Maxima Library

В английском алфавите 26 букв. В подписи преступника, затеявшего с Эркюлем Пуаро игру при помощи писем, всего три буквы – первые, А, B и С. Он планирует совершить убийства в местах, названия которых расположены в алфавитном порядке. Задача Пуаро – разгадать замыслы убийцы и не дать ему совершить задуманные 26 преступлений…

Этот роман практически произвел революцию в детективном жанре. В нем Агата Кристи не только проявила в полной мере свой талант – она с успехом применила несколько не виданных ранее приемов повествования. Все это привело в бешеный восторг как читателей, так и критиков. Недавно по этому роману был снят популярнейший телесериал BBC.

«Абсолютно уникальная идея».

Daily Telegraph

«Несомненно, она гений».

Элизабет Джордж, автор бестселлеров New York Times

Роман, написанный в начале 20 века, «Король мошенников» представляет Саймона Карна, вора-джентльмена, которому удается проникнуть в высшее общество Лондона, совершив при этом серию тщательно продуманных афер. Британский вице-король впервые встречает Карна во время путешествия по Индии. Очарованный, он приглашает его в Лондон, не подозревая, что его гость на самом деле авантюрист и мастер маскировки. Карн, которому помогает его верный дворецкий Белтон, начинает преступную деятельность, обворовывая богатейших граждан Лондона. Затем он выставляет их дураками, изображая из себя детектива, расследующего кражи.

Адольф Бело — французский писатель второй половины XIX века, известен своими пьесами в жанре «комедии характеров». Немалый успех автору принесли и его увлекательные романы с детективным уклоном, в которых он неизменно отражал нравы своего времени. Книги Бело до сих пор издаются во многих странах мира.

Среди душистых лугов Прованса раскинулась небольшая деревушка Новый Бастид. Здесь, в семье добропорядочных фермеров, рождается редкой красоты девочка, нареченная Маргаритой. Однако спустя несколько лет священник выносит вердикт: природная склонность к пороку. Как далеко заведет девушку ее развращенная натура?

Ферму, расположенную в отдалённом уголке Австралии, стал посещать призрак. А тут ещё эти жуткие звуки среди ночи. Неудивительно, что арендаторы здесь не задерживались, а работники разбегались.

Саймон Карн — индийский знакомый сэра Эмберли. И, встречая его на вокзале Виктория, лорд не подозревал, что под личиной горбатого джентльмена скрывается ловкий мошенник, положивший глаз на брильянтовое ожерелье герцогини Уилтширской…

Цикл «Друг вице-короля, или Король мошенников»

В 1991 году жанру детективного рассказа исполнилось 150 лет. Родоначальником его был Эдгар По, а стремительное развитие жанра в конце XIX — начале XX в. привело к появлению таких замечательных мастеров детектива, как А. Конан Дойл и Агата Кристи. В сборник «Загадка миссис Дикинсон» наряду с рассказами этих писателей вошли произведения Николаса Картера, Мориса Леблана, Олдоса Хаксли и других.

На смертном одре Аллан Армадэль признается в письме сыну, что много лет назад он убил человека. Человека, который носил одно с ним имя; человека, который был его другом, но стал врагом; человека, чей сын назван в честь отца, как и сын умирающего. Долгие годы эта смерть тяготила и преследовала Армадэля, и, опасаясь проклятий неискупленной вины и повторения трагедии, он заклинает сына никогда не встречаться с тезкой.

Сбудется ли зловещее предзнаменование, когда через двадцать лет – судьба или случайность? – пути молодых людей пересекутся, а коварная незнакомка в красной шали станет причиной цепи загадочных событий, где есть место интригам, романтическому соперничеству, шпионажу и даже сверхъестественному?

When two men change bedrooms at a house-party, everyone thinks that the sleepwalker with the carving knife killed the wrong man.

A beautiful young woman seeks the help of the world-famous lawyer to free her frail, wealthy uncle from the clutches of a conniving half brother. But the police believe she may be a murderer. Could they be right? Or will Perry Mason and his clever assistants, Paul Drake and Della Street be able to prove her innocence?

The last of the Perry Mason mysteries features the headlong pace, wealth of red herrings, and sizzling courtroom scene characterizing the best of Gardner. There was something phony about the girl her cheap coat didn’t go with her smartly tailored suit, her hair-do didn’t go with her beautifully kept hands — and her face didn’t go with her story. It didn’t take Mason long to figure out that this so-called Sylvia Farr was no poor little girl from the country in search of her missing sister, but was indeed sister Mae herself — a girl in trouble of some sort, deep trouble. So Perry went to bat and soon found himself in a hot ball game — one called murder.

Morley Eden finds an unwanted guest on his property. The ex-wife of his dream house’s contractor claims that the property is one-half hers. Eden calls upon Perry Mason to resolve a dispute that is linked to murder.

The client was young, blonde and beautiful and she wanted to disappear. The trouble was she wouldn’t say why, and she wouldn’t give her name. So Perry Mason agreed to a code of identification based on her measurements: 36-24-36. But according to Della Street, the figures were padded, and as it turned out, so was everything the client said.

Selma Arlington is engaged to a wealthy widower. His heirs don’t want him to tie the knot. Perry Mason is asked by Selma to prove she is neither a gold digger nor a murderer of her first husband, but incriminating evidence comes to light.

Mason is hired to stop a news story about an old beauty pageant. Later, he ends up defending the former contestant on murder charges.

It was against the restaurant rules for a waitress to beleaguer customers for advice, but Katherine Ellis was not only young and beautiful, it was obvious that she was deeply worried... So when Perry Mason finished lunch, he left her a note: 'My usual fee for an office consultation is ten dollars. The tip under the plate is eleven dollars.' Then he said laughingly to Della that if the girl didn't turn up, the Bar Association would have grounds for accusing him of soliciting business! But turn up she did, and in no time at all, Perry discovered that Katherine Ellis had full cause for worry--in fact, she was in serious throuble indeed.

The team of Mason, Street and Drake was never in better form. Perry Mason and Della Street were both out to lunch. Gertie, the receptionist and telephone operator, was indulging in her favorite noontime occupation--munching chocolates and reading a love story--when the door burst open and a woman rushed in. Gertie got her name, all right, dimly registered the fact that she was not only very attractive but very upset at having to wait for Mason, and Gertie even looked up when the woman left before he returned. But vicarious romance was the rule of that day--much to the annoyance of Lt. Tragg when he later tried to piece together what had happened. And although his plan for surprising Gertie into an identification of the lady was ingenious Perry's counter-measure was even more so

Horace Warren pays five hundred dollars to have Perry Mason attend a buffet dinner to observe his guests. He also wants Mason to investigate a fingerprint and suspects his wife is being blackmailed. Mrs. Warren’s mysterious past may hold the clues.

Marriage is a big commitment… and so is murder. Lorraine Elmore is a well-to-do widow who’s ready to marry again. But nervous Linda Calhoun is certain that the man her aunt Lorraine has fallen for is a fortune-hunting Bluebeard who’s out to make a killing—in more ways than one. Perry Mason alloys Linda’s paranoia—until Detective Paul Drake digs up enough dirt to convince the lawyer that dashing, mysterious Montrose Dewitt is digging a grave for his bride-to-be. When the amorous aunt and her amour elope, the chase is on. But when Lorraine’s supposedly sinister suitor is the one who ends up murdered, the pressure is on Mason to prove that the blushing bride isn’t the one who drew blood.

When a man’s past threatens his family’s future there’s only one way to turn — to Perry Mason. Harlow Bissinger Bancroft, head of a vast corporate empire and a happily married man, had a battery of lawyers — not one of any use to him in his present situation. That’s why he sat facing Perry Mason, his air of authority vanished, a deeply disturbed man. «There are three ways of dealing with a blackmailer,» Mason told him, «but only one should concern you — tell him to go jump in the lake.» The blackmailer was found on the lake, all right, but he’d not had a chance to jump in it for he was as dead as the proverbial mackerel.

Dorrie Ambler suspects madcap heiress Minerva Minden wants a "Patsy", and California lawyer Perry Mason unearths a broken hip hit-and-run on the day in question. The lookalikes both hire and lie to Mason. The car used was stolen for a getaway. For immunity from prosecution, thief Dunleavey Jasper claims Minden shot Ambler.

An interesting legal point arises about an embezzler who gambles on the ponies and wins, and an interesting murder trial centres on some trout packed in dry ice.

Perry Mason finds that «art is long but life is fleeting» — especially in the fine art of murder… The painting was a modern masterpiece. But was it authentic? Three experts staked their reputations on the fact that it was. But Collin M. Durant called it a rank imitation. The witness to his remark gave Perry Mason a signed affidavit, and millionaire Otto Olney, owner of the painting, sued for slander. Then the witness — a beautiful blonde art student and model — disappeared, leaving Perry Mason headed for the courtroom and a spectacular trial. A trial not, as originally planned, for slander, but one for murder in the first degree…

Perry Mason... in a case that shows you don't need money to buy a peck of trouble. It began the evening pretty Gwynn Elston, hoping to sell a children's encyclopedia, called at the Frankline Gillett residence. The sight of 7-year-old Frankie was shock enough, but the photograph of Frankline Sr. stunned her with its implication--both father and son were the image of Felting Grimes, husband of her best friend, Nell.... Later, at the Grimes residence, shock changed to fear when Felting, strangely interested in Gwynn's recent whereabouts, pressed on her a drink that immediately roused her suspicions. She poured it out, carefully taking a sample of the residue.... That's where Perry Mason entered the picture. But he was scarcely on scene before Felting Grimes was discovered, a bullet hole in his chest.

Even Paul Drake was convinced… this time, Perry Mason’s client was guilty! Although Amelia Corning, owner of the Corning mine interests, was confined to a wheelchair, no one had the misconception that she was a gentle, little old lady. Half-blind and crippled, she might be, but lesser characters quailed before her steel-trap mind and razor-sharp tongue — and Susan Fisher was no exception. How could Susan explain the discrepancies she found in the company accounts, or the shoe box she had wrested from the district manager’s 7-year-old son — a shoe box filled with $100 bills? She couldn’t. That’s why she went to Perry Mason, and in no time flat the lawyer was walking the worst tight rope of his legal career. As for Miss Corning, she barely missed being wheeled out feet first.

If Della Street had not been so intrigued, Perry Mason may well have missed one of the most baffling cases of his spectacular career… Take one wife, strikingly beautiful… one ex-wife, whittled down to make a comeback… a gorgeous secretary trying to play the role of Ugly Duckling… and you have three lovely and shapely ladies who figure prominently in the life — and death — of Morley L. Theilman. It started with blackmail: the suitcase bulging with $20 bills, the crude, threatening notes, the clever directions for payment — and ended with murder. But why kill the goose who laid the golden egg? Perry Mason pulls some of the fastest legal footwork of his career — in front of judge and jury — before he finds the answer and cracks the case of the prosecution.

Perry Mason, Della Street and Paul Drake… faced with a puzzle to which their arch antagonist, Hamilton Burger, alone seemed to have the missing piece… Muriell Gilman left her father at the breakfast table while she cooked seconds of sausages and eggs. When she returned, he had disappeared — seemingly into thin air. She searched the house from cellar to attic. Then she went out to the workshop… there, scattered on the floor, were hundred-dollar bills, and in their midst — a spreading crimson stain… That’s when she telephoned Perry Mason. Some of the characters: Nancy Gilman, a talented photographer who looked like a picture herself; Glamis Barlow, a chic blonde who loved to gamble and was definitely in the chips; Hartley Elliot, an up-and-coming beau of Glamis’, who, unlike his car, had a battery charged for action; Vera Martel, a shady detective interested in shady pasts.

The author's 100th mystery novel, which combines the drama of crime detection and the suspense of courtroom procedures. Los Angeles and Santa Monica.

Gladys Doyle's luxurious ski weekend, courtesy of her employer, takes a sharp turn for the worse when she heads home on Sunday. Heavy storms force her to seek shelter with a surly stranger in a lonely mountain cabin. Next morning there's a dead man in the bedroom, the mysterious host has disappeared, and poor Gladys's fingerprints are all over the murder weapon. Her desperate plight sends Perry Mason ice-fishing in dangerous waters--for a catch that includes a silk scarf curiously decorated with monkeys, a pristine tea kettle, a bodyguard who takes care of his clients permanently, and a viscious bottom feeder hungry for prey.

Perry Mason has cause to ponder the old adage «Like Father, like son» in this explosive drama of murder among California’s upper crust… featuring a small boy who just loves guns — preferably those that go Bang! The curtain rises on Mervin Selkirk’s scandalous divorce. Then, with the battle for custody of seven-year-old Robert still pending, Selkirk’s fiancée, Norda Allison, learns of some unfortunate qualities in her intended. Exit romance; enter letters — crude, threatening ones addressed to Norda. That’s when Selkirk’s ex-wife and her second husband come on stage, his powerful father lurks behind scenes, and Perry Mason makes his entrance as star in a daring — and deadly — role.

A Perry Mason Mystery… featuring the famous lawyer-detective in a bewildering case. Not one but TWO courtroom sessions — each with a different defendant — make this one of the most intriguing novels Erle Stanley Gardner has yet created. It all begins with a minor automobile accident featuring a building contractor and a glamorous photographer’s model. From then on it is a matter of snap decisions, snap judgments, and some telling snap-shots — one of them candid, and one of them fatal. When Mason gets in the act, Hamilton Burger figures the D.A.’s office can make a killing of its own — and bring in Mason’s head on a platter!

It takes talent to kill two birds with one stone… but it takes genius (Erle Stanley Gardner variety) to make three bull’s-eyes with one arrow. This Perry Mason mystery is a tantalizing triple-decker. One threesome comprises three glamorous ladies — all long-legged models with ambitions that range from keeping the home fires burning to putting the home fires out. Another trio is a far-from-pleasant collection of small metal objects called guns. Finally, the favorite triumvirate of mystery readers around the world: Perry Mason, Della Street and Paul Drake. This is one of Mason’s most absorbing cases — meaning sensational action all the way, with a fabulous courtroom climax.

Perry Mason's client was guilty--at least of some things. She was living under a false name. She had taken another woman's purse containing $4,000. She had stabbed a man with an ice pick. She had fled from an accident in which another person was killed. But had she committted one murder or two murders? There were certainly two corpses. The police connected her with one on circumstantial evidence. The second person accused her before dying. She had no alibi and her defense was: 'I didn't do it.' But she had retained Perry Mason, for a nickel, and--Perry Mason believed she was innocent!

A recipe to delight every gourmet of mystery fiction… Take a proxy fight and a series of mysterious phone calls from an unknown female who said her name was Rosalind. Add a couple of guns and a very dead blonde in a bare hotel room. Season with Perry Mason’s brilliant analytical mind… and some fast action by Della Street and Paul Drake. Pop it all into the courtroom… and you will have a murder case that is almost too hot to handle. At least that is the way Hamilton Burger, the district attorney, felt about it. It’s a sensational pièce de résistance that calls for whirlwind action by three of the best cooks in the business, Perry Mason, Della Street, and Paul Drake.

Murder (where a corpse is dispatched twice) as Perry Mason gambles with his high professional standing in a game that's strictly table stakes, with a marked deck! The first lady in the case wouldn't even give her name. And the clear, youthful voice fltered moticeably when Perry quoted his fee. On the other hand, the second lady unhesitatingly gave her name--and then some! But what did Dorla Balfour hope to get (in return) when she begged Mason to accept a thousand dollar retainer to handle a case that had already been tried and decided?

Joan Kirby doesn't believe her husband's story about picking up a stranded woman in the middle of the night and dropping her off at a hotel. She asks Perry Mason to cross-examine him. Mason uncovers a much murkier trail involving murder, illegal adoption, stolen narcotics and blackmail.

Коли в офіс до приватного детектива Корморана Страйка приходить дивний юнак на ім'я Біллі Найт і просить розслідувати давне вбивство дитини, свідком якого він начебто став. Стайк не може вирішити, як йому вчинити. Вірити чи не вірити юнакові, адже він явно не при собі? Та не встигає Страйк як слід розпитати Біллі, коли той налякано втікає. Намагаючись докопатися до правди, Страйк і Робін - колишня помічниця, а нині повноправна партнерка в детективній агенції - виходять на плутаний слід, який через лондонські задвірки приводить їх у святая святих британського парламенту й у чарівний, але зловісний сільський маєток, де на них чекають небезпеки, таємниці й несподівані відкриття.

Роберт Ґалбрейт - псевдонім Дж. К. Роулінг, уславленої авторки "Гаррі Поттера". Всі чотири романи про приватного детектива Корморана Страйка очолювали списки міжнародних бестселерів, а також лягли в основу телевізійного серіалу від ВВС.

People did not see eye to eye about Nadine Farr. Some called her sweet… some called her sour… some branded her a vicious murderess and blackmailer. But all agreed that she was a very good looking young woman, a real knockout. Perry Mason reserved judgment and came up swinging on the count of ten in the most harrowing legal battles of his career. First there was a corpse… but no corpus delicti. Then there was too much cyanide. Then Mason himself was accused of perjury.

Mr. Bedford cooperates with a blackmailer who has the goods on his wife's criminal past by bringing $20,000 to a roadside motel. When Mr. Bedford is accused of murdering the blackmailer, it looks like an open-and-shut case. His gun is missing, he can't prove his alibi, and he has the motive. But then Perry Mason gets involved.

Perry hires a temporary typist who flees in a panic, leaving behind a pair of diamonds hidden in a wad of chewing gum. Down the hall from Perry's office, a co-owner of a gem importing company has been charged in a smuggling scheme, and with murdering his accomplice. Mason agrees to defend the accused man, who would rather die than cooperate. And he just might--unless Mason can track down the terrified typist.

A dazzling new Perry Mason mystery in which a black eye, a bewildered cabby, a pile of junk and a body beautiful add up to one of the most intricate puzzles of Mason’s career. It started with a body. The body was alive, female, seductive, and Mrs. Sybil Harlan was convinced that it was taking her husband right out from under her eyes. Mason is in rare form as he tackles one of the most obscure and tantalizing courtroom problems he has ever faced.

Eleanor Corbin has a taste for trouble. Now her half-sister, Olga, fears Eleanor may be using her scandalous antics to disguise more larcenous acts. Enter Perry Mason, retained by Olga to keep the press at bay while discovering from Eleanor the sordid details of her last escapade.

The naked and the very dead… The blonde wandering nude at the Remuda Gold Club tells Perry Mason a strange story. She says that while she peacefully sun-bathed near the course, someone made off with her Cadillac, her trailer, and all of her belongings–including her precious diary. The woman blames the police who suspect her of having stashed away nearly half a million dollars allegedly stolen by her father, who is now in prison. She swears that both she and her father are innocent. So who is bankrolling her leisurely lifestyle? Why is she so desperate to find her diary? And who, if not Mason’s beautiful client, would murder a key witness? In a virtuoso courtroom performance, Mason exposes the staggering truth.

Evelyn Bagby said she was innocent, but she had been seen stealing from the suitcase, the missing diamond necklace was found in her room, she had the best of motives for killing the two-timing actor, the victim's head was covered by a pillow slip taken from her bed, and the murder weapon was in her possession.

The two ladies in Perry Mason's office were a cat-and-mouse combination. And at first glance, little Mrs. Davenport seemed to be the mouse. But her husband insisted that she was trying to kill him... that she had already murdered one person and would undoubtedly strike again. Question: Was Myra Davenport the timid little soul she appeared to be on the surface? Or was she, in fact a cold-blooded murderess?

Aspiring actress Stephane Olger just wants to be in pictures. But she may end up in mug shots instead when she gets herself caught up in a crime. Shortly after quitting her job and moving to Hollywood, she is picked up by a well-dressed man while hitchhiking. The man loses control of the car and they end up in a horrible accident. Both Stephane and the driver escape unscathed but the strange man flees the scene leaving Stephane to face a charge of manslaughter. Stephane’s rich uncle hires Perry Mason to defend her and he and the private detective, Paul Drake, immediately start gathering evidence. It turns out that the car, of course, was stolen, and belongs to a Hollywood producer who has been in contact with the mystery man who is from San Francisco. A woman has been promised a job by him, but is given one by Perry Mason instead. She, too, disappears, and in another room of the hotel her luggage is found with a man who has been shot. In the courtroom Perry Mason discovers many other facts, but in the meantime the film producer’s chauffeur is murdered, making his task much harder.

Perry Mason novelette «The Case of the Irate Witness» (published in 1953), with three other short stories.

Beautiful Sylvia Bain Atwood is overseeing her ailing father's estate while her sister serves as his caregiver. But their father's fortune has shadowy roots--and now one of his creditors is blackmailing the family.

Perry Mason had no hesitation in defending Albert Brogan, a broke ex-salesman against a charge of robbery. He’s counting on the testimony of the nightclub hostess Martha Lavina to clear him. She had most of the requirements for a good professional hostess, and one was an innocent face. That, plus various other attractions, made her a formidable challenge as she faced Perry Mason on the witness stand. She was also deadly clever and she held the jury spellbound. When Mason sprang his bombshell they stayed that way, for the hoped-for explosion was a dud. That was just the beginning of a smashing, freewheeling attack with no holds barred on either side. Then another hostess, his key witness, fled. Failure to find the missing witness in forty-eight hours could cost an innocent man his liberty and his life, when the prosecution serves up a shocking new charge of murder. But the high-tailing hostess has a host of her own secrets, and a cast of shady characters from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. She seems determined to keep them and herself hidden. It all leads Perry Mason down the trail of an amazing crime that might have gone undetected.