Tales of Terror and Mystery

Written by Arthur Conan Doyle

Narrated by Fred Williams

This volume presents some of Arthur Conan Doyle’s unduly neglected masterworks of suspense. Each begins in a quietly factual way, which makes all the more dramatic the crescendo of fear and puzzlement that ensues as each startling new circumstance is revealed. Even without his supremely logical brainchild Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle shows that his tales are unbeatable for thrills and excitement. This is a great opportunity for the listener to discover a new facet of the master’s ability to mystify and enthrall.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio
• Release date: Jun 17, 2009
• ISBN: 9780786114337

Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle was a British writer and physician. He is the creator of the Sherlock Holmes character, writing his debut appearance in A Study in Scarlet. Doyle wrote notable books in the fantasy and science fiction genres, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels.

Reviews for Tales of Terror and Mystery

[bettesbooks · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Reading Doyle's Tales of Terror today, is like reading a cozy mystery, all conjecture with only postulated ending; wrapped around Doyle's concept of scientific thinking. I feel I walked into a conversation, eavesdropping, a comfortable way to start and end a tale.I have been reading this collection for several weeks to fulfill a challenge. To be truthful there were too many stories grouped together, I wish the collection had been shorter.

[jen6e6moore · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Welp, the "tales of terror" are for the most part a little silly (although I did enjoy "The Horror of the Heights," kind of a precursor to "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet") and the "tales of mystery" are *really* silly, all of which is even more entertaining when you consider that this is what Doyle wanted to be writing instead of Sherlock Holmes.

[wktarin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Decent stories all.

[jamespurcell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mostly good to excellent stories with very good narration and very poor audio quality. Discs continually repeat themselves detracting seriously from the literary experience.

[devenish_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another collection of Arthur Conan Doyle's short story collections published by John Murray.This one contains quite a few crackers and it is difficult to pick just one or two,but I will have a go. The Leather Funnel and The New Catacomb. Also The Lost Special and The Beetle-Hunter. All of these are well-told stories in this genre of which Sir Arthur is a Master.

[cainmark · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Hit and miss, but when the short stories hit, they hit hard and well. A lot of the "eh" stories have more to do with their reliance on old technology for explanations.

[.monkey.-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A collection of non-Holmes mysteries (though a couple stories have a small nameless mention of him, which is always fun) that includes some fantastical stories, which feels a bit unexpected until one recalls that The lost world was also somewhat in that realm, though far less dark. Though the "tales of mystery" are non-Holmes they still retain Doyle's typical style, which I personally don't see as problematic since that's why Holmes has been so enjoyed for so long. A solid little collection.

[darthdeverell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Tales of Terror and Mystery collects six “Tales of Terror” and seven “Tales of Mystery” from the master of British detective fiction. In the first story, “The Horror of the Heights,” a monoplane pilot ascends past 20,000 feet where he encounters an unknown creature. Doyle uses the framing device of the story following the pilot’s recovered diary, giving the whole story an H.P. Lovecraft feel. One of the other stories, “The Case of Lady Sannox,” features a rather gruesome twist evocative of Edgar Allan Poe. While the “Tales of Terror” feature great ambiance, modern readers won’t find them particularly terrifying.“The Lost Special,” the first of the “Tales of Mystery,” features a lost train that disappears between two stations. Though not officially a Sherlock Holmes story, Doyle references “an amateur reasoner of some celebrity at that date” who writes, “It is one of the elementary principles of practical reasoning… that when the impossible has been eliminated the residuum, however improbable, must contain the truth” (pg. 102). This would therefore appear to have been Doyle’s way to publish a Holmes story in the five years after killing off the Great Detective in 1893. Similarly, “The Story of the Man with the Watches” (also from 1898) features a reference to “a well-known criminal investigator” who publishes his hypothesis in the Daily Gazette (pg. 135). While his hypothesis fails, the style of the investigator’s hypothesizing resembles that of Holmes. As it would be another five years before Doyle resurrected Holmes in “The Adventure of the Empty House,” this may have been Doyle’s way of testing the waters (though The Hound of the Baskervilles appeared in 1901, it takes place before Holmes’ “death”). The story is similarly appealing to me as a Rochesterian for its references to Rochester, NY, including the Rochester Watchmaking Company and a watchmaker named Mason from Elmira. The other mysteries are likely to entertain fans of Doyle as they surpass the “Tales of Terror” in their narratives.The book includes an introduction by Nina Conan Doyle Harwood, the daughter-in-law of Arthur Conan Doyle, setting up her father-in-law’s interests and how they influenced these stories. The title page credits Barbara Ninde Byfield with the book’s illustrations, but there are none that I can find within the book unless Byfield designed the cover decoration, which evokes the patterned vintage look common to the International Collectors Library’s publications.

[lauriebrown54 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a prolific writer, and his Sherlock Holmes stories, while the best known of his work, were only a fraction of what he wrote. This book gives us six tales of terror- mostly supernatural- and seven tales of mystery- all works of humankind. Some of the mysteries have the feel of a Holmes story- in fact, he is obliquely referred to in two of them- but most don’t. “Terror of the Heights” made me think of Lovecraft, while “The New Catacomb” and “The Brazilian Cat” are both downright Poe-ish in character. While none of these stories has the liveliness of the Holmes stories, they are well worth reading. Some people have put them down as being ‘pulp’ stories, but I don’t happen to think that’s an insult.

[justabookreader · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I’ve been reading more short stories this year and have come to one conclusion --- I prefer one author over several. I enjoy the stories more if I become familiar with the author’s voice and I can then move along without feeling the need to stop and regain my footing at the end of each story. In Tales of Terror and Mystery, this is exactly what happened.There were 13 stories here; six tales of terror and seven tales of mystery. Tales of Terror:The Horror of the Heights follows a pilot who encounters giant jellyfish like aliens. The Leather Funnel reminds us what a true nightmare can be. The New Catacomb is a take on the value of friendship when a woman’s love is involved. The Case of Lady Sannox is an affair gone wrong. The Terror of Blue John Gap involves an imaginary monster made real. The Brazilian Cat is a tale of family woe and backstabbing relatives.Tales of Mystery:The Lost Special is a recounting of a train kidnapping. The Beetle-Hunter follows a young doctor and the horror he finds in answering an advertisement. The Man with the Watches is about a train with missing persons. The Japanned Box makes us wonder what a widower is doing alone in a room late at night. The Black Doctor involves the disappearance and supposed murder of a well-liked town doctor. The Jew’s Breastplate is a museum caper complete with a mummy. The Nightmare Room is an odd scene with a séance to boot.If you know anything about Sir Arthur Conon Doyle, these stories reflect many of his interests including his love of new technologies and preoccupation in the afterlife. It’s endearing and somewhat uncomfortable at the same time as his prejudices also come through. I’m not going into that here though.I enjoyed the tales of terror more and there are a few gems among the mysteries as well but I did see a few endings coming which didn’t cause any disappointment. With a short story, in some cases only pages, it’s going to happen.If you’re a fan of Doyle, this one is worth a look. It’s fast and the stories are entertaining.