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.

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.

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!

The Unwilling Adventurer

R. Austin Freeman

The pioneering creator of the inverted detective story, R. Austin Freeman was a popular Edwardian author of novels and short stories featuring Dr. Thorndyke, a pathologist-detective. Freemans detective and mystery tales offered an innovative approach to the genre, selling thousands of copies on both sides of the Atlantic. Robert Hawke is a man on the run. After returning from business in London, he finds that a sworn enemy, Will Colville, has been shot dead and the murder weapon belongs to Hawke. But Hawke protests his innocence and is persuaded to go on the run until enough evidence is found to prevent his arrest and conviction. So begins an unwilling adventure where Hawke finds himself setting sail with a vibrant cast of men, casting off for unknown waters and strange islands. And as Hawke embarks on his exotic voyage, enemies abound in the most unlikely of places.

The Valley of Ghosts

Edgar Wallace

A murder is committed among the rich of a small town, and with more than one ghost and all the evidence seems to point to a beautiful young woman... The Valley of Ghosts, written as one of four detective novels in 1922, is set in the seemingly peaceful community Beverly Green, a place where upper-middle-class families live a secluded life. Why was Stella Nelson with the victim in the middle of the night, shortly before the murder? Who was the mysterious blackmailer who held all England in their grasp? Why didnt the famous detective, Andy MacLeod, do his duty? A chill-packed mystery from the master of suspense. This is what Edgar Wallace is all about, a complex, old fashioned mystery, with a highly unlikely solution.

Hannibal

Jacob Abbott

This story is about Hannibal Barca, who was compared to Julius Caesar. Virtually every family in Rome lost a family member because of Hannibal in the fifteen years he spent occupying Italy. He never lost a battle with the Romans in fifteen years of fighting them, and he was in the minority in each of their battles.This book is excellent to introduce you to one of the most important figures of the ancient world.

The Devil in Iron

Robert E. Howard

The fisherman loosened his knife in its scabbard. The gesture was instinctive, for what he feared was nothing a knife could slay, not even the saw-edged crescent blade of the Yuetshi that could disembowel a man with an upward stroke. Neither man nor beast threatened him in the solitude which brooded over the castellated isle of Xapur.

Bomba, the Jungle Boy and the Abandoned City

Roy Rockwood

Bomba the Jungle Boy in the Abandoned City is the fifth book in a series of American boys adventure books produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate under the pseudonym Roy Rockwood, published in the first half of the 20th century. Various sources say the author was Howard R. Garis, or John William Duffield. Roy Rockwood is a pen name. Bomba and his native-Indian companion must descend into the bowels of a buried Inca citadel; through pitch-blackness they must negotiate steep cliffs and volcanic fumes to track down a babbling medicine-man and his army of minions. The worst hazard is navigating a huge pit swarming with snakes; by edging their way along a parapet only inches wide; at any moment a snake may dart its head out of a crevice and sink its fangs into their flesh!