Verleger: 8
The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth
Herbert George Wells
What happens when science tampers with nature? Mr. Bensington and Mr. Redwood create a new food material, Herakleophorbia, later called Boomfood, they hope will have beneficial uses to mankind. They come up with a substance that causes flora, fauna, and people to become giants. At first, there are giant nettles, mushrooms but then it ramps up, with giant rats that can take down and eat horses and wasps so large one could hear them half a mile off. In the end it becomes a tragedy: several hundred children around the world had been given this food of the gods and grow to a height of around forty feet. The first giant babies are revealed and for the first time humanity has to contend with the existence of a new race of giant people. How humanity deals with this shocking new creation is revealed in The Food of the Gods and How it Came to Earth.
The Forged Coupon and Other Stories
Leo Tolstoy
At the beginning of the story, walking along an incline, some of Tolstoys characters lie, commit robberies and even killings. The author allows his heroes to experience feelings of satisfaction and complete impunity, after they have committed terrible atrocities. Pelageyushkin, going to the massacres, is content with one own impunity. Tolstoy conducts his heroes in hellish circles: all terrible crimes are uncovered. The punishment for the crime hangs with a Damocles sword over the heads of Tolstoy literary characters. It is also interesting that the writer selects his heroes from each social group.
Edgar Wallace
Forged notes have started to appear everywhere. Mr. Cheyne Wells of Harley Street has been given one. So has Porter. Peter Clifton is rich, but no one is quite certain how he acquired his money not even his new wife, the beautiful Jane Leith. Jane, newly married to this man she does not love, is plunged into a nightmare of murder and madness. What is the secret of her husbands immense fortune? Is he The Clever One who has baffled the police, the banks and the world with his clever forgeries? Or is he a homicidal maniac? Inspector Rouper and Superintendent Bourke are both involved in trying to solve the mystery.
Anna Katharine Green
The Forsaken Inn by Anna Katharine Green is an exceptional novel of gothic horror set in late 18th-century Revolutionary America. Told from the perspective of a Mrs. Truax, the owner of an inn, The Forsaken Inn is a locked-room mystery that keeps readers guessing about what has happened. Edwin Urquhart, loved by two sisters, chooses to marry the elder. Arriving at the Forsaken Inn for their honeymoon, they occupy an apartment containing a secret chamber. That night, the young bride is murdered and buried in this secret room. Did her new husband commit the crime or is something much more sinister afoot? Yet, many people saw that bride leave with her husband. How can this be?
Hugh Walpole
Judith Paris, now middle-aged, is returning to the Lakes to deal with the fierce feud between the two branches of the family. The feud ended with the construction of one branch of a huge house, known as the Fortress, which will dominate the land of others. But in this conflict, the children of two families play an important role.
E. Phillips Oppenheim
A best-selling author of novels, short stories, magazine articles, translations, and plays, Oppenheim published over 150 books. He is considered one of the originators of the thriller genre, his novels also range from spy thrillers to romance, but all have an undertone of intrigue. He was the earliest writer of spy fiction as understood today, and invented the Rogue Male school of adventure thrillers that was later exploited by John Buchan and Geoffrey Household. This 1927 old detective story by Oppenheim revisits the plot device of a young man who comes into a large fortune suddenly and explores the class differences between the lower middle, and the upper class.
The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders
Daniel Defoe
Written in a time when criminal biographies enjoyed great success, Daniel Defoes The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders (aka Moll Flanders) details the life of the irresistible Moll and her struggles through poverty and sin in search of property and power. Born in Newgate prison and abandoned six months later, Moll Flanders drive to find and hold on to a secure place in society propels her through incest, adultery, bigamy, prostitution and a resourceful career as a thief before her crimes catch up with her, and she is transported to the colony of Virginia in the New World. The bawdy story of Moll Flanders vividly illustrates Defoes themes of social mobility and predestination, sin, redemption, reward and womans struggle for independence.
Aidan de Brune
Another breathtaking novel by the master of mystery Aidan de Brune. What is the secret of the derelict mansion in the Australian countryside? The Fortune-Telling House is a fast-paced mystery, with good twists and turns where you can find the answer. Aidan de Brune provides a thrill of another sort! The author has acquired an admirable technique of the sort demanded by the novel of intrigue and mystery. De Brune is one of those thriller writers who were in their day wildly popular, but are today little read. He was a prolific author who wrote in a variety of genres.