Kryminał
Hulbert Footner
The novel begins with the fact that Phil Nevitt, an employee of an American alcoholic beverage company, goes to Annunziata, the mythical island of Futners creation in the West Indies, to learn everything he can about the Randall Trantora rum. The Obeah Murders show their fantastic roots with so many genre influences (spy, western, adventure, supernatural and detective). In the end, however, the race issue was the most surprising and, ultimately, the most important aspect of the book. More Footner reviews will appear later this summer.
Emmuska Orczy
The late nineteenth and early twentienth century were a fecund period for classical mystery writers. Among the most popular was Baroness Emmuska Orczy. The Old Man in the Corner contains twelve of the stories by Baroness Orczy featuring the mysterious man who sits in the corner of the ABC tea shop fiddling with a piece of string whilst working our the solutions to crimes that have baffled the police. Each case is unfolded during the course of a conversation between the man in the corner and a lady journalist, an ingenious method that avoids the necessity of a clumsy tacked-on explanation of the crime. Relying solely on his vast Holmesian powers of deduction, the strange looking sleuth never deigns to visit the scene of the crime, question a suspect, or examine clues. Nor does he have much faith in conventional police methods and crime solving capabilities.
Fred M. White
In Woodside Manor, there was an old servant a terrible man, almost ninety years old, with thick white eyebrows and sharp black eyes who recalled the tragedy Silas Brooks, the valet of the unfortunate Arundel Secretan. But even he never spoke about it, but only listened when the story was mentioned with suspicion and hatred, flashing in his evil dark eyes. The servants said he was crazy that the recollection had turned his brain. One day, many years ago, he told this story, and never heard of mentioning it again. Arundel Secretan had too much of a swashbuckler in his blood...
The Old Stone House and Other Stories
Anna Katharine Green
A young girl named Juliet, draws the boys in a small village after her, and along the way a rich Colonel, whose love for her reaches farther than anyone would have expected. She also hooks a fiery, unstable man named Orrin. The Colonel gets her to swear she will marry him as soon as he finishes a stone house for her, while Orrin tries something secretive to win his love. The narrator is a former lover of Juliet, and what he tells of is a twisted tale of a selfish woman and an evil man, decide for yourself which man is the villain... Short stories written by Anna Katharine Green. This well-written collection also includes: A Memorable Night, The Black Cross, A Mysterious Case, Shall He Wed Her? . Each one contains a mystery and a romantic involvement in the plot, and some have a twist ending.
The Oppenheim Omnibus. Clowns and Criminals
E. Phillips Oppenheim
Another great collection of stories from the British author E. Phillips Oppenheim who achieved worldwide fame with his thrilling novels and short stories concerning international espionage and intrigue. A best-selling author of novels, short stories, magazine articles, translations, and plays, Oppenheim published over 150 books. He is considered one of the originators of the thriller genre, his novels also range from spy thrillers to romance, but all have an undertone of intrigue. The Oppenheim Omnibus: Clowns and Criminals (1931) is one of Oppenheims most intriguing works. Here we have all the elements of blood-racing adventure and intrigue and are precursors of modern-day spy fictions. Highly recommended for people who like to treat a mystery story as a solvable riddle!
Joseph Smith Fletcher
This novel takes place in the London parish of Paddington. The story opens with the murder of an old Jewish pawnbroker. Our Scottish hero, Andrew Lauriston, a penniless aspiring writer, has the misfortune of finding the body, and is accused of killing and robbing the old man. But then its found the pawnbroker had had in his possession an extraordinary South African diamond worth over eighty-thousand pounds a diamond thats now missing. It falls to Melky Rubenstein to unravel the mystery and prove the young mans innocence. This is a great tale which you can immerse yourself in and will appeal to anyone who likes the old style crime/ mystery novels.
Edgar Wallace
This decent collection presents short stories that include The Mind-Readers, The Sirius Man, The Couper Buckle, and many more stories featuring Chief Inspector Oliver Rater, written by a famous British author Edgar Wallace.? ne of the stories are told in the third person, but one is told by Rater himself, which is unexpected. The stories are fast-paced with some surprising twists, well written and great to read but definitely a product of their time and place. 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. He provides a thrill of another sort!
E. Phillips Oppenheim
This is another great novel by Edward Phillips Oppenheim, the prolific English novelist who was in his lifetime a major and successful writer of genre fiction including thrillers and spy novels, and who wrote over a 100 of them. He composed some one hundred and fifty novels, mainly of the suspense and international intrigue nature, but including romances, comedies, and parables of everyday life. The Ostrekoff Jewels is the story of a Russian prince, princess and the end of the Russian Revolution that is taking place around them and involves the smuggling out of a familys hereditary jewels. They attempt to flee, which appears to be successful, at least at first. Loosely based on the Romanovs reign in Russia.