Find a Mystery
Filter the catalog by category, length, time, or subject. The Finder matches your preferences to the available books.
Do more with this book catalog
This library brings together 99 public-domain mystery titles in one searchable space. The books span four categories: Classic Detectives, Crime Investigation, Suspense, and Mystery Collections. Whether you prefer a short puzzle or a long investigation, the tools here help you find a story that fits your mood.
Each title includes basic facts about length, reading time, and subject headings. The interactive pages let you explore these details side by side, see how a book compares to others, and estimate how long it might take to finish. Start with the Finder to narrow down your options, or use Compare to weigh a few titles at once.
99
books in this catalog
4
catalog categories
99
books with reading-time data
Made for this collection
Ways the catalog data becomes useful
Compare Titles
Choose several books and line up their word counts, reading times, and subjects. See which one fits your schedule.
Estimate Reading Time
Get a realistic reading estimate based on the median pace of the catalog. Adjust for your own speed.
A Point of Testimony — A Reader’s Guide
The EDIEP Classic Mystery Library brings together 99 public-domain titles, from compact single-story mysteries to sprawling serials. Three tools sit at the center of the collection: Book Finder, Compare Books, and Reading Tracker. Each serves a different stage of your encounter with a book, but they work best when you move between them deliberately.
Consider a title like A Point of Testimony — A Reader’s Guide. Its brief length and single text section make it an easy entry point, yet its subject headings point to murder investigation and detectives. The Finder can surface it, Compare can set it against longer works, and the Tracker can help you finish it in a sitting. That flow is the real value of the toolkit.
Start with Book Finder
Book Finder is the first stop when you want to narrow the catalog by concrete features: category, word count, reading time, chapter rhythm, sentence flow, or subject. The catalog’s four categories—Mystery Collections, Crime Investigation, Classic Detectives, and Suspense—are broad, so combining them with a length filter is often more useful than browsing alone. For instance, if you are in the mood for a quick read, you can select the shortest length band and see what appears.
The Finder also lets you indicate a preference for popular titles or hidden gems. This is not a quality rating; it simply reflects how often a book has been accessed. If you are new to the library, starting with a well-known name like Agatha Christie’s The Big Four — Reading Notes might feel safer, while a lesser-known title could offer a pleasant surprise.
Move to Compare Books
Once you have two or three candidates, Compare Books lays out their measurable differences side by side: word count, estimated reading time, text sections, sentence flow, chapter rhythm, and subjects. This is where you can see why one book might feel like a brisk sprint and another a long immersion. For example, comparing The phantom hunter; or, love after death — Reading Companion with His darling sin — Edition Insights reveals the former is shorter and has more sections, which may translate to more frequent stopping points.
The comparison is not about which is better; it is about matching the book’s structure to your available time and reading mood. A book with many short chapters might suit a reader who likes to pause often, while a book with long, continuous sections could be better for a quiet afternoon.
Plan with Reading Tracker
After you choose a book, Reading Tracker helps you plan your progress. It records pages read, sets a daily page goal, and estimates when you will finish. The tracker uses a default of 250 words per page to estimate total pages if the edition does not provide one, but you can adjust that to match your own copy. This is useful for a long novel like The queen of the isle — A Closer Reading, where a realistic daily goal can keep you on pace.
The tracker stores your history in the browser, so no account is needed. You can experiment with different daily goals to see how finish dates shift. The current interface defaults to 20 pages per day, but you can raise or lower it depending on your schedule.
Bringing the Tools Together
The tools are not meant to be used in isolation. A typical path might be: use Finder to shortlist three books, Compare to decide between them, then Tracker to schedule your reading. For a title like A Point of Testimony — A Reader’s Guide, the whole process can take minutes. The library’s tools are designed to support your choices, not to judge them.