The Hole in the Wall

Arthur Morrison

Morrison, a novelist and short-story writer, is most often remembered for a series featuring the detective Martin Hewitt, but before that, he wrote several grim and violent books about life in the London slums. The Hole in the Wall is one of the most gripping adventure stories ever written. Stephen Kemp goes to live with his mysterious grandfather after his mothers death, and is gradually drawn into the seedy world which Captain Nat Kemp inhabits. The author brilliantly conveys the childs sharp observation of all that goes on around him, and builds up portrait of the picaresque life of the East End of London at the turn of the 20th century with humanity and humor he himself may have known as a boy. It is considered a classic of English story-telling and worth a read.

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 Cheerful Smugglers

Ellis Parker Butler

Ellis Parker Butler was an American author in the first half of the 20th century. He was the author of more than 30 books and more than 2,000 stories and essays, and is most famous for his short story Pigs is Pigs. His writing spanned more than forty years and his stories, poems and articles were published in more than 225 magazines. More of this popular authors fun, a bundle of absurd complications and ridiculous situations arising from a young married couples scheme to provide funds for their year-old sons education. They decide to finance their babys college education by collecting a toll on any goods brought into their home by friends or family members. The Cheerful Smugglers is a veritable Stocktonian story, as delightfully absurd in theme as it is realistic in characterization.

The Island of Sheep

John Buchan

Sir Richard Hannay, retired mining engineer, lives a comfortable suburban life outside London, but feels old age and stodginess coming on and longs to have his mettle tested again. He gets his chance when a promise he made years ago in Rhodesia, to protect the son of an old acquaintance from a sinister conspiracy, and the action moves rapidly from England through the Scottish Borders to the Island of Sheep in the remote Norlands, where Hannay and his friends turn at last to confront their enemy. In this, his final adventure, Buchans hero Richard Hannay becomes embroiled in one of the most hazardous escapades of his life. This novel contains what all of Buchans yarns contain: peril, action, heroism, dastardly villains, powerful manly friendships, a hint of romance, references to the classics, British pluck in the face of danger, can-do youngsters, picturesque country folk...

The Pathfinder. or The Inland Sea

James Fenimore Cooper

In the third installment of the Leatherstocking Tales, Cooper takes his main character, here called the Pathfinder (Natty Bumppo) and examines his role as an explorer for British/Colonial forces in the forests and islands around the Great Lakes. The story is a classic historical adventure/romance and Bumppo falls in love, for the first and only time in the five novels, only to see his choice fall in love with another man a younger man and good friend of Nattys. The Pathfinder remains a classic and entertaining account of the American wilderness and of aspects of human experience in the New World. Probably the best of the five Leatherstocking novels.

Equality

Edward Bellamy

Equality is a utopian novel, and the sequel Looking Backward: 2000-1887. The main character from 1897 wakes up in 2000. Everything seems unusual to him. He learns that women are free to participate in the same auction as men. Gold coins become useless. Now vegetarians, and the thought of eating meat is perceived with disgust. How now to go back and whether to return at all?

No Mans Land

H.C. McNeile

The story of real men who sacrificed themselves for the sake of their homeland and family. McNeile pays attention to people, their psychological state. Great attention to how things are in the trenches of soldiers. About how terrifying they could be and how long stretches of boredom punctuated by moments of terror could break any man after a while.

The Little Green Man and Other Stories

Edgar Wallace

The Little Green Man and Other Stories is an excellent collection of mystery stories by Edgar Wallace. These are fast-paced, with good twists and turns, an unusual criminal scheme and a little romance. Edgar Wallace was a British novelist, playwright, and journalist who produced popular detective and suspense stories and was in his time "the king" of the modern thriller. Wallaces literary output 175 books, 24 plays, and countless articles and review sketches have undermined his reputation as a fresh and original writer. 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.

Am Jenseits

Karl May

Kara ben Nemsi ist mit Hadschi Halef Omar und dessen Familie unterwegs nach Mekka. Unterwegs müssen sie einige Abenteuer bestehen. Auf einer Reise durch die arabische Wüste stoßen sie auf einen geheimnisvollen blinden Seher. Sie helfen dabei, den heiligen Schatz der Glieder zurückzuerobern, was wiederum zur Folge hat, dass sie bald darauf von Beduinen angegriffen werden und Kara gefangengenommen wird. Ein wirklich lesenswertes Buch, auch abgesehen von seinem Abenteuercharakter.

LAgence Barnett et Cie

Maurice Leblanc

Un détective privé de Lagence Barnett et Cie apparaît quand linspecteur Béchoux a besoin de laide. Il révéle le criminel, sauve les victimes... et tout cela gratuitement! Il sait toutes les subtilités du monde daventures. Un voleur aux multiples facettes, connaissant les faiblesses de chacun, manipulant la population sa guise, ombre parmi les ombres... Arsene Lupin nous séduit encore dans ces huit histoires passionnantes o le criminel est toujours puni et Barnett toujours enrichi

Madame Chrysantheme

Pierre Loti

Madame Chrysantheme Pierre Loti est une combinaison inhabituelle dun travail superbement écrit et dune dureté morale indescriptible. Cest lhistoire dun marin français en vacances Nagasaki, au Japon, qui arrange une épouse temporaire avec laquelle il peut passer du temps jusqu ce que son navire reparte.

Maradick at Forty. A Transition

Hugh Walpole

This is a novel with catchy locations and characters. A man in a midlife crisis travels to a remote Kornish village with his wife. The strange happy village, where drunkenness is widespread and people are very open, begins to influence the actions of visitors up to a change in their character. The very strangeness of history guarantees that it will remain in memory for a long time.

Poppy Ott and the Tittering Totem

Leo Edwards

A number of boys are ambitious to form a career for themselves in journalism and its various industries, and trusting friendship and willingness to give advice as the protagonist began this work. In other words, the main characters must have a great desire to do this. If they have a desire, naturally, they will continue to try. Boys travel to Wisconsin very often with their elders. These adventures are remembered by many readers.

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.

Pontifex, Son and Thorndyke

R. Austin Freeman

Dr.Thornedykes methods of detection are characterised by investigations of apparently irrelevant facts and lengthy explanations of his train of hypothetical reasoning. In this novel, Dr. Thorndykes ability to identify fish scales and rope material sets his investigation in motion. The crime is the murder of an aristocrat staged to look like a suicide. There are really two stories alternating, which eventually become one. We watch Dr. Thorndyke follow a thin and improbable trail of forensic evidence. And we observe the seemingly unrelated adventures of a stationers delivery boy, who innocently gets in the way of a cutthroat gang. Dr. Thorndyke calls Jasper after hearing his amazing story. The complex, gripping and rather romantic plot once again demonstrates the greatness of A. Austin Freeman as a writer of totally engaging and original crime fiction.

Crucial Instances

Edith Wharton

Originally published in 1901, Crucial Instances is the second collection of six short stories connected, as the title suggests, by a hinging moment in the narrative through which the plot alters dramatically. The contents included the following: The Duchess at Prayer, The Angel at the Grave, The Recovery, Copy: A Dialogue, The Rembrandt, The Moving Finger and The Confessional.This is a great collection of stories, where Edith Wharton shows her wide range of talents, from those with a bit of a horror feel, to ones which just make the reader feel good. There is one Dialogue or play, several written in third person, several in first person, written from a mans point of view and some from a womans. All of them are carefully crafted to show a particular attitude or character or scene in great detail. Highly recommended!