All Graded Readers

Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 5 King's Ransom

Ed McBain
Retold by Rosalie Kerr

STAGE 5 - Crime & Mystery

'Calling all cars, calling all cars. Here's the story on the Smoke Rise kidnapping. The missing boy is eight years old, fair hair, wearing a red sweater. His name is Jeffry Reynolds, son of Charles Reynolds, chauffeur to Douglas King.'

The police at the 87th Precinct hate kidnappers. And these kidnappers are stupid, too. They took the wrong boy - the chauffeur's son instead of the son of the rich tycoon, Douglas King. And they want a ransom of $500,000.

A lot of money. But it's not too much to pay for a little boy's life . . . is it?

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Murders in the Rue Morgue Audio CD Pack

Edgar Allan Poe
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 2 - Crime & Mystery

The room was on the fourth floor, and the door was locked - with the key on the inside. The windows were closed and fastened - on the inside. The chimney was too narrow for a cat to get through. So how did the murderer escape? And whose were the two angry voices heard by the neighbours as they ran up the stairs? Nobody in Paris could find any answers to this mystery.

Except Auguste Dupin, who could see further and think more clearly than other people. The answers to the mystery were all there, but only a clever man could see them.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 3 The Last Sherlock Holmes Story

Michael Dibdin
Retold by Rosalie Kerr

STAGE 3 - Crime & Mystery

For fifty years after Dr Watson's death, a packet of papers, written by the doctor himself, lay hidden in a locked box. The papers contained an extraordinary report of the case of Jack the Ripper and the horrible murders in the East End of London in 1888. The detective, of course, was the great Sherlock Holmes - but why was the report kept hidden for so long?

This is the story that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never wrote. It is a strange and frightening tale . . .

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 6 Deadheads

Reginald Hill
Retold by Rosalie Kerr

STAGE 6 - Crime & Mystery

An English rose garden on a summer's day. A small boy watches with interest as his great-aunt cuts the deadheads off the rosebushes with a sharp knife. What could be more peaceful, more harmless?

Young Patrick grows up to be a calm, pleasant man, with a good job, a wife and two children, and the best rose garden for miles around. When somebody tells the police that Patrick Aldermann is killing people, Chief Superintendent Dalziel thinks it's probably all nonsense. But Inspector Pascoe is not so sure . . .

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Oxford Bookworms Library Starter Police TV Audio CD Pack

Tim Vicary

STARTER - Crime & Mystery

'Every day someone steals money from people near the shops. We must stop this,' says Dan, a police officer.

The police use TV cameras but it is not easy because there are so many suspects - who is the robber?

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 2 The Murders in the Rue Morgue

Edgar Allan Poe
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 2 - Crime & Mystery

The room was on the fourth floor, and the door was locked - with the key on the inside. The windows were closed and fastened - on the inside. The chimney was too narrow for a cat to get through. So how did the murderer escape? And whose were the two angry voices heard by the neighbours as they ran up the stairs? Nobody in Paris could find any answers to this mystery.

Except Auguste Dupin, who could see further and think more clearly than other people. The answers to the mystery were all there, but only a clever man could see them.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 A Morbid Taste For Bones

Ellis Peters
Retold by John Escott

STAGE 4 - Crime & Mystery

Murder in the twelfth century is no different from murder today. There is still a dead body, though this time with an arrow through the heart instead of a bullet. There is still a need to bury the dead, to comfort the living - and to catch the murderer.

When Brother Cadfael comes to a village in the Welsh hills, he finds himself doing all three of those things. And there is nothing simple about this death. The murdered man's daughter needs Cadfael's help in more ways than one. There are questions about the arrow. And the burial is the strangest thing of all . . .

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 4 The Big Sleep

Raymond Chandler
Retold by Rosalie Kerr

STAGE 4 - Crime & Mystery

General Sternwood has four million dollars, and two young daughters, both pretty and both wild. He's an old, sick man, close to death, but he doesn't like being blackmailed. So he asks private detective Philip Marlowe to get the blackmailer off his back.

Marlowe knows the dark side of life in Los Angeles well, and nothing much surprises him. But the Sternwood girls are a lot wilder than their old father realizes. They like men, drink, drugs - and it's not just a question of blackmail.

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Oxford Bookworms Library Stage 1 Sherlock Holmes and the Sport of Kings Audio CD Pack

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Retold by Jennifer Bassett

STAGE 1 - Crime & Mystery

Horseracing is the sport of kings, perhaps because racehorses are very expensive animals. But when they win races, they can make a lot of money too - money for the owners, for the trainers, and for the people who put bets on them to win.

Silver Blaze is a young horse, but already the winner of many races. One night he disappears from his stables, and someone kills his trainer. The police want the killer, and the owner wants his horse, but they can't find them. So what do they do?

They write to 221B Baker Street, London, of course - to ask for the help of the great detective, Sherlock Holmes.

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