nevile is found dead in his rooms, the barrister Ashley Tempest investigates, assisted by private detective Dennis Yardley. All the evidence points to suicide, but the pair are not convinced. Soon their investigations uncover a long-buried family conspiracy.  First published in...

Having narrowly escaped a raft of gambling debts, cad-about-town Captain Dashleigh is sent by a crooked banker to Mostyn Manor, home of wealthy businessman Jonathan Mostyn, there to cheat his way into a share of the Mostyn fortune. Dashleigh's mission is compromised when he unexpectedly falls in love...

H.B. Marriott Watson was a prolific late-Victorian writer of fiction and essays. Diogenes of London (1893) was his first published collection of prose and features a range of decadent writing from playful romance and intricately stylised essays to creepy Gothic chillers. A must for fans of fin de siècle literature.

When jeweller Harley Riddell is framed for the theft of valuable diamonds, he is sentenced to five years penal servitude. Soon, however, his fiancee is leading a frantic investigation to discover the true culprits and bring them to justice. Aided by her loyal father, her plucky aunt, her future brother-in-law...

Latimer Field, humble curate of St Mary's Church in the sleepy English town of Banfield enjoys his work curing souls and preaching sermons. But when his keen sense of justice leads to an altercation with a burglar, he finds himself thrown into a world of crime and villainy! In these twelve tales,...

Julian Edermont lives at the Red House with his ward, Dora Carew and his old friend, Lambert Joad. But things are amiss at the House. First, Edermont suffers a panic attack at church, during the section of the Litany that prays for deliverance from murder and sudden death. Then, he has a terrible...

A murder in the quiet English village of Chippingholt is only the first in a series of trials that will shape the lives of Brenda Scarse and her lover Harold Burton. Who is the mysterious stranger, so closely resembling Brenda's father, who was seen near the scene of the crime? And why does the dead...

The Rev. Sidney Challoner is a pious old-fashioned man who wants only the best for his children. But times are changing – and his children’s destinies belong to a modern age more daring than Challoner’s outlook can encompass. Michael is less interested in Greek iambics than in pursuing his gift...