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Edgar Wallace
The hapless Heine is trying very hard to be a good German spy in Great Britain during WWI but luck and circumstance are not with him. Every adventure turns out poorly for our dear spy. This collection of stories of Edgar Wallace about Heine was published during WWI and should be taken lightly by readers some may see it as a piece of anti-German propaganda, with Heine as a bit of a hopeless idiot. But the stories are also entertaining and should be read as such. Although these stories of German spy Heine are all linked and follow on from each other it is still very much a short story collection rather than a novel.
Frank L. Packard
Wealthy millionaire by day, at night Jimmie Dale put on a costume and becomes The Grey Seal, daredevil safe cracker and footpad he never takes a thing, but leaves behind his mark, a grey seal of paper to mark his conquest. He was just doing it for the sheer deviltry of it at first, but when a woman catches him she blackmails him to war on certain crime organizations. Frank Packards Gray Seal character first appeared in print in 1914. In some ways he was inspired by earlier Edwardian adventurers like A.J Raffles, the Scarlet Pimpernel, and Arsene Lupin, but Packard blended those borrowed elements into an entirely new concept. Dales adventures first appeared in Peoples Magazine and then were collected into several novels.
The Adventures of Kirby ODonnell
Robert E. Howard
One of Robert E. Howards lesser known fictional characters, Kirby ODonnell is an American treasure hunter in early-twentieth century Afghanistan disguised as a Kurdish merchant, Ali el Ghazi. Ali el Ghazi is a master of edged weapons, fiercely intelligent, tigerishly quick, and a merciless killer when threatened. Kirby ODonnell is similar to another of Howards characters, El Borak, in many ways. However, ODonnell seeks hidden treasures in all of his stories (Swords of Shahrazar, The Treasures of Tartary, The Curse of the Crimson God) while El Borak is more concerned with his own form of justice and stability in Afghanistan. There are betrayals, vicious swordfights, hot pursuits through brutally harsh Himalayan terrain, a hidden treasure and enough spilled entrails to satisfy the most discerning Howard fan.
The Adventures of Martin Hewitt
Arthur Morrison
Who else could have so quickly connected a partial sheet of music wrapped around a rock and tossed through a sitting room window with an infamous decades-old robbery? Would anyone else have taken seriously the fears of an eccentric old woman who swore thieves were after her most prized possession: a snuffbox fashioned from the actual wood of Noahs Ark? Englands greatest crime-solver Martin Hewitt uses his superior intellect and genial charm to unmask thieves, murderers, and dangerous fanatics. The Adventures of Martin Hewitt stories are well written with the usual detective story tropes a sidekick narrator, baffled police, all the clues within the narrative, the announcement followed by the detective explaining his brilliance.
The Adventures of Mr. Joseph P. Gray
E. Phillips Oppenheim
Joseph P. Cray is an American manufacturer who has just completed a year serving coffee to the troops in France during World War 1. He is motivated by good will, and also to escape his American second wife who is the head of a temperance organization. With sybaritic glee, he returns to London, dons civilian garb, and enjoys his first cocktail. He is soon joined by his daughter, the beautiful Lady Sara Sittingbourne, who lives in London. Together the two seek adventure in the form of crimes foiled, jewels recovered, spies uncovered, and plots smashed. Edward Phillips Oppenheim was an English novelist, in his lifetime a major and successful writer of genre fiction including thrillers.
The Adventures of Romney Pringle
Cliffford Ashdown
From the author of the Thorndyke detective stories. The stories follow the adventures of Romney Pringle, a gentleman con man, thief and master of disguiseswho is not above using his keen observation and wits to track down other criminals. These twelve tales conjure up the authentic atmosphere of Victorian London and offer a thrilling alternative to the ascetic honesty of Sherlock Holmes!
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - a collection of short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, a British writer and medical doctor. He created the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are considered milestones in the field of crime fiction. This collection of stories consists of: A Scandal in Bohemia The Red-Headed League A Case of Identity The Boscombe Valley Mystery The Five Orange Pips The Man with the Twisted Lip The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle The Adventure of the Speckled Band The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet The Adventure of the Copper Beeches
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Illustrated Edition
Arthur Conan Doyle
Illustrated edition with original illustrations by Sidney Edward Paget, a famous British illustrator, best known for his illustrations that accompanied Arthur Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes stories in The Strand magazine. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring his fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. All of the stories are told in a first-person narrative from the point of view of Dr. John H. Watson, Holmes friend, assistant and sometime flatmate.
The Adventures of Tyler Tatlock, Private Detective
Dick Donovan
Dick Donovans detective was considered a great rival to Holmes. For a time his detective stories were as popular as those of Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Tyler Tatlock, Private Detective is a thrilling collection of mystery and adventure tales (21 in all) including The Queensferry Mystery in which a series of remarkable house burglaries take place during the winter months in Edinburgh. This series also includes Sherlockian titles such as The Sign of the Yellow Star, The Band of Three and The Clue of the Silver Jug.
Earl Derr Biggers
Geoffrey West falls in love at first sight with a girl in a hotel breakfasting with her father. Theyre all Americans, but the scene is London on the eve of the Great War. Both Geoffrey and his ladylove Marian are reading the personals (The Agony Column) of the Daily Mail. Later that day he has an idea to place an ad to catch her attention, and vows to send her a letter each day for a week to win her heart. Each letter becomes more interesting than the previous because West finds himself entangled in a murder mystery with new twists each day. To say more about what transpires would spoil the fun. The lightness of the story contrasts interestingly with the grim mood of England as Germany mobilizes.
The Almost Perfect Murder. A Case Book of Madame Storey
Hulbert Footner
Beyond the City explores the relationships between the residents of three adjoining homes. The cast of characters includes a widowed doctor with two daughters, a retired admiral with a wife and son, and a feminist living with her nephew. Destiny brings these three peculiar households together in the placid English countryside. The desire for money and romance drive these Victorians beyond the natural boundaries of their middle-class lives. As the web of lust and deceit draws these accidental neighbors ever closer, a financial scandal befalls one of them. An outside rank pirate is linked somehow to one of the neighbors. Who could it be? In this work, Conan Doyle exhibits the practiced subtlety and complexity for which he has become so well known.
E. Phillips Oppenheim
This is a very early novel by E. Phillips Oppenheim from 1897. The wealthy and bored Lord Hildyard, Marquis of Esholt, is on a yachting tour with a group of friends, including his kept lover, Pauline Owston. When Hildyard spies an apparently uninhabited island, he slips off the ship in search of adventure. In the middle of the night, he hears wonderful violin music and finds a young and beautiful girl, Bertha, playing in the forest. She is accompanied by a cruel and misshapen dwarf. Enchanted, Hildyard stays on the island, where he finds an old college chum, Stanley Owston, the estranged husband of the actress, who is the guardian of the girl, and the owner of the island. The adventures are continuing...
E. Phillips Oppenheim
E. Phillips Oppenheim wrote most famously of secret agents and duplicitous diplomats, secret treaties and international conspiracies, moonlit Riviera casinos, Swiss hotel suites, perilous yacht trips, and glamorous trans-European express trains. Known in his time as the Prince of Storytellers, Oppenheim, like the brand names of todays best seller lists, offered readers in the first half of the 20th century a steady, predictable, and entertaining supply of pop fiction. The Amazing Partnership is one of E. Phillips Oppenheims most intriguing stories. This story deals with a young man and a young woman who make an informal partnership in criminal investigation.
Anna Katharine Green
On the night of his wedding, Sinclair flosses a precious curiosity from his collection: an amethyst box, containing a tiny flask of deadly poison and he feels sure it can only be one of two people, his intended wife, or her cousin, Dorothy. He goes to his friend Mr. Worthington and together they fight against time to find who has the poison and stop them using it. Too late, whoever took it has used it and now there is death in the house, is it suicide or murder? The Amethyst Box written by one of the greatest mystery writers of all time Anna Katharine Green and originally published in 1905. She was one of the first writers of detective fiction in America and she is credited with shaping detective fiction into its classic form, and developing the series detective.
Edgar Wallace
Conventional ideas of beauty are typically associate it with goodness and kindness. However, appearances can be deceptive. A classic mystery crime novel involving the evil deeds of one Jean Briggerland, a woman with all the outward angelic qualities imaginable but possessing an unspeakable evil nature, so lovely that none can see her guilt even in connection with the most blatant crimes! Jean uses her criminal connection to climb to the heights of wealth and power, but lawyer Jack Glover may be the first to catch her in the act. Everyone is blinded by her charm and beauty, except for Jack, who knows the crimes she has committed. Can Jack Glover stop her? Like almost all of Wallaces novels, it was an immediate bestseller.
E. Phillips Oppenheim
Yet another collection of linked short stories from Oppenheim. By chance a young man and woman meet and set up an agency to aid Scotland Yard, but is romance in the air? This story deals with a young man and a young woman who make an informal partnership in criminal investigation. This whodunit murder mysteries collection brings to you some of Oppenheims finest murder mysteries to keep you at your toes: The Evil Shepherd Murder at Monte Carlo, or Wolves Amongst the Honey, The Glenlitten Murder and others. Phillips Oppenheim 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.
Edgar Wallace
Over a period of time, men disappear, and later their heads are found. Meanwhile a young actress in a small part in a film on location, is disturbed by the actions of the owner of the place where they are filming. A detective comes to investigate, and finds many puzzling things going on. Several of the characters are suspicious, in one way or another, and as the plot unfolds, it grips you. Edgar Wallaces The Avenger is a perfectly fine example of what a page-turning thriller looked like, early in the last century. What Edgar Wallace has over modern writers is the willingness to insert a girl-snatching, sapient orangutan in his plot. Surely the seeds for his King-Kong screenplay can be found here.
The Battle of Basinghall Street
E. Phillips Oppenheim
The story of a young man, Lord Sandbrook, who takes revenge against the directors of a company he holds responsible for the deaths of his father and mother. The battlefield is Basinghall Street, where the offices of Woolito, Limited, are situated. A textile business is the center of strange machinations suicides, failures, conflagrations, disaster to various directors, finally a raid on the stock, and the president is a ruined man. In this story Mr. Oppenheim takes a vacation from international intrigue in a Monte Carlo setting and devotes himself to describing a big business battle in London. The story is told with the usual Oppenheim flourish, a great deal of action, many details of personality and adventures.
Guy Boothby
This novel, filled with lots of action and romance, talks about the exploits of an attractive criminal mastermind who steals the heart of the main character of a fairy tale. The heroine is a first class woman. She is smart, beautiful, commanding and respected. She is all that a leader should be, demonstrates courage in the face of danger, and has never even been portrayed in any way not ideal.
J.S. Fletcher
The main character in the story is a detective story. He is investigating a mysterious murder. Detective and young Richard Marchmont soon discover that there is a triangle of financial intrigue that needs to be unraveled before the truth can be found out, and that in the hour of crime, not one suspicious person was hiding near the Marchmont house, but several.
S.S. Van Dine
The Benson Case is the first case, the first detective from the Philo Vens series. Again, we are dealing with an amateur detective who has his own Watson and Lestrade, a first-person narrator who is present at all events and a good acquaintance of Vance, the New York City Police Attorney Markham. In this book, he still does not particularly believe in Vances ability to psychologically unwind potential victims of murder suspects.
E. Phillips Oppenheim
Guy Ducaine is a recent graduate of Oxford University. Through a series of unfortunate events he is penniless and starving in the rural town of Brasters. Seeking to make a few shillings, he schedules a lecture on local history. On the same time, Lord Rowchester invites the officer and explorer Colonel Mostyn Ray to the village to speak. Ducaines lecture fails and he returns to his small house and collapses from hunger. Found there by Ray, and Rowchesters lovely daughter, Lady Angela, they revive him and set in motion a complicated, entertaining, and devious plot. With many twists and turns Ducaine eventually works as secretary to a War Preparations Committee which is chronically leaking plans to the enemy and saves the nation!
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. The Big Four is a story packed with intrigue, treachery, assassinations, and machinations, and it highlights Wallaces unmatched skill in setting a pulse-pounding pace. 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. Many of his novels were made into films and TV dramas.
Eimar ODuffy
Eimar Ultan ODuffy (29 September 1893 21 March 1935), born in Dublin in 1893, was a novelist, poet, playwright and satirist. The Irish Theatre Company produced two of his plays, and a later play Bricrius Feast was published, though not produced, in 1919. His other publications include The Wasted Island (1919), King Goshawk and the Birds (MacMillan, 1926) and a series of mystery novels including The Bird Cage, Asses in Clover and The Secret Enemy. In The Bird Cage, a murdered man is discovered in a bedroom at the Grand Hotel in Spurn Cove, an English seaside resort... This is the first American edition of a mystery novel by an Irish writer. Eimar ODuffys mysteries give you just enough information to get you drawn into the story and enough twists and turns to keep you guessing. Highly recommended for fans of mysteries!