Edward Phillips Oppenheim 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. This novel is one of E. Phillips Oppenheim’s best works and opens with a fantastic description of the boring life of Mr. Peter Cradd, leather merchant, husband, father, slave to his family, stoic self denier, and all-around put upon man in the bowler hat. He is barely able to pay his bills, has a wi...
A solitary cabin stood far away in the backwoods of Canada, outside all tracks of civilization, in a region which only the native Indians and a few daring trappers cared to penetrate. Rudely built of pine logs, it was ill-calculated to withstand the piercing cold and frost which, for nine months out of the twelve, holds this region in an iron grip. Around it, a small clearing had been effected, but the ground was many feet thick in snow, which, save where in front of the do...
In an interesting precursor to the later „I Spy” television series, the novel follows the activities of a young British tennis professional, Mervyn Amory, who is spending the season in Monte Carlo. While traveling from Paris on Le Train Bleu, he meets an Italian secret agent who is carrying documents which show the treachery of the dictator Matorni. Matorni is a thinly disguised Mussolini. (The title of the novel bears no relation to the book). Interestingly, this novel was...
Havoc occurs when European countries are discussing covert alliances. The story revolves around the creation of a secret alliance between Germany, Russia, and Austria. The English hope to split Russia away by holding the Czar to his previous public commitments, but they need proof of what was done to create the pressure. All the pressures that lead to WWI are there, but the intrigues and secret treaties create an interesting background to the twists and turns of the plot....
It is strange to find Mr. Phillips Oppenheim choosing as his hero an earnest politician with a love for social reform. „Nobody’s Man” starts out as a standard whodunit murder mystery then makes an abrupt lane-change into British politics of the mid-1920’s. Brigadier general Andrew Tallente, late of Parliament, is implicated in the death of his male secretary, the son of a classmate at Eton. Seems the younger man may have not only been having an affair with the hero’s Americ...
E. Phillips Oppenheim was a popular 20th century writer best known for penning suspenseful thriller novels like „The Mystery of Mr. Bernard Brown”. Many of his more than 100 novels are still read today. His novels and short stories have all the elements of blood-racing adventure and intrigue and are precursors of modern-day spy fictions. „Nicholas Goade, Detective” is a collection of short mysteries about a Scotland Yard detective on holiday. As he travels across England wi...
„Mr. Mirakel” is the last novel written by E. Phillips Oppenheim in 1943. Marquis Roderigo de Cordovina is leaving his Portuguese estates in Lisbon because he is being pressured to join the German military and command a mechanical battalion. He meets Miss Anne Strangeways in the seaplane terminal. The two board an airboat for London. Shortly thereafter, they meet again at the home of Princess Rosina Di Gomez who is the niece of the Portuguese Ambassador. At this point the p...
The man was awaiting the service of his dinner in the magnificent buffet of the Gare de Lyon. He sat at a table laid for three, on the right-hand side of the entrance and close to the window. From below came the turmoil of the trains. In appearance he was of somewhat less than medium height, of unathletic, almost frail, physique. His head was thrust a little forward, as though he were afflicted with a chronic stoop. He wore steel-rimmed spectacles with the air of one who ha...
Though dated stylistically, this novel has the makings of a decent movie thriller. The story takes place between the Anschluss, the Nazi takeover of Austria, March 1938, and the invasion of Poland in September 1939. A wealthy Jewish banker, philanthropist, and art collector is forced to flee Vienna to avoid imprisonment by the Nazi’s. He disappears on the night the Germans march into Austria, and his fortune and collection vanishes with him, leaving behind his personal secr...
This is another adventure Oppenheim thriller written in 1899. When Phillip Morton is eight years old, his father is pushed off the edge of a slate quarry. A servant from the local castle is suspected. Ten years later, by chance, Phillip meets the lord of the local castle, the scholar and adventurer Ravenor. On a whim, Ravenor offers to pay for Phillip’s further education if Phillip will befriend his wayward nephew. Phillip meets Mr. Marx, Lord Ravenor’s secretary, and is bo...
Jacob’s Ladder begins: Seated at breakfast on that memorable July morning, Jacob Pratt presented all the appearance of a disconsolate man. His little country sitting-room was as neat and tidy as the capable hands of the inimitable Mrs. Harris could make it. His coffee was hot and his eggs were perfectly boiled. Through the open windows stretched a little vista of the many rows of standard roses which had been the joy of his life. Yet blank misery dwelt in the soul of this e...
Harvey Garrard, as his limousine crawled over London Bridge and turned into the dingy streets beyond, leaned forward in his seat looking out of the window with the half-weary anticipation of one who revisits familiar but distasteful scenes. There was a faint air of disgust in his expression as the well-known odours of the neighbourhood assailed his nostrils. Forty-eight hours ago he had been living in a paradise of mimosa and roses warmed by Riviera sunshine, his senses rea...
The clamour of crushing boughs and howling wind sank every now and then into insignificance before the roaring of deep-throated guns, whose red fire flashed out across what seemed to be a bottomless abyss. Below, the army of the Turks decimated in numbers, yet still a host, within the walls of Crersa, the defenders of an oppressed and brave country making their last stand in their ancient stronghold.
This novel was written in 1926, almost ten years after the Russian revolution. The nature and tragedy of the Soviet revolution and the new regime are clearly described in this novel. The ruthless and deadly power of Soviet communism tries to extend its reach to the Trade Unions of the postwar United Kingdom. The activities of various secret agents, civilian, commercial, military and cultural are described in this book.
’Michael’s Evil Deeds’ (and they are very evil at times) is a rather ingenious crime novel in more ways than one. Firstly the 11 chapters each represent a separate incident but overall they do link together, if on occasions somewhat loosely. And secondly the tale is told by various of the protagonists so there is often a different point of view within each chapter.
The two men hesitated upon the tee, gazing down the glade towards the distant-green. Their caddies were still pointing in excitement to a motionless object stretched upon the smooth turf close to the flag. „Look there! „ „It’s a man! „ „He is dead! „ The players paused to consider the situation. They were oddly contrasted combatants–one, Mr. Edgar Franks, elderly, large and florid, with a mass of flaxen hair only slightly streaked with grey, a transatlantic millionaire, and...
When Lord Wolfenden saw, in the supper-room of the Milan Restaurant, a beautiful woman and became acquainted with her by saving the life of her elderly companion, the mysterious Mr. Sabin, as they leave the restaurant, he little knew the web of intrigue into which he was entering. Twists and turns galore, enjoyable descriptions about the upper-crust and by-gone days. Mr. Oppenheim can be depended upon to give his plots that turn which is as admirable as it is unexpected, an...
This connected series of stories chronicle the adventures of a young American graduate of Harvard college, M. Edmund Martin and the retired British soldier, Colonel Green on the Cote d’Azur in the period just to World War 1. The two meet at a casino, and manage to avoid many of the classic traps which await the idle wealthy of the time. Seemingly inadvertently, they foil crooks, rescue maidens, recover stolen jewels, help young lovers, assist spies against Germany, and foil...
At half-past eleven o’clock–Mr. Billingham was a man of regular habits–he quitted the promenade, crossed the Place in front of the Casino, and selected a table outside the Café de Paris. He selected it simply because it happened to be the nearest empty one and without even a glance at his neighbours. It was nevertheless, without a doubt, by the direction of that mysterious influence called fate that he should have chosen that particular chair and ordered his champagne cockt...
Victorian Socialist Romance. Enoch Strone is a book-loving rustic loner who lives in a remote hand-built cabin. He works as a mechanical engineer in the industrial town of Gascester. One evening he meets a poor factory girl, Milly, who has been abandoned by her friends during a walk in the woods. On the same day he is accosted by the Reverand Martinghoe who introduces Strone to his beautiful, widowed, wealthy sister Lady Malingcourt. Strone is bewitched by her lovely singin...
One of many great works by E. Phillips Oppenheim, who styled himself as the „prince of storytellers,” and is credited with creating the ‘rogue male’ genre of adventure thrillers and was one of the earliest writers of spy fiction from the late 19th and early 20th Century England. The hero in this one is Roger Sloane, a well-off American bon vivant who decides to blow the whistle on a gang of transplanted American gangsters who have abandoned New York and set up a sophisticat...
Mr. Samuel T. Billingham of New York, recently landed from the great liner anchored a few miles out, walked along the Terrace at Monte Carlo, serene, light-hearted, beatifically content. His yellow shoes and his variegated socks might be described as a trifle vivid, but the rest of his attire–his well-pressed grey suit, his irreproachable linen, and his well- shaped grey Homburg hat– was beyond criticism. He was a man of medium height, thick-set, inclined a little, perhaps,...
The Princess opened her eyes at the sound of her maid’s approach. She turned her head impatiently toward the door. „Annette,” she said coldly, „did you misunderstand me? Did I not say that I was on no account to be disturbed this afternoon? „ Annette was the picture of despair. Eyebrows and hands betrayed alike both her agitation of mind and her nationality.
General, his companion pronounced, „you are getting fat. Too many cocktails.” General Besserley, late of the Secret Service at Washington and now a very popular member of Monaco society, glanced downwards at his slightly increasing outline. He was rather a fine figure of a man and his carriage was beyond reproach, but it was certainly true that there was sometimes a little difficulty about the two bottom buttons of his waistcoat.
Napięcie, zagadka, zbrodnia, śledztwo - literatura kryminalna to królestwo wyjątkowych postaci próbujących odkryć różnorakie tajemnice. I właśnie za to jest uwielbiana - najlepsze kryminały pełne są suspensu i nagłych zwrotów akcji, które sprawiają, że nie możemy się od nich oderwać. Choć początkowo kryminał uważany był za pośledniejszą, lekką rozrywkę dla osób, które chciały umilić sobie długie podróże, teraz to jeden z najpopularniejszych gatunków literackich. Czytanie kryminałów to przyjemność szczególnie dla miłośników silnych emocji - ale nie tylko! Niezwykle popularne są chociażby komedie kryminalne, sięgające po pastisz i groteskę, a równocześnie przedstawiające skomplikowane zbrodnie oraz ich okoliczności. W Polsce w tym obszarze królują Maryla Szymiczkowa (a raczej Jacek Dehnel i Piotr Tarczyński), Joanna Chmielewska, Alek Rogoziński czy Jacek Galiński. Do najchętniej czytanych polskich autorów kryminałów zaliczają się z pewnością Katarzyna Bonda, Zygmunt Miłoszewski, Katarzyna Puzyńska, Remigiusz Mróz, Wojciech Chmielarz i Marek Krajewski. Nie sposób jednak mówić o bestellerach kryminalnych, nie wspominając o takich pisarzach jak Harlan Coben, czy Lee Child, a także znanych twórcach kryminałów skandynawskich, Camilli Läckberg, Stiegu Larssonie lub Jo Nesbø. Stworzone przez nich historie to gwarancja intensywnych wrażeń i wciągających opowieści - szukajcie ich na Woblinku w formatach książek papierowych, audiobooków oraz ebooków.
Ludzkie namiętności, niewyjaśnione morderstwa, tajemnicze zniknięcia bez śladu, zagadki sprzed lat - tylko niewielka grupa osób jest w stanie się z nimi zmierzyć i je rozwiązać. Do jednych z najchętniej czytanych w ostatnich latach na świecie powieści kryminalnych należą kryminały skandynawskie. Jo Nesbø, Camilla Läckberg, Arnaldur Indriðason, Lars Kepler, Stieg Larsson, Henning Mankell i Yrsa Sigurðardóttir od pierwszych zdań pozwalają nam na zagłębienie się w krainy dalekiej Północy. Ten zimny, pełen ciemności świat pełen jest zbrodni i zdeterminowanych śledczych, gotowych ujawniać nawet najbardziej makabryczne i skomplikowane tajemnice. Kurt Wallander, Jona Linna czy Harry Hole to najlepsi przewodnicy po bestsellerowych seriach powstających w Szwecji, Danii, Norwegii czy Islandii. Sięgnijcie chociażby po Trylogię Millenium Stiega Larssona, by poznać najpopularniejszą skandynawską serię kryminalną XXI wieku. Na Woblink mamy dla Was pakiet wszystkich trzech tomów ("Mężczyźni, którzy nienawidzą kobiet", "Dziewczyna, która igrała z ogniem" i "Zamek z piasku, który runął") w formacie wygodnego audiobooka! Najlepsze współczesne kryminały często włączają do swoich fabuł elementy powieści sensacyjnych, zwłaszcza charakterystyczne jest dla nich użycie suspensu i nagłych zwrotów akcji. Kryminał jednak zawsze skupia się przede wszystkim na zbrodni - jej okolicznościach, przyczynach, a zwłaszcza na schwytaniu przestępcy. Nierzadko detektywi i policjanci mierzą się z przypadkiem seryjnego mordercy - tak dzieje się chociażby w serii powieści Remigiusza Mroza z komisarzem Wiktorem Forstem w roli głównej. Ebooki "Ekspozycja", "Przewieszenie" i "Trawers" to pierwotna trylogia opowiadająca historię komisarza, który niestrudzenie poszukuje na Podhalu zbrodniarza ochrzczonego mianem Bestii z Giewontu. Ci antybohaterowie, przez których działania odkrywane są coraz to nowe ciała zmarłych, odgrywają ogromną rolę w wielu najlepszych książkach kryminalnych. Niewątpliwie zasłużonym specjalistą od seryjnych zabójstw jest Harry Hole, główny bohater serii powieści autorstwa Jo Nesbø, bezkompromisowy i niepokorny policjant, który często używa niekonwencjonalnych sposobów by dotrzeć do prawdy. Ebooki z jego udziałem, takie jak "Czerwone gardło", "Upiory", "Pragnienie" czy "Krwawy księżyc" znajdziecie także w księgarni internetowej Woblink.
Do najpopularniejszych autorów kryminałów należy wielu naszych rodzimych znakomitych pisarzy i pisarek. Wspomniany już Remigiusz Mróz jest jednym z nich - jego seria powieści z Joanną Chyłką w roli głównej zyskała tak dużą popularność, że doczekała się ekranizacji w postaci serialu. W polskich książkach kryminalnych znajdziecie wielu intrygujących bohaterów i zbrodnie, których skomplikowanie nie pozostawia polskich detektywów oraz policjantów daleko w tyle za ich zagranicznymi kolegami. Polacy świetnie radzą sobie z kryminałami retro - polecamy tutaj szczególnie powieści autorstwa Marka Krajewskiego z cyklu o Eberhardzie Mocku, do którego należą między innymi tomy "Śmierć w Breslau", "Mock. Golem", "Diabeł stróż" czy "Moloch".
Do klasyki kryminału amerykańskiego, a także gatunku kryminału noir z pewnością zaliczyć należy dzieła Raymonda Chandlera - jego "Wysokie okno", "Żegnaj laleczko" czy "Siostrzyczka" to powieści, których popularność na świecie nie maleje od dekad. Jeśli interesują Was bardziej współczesne historie, na pewno przypadną Wam do gustu dzieła, których autorami są Harlan Coben i Lee Child. Powieści tego ostatniego, skupiające się wokół postaci byłego majora amerykańskiej żandarmerii wojskowej Jacka Reachera, to wyjątkowe połączenie kryminalnych zagadek, napięcia godnego thrillera i dynamiki charakterystycznej dla powieści sensacyjnych. Twórczość Harlana Cobena także przypadnie do gustu szczególnie miłośnikom mistrzowskich połączeń kryminału i sensacji, okraszonych dużą dawką humoru. Seria z Myronem Bolitarem w roli głównej, trylogia z bratankiem Myrona, Mickieyem, oraz liczne powieści autonomiczne Harlana Cobena czekają na Was niecierpliwie na Woblink! Polecamy Waszej uwadze także jeszcze jednego przedstawiciela kryminału skandynawskiego, Jørna Liera Horsta. Jest on autorem nie tylko popularnych powieści, których głównym bohaterem jest komisarz William Wisting (między innymi tomy "Kluczowy świadek" i "Psy gończe"), ale także powieści kryminalnych dla młodszych czytelników, takich jak seria "CLUE" czy "Biuro Detektywistyczne numer 2". Nieważne, czy sięgniecie po książki kryminalne jako książki papierowe, audiobooki czy ebooki - z pewnością najlepsze kryminały, które znajdziecie na Woblink dostarczą Wam niezapomnianej rozrywki. Pełne napięcia i wciągających zagadek nigdy nie pozwolą się Wam nudzić!