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E. Phillips Oppenheim
Sir Francis Kernham has returned from 10 years in the colonies where he has made a fortune. He is looking for Marcia, the struggling young actress who shared his misery in a Chelsea boardinghouse. He searches everywhere for her, fearful of what she may have become, only to discover by chance that she has also elevated herself and is now the Princess Hohenmahn, married to an elderly debauched member of royalty. Will they now find love and happiness together, or has time and truth forged bonds of a different sort? The fate of these characters is strictly Victorian. The novella gives an interesting picture of late Victorian society, the role of wealth and art, and the state of society in London just prior to the arrival of the automobile, and struggle for womens rights.
Arthur J. Rees
Arthur J. Rees is a past master in the art of fashioning ingenious mystery-detective yarns and The Moon Rock is one of his best. The authors many admirers will find keen enjoyment and many puzzling moments in their endeavors to solve the mystery. Robert Turold had spent his life trying to prove his claim to an ancient title. Yet, when it seems he is about to finally succeed, his body is found in a remote cottage on the Cornish coast, an apparent suicide. Detective Brannert of Scotland Yard, however, suspects murder. His young daughter, his long-time servant, his brother and nephew all have something to gain by his death. This fast-paced detective story unfolds through the tangles of complicated family ties and secrets, suspicious servants, and a mysterious Cornish legend.
Wilkie Collins
A diamond is stolen from the English country estate of Lady Verinder and the renowned Sergeant Cuff is brought in from London to help solve the case. The diamond, said to bring bad luck to its owner because it was stolen from a temple in India, was given to Lady Verinders daughter, Rachel, on her 18th birthday. It was bequeathed to Rachel from her uncle (who stole it when he was a young soldier) on his death. The story unfolds through several narrators, all of whom know a piece of what happened. As each of them writes his or her side of the story, the reader gets just a little more information that helps to solve the mystery. You can see things invented here that were directly borrowed by future writers: Holmes overconfidence (and his use of London urchins as agents); Agatha Christies exploration of narrative reliability.
Edgar Wallace, Robert Curtis
The novel of Edgar Wallaces famous play told by Robert Curtis in story form with all the dramatic excitement and suspense. In the shady setting of a solicitors office on the East End waterfront a plan is evolved all quite legal to get hold of a large American legacy bequeathed to an English girl. Murder is planned and tried: kidnapping, incarceration in a London barge, a dash for freedom, the intervention of the river police and knock-out drops all play their part in the unfolding of the tale which keeps its suspense to the last in as swift-moving a sequence of events as ever Edgar Wallace at his best devised. It is a case where the Yard was best not to call them in for reasons best known to the characters in the story as the reader will find for himself.
E. Phillips Oppenheim
Uncommon Oppenheim novel tells a strong story of the complicated love affairs, thrilling and mystifying revelations in the life of a young occult. Mr. Henry Rochester is an honest and honorable landowner in rural England. One evening he is walking his estate when he happens across the boy who is meditating on a hillside, and after a conversation, takes it into his head to give the boy money and see what hell make of himself. Unfortunately, he also tells the boy that if he fails, hed be better off killing himself. Seven years later the boys has become Mr. Bertrand Saton, a mystical adventurer, adopted son of the Comtesse Rachael, and ravisher of female London. The two become enemies, with several women at stake in the contest. Henrys wife, Lady Mary; his ward Lois, and his great love Pauline.
Aidan de Brune
Meet the famous Australian author Aidan de Brune and his latest mystery The Murders at Madlands. Eight persons are assembled in the dining room of the palatial home of Sir Rupert Haffervale, Sydneys business magnate. Five of them are his associates, prominent men in the life of the city. The sixth is the star reporter of a big daily. The occasion is the formal handing over of control of a huge trust to Sir Ruperts niece and heiress on her coming of age. At noon, as the knight is about to conduct his niece to the head of the table he falls forward with a bullet through his heart. The fatal shot was undoubtedly fired by someone in the room, yet no report was heard. Who was the murderer?
William Le Queux
We were standing together in the small shabby bedroom of the boarding-house wherein I lived in Granville Gardens, facing the recreation ground close to Shepherds Bush Railway Station. The stifling July day was at an end, and the narrow room was lit by the soft hazy glow of the fast-fading London sunset. Through the open window came the shouts of children at play upon the green opposite, mingled with the chatter of the passers-by and the ever-increasing whirr of the electric trams. Within that faded, smoke-grimed chamber of the dead was silence. Upon the bed between us lay the dead strangerthe man who was a mystery.
William Le Queux
We all got up from tea in the hall, made our way to the drawing-room, and thence into the morning-room, which opened out of it. There was plenty of daylight still. James came in after us, and went straight up to a framed panel portrait which stood with others on a small table in a remote corner. It showed a tall handsome, clean-shaved man of three or four and thirty, of fine physique, seated astride a chair, his arms folded across the back of the chair as he faced the camera.