Grant

№ 1 in the Ashton-Kirk series.Although the character of Ashton-Kirk had appeared in earlier serials, Ashton-Kirk, Investigator is the first in a series of novels by John T. McIntyre focusing on the youthful private investigator. Following in Sherlock...

When the wealthy widow Madame Dauvray is found murdered at the Villa Rose in Aix-les-Bains, suspicion falls on her young companion Celia Harland, who has gone missing—along with Dauvray’s valuable jewels. The famous French detective Inspector Hanaud...

"Cakes and Ale" is a novel by British author William Somerset Maugham, serialized in Harper's Bazaar in 1930, and published as a standalone book by Heinemann in the same year. The title is derived from a famous line in Shakespeare's *Twelfth Night*....

Cimarron was enormously successful, becoming the best-selling novel of 1930 when the Great Depression left people people desperate for stories of escape and adventure. It was later issued as an Armed Services Edition during World War II, cementing its...

Futility is William Gerhardie’s first novel, published while he was attending Oxford after a stint in the British army. Like his protagonist, he was born and raised in Russia, then joined the English army as an officer, but he was careful to note that...

In 1925 the journalist Ada Elizabeth Chesterton decided on a dare to live on the streets of London. In Darkest London chronicles her two week experience.What she found was a class of individuals, all without permanent homes, traveling between shelters...

In the Days of the Comet, first published in 1906, is one of H. G. Wells’ “scientific romances.” Though it’s clearly a work of science fiction in that it features the collision of a huge comet with Earth, it has a greater than usual emphasis on Wells’...

The arrogant, proud, and mostly illiterate Jack Keefe of Bedford, Indiana had already established a career pitching for the minor league baseball club in Terre Haute. His strong pitching arm attracted the attention of Chicago White Sox owner Charles...

"Little Caesar",Part of the Haycraft-Queen Cornerstones set.№ 84 in the Mystery Writers of America Top 100 Mysteries of All Time set.Caesar Rico is a small-time gangster in Prohibition-era Chicago, one of crime boss Sam Vettori’s lieutenants. He’s...

Manalive (1912) by G.K. Chesterton is a novel about the eccentric and joyful Innocent Smith, who brings life and joy to a group of cynical Londoners before being accused of crimes like bigamy and attempted murder, leading to a trial that reveals his...

Mary Shelley is best known for her novel Frankenstein, but she also wrote several other works of fiction and nonfiction. This edition contains most of Shelley’s works of short fiction, published primarily in periodical and annuals.The stories in this...

My Four Weeks in France is a humorous travelogue by American writer Ring Lardner, first published in 1918, detailing his experiences in France during World War I through a series of witty and satirical observations on culture, people, and daily life,...

The first prose novel published by Langston Hughes, Not Without Laughter is a coming-of-age novel that depicts the adolescent years of Sandy, an African-American boy growing up in a small town in Kansas.The novel is structured as a series of vignettes...

Our Mutual Friend is the last of Charles Dickens’ novels, published serially between 1864 and 1865. Like many of Dickens’ works, it addresses social concerns like how the poor and destitute are treated, but tempers these more serious themes with humor...

Payment Deferred is an unusual crime novel in the sense that the murder happens at the outset, and there’s no mystery as to who did it or why. Rather, taking cues from “The Telltale Heart”, the novel focuses on the state of mind of a guilty criminal....

Harry Harrison was still early in his career when he wrote this story, which was originally serialized in Analog Science Fact & Fiction in 1961. It was well received, being nominated for a Hugo award for Best Novel in 1962.The pinnacle of achievement...

Privy Seal His Last Venture follows the journey of the once-innocent Katherine Howard as she comes to terms with her new position as mistress of King Henry VIII. Many of the events are seen through the eyes of the scholar Magister Udal as he navigates...

Romance, published in 1903, is the second of three collaborations between Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford. As an adventure novel it enjoyed some commercial success and was adapted into a silent movie in 1927. Today, it’s a mostly forgotten footnote...

Book Introduction: Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers"A life hangs in the balance, a heart is at stake, and only the ultimate amateur sleuth can find the truth in the dregs of a glass."In Strong Poison, the fifth installment of the celebrated Lord...

The four Walker children—John, Susan, Titty, and Roger—are spending the summer with their mother in the Lake District while their father’s away on duty in the navy. After getting permission to use their accommodation’s dinghy, the Swallow, they also...

The Black Moth focuses on Lord Jack Carstares, an 18th-century earl who has retreated from society and become a highwayman after taking the blame for cheating at cards years ago. He meets our heroine, Diana Beauleigh, when he rescues her from an...

Superintendent Wilson of Scotland Yard takes up the bizarre case, while at the same time Brooklyn’s niece Joan Cowper and her lover Robert Ellery investigate as amateurs. The two parties soon converge on a possible suspect—but can they find the killer...

The Case with Nine Solutions was first published in Britain in 1928. The technical science in this case, clearly explained, has its foundation in J. J. Connington’s background as a research chemist.On a foggy night a doctor accidentally visits the...

The Counterfeiters is considered to be André Gide’s magnum opus. The plot kicks off in 1920s Paris when Bernard, a young man preparing for a school examination, decides to run away from home. As he bounces around the city with his school friends, he...