Mystery Web Novels

Mystery web novels with public chapters on NovelCult.

A Study in Scarlet

A Study in Scarlet is the novel which first introduced Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic characters Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. It was published in 1887 in a popular magazine, Beeton’s Christmas Annual. It attracted little public attention at the time, but interest in Holmes continued to build with the subsequent series of short stories Doyle wrote featuring the austere, analytical detective—now one of the most well-known characters in all of English literature.

Arthur Conan Doyle · Mystery · 15 ch

At the Villa Rose

When the wealthy widow Madame Dauvray is found murdered at the Villa Rose in Aix-les-Bains, suspicion falls on her young companion Celia Harland, who has gone missing—along with Dauvray’s valuable jewels. The famous French detective Inspector Hanaud is called in to solve the mystery, which involves a séance, a missing chauffeur, and a web of deceit. A.

A. E. W. Mason · Mystery · 21 ch

Bleak House

Bleak House, completed by Dickens in 1853, tells several interlocking story-lines and features a host of colorful characters. Though very difficult to summarise, the novel centers around the decades-long legal case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, involving the fair distribution of assets of a valuable estate. The case is mired in the legal quagmire of the Court of Chancery, whose byzantine and sluggish workings Dickens spares no effort to expose and condemn.

Charles Dickens · Drama · 68 ch

His Last Bow

His Last Bow: Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes is the fourth collection of Sherlock Holmes stories published by Arthur Conan Doyle. It begins with a preface by Dr. John Watson, supposedly written in 1917, assuring the reader that Holmes is still alive but living in quiet retirement in Sussex. This collection contains the well-known stories “The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans,” in which Holmes has to track down stolen plans for a new kind of submarine; and “The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot” in which a Cornish family is found one morning driven mad or dead, with expressions of horror on their faces.

Arthur Conan Doyle · Mystery · 8 ch

Kate Plus 10

Scotland Yard Inspector Michael Pretherston has been called to attend a case of missing jewelry at Lord Flanborough’s home. While investigating, Inspector Pretherston comes across a familiar face—and an intriguing mystery to challenge his skills and intellect: a woman by the name of Katharine Westhanger. Kate has been a person of interest in various capers across Europe despite her innocent looks and charming personality.

Edgar Wallace · Mystery · 20 ch

Lady Audley’s Secret

Lady Audley’s Secret was the most successful of a long series of novels written by Mary Elizabeth Braddon in what was then called the “sensation” genre because of the inventive and slightly scandalous plots of such works. Published in 1862, Lady Audley’s Secret was immediately popular and is said to have made a fortune for its author. It has never been out of print and has been the basis for a number of dramas and movies.

M. E. Braddon · Mystery · 41 ch

Murder in the Maze

After twin brothers Neville and Roger Shandon are both found murdered on the same afternoon in the hedge maze on the grounds of their country estate outside London, the local county’s Chief Constable must solve the mystery of their deaths and bring the perpetrator to justice. Murder in the Maze is the first of seventeen detective novels by J. J.

J. J. Connington · Mystery · 18 ch

Mystery at Lynden Sands

Chief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield’s holiday on the coast is interrupted when he’s asked to assist with the investigation of a murder on a nearby country estate. As Sir Clinton, his friend Wendover, and the local police work to uncover who’s behind the murder, they encounter an expanding web of clues, characters with possible motives, questions related to the large inheritance involving the estate, and additional misdeeds. Working against time and the tides, Sir Clinton and his team must piece together an increasingly complex puzzle of clues, potential suspects, and crimes.

J. J. Connington · Mystery · 17 ch

Our Mutual Friend

Our Mutual Friend is the last of Charles Dickens’ novels, published serially between 1864 and 1865. Like many of Dickens’ works, it addresses social concerns like how the poor and destitute are treated, but tempers these more serious themes with humor and satire. The novel opens with the retrieval of the body of a drowned man from the Thames river—a body which is identified as that of John Harmon, heir to his father’s huge fortune.

Charles Dickens · Drama · 68 ch

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was the first collection of Sherlock Holmes short stories Conan Doyle published in book form, following the popular success of the novels A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four, which introduced the characters of Dr. John Watson and the austere analytical detective Sherlock Holmes. The collection contains twelve stories, all originally published in The Strand Magazine between July 1891 and June 1892. Narrated by the first-person voice of Dr. Watson, they involve him and Holmes solving a series of mysterious cases.

Arthur Conan Doyle · Mystery · 12 ch

The Benson Murder Case

Philo Vance is a snobbish art collector who happens to be the longtime friend of John Markham, the New York County District Attorney. When a wealthy Wall Street broker is found shot in his own home, Vance finds himself drawn into the case. Seeing both Markham and the police content to accept the superficial evidence of the crime scene, Vance must intervene, and elucidate an entirely different approach to solving the mystery.

S. S. Van Dine · Mystery · 30 ch

The Big Bow Mystery

On a foggy morning in the Bow district of London, a popular labor organizer is found in his bed with his throat cut. It seems impossible for the wound to be self-inflicted, but it seems equally impossible that anyone could have entered his room during the night. The crime and its bizarre circumstances become the talk of the town, as retired Scotland Yard detective George Grodman finds himself pitted against his younger successor, not only to identify the perpetrator but also to explain how the murder was committed.

Israel Zangwill · Mystery · 24 ch

The Canary Murder Case

Philo Vance, the snobbish art collector who happens to be the longtime friend of District Attorney John Markham, once more finds himself drawn into a criminal investigation. Margaret Odell, the beautiful and talented theatrical singer nicknamed “The Canary,” has been strangled during the night, and from the very beginning there are signs that nothing in the case is quite what it appears to be. Accompanied once more by Sergeant Heath, the unlikely trio struggle to make sense of the evidence.

S. S. Van Dine · Mystery · 33 ch

The Case with Nine Solutions

On a foggy night a doctor accidentally visits the wrong house and finds a man dying of a gunshot wound. He quickly calls Chief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield for help, and further murders are discovered as the case unfolds. The mystery deepens when advertisements in a secret code appear in the local paper, a witness is blackmailed, and possibly fabricated evidence comes in from an anonymous source.

J. J. Connington · Mystery · 19 ch

The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes

The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, published in 1927, collects the final set of Sherlock Holmes stories authored by Arthur Conan Doyle. All of the included stories appeared previously in The Strand Magazine between October 1921 and April 1927. As usual, the mysteries generally purport to be accounts written by Holmes’s friend Dr. John Watson.

Arthur Conan Doyle · Mystery · 13 ch

The Charing Cross Mystery

The Charing Cross Mystery follows a young lawyer, Hetherwick, who happens to be on a train alongside a former police inspector who dies suddenly in front of him. The other man in the carriage runs off at the next stop and vanishes. Hetherwick takes it upon himself to investigate what turns out to be a murder.

J. S. Fletcher · Mystery · 27 ch

The Cloven Foot

The Cloven Foot follows the fortunes of John Treverton, who is at a very low point in his life. He has squandered his small inheritance and has had to sell his commission as a lieutenant in a cavalry regiment. Though he has been making a small amount of money from drawing comic sketches, he is feeling desperate and miserable when a telegram unexpectedly summons him to the death-bed of his wealthy uncle Jasper.

M. E. Braddon · Mystery · 47 ch

The Clue of the New Pin

Tab Holland, newspaper reporter and a friend of a local police investigator, is surprised to discover that his roommate’s uncle Jesse Transmere, a wealthy miser, has been found murdered in a cellar vault locked from the inside. More surprising is the fact that Ursula Ardfern, a famous actress and new acquaintance of Tab’s, has had her plays backed by the murder victim in the past. Although he has been regularly reporting on the case for the newspaper, Tab’s interest in the case intensifies after both his own apartment and the murdered man’s house are ransacked.

Edgar Wallace · Mystery · 41 ch

The Confessions of Arsène Lupin

The gentleman-thief Arsène Lupin returns in this set of ten short stories to confess—or perhaps boast about—his crimes to the unnamed narrator. Mostly set around Lupin’s attempts to frustrate Chief-Inspector Ganimard and pocket some cash in the process, they also show off his knack for escaping from seemingly impossible situations, and even playing the role of the master detective. In the chronology of Arsène Lupin, these tales were published after, but set before, the darker stories of The Hollow Needle and 813.

Maurice Leblanc · Mystery · 10 ch

The Crimson Circle

Strange envelopes marked with a crimson circle have started to appear across London: a series of blackmailing letters, each directed at prominent figures in society and communicating the threat of punishment if the demands within aren’t met—a promise that has yielded fatal results for those who have ignored those instructions. Despite their best efforts, the police haven’t been able to track down this shadowy cabal of criminals, leaving them without the means to put an end to the terror that has overtaken London and its citizens. The lead investigator in the Crimson Circle case, Chief Inspector Parr, finds an unlikely partner in Derrick Yale, an enigmatic detective with a peculiar gift for deduction, after the Circle claims its latest victim: Mr. James Beardmore, found dead in his estate after failing to pay £100,000.

Edgar Wallace · Mystery · 45 ch

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