Library of Congress Crime Classics

The Library of Congress Crime Classics series features some of the finest American crime writing from the 1860s to the 1960s.

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    To Catch a Thief Alfred Hitchcock adapted travel-writer David Dodge’s book, set on the gorgeous French Riviera, into a charming and highly acclaimed 1955 film, starring Cary Grant and the radiant Grace Kelly. Reading Dodge’s fast-paced prose, it’s clear why Hitchcock and moviegoers were so enthralled with this story of cat and mouse.
    • Contributor: David Dodge (author), Leslie S. Klinger (editor)
    • Publication Date: April 1, 2025
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    V as in Victim Originally published in 1945, this was the first crime novel to feature ordinary cops as the main characters, launching the subgenre known as “police procedurals” and earning Lawrence Treat an important place in the history of mysteries.
    • Contributor: Lawrence Treat (author), Leslie S. Klinger (editor)
    • Publication Date: December 3, 2024
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    In the Fog It’s easy to become lost in the treacherous London fog… This atmospheric mystery is a clever story-within-a-story with a twist, wherein four members of an exclusive London Gentleman’s Club take turns weaving a tale of a double murder which allegedly occurred the prior, foggy evening.
    • Contributor: Richard Harding Davis (author), Leslie S. Klinger (editor)
    • Publication Date: March 5, 2024
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    The “Canary” Murder Case In this 1927 bestseller, nightclub singer Margaret Odell, nicknamed “The Canary,” has been found murdered in her apartment. Her death appears to be the result of a robbery gone wrong. But no one saw anyone suspicious in her building, and the only unwatched entrance to the apartment building was bolted from the inside.
    • Contributor: S. S. Van Dine (author), Leslie S. Klinger (editor)
    • Publication Date: September 26, 2023
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    The Thinking Machine This short story collection features Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen—a brilliant but abrasive scientist nicknamed “The Thinking Machine,” who proves time and again that any puzzle can be solved by the application of logic. With these stories, Jacques Futrelle established himself as a promising mystery writer, only to die aboard the Titanic.
    • Contributor: Jacques Futrelle (author), Leslie S. Klinger (editor)
    • Publication Date: June 6, 2023
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    A Gentle Murderer Hailed by critic Anthony Boucher as “one of the best detective stories of modern times,” this classic tale by Grand Master Dorothy Salisbury Davis combines suspense and psychological insight as a priest and a police detective both race to find a self-confessed murderer before he is compelled to kill again.
    • Contributor: Dorothy Salisbury Davis (author), Leslie S. Klinger (editor)
    • Publication Date: March 7, 2023
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    The Master of Mysteries This collection of 24 stories offers an early twentieth-century mystical twist on the classic consulting detective genre. With Astro, author Gelett Burgess gives us a detective just as observant and brilliant as Sherlock Holmes—but with feelings. Hailed as a cornerstone of mystery short fiction, this anthology brims with charm and wit.
    • Contributor: Gelett Burgess (author), Leslie S. Klinger (editor)
    • Publication Date: January 3, 2023
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    Room to Swing When Toussaint Moore is hired by a reality television show to follow an accused criminal, the gig goes south; the man is murdered and Moore is framed. Fleeing to the dead man’s hometown in Ohio to search for clues, Moore encounters racism before returning home to trap the real killer in this Edgar Award-winning novel.
    • Contributor: Ed Lacy (author), Leslie S. Klinger (editor)
    • Publication Date: October 4, 2022
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    Average Jones Since graduating college, Average Jones has specialized in life, thanks to his uncle’s bequest. Already bored and needing a hobby, a friend suggests that he become an “Ad-Visor”—someone who investigates classified ads on behalf of clients to root out swindlers. In the process of investigating bizarre advertisements, he stumbles into solving actual crimes.
    • Contributor: Samuel Hopkins Adams (author), Leslie S. Klinger (editor)
    • Publication Date: June 7, 2022
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    The Conjure-Man Dies This groundbreaking mystery is the first novel to feature a Black detective and all Black characters. After African conjure-man N’Gana Frimbo is discovered bludgeoned in his consultation room, police detective Perry Dart and physician Dr. Archer team up to solve the baffling mystery, as locals Bubber Brown and Jinx Jenkins undertake their own investigations.
    • Contributor: Rudolph Fisher (author), Leslie S. Klinger (editor)
    • Publication Date: April 1, 2022
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    The Metropolitan Opera Murders The backstage drama at the Metropolitan Opera often rivals the onstage performances, but generally doesn’t prove fatal. Not so for prompter Rudolf Salz, who chose a most inopportune moment during Wagner’s Die Walküre to die of strychnine poisoning—directly in view of the opera’s star, Elsa Vaughn. Not surprisingly, she misses a note or two.
    • Contributor: Helen Traubel (author), Leslie S. Klinger (editor)
    • Publication Date: February 1, 2022
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    Jim Hanvey, Detective Jim Hanvey was Octavus Roy Cohen’s third detective creation. Cohen’s expert use of dialogue and slang of the day imbues his characters with quirky charm and humor—especially the humble, respectful, likable detective himself. Readers, like the criminals in these tales, will underestimate Jim Hanvey at their own peril.
    • Contributor: Octavus Roy Cohen (author), Leslie S. Klinger (editor)
    • Publication Date: August 10, 2021
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    The Dead Letter When Henry Moreland is found dead, Richard Redfield vows to bring Henry’s killer to justice. After suspicion turns to him, he leaves to work in the Dead Letter Office in Washington, DC. Then a mysterious letter from the past arrives, and a new hunt begins. This 1860s tale is the first full-length American detective novel.
    • Contributor: Seeley Regester (author), Leslie S. Klinger (editor)
    • Publication Date: June 15, 2021
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    The Silent Bullet Readers of classic crime fiction will delight in this collection of short stories featuring Craig Kennedy, a university professor who uses science to help catch criminals. Like Sherlock Holmes, with whom he is often compared, Kennedy applies his impressive knowledge—and the wide array of his laboratory instruments—to gather evidence and solve cases.
    • Contributor: Arthur B. Reeve (author), Leslie S. Klinger (editor)
    • Publication Date: April 6, 2021
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    Last Seen Wearing Lowell Mitchell has a perfectly ordinary day at her university: she goes to class, chats with friends, and retires to her dorm. Everything is normal until suddenly in the blink of an eye she’s gone. One of the first-ever police procedurals, this novel is riveting in its portrayal of an official investigation.
    • Contributor: Hillary Waugh (author), Leslie S. Klinger (editor)
    • Publication Date: February 2, 2021
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    Final Proof This collection features short stories chronicling the spirited yet friendly rivalry between detective Jack Barnes and Robert Leroy Mitchel, “who imagines himself to be able to outdo detectives in their own line of work.” Many of the stories center around jewel heists, kidnapping, and forgery; “The Promissory Note” is a surprising, twisty locked room mystery.
    • Contributor: Rodrigues Ottolengui (author), Leslie S. Klinger (editor)
    • Publication Date: October 6, 2020
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    Case Pending Hers was the kind of casual homicide that occurred every week in a city like Los Angeles. Beaten, robbed, and left in an abandoned lot, Elena Ramirez’s death was like many others… in fact, nearly identical to a murder that happened six months earlier—a case that Detective Luis Mendoza was never able to solve.
    • Contributor: Dell Shannon (author), Leslie S. Klinger (editor)
    • Publication Date: August 4, 2020
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    The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope A young lawyer hired by a pretty young woman to investigate the motives behind a proposed stock buy-back cheats death repeatedly as he painstakingly uncovers secrets that executives at Harper Products don’t want revealed.
    • Contributor: C. W. Grafton (author), Leslie S. Klinger (editor)
    • Publication Date: June 2, 2020
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    That Affair Next Door Even in a posh New York neighborhood, horrible things can happen just next door…
    • Contributor: Anna Katharine Green (author), Leslie S. Klinger (editor)
    • Publication Date: April 7, 2020