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E. Phillips Oppenheim
If you havent discovered the joys of Oppenheims mysteries there is a good place to start. Wealthy playwright and playboy Jermyn Annerley is smitten by the beautiful and talented actress Sybil Cluley. She is very successful but her life is devoted to the care of her young sister who has been ill. At Jermyns country estate, Sybil runs into Lord Lakenham, a roguish playboy who is equally in love with her, but also knows something of her past. Jermyn proposes, much to the chagrin of his lovely cousin Lucille, who has had her eye on him for many years. Lakenham and Lucille conspire to end the engagement. Sybil is broken hearted, but puts her sisters welfare above her own. Then Lakenham is murdered in the billiard room. A romance has become a murder mystery.
Fred M. White
Lanson Place has always been famous for its magnificent history and beauty. Today, Lanson Place consists of half a dozen rooms, simple shells, hidden behind thick shafts of stone covered with climbing plants. Twenty years ago, a catastrophic fire destroyed most of Lanson Place. This is a tragic story about a cunning family. Two generations of reckless Dorns had wrecked the fortunes of the family and brought themselves to the verge of ruin.
S.S. Van Dine
This is the last Filo Vance novel, and it is actually not finished. Vance possessed a surprisingly vast and accurate knowledge of thousands of Willards arts and objects, and was also skeptical of life and society. But in reality, only those who superficially know Willard Huntington Wright will have this similarity. Vance as much as he was Wright.
G.K. Chesterton
In Chestertons second Father Brown book, The Wisdom of Father Brown, we get a series of bizarre, sometimes dangerous mysteries that Father Brown must puzzle out. Some of the crimes are simple once Brown explains them, but others are devious, chilling things that are wrapped in Chestertons poetic prose. In the stories that follow, the priest investigates many other mysteries: a sinister voodoo cult, a nobleman with a deformed ear, a gang of Italian thieves, a lie-detector with one major problem (the operator), a girl who is blackmailed for a crime nobody knows she committed, a burning tower, a murder that may be suicide, and a man who is under a horrible death curse. Father Brown solves things by observation and thought, in some ways like Poirot, but in an unassuming and modest manner. The stories are each very different, but are very good reading.
Hulbert Footner, Hulbert Footner
A woman goes on a secret errand into the far Northwest. Before it is accomplished the usual characters come into the story Indians, mounted police, and the villain. Written by Hulbert Footner who was an Edmonton journalist and travelled the northwest before it was settled. Published in 1921, it is a fascinating eye-witness view of the times and attitudes of northern trappers and traders, including the colonial view of Native Peoples.
The Woman from the East and Other Stories
Edgar Wallace
Novelist, playwright and journalist, Edgar Wallace, is best known for his popular detective and suspense stories which, in his lifetime, earned him the title, King of the Modern Thriller. This early work by Edgar Wallace was originally published in 1934. The Woman From the East and Other Stories is an enjoyable collection of short stories that include The Chopham Affair, The Hopper, The Silver Charm, and many more. As the stories are rather short and quite fast-paced with a lot of scenery-changes and adventures, this nice. Its all great fun and Wallace keeps the action moving along swiftly, as he always did. If you havent discovered the joys of Wallaces thrillers there is a good place to start. Highly recommended.
Anna Katharine Green
The Woman in the Alcove is the third book in the Caleb Sweetwater series. The spinster-detective in the novel is Miss Van Arsdale, a member of the high society in New York and a woman who is short and plain in appearance. Against all odds, Rita Van Ardsdale has landed the man of her dreams and is blissfully in love. But her shot at happily ever after seems to be fading when her fiancé is accused of murder. It falls to Rita to crack the case and clear her beloveds name. Is she up to the task? It is one of the real masterpieces by Anna Katharine Green and a true gem of the genre of detective fiction, a well-written and refreshing story full of action, but without any violence being involved (apart from the murder it revolves around, of course).
Wilkie Collins
Often considered one of the first mystery novels, The Woman In White follows protagonist Walter Hartright, an art teacher, as he has a mysterious late night encounter on a London street with a lost woman, dressed all in white, who he later finds out had escaped from an asylum. The figure of this woman and the words they exchanged during their meeting come to haunt Walter, even as he accepts a job at Limmeridge House outside of London to instruct heiress Laura Farlie in art. Walter soon recognizes the astonishing resemblance between Laura and The Woman In White, and finds out that the mystery woman also used to live near Limmeridge and has connections to the Farlie family. A tragic, haunting tale about mistaken identities, unbelievable selfishness and cruelty, bust also true love and persevering friendship. A true classic.
Maurice Leblanc
A chance encounter irrevocably alters the course of one mans life, and the tensions between France and Germany boil over... In The Woman of Mystery, Leblanc paints a wonderful tale of WWI in France, twined together with the mystery surrounding the murder of main character Pauls father. Maurice Leblanc became famous for the creation of Arsene Lupin, a gentleman thief and master of disguise. Leblanc was born to a wealthy family, studied law, worked as a police reporter for a time, then found his career as a fiction writer. While LeBlanc wrote much other fiction, it was the Lupin series which made him internationally famous, the French equivalent of Arthur Conan Doyle.
Edgar Wallace
When Ferdie van Wyk was arrested for being found in the barracks of the Larkshire Regiment under suspicious circumstances, he very naturally objected to being marched through the one little street of Simons Town by a military escort.
E. Phillips Oppenheim
A breathtaking tale of intrigue, romance, and revenge from one of the twentieth centurys most prolific and popular authors of suspense. The Wicked Marquis is a story of privilege and the attempt to keep what has been lost. Marquis will go to any length to get enough money to enjoy his title, including forcing one of his daughters to marry an unsuitable candidate with money. Although this novel was published in 1919, its setting and subject is more consistent with a pre-war period. The morality of the Marquis, and his attitude towards other people, is clearly a product of the 19th century. The droit du seigneur is even invoked several times in the story. There is an interesting interplay among the characters regarding the evolution of morals, the rights of women, the effect of rigid moralism, and religious inflexibility.
Edgar Wallace
Edgar Wallace was a prolific author of crime, adventure and humorous stories, whose best known creations include The Four Just Men, Sanders of the River, and J. G. Reeder. Although Wallace wrote many stand alone novels it is, perhaps, for his series based material always popular with readers that he remains best known. The Worst Man in the World is an entertaining tale of mystery and intrigue, this volume constitutes a must-read for lovers of crime fiction. Although these experiences are told in story form, they represent the personal narrative of one who served many terms of penal servitude, and were related to the author, who met with this remarkable convict a few days after his last release from prison.
E. Phillips Oppenheim
The mystery by E. Phillips Oppenheim (1866-1946) starts out in the Sierra Nevada mountains, 500 miles from San Francisco, at a gold mining camp. Bryan came to America from England, chasing a man who may have papers which explain Bryans mysterious origins. Enter heroine, the beautiful orphan Myra Mercier who is arriving to the camp where women are not allowed. Murder and mayhem ensue before the pair escapes to San Francisco. Bryan abandons Myra and travels back to England alone, where he takes up residence in the country, near the home of Lady Helen, the ward of Lord Wessemer. Bryan seeks to improve himself, and his status, in order to win the hand of the beautiful, but cold, Lady Helen. Finally, Myra makes her way to England as a actress, and Bryan decide who to wed.
E. Phillips Oppenheim
E. Phillips Oppenheim (1866-1946) was an internationally renowned author of mystery and espionage thrillers. His novels and short stories have all the elements of blood-racing adventure and intrigue and are precursors of modern-day spy fictions. 1924s The Wrath to Come is one of his novels that are fascinating extrapolations of the political dangers that faced Europe and America in the first half of the twentieth century. This novel is very occasionally mentioned as being the weird book that seems to predict WWII. Written in the lull between the two great wars it postulates a German/Japanese alliance and the main plot revolves around Britain trying to shanghai America into foreign intrigue. The novel is extremely exciting reading and Oppenheim keeps the action moving along swiftly, as he always did.
Fred M. White
A young, ambitious lawyer, Jack Masefield has his own problems and suspicions. He is in love with a beautiful young Clair and is convinced that her guardian, the famous criminologist Spencer Anstruther, is himself a criminal and plays some kind of mysterious game, and that posters on the streets are part of his scheme. This book captures from the start. And each page that you flip reveals new and new secrets.
E. Phillips Oppenheim
A detective and very mysterious story. Mr. Sabin is called out of blissful retirement to search for his missing wife. He believes Lucille to be kidnapped by members of a secret society of aristocrats. It is interesting to watch Mr. Sabin control himself and walk with such dignity and aristocratic bearing and tact, even as he plots to save his own life and reunite with his beloved Lucille. The Yellow Crayon presents a fascinating picture of the political mindset of the day to go along with the twists and turns of the story. Readers of Mr. Oppenheims novels may always count on a story of absorbing interest, turning on a complicated plot, worked out with dexterous craftsmanship.