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Edgar Wallace
Edgar Wallaces novels always have an endearing quality about them that is not so easy to define. Daughters of the Night is hard to explain in a few words, but there are the usual Edgar Wallace characters: the hero, the heroine, the suspicious but beautiful woman who is somehow involved in the whole plot, the hard-faced and fiendish villain and a chivalrous one. Jim Bartholomew is a young manager of a branch of the South Devon Farmers Bank with a love of hunting, horses and a dislike of routine. What does he have in common with Margot, the beautiful Mrs. Markham and a handsome American? And what do the Daughters of the Night the three Roman deities who brought punishment to evil-doers have to do with this tale?
The Day of Temptation. A Story of Two Cities
William Le Queux
The style ofThe Day of Temptationis very melodramatic and overwritten adjectives and adverbs abound to the confusion of the reader. The book is very much set in high society and sometimes reminds me of the immortal Daisy Ashford Im sure books like this were among her inspiration.
Edgar Wallace
Edgar Wallace established his reputation as a writer of detective thrillers, a genre in which he wrote more than 170 books, with the publication of The Four Just Men. Moreover, the author was a wholehearted supporter of Victorian and early Edwardian values and mores, which are now considered in some respects politically incorrect. In England, in the 1920s, Wallace was said to be the second biggest seller after the Bible. The Day of Uniting by Edgar Wallace was originally published in 1930 and features a World War One ace as the lead detective who tries to solve a mystery. The story is fast-paced with some surprising twists, well written and great to read.
The Day. Or The Passing of a Throne
Fred M. White
Many stories by Fred M. White have a spy theme. This story is no exception. The events take place during the First World War. Two men, Manuel and his young companion Luigi, are on a mission. The men have a problem: namely, a German wireless transmitter that they desperately wanted to find and stop.
Wilkie Collins
The mistress of the old estate the Portgen Tower dies, leaving a dying letter in which she makes a fatal confession. The discovery of this secret can have truly tragic consequences for all the inhabitants of the estate. But the maid, hoping to keep the peace of her masters, hides the letter in the old abandoned room of the castle the Dead Room. Many years will pass before the Dead Room will part with its terrible secret.
William Le Queux
Some year and a half ago, my friend and erstwhile neighbour. Dr. Archibald More dEscombe, died suddenly, and shortly after his decease I received from his solicitors a sealed packet addressed to me in his handwriting, with instructions that it was not to be opened until after his death.
Hulbert Footner
The Deaves Affair by Hulbert Footner. A millionnaire family is attacked by a blackmailer. They will be ruined if he always succeeds. A young struggling artist in New York City Evan is engaged to protect the old man from the crowd and from their blunders. But he had to play the role of a detective to help this family to discover the romantically inclined mystery in this affair. Will he succeed?
Carolyn Wells
If you like Golden Age locked room mysteries this is a good one! Deep Lake Mystery (1928) by Carolyn Wells, author of The Clue, is set in the lake region of Wisconsin. Our narrator Gray Norris is invited to join his old friend, the detective Keeley Moore, and his new wife at their vacation cottage at Deep Lake, Wisconsin for a relaxing month of fishing, swimming, boating, and just getting away from the hustle and bustle of the East Coast. That goes by the wayside when one of the Moores neighbors, a millionaire Sampson Tracy, is found murdered in a locked room with a nail driven into his skull and his corpse festooned with bizarre ritualistic items, and other seemingly meaningless articles. Find the motive and you find the criminal!
E. Phillips Oppenheim
The adventures of Mr. Stanely Brooke, The Deliberate Detective. E. Phillips Oppenheims detective Stanley Brooke unearths the strange and criminous underbelly of London, but the greatest challenge he tackles is how to capture the heart of his beautiful but grim partner, Constance. This detective contributed to the foundation of the genres history. The collection also includes the following stories: The Rescue of Warren Tyrrwell, The Princess Pays, The Other Side of the Wall, The Murder William Blessing, The Disappearance of Monsieur Dupoy, The Spiders Parlor, The Silent People, and The Glen Terrace Tragedy.
Edgar Wallace
Edgar Wallaces 1931 novel The Devil Man is the mysterious and thrilling story of Charles Pearce, an small, unnerving, musician, gifted but terribly boastful. Pearce is physically repulsive, tiny in stature, but a Samson in strength. Woman cant resist him, but they dont know the real Pearce. He is also a burglar. And a murderer. There is a baffling mystery that someone urgently needs to solve... Full of dispense, action and amusing characters, The Devil Man constitutes a veritable page-turner that fans of crime fiction wont want to miss. Interesting novelized biography of Charles Pearce, an infamous 19th century British burglar.
Fred M. White
The Devils Advocate, like some Fred M. White stories, begins with a love story. On arrival at Hierfield, David Macrae meets Philippa Goldfinch and falls in love with her. However, it was not easy to win her heart from the beginning. David Macrae is a pretty successful writer. The story begins so beautiful, romantic. But, will it end the same good way?
E. Phillips Oppenheim
Julian Orden, son of a British aristocrat attends a dinner party and meets Catherine, a young woman of mixed antecedents British and Russian. She is entrusted with important documents. When she is suspected of being a spy and arrested, she saves herself by giving the papers into the keeping of young Orden. A beautiful, intelligent young woman is she a traitorous spy or a patriot? These two characters become caught up in a plan by the leaders of the working people of Germany and England to force a premature end to World War I. Secret agents, an international conspiracy, and the threat of war make The Devils Paw a thrilling tale of romance and adventure!
H.C. McNeile
Readers will be the interlocutors of our heroes. They gather in the Dinner club and tell stories related to their professions. Members of the club are different people: actor, lawyer, doctor, soldier, writer and ordinary person. Every member of this club is obliged from time to time to treat their fellows with dinner. The stories of these people will surprise you in a pleasant way.
E. Phillips Oppenheim
Lord Evelyn and a group of seven like-minded esthetes make up The Ghosts a cabal of social arbiters, of whom the mere mention is regarded as a faux pas. They are imbued with almost mystical power in setting tastes and trends and behavior for the members of Society in London in 1908. Desperate for stimulation The Ghosts embark on a risky program of wealth redistribution... other peoples wealth. Meanwhile, a spurned aspirant to their club, the American debutante Sophy Van Heldt, seeks revenge against them. Originally published in 1908 as The Ghosts of Society this intriguing novel carries the theme of social boredom, ennui, and sensation craving which entranced late Victorian Europe in the pre-war period.
The Doctor, His Wife and the Clock
Anna Katharine Green
A mystery filled with guilt, love and anger led to death. The story is about Ebenezer Gryce, a young, energetic and determined police detective who is entrusted with the investigation of the high-profile murder of Mr. Hasbrouck, a wealthy and influential resident of the Colonnade in Lafayette Place. The only real clue is provided by the victims wife. She woke from a deep sleep and thought she was dreaming. She soon realized that her husband wasnt next to her in bed. While she was looking for him, she heard a voice say from across the dark room, God! What have I done! , which was quickly followed by footsteps and the front door closing. Enjoy this 7th Mr. Gryce book.
The Doctor of Pimlico. Being the Disclosure of a Great Crime
William Le Queux
A grey, sunless morning on the Firth of Tay. Across a wide, sandy waste stretching away to the misty sea at Budden, four men were walking. Two wore uniformone an alert, grey-haired general, sharp and brusque in manner, with many war ribbons across his tunic; the other a tall, thin-faced staff captain, who wore the tartan of the Gordon Highlanders. With them were two civilians, both in rough shooting-jackets and breeches, one about forty-five, the other a few years his junior.
Hulbert Footner
As well as penning some of the most popular detective fiction, Conan Doyle also wrote thrilling adventure stories. Rodney Stone is a combination of both. Nelson, Beau Brummell, Fox and King George III himself appear in a tale at the heart of which is, as one character says, a pretty conspiracy a criminal, an actress and a prize-fighter, all playing their parts. The book is narrated by Rodney, in 1851 thinking back over the events 1803, when Rodney was 17 and his best friend, Boy Jim, was 19. This is the year Rodneys uncle comes to introduce the boy to London society. Sir Charles is a dandy, and a friend of Beau Brummell and the Prince of Wales. But Rodneys father has hopes for his son going into the Royal Navy. Boy Jim also has a life decision to make. He has been raised by Champion Harrison as a blacksmith, but after befriending an alcoholic ex-actress, he yearns to see more of the world, at least London.
Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Isabelle Sliford is a young girl who dreams of the books she reads and lives to read them. She sees life through the eyes of Brion, Shelley, Shakespeare and Dickens. George Gilbert, a handsome young doctor, sees that she and she are so different from the girls he knows, falling in love with her. He is pragmatic, and she is a dreamer of all that is beautiful, which causes the gulf between them.
Edgar Wallace
A short but interesting detective story. Dick Martin plans for an early retirement from the police force seeking a quite life. His final job is to bring in Lew Pheeney, wanted in connection with a bank robbery. When Lew confesses to trying to open a dead mans tomb, however, Martin has a mystery he must unravel. He races to find the connection between an attractive young librarian, a mad scientist and the vanished heir to a vast fortune, as everyone becomes entangled in a web of fraud, deceit, torture and murder. What dangers did he face in understanding the mystery behind the door with seven locks? Combines a mystery thriller plot with considerable dashes of gothic horror, and just the faintest hint of science fiction.
Arthur Morrison
English writer Morrison chronicles the exploits of Horace Dorrington, a raconteur and scoundrel who hails from a very different social strata than the typical Victorian detective. Mr. Dorrington himself is a marvelous creation, charming and with no moral scruples whatsoever, clever, and entirely devoted to achieving as great a profit for himself as possible if this involves doing some honest detection, that is fine if it involved extorting the criminal instead of turning him over to the police, no problem, if it involves having the client murdered well, some things cant be helped. There are six short stories in this collection which begins with The Narrative of Mr. James Rigby. Definitely fun and recommended for readers who want to explore the darker side of Victorian detective stories.
Edgar Wallace
One of the most prolific writers of the twentieth century, Edgar Wallace was an immensely popular author, who created exciting thrillers spiced with tales of treacherous crooks and hard-boiled detectives. The Double is a story about a man who encounters his unknown double and the trouble that arises. When Dick Staines joined the police force the big case of the day had been the Staines murder. The only clue was an unknown thumb-print, the case was never solved. Ten years later and Detective Inspector Staines investigating a curious burglary in fashionable Belgravia finds a thumb-print on a glass. The strangest of murders with surgical overtones confronts Dick Staines our Cambridge educated detective.
The Double Life of Mr. Alfred Burton
E. Phillips Oppenheim
Alfred Burton, a smooth-talking salesman, is having a perfectly ordinary day on the job when he stumbles across a strange plant with green leaves and a cluster of queer little brown beans hanging down from them in an old house. The virtue of the beans is that he who eats one shall see nothing, think nothing, say nothing but the truth. Alfred Burton has a well-meaning, rather ordinary wife who becomes unendurable to him, and he falls in love with a charming girl who would have no appeal for the man he formerly was. What Alfred really doesnt realize is that the fruit of the plant, when eaten, will change not merely the entire course of his life, but in fact his very self.
E. Phillips Oppenheim
The Double Traitor is an espionage novel set in the days leading to the first World War. The main character is Francis Norgate, an aspiring British diplomat who falls in disfavor with his superiors for defending a woman while stationed in Berlin. The resulting scandal causes Norgate to be recalled. On the way home, he meets a German gentleman, Selingman, who claims to be a crockery salesman. But, Selingman is not what he appears to be. Disillusioned by the English government, Norgate allows himself to be recruited by Selingman. Oppenheim tells a good story a little romance, a little adventure turn of the century tales of success and failure, gain and loss.
S.S. Van Dine
This is the seventh book about the detective Filo Vance, in which, as always, he skillfully investigates an unusual case. One of the guests gathered in a comfortable estate for the weekend dives into the pool and does not leave it in front of several people. Neither the search for divers or the descent of water yields results: a person disappears without a trace. And, although many are interested in the death of the unfortunate, the suspicion seriously falls on the dragon.