XYZ. A Detective Story

Anna Katharine Green

A brief early American detective novella written in 1883 by Anna Katharine Green that tells the story of a detective who arrives in a small town in Massachusetts in an attempt to investigate counterfeiters possibly connected to a series of mysterious letters addressed only to X Y Z. While he is questioning the postmaster, he learns of the Benson family and their super secretive lifestyle. They are rich and reclusive. The detective feels there is something amiss and switches his investigation to them the letters and counterfeiting is dropped. That eventuates in murder. He steps into the very shoes of the person being framed for the crime, with some interesting results.

Bunner Sisters

Edith Wharton

Originally published in 1916, but actually written in 1890, Bunner Sisters is a compelling, heartbreaking little novella about two sisters, who have never been apart, struggling to eek an existence as small shopkeepers on the margins of late nineteenth-century society in New York. They barely make enough money to live on. But when Ann Eliza the elder buys Evelina the younger a clock that does not work for her birthday, the sisters commence a relationship with Herbert Ramy, who operates a queer little shop, setting in motion a series of events that will prove to be everyones undoing. Edith Wharton provides a vivid description of the life of shop keepers and their friends in the poorer urban areas of New York City.

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby

Charles Dickens

Nineteenth century England. When Nicholas Nicklebys father dies and leaves his family destitute, his uncle, the greedy moneylender, Ralph Nickleby, finds Nicholas a job teaching in a repulsive school in Yorkshire. Nicholas flees the school taking with him one of the persecuted boys, Smike, and they join a troop of actors. Nicholas then has to protect Smike, while trying to stop his Uncle Ralph taking advantage of his sister Kate, and later his sweetheart, Madeline Bray, whose father is in debtors prison. A young, compassionate man struggles to save his family and friends from the abusive exploitation of his cold-hearted, grasping uncle. After many adventures Nicholas finally triumphs over his Uncle, although his success is also tinged with sadness.

Biały wódz Indian

Thomas Mayne Reid

Młody, ubogi farmer Carlos przenosi się wraz z matką i siostrą z północy Stanów Zjednoczonych na tereny pogranicza meksykańskiego, aby osiedlić się i uprawiać ziemię. Szybko los styka go z Indianami zamieszkującymi te tereny. Co wyniknie z tego sąsiedztwa? Jak Carlos odnajdzie się w nowej sytuacji? Seria dramatycznych wydarzeń zmusi go do dokonania wyboru i opowiedzenia się po jednej ze stron konfliktu.

The Last of the Plainsmen

Zane Grey

Unlike many of Greys fictional novels of the old west, this is an account of a trip made to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon about 1908, for the purpose of tracking and capturing mountain lions. Buffalo Jones was the last of the famous plainsmen who rode the trails of the old West. In a continuing quest to establish dominion over wild animals, Jones leads his men on a journey to capture untamed cougars and bring them back alive. After several run-ins with Navajo, Commanche, Yellow Knife and Great Slave Indians, Jones finally captures his first wild cougar. The story is riveting with many details of the Arizona high desert and Grand Canyon areas of that era and gives a wonderful account of the Ponderosa Pine forest now known as the Kaibab National Forest.

Nevada

Zane Grey

First published in 1926 and 1927, Nevada, the suspenseful sequel to Forlorn River, continues to be one of Zane Greys most beloved novels. Four years after Nevada had killed three men to clear his friends name, Ben and Nevada are reunited, but fate again plays a mean trick, and Nevada becomes Jim Lacy again killer, thief, rustler, and notorious gunman in order to save Ben from financial ruin. In Nevada, another romantic couple comes along, Marvie Blaine, and the daughter of backwoods rustlers, Rose Hatt. The primary action of this novel is in Arizona, where the forces of good and evil clash as honest ranchers are threatened by pernicious rustlers. All conflicts are resolved, and loving-kindness breaks out at the end of the novel after the gunfight.

Ród Rodrigandów (Tom 2). Ród Rodrigandów. Rozbójnicy z Maladety

Karol May

Kolejna z fascynujących opowieści z sagi rodu Rodrigandów. Rozgrywające się w Meksyku i w Hiszpanii wydarzenia nieustająco zachwycają czytelników dynamiczną akcją, licznymi przygodami i tajemnicami, od których dreszcze przechodzą po plecach. Opowieść o majątku, sfingowanej śmierci, podstępach i intrygach również dziś zapewni czytelnikom znakomitą rozrywkę.

Tiny Carteret

H.C. McNeile

One of the few full-length novels by Sapper, in which the Bulldog Drummond does not appear. He does, however, show the second most important character, Ronald Standish. The two most intelligent characters were villains, but their schemes and plots remained mysterious for most of the novel. We are also told that all victims die from the same poison from a small scratch on the body, although the exact poison is nobody known. This is an unusual novel, which is full of mysteries.