Nathaniel Hawthorne was the first author to write versions of the Greek myths especially for a younger audience. The six tales here include 'The Gorgon’s Head' and 'The Golden Touch', beautifully illustrated by Walter Crane. Read More...

On 5 July 1884 the yacht Mignonette set sail from Southampton bound for Sydney. Halfway through their voyage, Captain Tom Dudley and his crew of three men were beset by a monstrous storm off the coast of Africa. After four days of battling seas and hurricane gales, their yacht was finally crushed by a ferocious forty-foot wave. A true story of the voyage and subsequent court case that outlawed for ever a practice followed since men first put to the ocean boats. Read More...

A woman found shot dead in a flat in provincial Holland leaves behind her a daughter of doubtful parentage and a dull soldier husband. Van der Valk discovers strange links with Dien Bien Phu. Read More...

Two women had committed suicide, and a third had to be led away by men in white coats. There had been an outbreak of anonymous letters, but there was something much more, and Inspector Van der Valk wonders what lies behind the small-town imoralities, eavesdropping and hysteria. Read More...

Why does Van der Valk feel involved with the pretty daughter of a famous dead conductor? Then he finds the man with the flick-knife between his ribs... Read More...

Henri Castang, 30-year veteran of the French National Police, finds some dirty and dangerous work waiting for him. A gruesome murder of a young woman, a very pretty, very young and very hostile young prostitute and intrigue within his own department. Read More...

The last Van der Valk. Cops don't have 9 lives. He should have left well alone. Read More...

Ada Sergent, a respectable widow, has vanished, leaving her small hotel, her distressed regulars - and no forwarding address. And a puzzled Castang. Read More...

A dazzling variation on the traditional crime story is which the question, for Castang, is not who did it, but whether it was done at all... Successful landscaper Guy Lefebvre and his wife Sybille are driving through the Vosges, when a flaming row results in Sybille slamming out of the car. She is never seen again. Read More...

The nude body of a young girl is discovered in the boot of a Rolls Royce belonging to a highly respectable English Judge. Castang's hopes for a quiet day in the office are dashed. Read More...