The Agony Column

Earl Derr Biggers

Geoffrey West falls in love at first sight with a girl in a hotel breakfasting with her father. Theyre all Americans, but the scene is London on the eve of the Great War. Both Geoffrey and his ladylove Marian are reading the personals (The Agony Column) of the Daily Mail. Later that day he has an idea to place an ad to catch her attention, and vows to send her a letter each day for a week to win her heart. Each letter becomes more interesting than the previous because West finds himself entangled in a murder mystery with new twists each day. To say more about what transpires would spoil the fun. The lightness of the story contrasts interestingly with the grim mood of England as Germany mobilizes.

Bealby. A Holiday

Herbert George Wells

A charming tale of a young recalcitrant boys wanderings through England. Full of humour. It is a light tale, and one of Wells that holds up the best. Though young Bealby is determined to rise above his mothers servant status, no amount of struggle helps him to prevail. He reluctantly leaves his home for Shonts, a big country house, to work as a stewards boy. But a fateful weekend visit by distinguished personages, including the strange yet captivating Lord Chancellor, may give Bealby the opportunity to change his fate in this social comedy. What follows is an adventure that Bealby will not soon forget. First published in 1915 Bealby was originally entitled Bealby a Holiday.

Masks Off at Midnight

Valentine Williams

Trevor Dene and his wife are looking forward to attending a masked ball in Lavra, a Long Island mansion owned by the wealthy Tallifer family. But the problem is brewing in the form of a prolonged feud with local businessman Brent Hordern. Resenting the way Tallifers use their new money, and decided to marry their daughter Jenny, Horder swore to attend the ball at all costs.

The Almost Perfect Murder. A Case Book of Madame Storey

Hulbert Footner

Beyond the City explores the relationships between the residents of three adjoining homes. The cast of characters includes a widowed doctor with two daughters, a retired admiral with a wife and son, and a feminist living with her nephew. Destiny brings these three peculiar households together in the placid English countryside. The desire for money and romance drive these Victorians beyond the natural boundaries of their middle-class lives. As the web of lust and deceit draws these accidental neighbors ever closer, a financial scandal befalls one of them. An outside rank pirate is linked somehow to one of the neighbors. Who could it be? In this work, Conan Doyle exhibits the practiced subtlety and complexity for which he has become so well known.

Ambrose Lavendale, Diplomat

E. Phillips Oppenheim

The usual little throng of Americans, journalists, men of business and loiterers, were occupying their accustomed chairs in one corner of the long, green-carpeted room. Around the bar, would-be customers were crowded three or four deepmany of them stalwart Canadians in khaki, making the most of their three days leave, and a thin sprinkling of men about town on their way to lunch in the grill-room adjoining. On the outskirts of the group was a somewhat incongruous figure, a rather under-sized, ill-dressed, bespectacled little man, neither young nor old, colourless, with a stoop which was almost a deformity. His fingers were stained to the tip of his nails as though by chemicals or tobacco juice. He held the glass of vermouth which he had just succeeded in obtaining from the bar, half-way suspended to his lips. He was listening to the conversation around him.

The Dagger and Cord

Aidan de Brune

The dead body of a beautiful girl in a disused house, the secret meeting room in the cellar, a baffling murder mystery... The Dagger and Cord is another mystery by Aidan de Brune (Herbert Charles CULL). Its all great fun and the author keeps the action moving along swiftly, as he always did. Wonderful entertainment and highly entertaining. If you havent discovered the joys of Brunes mysteries there is a good place to start. Aidan De Brune was a Canadian-born writer who settled in Australia. In the 1920s and 1930s a number of his novels appeared in Australian newspapers as serials, and he also appears to have written serials specifically for publication in newspapers.

Almuric

Robert E. Howard

The creator of Conan looks to the stars in one of fantasys most enduring science fantasy classics! Robert E. Howards Almuric is a savage planet of crumbling stone ruins and debased, near-human inhabitants. Into this world comes Esau Cairn, Earthman, swordsman, murderer. Only he can overthrow the terrible devils that enslave Almuric, but to do so he must first defeat the inner demons that forced him to abandon Earth.

Joan VIII, 112

Maria Rodziewiczówna

Stróż Gedras napotyka przy drodze ciężarną kobietę i zabiera ją do domu. Podczas porodu kobieta umiera i zostawia mu w opiece dziecko, które ten chce wychować. Nie jest mu jednak łatwo żyć z nim wśród ludzi, ponieważ dziecko jest okryte hańbą.