Kryminał

The Stars in Their Courses

Mary Cholmondeley

Gertrude was a great astrologer and spoke in astrological terms. She told the protagonist (after the wedding) that when she discovered that Jimmys moon in the house of marriage was in a semi-sextile with her Venus, she knew from the very beginning that their union was inevitable. The stars are rarely wrong.

The Step on the Stair

Anna Katharine Green

I had turned the corner at Thirty-fifth Street and was halfway down the block in my search for a number I had just taken from the telephone book when my attention was suddenly diverted by the quick movements and peculiar aspect of a man whom I saw plunging from the doorway of a large office-building some fifty feet or so ahead of me.

The Steward

Edgar Wallace

This early work by Edgar Wallace was originally published in 1932. Wallace was an extremely prolific writer who wrote over 175 novels, plus numerous plays, essays and journalistic articles. During the peak of his success during the 1920s, it was said that a quarter of all books read in England were written by him. In England, in the 1920s, Wallace was said to be the second biggest seller after the Bible. Many of his novels were made into films and TV dramas. The Steward is a collection of short stories that include The left Pass, The Little Baroness, Solo and the Lady, and many more. The stories are fast-paced with some surprising twists, well written and great to read and definitely a product of their time and place.

The Stoat

Lynn Brock

We meet a man named Margesson, who suffers from a mentally ill wife and two harmful children. Unfortunately, Margesson will soon not only die, but also his offspring. Traveling to Ireland the author was Irish plays a decisive role in understanding the strange sequence of events that are deeply rooted in the past. The darkness of Brocks books is more fashionable these days than when they were written, but his sometimes dense, sometimes elliptical style confronts him.

The Strange Boarders of Palace Crescent

E. Phillips Oppenheim

Mr. Roger Ferrison has just returned to London after several years of living rough in Canada. He takes a small room in the boarding house run by Mrs. Dewar. There he meets the bewitching invalid Fiona Quayne who rapidly develops a consuming passion for Ferrison. Meanwhile, back at the Boarding House, Colonel Dennett is murdered. One suspects from the very beginning that not all of the boarders at Mrs. Dewars establishment in Palace Crescent are what they appear to be, and Mr. Oppenheim does not attempt to hide for long the existence of some secret and probably criminal bond between Mrs. Dewar and some of her boarders. The sensational theft of a Jewelry collection, missing Indian rubies, and the lackadaisical intervention of Scotland Yard all contribute to the plot.

The Strange Countess

Edgar Wallace

This genuine mystery story takes the reader from one exciting adventure to another with all the adroitness and ingenuity of Mr. Wallaces previous successful books. One is left gasping with suspense as the many clues are unraveled only to be followed by others still more stubborn. A beautiful woman has spent twenty cruel years in prison, for a suspected murder. Her daughter learns of the relationship after a chance visit at the jail. The true facts are known only after the discovery of nefarious plots to kill the daughter, visits to the home of royalty, and enforced stays at a so-called home for mental cases. This early work by Edgar Wallace was originally published in 1925. The Strange Countess is a mystery novel by this prolific author of detective fiction.

The Strange Lapses of Larry Loman

Edgar Wallace

Larry Loman is a member of the Criminal Investigation Department of New Scotland Yard. While on a special assignment in Asia he contracts a form of malaria that causes him to suffer character-changing bouts of amnesia for up to eight hours at a stretch. When Larry is assigned to deal with the Crime Trust, a syndicate which has gathered just about every crook in England into one organization, his periodic blackouts result in all sorts of unforeseen complications. However, he eventually breaks the Trust, and his disease goes into remission. The Strange Lapses of Larry Loman is an enjoyable mystery short story by Edgar Wallace with some surprising twists, well written and great to read.

The Strangers Gate

E. Phillips Oppenheim

This is a mystery novel surrounding German intrigue and bauxite mining in typical Oppenheim style. E. Phillips Oppenheim was the self-styled prince of storytellers and composed some one hundred and fifty novels, mainly of the suspense and international intrigue nature, but including romances, comedies, and parables of everyday life. In this one, Beverley, a handsome tycoon, operates an unknown bauxite mine in mythical kingdom of Orlac, and wages a battle of wits against German secret agents and the extravagant king when another mine is discovered. Beverley sides with a pauper Prince, on whose property the metal is found, and with his sister.

The Stretelli Case and Other Mystery Stories

Edgar Wallace

This early work by Edgar Wallace was originally published in 1930. The Stretelli Case and Other Mystery Stories is a collection of short stories, some also published in other collections of Wallaces works. This volume includes: Code No. 2, Red Beard, The Man Who Killed Himself, The Mediaeval Mind, and many more. This is a nice collection of eleven short stories loosely classified as mysteries; while thriller elements are certainly present in most of them, the stories, with one exception, are indeed mysteries of one sort or another. Several stories feature detectives per se; most of them have people under pressure who must decipher baffling situations in order to correct deformations in the social structure.

The Substitute Millionaire

Hulbert Footner

A multimillionaire Silas Gyde was killed by an anarchists bomb and Jack Norman found himself Silas Gydes sole heir and the richest man in New York. The inheritance included a warning from his benefactor about an elaborate protection scheme promising to protect the wealthy from anarchists, in which Gyde had declined to enroll. Jack enlists a out-of-work actor to take on his own identity, while he, in the guise of Jack Normans secretary, works furiously behind the scenes to break up the gang and unmask their leader Mr. B.

The Sundial

Fred M. White

John Charlock had found out that all he had longed and hoped for since the early days was nothing more than vexation of spirit. Charlock made his way upwards. He had known what it was to starve. He often slept in parks. And now everything has changed, and he has become almost unsurpassed as a portrait painter. Glory and happiness came to him thanks to his brush and pencil. And at the same time, he seems to have found the only woman who could make him happy.

The Survivor

E. Phillips Oppenheim

A striking romantic novel of 1913 of a young Englishmans uphill fight. Douglas Guest is an orphan, raised by a stern, religious, and uncompromising uncle, Gideon Strong, in the North of England. His uncle orders him to marry his cousin and take up the post of cleric in their small town but he confronts his uncle, takes money which was intended for his education, and escapes to London. On the train, he meets the beautiful Countess Emily de Reuss, who takes an interest in him. Douglas has aspirations to be a writer in London but is frustrated when no publisher will buy his work. Emily has spread the word that no one should support him. Meanwhile, his uncle is found murdered, and his two cousins, Cicely and Jane, have come to London to find the murderer.

The Sword of Damocles. A Story of New York Life

Anna Katharine Green

A young pianist falls in love with a rich bankers sixteen year old daughter after she requests to meet him in mildly mysterious circumstances. Her father will only let her marry someone with lots of money and, would you know it, hates music. The pianist decides to stop tickling the ivories and become a rich banker too. One of detective fiction master Anna Katharine Greens earlier novels, The Sword of Damocles combines a budding romance set against the backdrop of New York Citys hustle and bustle with a beguiling mystery. Here, the author tells the story of early 1900s lovers facing many of the moral dilemmas from that era. Greens best-known creation, master detective Ebenezer Gryce, makes a cameo appearance on the scene.

The Table

Edgar Wallace, Robert Curtis

Here is Edgar Wallaces famous stage-play as told by Robert Curtis in story form with all the dramatic excitement and suspense that thrilled theatre-goers. Robert Curtis was the private secretary to British crime writer Edgar Wallace. Curtis and Wallace met for the first time in 1913, before parting following the outbreak of World War One, as Curtis had to do his military service. In 1918 he was reunited with Wallace who employed him as his secretary, he had the task of copying out Wallaces dictations, this task he accomplished at such a speed that he was known as the fastest secretary in England. After Wallaces death, he completed some of Wallaces unfinished manuscripts and turned several plays and film scripts into novels in the style of Wallace as well as writing several original novels.

The Talleyrand Maxim

Joseph Smith Fletcher

The Talleyrand Maxim" belongs to the pen of an outstanding British journalist and writer Joseph Smith Fletcher. Linford Pratt is a suave and clever law clerk looking for a chance to better himself. Opportunity knocks when he gets possession of a rich mans will that would mean the ruin of the present heirs. His thoughts turn to blackmail, since he assumes the wrongful heirs would pay a high price to hang onto their wealth. Pratts personal hero is the subtle, wily diplomat Talleyrand. Self-interest is Pratts guiding principle. We watch him pondering, planning and scheming his way through one complication after another. This is a gripping detective story, with many twists and turns, based in Edwardian England. It is definitely recommended for a wide circle of readers who want to have a couple of hours of fascinating reading.

The Teeth of the Tiger

Maurice Leblanc

The Teeth of the Tiger was written in the year 1914 by Maurice Leblanc (translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos). 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. This is one of three novels about Lupin written in World War 1. Complicated murder mystery in which Arsene Lupin, in his guise as a Spanish nobleman, gets embroiled in an inheritance mystery involving a beautiful woman. Lupin is s sincere hero who has failings, which ender him to the reader. This romance and adventure/thriller is by far the best of the Lupin series and is one of the most popular novels of Maurice Leblanc, and has been translated into several other languages around the world.