The James Pibble Mysteries Volume One

Book excerpt: Three mysteries in the CWA Gold Dagger–winning series by a “master of the bizarre” (Louis Untermeyer). Scotland Yard detective James Pibble is known for accepting any case, no matter how strange. Taking him to every corner of England, his job throws him into the most curious circumstances. The Glass-Sided Ants’ Nest: Detective Pibble is on the case when the revered elder of a New Guinea tribe is bludgeoned to death. All the suspects—including a real estate agent, a professional escort, and an anthropologist who married into the tribe—have alibis. And Pibble’s only clue is an Edwardian penny. The Old English Peep Show: Pibble’s next case takes him to the World of Old England, a country house run as a theme park. When one of the servants at the estate hangs himself, Detective Pibble discovers not a suicide, but a bizarre set of circumstances that add up to foul play. The Sinful Stones: Nobel Prize–winning scientist and one of the first builders of the atomic bomb Sir Francis Francis summons Detective Pibble to an isolated island to find his stolen memoir. But is Francis senile? Was the manuscript really stolen? What’s the real reason he sent for Pibble? And why does the island’s religious sect want Francis to stay so much?