A Tale of Two Cities. A Story of the French Revolution

Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities is the second historical novel by Charles Dickens and it is one of his most tragic works. The plot centers on the years leading up to the French Revolution and culminates in the Jacobin Reign of Terror. The novel, first and foremost, follows several characters including Charles Darnay, a French once-aristocrat who falls victim to the indiscriminate wrath of the revolution despite his virtuous nature, and Sydney Carton, a dissipated British barrister who endeavors to redeem his ill-spent life out of his unrequited love for Darnays wife Lucie Manette. Other major characters include Dr. Manette (Lucies father), who was unjustly imprisoned in the infamous Bastille for many years under a lettre de cachet, and Madame Defarge, a female revolutionary with an implacable grudge against the aristocratic Evremonde dynasty. Here we see how general people can overthrow a government if they are tormented continuously. At the same time, this novel tells a love story too with special emphasis on the sacrificial attribute of Sydney Cartons character.

Death of an Airman

Christopher St. John Sprigg

When George Furnace, instructor of the Baston Aero Club, is found dead in the wreck of his crashed plane, everyone assumes it was a tragic accident, even though he was a skilled airman. An Australian visitor to the Aero Club, Edwin Marriott, Bishop of Cootamundra, suspects that the true story is more complicated. Could this be a dramatic suicide – or even murder? The intrepid Bishop and Inspector Bray of Scotland Yard make an appealing pair of detectives, and ultimately a cunning criminal scheme is uncovered. Death of an Airman is an enjoyable and unorthodox whodunit from a writer whose short life was as remarkable as that of any of his fictional creations.

What Men Live By and Other Tales

Leo Tolstoy

A small work describes the whole life, the meaning of all life on this Earth. The point is that people live by God, people love, they have a heart, they live not for their needs, not for their own good. And it simply struck the appearance, the rebuke of the Angel, how he watched everything, how he smiled at the hearty people who have faith. As a person blossoms after doing good, and faith becomes even stronger.

The Sinister Man

Edgar Wallace

A mystery novel classic by Edgar Wallace with so many twists and turns it becomes utterly baffling by the end. Superintendent Wills investigates the murder of a man found floating in the River Thames, it appears the victim was a archeology Oxford professor, murdered over three small fragments of an ancient text, working on the deciphering of some very rare tablets which if they fall into the wrong hands could cause major problems for one Asian country. He had previously been studying an archeological artefact known as the Kytang Wafers, and this is now missing. Highly recommended for people who like to treat a mystery story as a solvable riddle!

The Room with the Tassels

Carolyn Wells

It had seemed an idyllic way for a group of wealthy New Yorkers to spend a summer month, researching the supernatural in a reputed haunted mansion in the depths of Vermonts Green Mountains. That is until two of their number are mysteriously struck down at afternoon tea. Could the supernatural be at the heart of these deaths? Or did humans do the deed. This is the riddle that the famed detective Pennington Wise must unravel as they tries to discover what happened in... The Room with the Tassels. The Room with the Tassels marks the debut of occult detective Pennington Penny Wise and his female sidekick Zizi. Carolyn Wells created this younger crime fighting duo after the success of her Fleming Stone books. As her twelfth mystery novel, The Room with the Tassels marks a maturity of writing from the author of The Clue.

The Seventeen Thieves of El-Kalil

Talbot Mundy

From the point of view of a serious expert on the events, Jimmarg holds control over the situation to try and prevent bloody fighting in Jerusalem and elsewhere. It involves some trick, which makes some deals that you can not abandon with Ali Baba, the descendant of different generations. Lots of tension, a lot of camels and James Shuiller Thunder coolly do their thing.

The Bravo of London

Ernest Bramah

The Bravo of London is a book in the Max Carrados series. Also, Max Carrados will be followed by The eyes of Max Carrados in 1923, The Specimen Case in 1924, Max Carrados Mysteries in 1927, and The Bravo of London in 1934. Max Carrados is a blind detective who uses his remaining senses in such a way that his blindness is often not immediately apparent to others. Working with his old friend, Louis Carlyle, a private investigator, the wealthy Carrados pursues his talent for detection whenever he pleases without accepting a fee. It is the first appearance of the blind sleuth Max Carrados whom, accompanied by his faithful but not always insightful Carlyle, was created as a rival to Sherlock Holmes and quickly found a strong following amongst readers.

The Blonde Lady. Being a Record of the Duel of Wits Between Arsene Lupin and the English Detective

Maurice Leblanc

If you enjoy the Sherlock Holmes series, then Arsene Lupin will be another detective series for your library. Leblanc was a French novelist and short story writer known for creating the character Arsene Lupin, who is the French counterpart to the English Sherlock Holmes. In The Blonde Lady: Being a Record of the Duel of Wits between Arsene Lupin and the English Detective the great French gentleman thief and the formidable English unofficial consulting detective go head-to-head in a series of Alien vs Predator-style skirmishes. If in the last story of Arsene Lupin, gentleman-burglar Sherlock Holmes arrives too late, in the two stories that compose The Blonde Lady these two great intellects are bound in opposite directions. Where one chooses to abide to the law, the other uses his power and wits to crime and who is going to win?