The Black Robe

Wilkie Collins

The novel The Black Robe tells the story of a young rich heir who has fallen into the net of the Catholic Church. Only the devotion of his wife and love for his son allowed Luis Romain to throw off his heavy fetters and make the right decision.

The Black Stranger

Robert E. Howard

The Black Stranger"is one of the stories byRobert E. HowardaboutConan the Cimmerian. It was written in the 1930s but not published in his lifetime. When the original Conan version of the story failed to find a publisher, Howard rewrote The Black Stranger into a piraticalTerence Vulmeastory entitled Swords of the Red Brotherhood.

The Black Tulip

Alexandre Dumas

Set at the height of the tulipomania that gripped Holland in 17th century, this is the story of Cornelius van Baerle, a humble grower whose sole desire is to grow the perfect specimen of the tulip negra. After his powerful godfather is assassinated, the unwitting Cornelius becomes caught up in deadly political intrigue and is falsely accused of high treason by a bitter rival. Condemned to life imprisonment, his only comfort is Rosa, the jailers beautiful daughter, and together they concoct a plan to grow the black tulip in secret. Also we meet the scheming and wicked Isaac Boxtel, who labors to acquire the elusive black tulip for himself, stooping even to falsely imprison the naive Cornelius. The Black Tulip, by Alexandre Dumas, is a work of historical fiction that mixes actual events in the Netherlands in the 17th century with fictional characters and events. A masterful retelling of one of the most infamous incidents in Dutch history, it is not to be missed by fans of historical fiction.

The Blanket of the Dark

John Buchan

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown is a time-tested adage that suits Peter Pentecost, a young monk and legitimate claimant to Englands Throne. But he is not alone as others are vying for power too. Soon a plot is hatched against the present King Henry VIII and Peter is sucked into the intrigue... Buchans description of the ruthless king is compelling. His knowledge of the time of Henrys reign and his love of the Oxfordshire countryside are apparent. This historical novel set in the time of Henry VIII vividly depicting both high life and low in the society of that time. A grand, sweeping historical drama. Set in Mediaeval England during a tense time as a the country waits for the new king to be crowned. A enthralling, richly detailed story of intrigue and passion.

The Blind Goddess

Arthur Ch. Train

1926. Arthur Cheney Train (1875-1945) was the former assistant district attorney in New York City. His interactions with clients, together with his experiences in the courtroom, provided the material for the more than 250 short stories and novels he would write during his lifetime. Train wrote dozens of stories about fictional lawyer Ephraim Tutt in the Saturday Evening Post. He also coauthored two science fiction novels with eminent physicist Robert W. Wood. After 1922, he devoted himself to writing. In The Blind Goddess, Hugh Dillon, a young lawyer, becomes a public prosecutor in New York City, and is soon forced to choose between his idealistic view of duty, and Moria Evans, the girl he loves, under circumstances, that seem to spell the end of his career.

The Blind Mans House

Hugh Walpole

The House of the Blind is Walpoles last book before his death. This is a psychological study of the village and people who come in contact with a blind person and his young bride. The letter is impeccable. If you enjoy in-depth character study and enjoy reading old novels, then you will really enjoy it.

The Blithedale Romance

Nathaniel Hawthorne

A group of people is a powerful mixture of competing ambitions, and its idealism finds little satisfaction in agriculture. Instead of changing the world, Blithedale community members individually follow selfish paths that ultimately lead to tragedy. Hawthornes tale simultaneously mourns and saturates a rural idyll, not unlike the history of America in the 19th century as a whole.

The Blockade Runners

Jules Verne

The Civil War is tearing apart the North American United States. The Union Fleet blocked the Confederate seacoast, interrupting all sea trade, and European merchants suffer big losses from this. One of Glasgows trading houses is building a high-speed ship capable of breaking through the blockade and bringing unheard of profits. But on board the ship, not only those seeking benefits will set sail.

The Blonde Lady. Being a Record of the Duel of Wits Between Arsene Lupin and the English Detective

Maurice Leblanc

If you enjoy the Sherlock Holmes series, then Arsene Lupin will be another detective series for your library. Leblanc was a French novelist and short story writer known for creating the character Arsene Lupin, who is the French counterpart to the English Sherlock Holmes. In The Blonde Lady: Being a Record of the Duel of Wits between Arsene Lupin and the English Detective the great French gentleman thief and the formidable English unofficial consulting detective go head-to-head in a series of Alien vs Predator-style skirmishes. If in the last story of Arsene Lupin, gentleman-burglar Sherlock Holmes arrives too late, in the two stories that compose The Blonde Lady these two great intellects are bound in opposite directions. Where one chooses to abide to the law, the other uses his power and wits to crime and who is going to win?

The Blood of Belshazzar

Robert E. Howard

Once it was called Eski-Hissar, the Old Castle, for it was very ancient even when the first Seljuks swept out of the east, and not even the Arabs, who rebuilt that crumbling pile in the days of Abu Bekr, knew what hands reared those massive bastions among the frowning foothills of the Taurus. Now, since the old keep had become a bandits hold, men called it Bab-el-Shaitan, the Gate of the Devil, and with good reason.

The Blotting Book

E.F. Benson

The Blotting Book ends with a murder story, but this is not a detective story. There is one amazing feature of this story that sets it apart from the others. The focus of the work is the human character and state, not action and history. This is an older writing style, and the author makes a compassionate analysis of human weakness, without being picky and offering no excuse for bad moral behavior.

The Blue Castle

Lucy Maud Montgomery

One of the only L.M. Montgomery books featuring an older heroine, The Blue Castle is widely hailed as a reader favorite and is filled with humor and romance. Valancy Stirling is 29, unmarried, and has never been in love. She lives a drab life with her overbearing mother and prying aunt. One day, an unexpected medical diagnosis changes everything for Valancy and, for the first time in her dull grey life, she rebels. From then on things begin to change. Rebelling against her family she soon discovers a surprising new world, full of love and adventures far beyond her most secret dreams.

The Blue Daffodil

Fred M. White

The story begins in the London home of John Garnstone, an elderly bachelor and antiques dealer. Garnstone is an enthusiastic gardener and grows a plant of incalculable value, a blue daffodil, on the roof of his house. One of the nights his body is a secretary. A lot of weird events happen after that.

The Bomb-Makers

William Le Queux

Being some Curious Records concerning the Craft and Cunning of Theodore Drost, an enemy alien in London, together with certain Revelations regarding his daughter Ella The pair had been discussing certain schemes to the detriment of the English: schemes which, in the main, depended upon the crafty old Drosts expert knowledge of high-explosives.

The Bond of Black

William Le Queux

In this story I have dealt with an extraordinary phase of modern life in London, which to the majority will come as a startling revelation. Some will, perhaps, declare that no such amazing state of things exists in this, the most enlightened age the world has known. To such, I can only assert that in this decadent civilisation of ours the things which I have described actually take place in secret, as certain facts in my possession indisputably show.

The Book of all Power

Edgar Wallace

A really top-notch literary thriller from Edgar Wallace. The story is set in Russia and England around the time of WW1. We follow a 22-year-old man on his first assignment for a Russian-English oil company as he becomes embroiled in intrigue and romance involving a beautiful Grand Duchess, American mobster Cherry Bim, and the influential Israel Kensky and his magical book of all power. It is through Hays eyes that we see the steady erosion of the existing Russian aristocracy and the rise of the proletariat. The novel really belongs to Hay and his circle of confederates. A high-spirited romp through the Russian Revolution with the aid of more coincidences than you can shake a stick at and a good dose of dramatic licence.

The Books of Bart

Edgar Wallace

Best remembered for penning the screenplay for the classic film King Kong, author Edgar Wallace was an astoundingly popular luminary in the action-adventure genre in the early twentieth century. Born into poverty as an illegitimate London child, joining the army at 21, he was a war correspondent during the Second Boer War for Reuters and The Daily Mail. This early work by Edgar Wallace was originally published in 1923. The Books of Bart is a novel of relationships and double-crossing. As the novel is rather short and quite fast-paced with a lot of scenery-changes and adventures, this nice. Highly recommended!

The Border Legion

Zane Grey

Only the love of the young Miss Joan Randle can melt the cold heart of Jack Kells, ruthless leader of a gang of desperados terrorizing the American borderlands. His cold eyes filled her with fear, but her goodness made something happen deep within him. Kells had a price on his head and on his heels. Now loving this woman could cost him his life...or it could make him a hero in this wild, dangerous land. There are classic Western elements: likable outlaws, the wild frontier, gold fever, and a damsel in distress. But there is also humor, romance, and a happy ending. Written in 1912, it reflects its time period. The heroine is spunky and virtuous, the villains are horrible but capable of redemption.

The Borgia Cabinet

J.S. Fletcher

The protagonist, a detective, was sent to Oldersike estate to investigate the sudden mysterious death of Sir Charles Stanmore. His goal is to find the culprit. His future depends on it. But when he arrives at the crime scene, he finds little evidence, which complicates his investigation...

The Borough Treasurer

Joseph Smith Fletcher

The Borough Treasurer (1921) by J.S. Fletcher is a tale of blackmail, murder and a secret quarry. He has quite a large cast of interesting characters in this one, and manages to bring them all to life with great detail. This novel tales place in an obscure small town by the Yorkshire moors an ideal spot for two ex-cons to start life over. Messrs. Mallalieu and Cotherstone were outsiders who had built a prosperous business in Highmarket and even been elected as Mayor and Treasurer of the borough. But when an ex-detective moves to town, 30 years of respectability is suddenly threatened by revelations from the past. How far will two upstanding citizens go to keep their past a secret?

The Boss of the Lazy Y

Charles Alden Seltzer

The story concerns a complicated, angry, daredevil son, Calumet Marston, who returns to his boyhood homestead to find his hated father dead and a stranger, a woman named Betty, in charge. Her family had aided his father, and now she is "the boss". He also left a testimony which states that Calumet must give a practical demonstration of reform in character if he wants to inherit his fathers money, and Betty is the one to be the judge of that. Written in the style of the early writers of the modern western, this is a vivid story of the depths to which any person can sink without discipline, charity and love. A classic story that is considered to be Seltzers best work with action and romance trailing at every turn.

The Bostonians. A Novel

Henry James

The action revolves around three characters: a young and beautiful maiden who travels around America with fiery speeches about the importance of women; her mentor, a lonely and cold lady who despises the whole male race. Different ideals are presented by the rivalry of Olive Chancellor and her cousin Basel Ransom for influencing the young girl Vera Tarrant, who has a strong oratorical gift. The social plan of this novel is concluded in the struggle of the conservative views of the southerner Ransom with the irreconcilable supporter and active participant in the movement for womens emancipation. Olive found in her young protege a strong instrument of influencing public opinion through her oratorical abilities.

The Box with Broken Seals

E. Phillips Oppenheim

The Box with Broken Seals is a thrilling cat and mouse murder mystery following the narrative of Jocelyn Thew and the English Service. This skillfully written and an exciting espionage story of intrigue, unfolding in the Oppenheims best style. The reader will follow with avidity the daring moves of Thew from the time he sails from New York on the City of Boston, accompanied by a dying man and a special nurse in the person of Katharine Beverley, a society girl who is under special undisclosed obligations to Thew. The eventful trip across the Atlantic and the attempts of an agent to outwit his enemies in England lead to the climax which will surprise even the inveterate Oppenheim reader.

The Boy Fortune Hunters in China

L. Frank Baum

The fourth in a series, The Boy Fortune Hunters in China appeared in 1909, published by Reilly & Britton under Baums pseudonym, Floyd Akers. Unlike most of L. Frank Baums work, the series is told in first person narrative by the protagonist, 16 year-old Sam Steele. Sams father is a sea captain who was reported killed in a shipwreck. After being cheated of his inheritance, he finds his uncle and they set sail in the Pacific. Here, Sam Steele and his two pals, Joe and Archie, have fished a wounded Chinese Prince out of the ocean. Prince Kai Lun Po rewards the boys with detailed directions on how to plunder his family tomb of its treasure and he gives them his blessing to do so. All the boys have to do is get to China, hoodwink the palace staff, and get past Fo-Chu, the Sacred Ape that guards the treasure! Come adventuring with young Sam on one of his most exciting and dangerous adventures in China!