Sir Richard Hannay, retired mining engineer, lives a comfortable suburban life outside London, but feels old age and stodginess coming on and longs to have his mettle tested again. He gets his chance when a promise he made years ago in Rhodesia, to protect the son of an old acquaintance from a sinister conspiracy, and the action moves rapidly from England through the Scottish Borders to the Island of Sheep in the remote Norlands, where Hannay and his friends turn at last to...
World War I espionage thriller meets modern-day morality tale in „Mr. Standfast”, the third of five Richard Hannay novels written by acclaimed storyteller John Buchan. In this nail-biting adventure story, Hannay must outwit a foe far more intelligent than himself; muster the courage to propose to the lovely, clever Mary Lamington; and survive a brutal war. Set, like „Greenmantle”, durinig World War I, it deals Brigadier-General Hannay’s recall from the Western Front, to eng...
Zawrotne tempo. Klaustrofobiczny klimat. Niepokojące wydarzenia. Książka, od której nie można się oderwać. Parę drobnych kłamstewek jeszcze nikomu nie zaszkodziło. Prawda? Paul ma plan. Wizję lepszej przyszłości, którą ma zamiar zrealizować. Jeśli wymaga to ukrycia czy wyolbrzymienia kilku detali, nic nie szkodzi. Ale gdy wprasza się na rodzinne wakacje w Grecji… ...wpada w pułapkę napięć i emocji, których nie rozumie. W końcu zaczyna do niego docierać,...
Emma już nie mieszka przy Folgate Street 1, na jej miejsce wprowadza się Jane. Obie lokatorki, obecna i była, są do siebie bardzo podobne: kolor włosów, rysy twarzy, pragnienie rozpoczęcia wszystkiego od nowa. Ultranowoczesne mieszkanie wymaga dostosowania się do surowych reguł narzuconych przez właściciela, ale wydaje się idealne do porządkowania życiowego chaosu. Kobiety łączy coś jeszcze – enigmatyczna więź z właścicielem apartamentu. Jednak po pewnym czasie obok pożądania...
„Kąt odbicia & Spirala zła” Dariusza Grabowskiego to dwuczęściowa książka o ucieczce przed miłością, która spadła nagle na dojrzałego mężczyznę i o walce o życie z bandą bezwzględnych młodych przestępców. Niestety zemsta rodzi zemstę. Kąt padania, równa się kątowi odbicia, każda akcja wywołuje reakcję. Szymon, dojrzały mężczyzna „po przejściach” wyjeżdża ze stolicy na głuchą wieś. Chce tam znaleźć spokój, odpoczynek i ucieczkę przed miłością do Natalii. Zamiast t...
Niewyjaśnione zdarzenia, paranormalne zjawiska, nadnaturalne zdolności – a może jedynie usterka, drobna wada w mechanizmie? Co może łączyć prostego drwala z prowincji, profesjonalnego zabójcę na zlecenie, zwyczajnego, nudnego księgowego, zakochaną młodą dziewczynę i renomowanego psychologa z szesnastoletnim stażem? Wszyscy bohaterowie „Usterki” prowadzą normalny, spokojny żywot – jednak tylko do czasu. Kiedy w ich otoczeniu zaczynają dziać się rzeczy, które trudno wytłum...
Bolesna. Porywająca. Makabryczna. Myślisz, że wiesz komu ufasz? Myślisz, że potrafisz odróżnić dobro od zła? Mylisz się… Ciało dyrektora ekskluzywnej szkoły w Devon zostaje znalezione powieszone w auli. Kilka godzin wcześniej nauczyciel otrzymał paczkę i jedynie on potrafił zrozumieć milczące przesłanie, jakie z sobą niosła. Brzmiało ono: koniec. Gdy Exeter nęka fala przerażających morderstw, detektywi Imogen Grey i Adrian Miles muszą rozwiązać tę zagadkę, aby z...
In The Pilot (1824), James Fenimore Cooper invented a new literary genre: the sea novel. Bold, vigorous, original, it is a tale of high adventure that vividly captures the majesty and power of the seafaring life. Cooper drew on his direct knowledge of ships and sailors to present a truer picture of life on the sea than had ever before achieved in literature. As a boy of seventeen he had experienced the life of a common seaman, learned the craft of sailing, encountered terri...
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. Freeman’s 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 ...
Richard Austin Freeman, the doyen of the scientific division of detective writing is best known for his character Dr. John Thorndyke. A close and careful investigator and the outstanding medical authority in the field of detective fiction, R. Austin Freeman not only tested the wits of the reader but also inspired many modern detective forensic methods. „Shuttlebury Cobb” is a completely different sort of book. In it Freeman demonstrates his sense of humor and whimsy as he f...
In this tightly plotted novel, we follow the bizarre career of a man who loathes criminals. After Humphrey Challoner finds his wife killed by the bullet of a robber in his home, he vows to catch the man. Mr. Challoner is a wealthy savant, and he saved the fingerprints of the robber as well as some of the robber’s strange hair which Challoner’s wife had in her hand. For twenty years Humphrey hunts for the killer, in the process revenging himself on London’s criminals class i...
"When Rogues Fall Out” incorporates some wonderful conundrums to hoodwink and hinder the cleverest of crime readers. This book contains three interconnected stories. In the first, a respectable collector of antiques falls victim to temptation. In the second a police inspector is found dead in suspicious circumstances in a railway tunnel. This section includes an interesting „essay” on the early use of fingerprint evidence. The third is a classic locked room mystery where so...
Dr.Thornedyke’s methods of detection are characterised by investigations of apparently irrelevant facts and lengthy explanations of his train of hypothetical reasoning. In this novel, Dr. Thorndyke’s ability to identify fish scales and rope material sets his investigation in motion. The crime is the murder of an aristocrat staged to look like a suicide. There are really two stories alternating, which eventually become one. We watch Dr. Thorndyke follow a thin and improbable...
R. Austin Freeman’s mysteries are often divided into two parts, the first dealing with events leading up to a murder, followed by Dr. Thorndyke’s investigation. In this case, the first part, about a beautiful woman who poses as a serious artist, then disappears, is delightful. It details the friendship between Thomas Pedley and Loretta Schiller. The second part is written in the first person with Jervis, Thorndyke’s assistant, being the narrator as usual. A peaceful, pleasa...
This novel begins with Robert Englefield, a young Englishman, taking on a job with a vessel sailing for northern Africa. Once there, Englefield is placed in the position of running the store through which the captain sells and trades his goods. As Englefield spends more and more time at this outpost on the African coast, he hears stories a legendary mine in the interior of Africa where the priests capture unwary travelers and blind them to prevent escape. Purely out of curi...
First, there are two seemingly unrelated events: the murder of a constable in pursuit of a diamond thief and the attempt to poison a potter by using arsenic. The connection lies in the presence of Dr. Oldfield, a Dr. Thorndyke’s former student, who happened to find the constable body and served as the consulting physician of the potter. Dr. Oldfield once again found a trace of murder: ashes of cremated human human body in the dustbin at the potter’s studio. The police tries...
„The Penrose Mystery”, fist published in 1936, is definitely up to the high standard of the wonderful Dr. Thorndyke series. Penrose is an eccentric old man in possession of some dazzling gems, which he won’t insure. When Dr. Thorndyke is alerted to a burglary at his house, a scrap of paper is found with the word ‘lobster’ on it along with two Latin words. Meanwhile, Penrose has fled in panic after a car accident. The police believe he’s gone into hiding to avoid a manslaugh...
This novel is an excellent example of the inverted detective story, a modern form that R. Austin Freeman is credited with inventing. You know from the beginning who the guilty party is, but watching Dr. Thorndyke figure it out is amazing. And watching the perpetrator think that he is getting away with his crime, while watching Dr. Thorndyke close in on him is well-done literary irony. The fun comes not from being baffled, but from watching Thorndyke’s mind at work and obser...
Originally written in 1907, „The Red Thumb Mark” opens the series by R. Austin Freeman featuring Dr. Thorndyke, who is a sort of Sherlock-Holmes type character. A single fingerprint is found at the scene of a crime. When the police are able to identify that fingerprint, the case seems closed. But Dr. Thorndyke, the detective/barrister/medical doctor who takes on defense of this suspect, thinks he can disprove the prosecution’s case, based on that same fingerprint. It does n...
Mr. Pottermack, wrongly convicted for forgery of checks, has escaped from jail, made his fortune in the US and come back to England to find his fiance. The only one who is cleverer than Mr. Pottermack is Freeman’s detective, Dr. Thorndyke. In this novel, the sympathetic, engaging and enterprising Mr. Pottermack commits the perfect crime, only to discover that a perfect crime is the last thing in the world he wants. Then Mr. Pottermack comes up against the legendary Dr. John...
Angelina Frood, a striking young ex-actress, has gone missing and her new friend Dr. Strangeways, a good-hearted young doctor and the narrator of the story, is determined to find out what has happened and along the way enlists the assistance of Dr. Thorndyke. The local police Sergeant is hot on the trail, as items of clothing and jewellery belonging to Angelina are discovered. There’s serious trouble ahead, but fortunately Dr. Thorndyke, the great medico-legal expert, will ...
A daring daylight art theft from a crowded museum, a secret document centuries old, and a hidden treasure, these are the elements of the title story in this collection of tales by R. Austin Freeman. Though best known for his famous forensic sleuth, Dr. John Thorndyke, Freeman also on occasion wrote stories featuring other characters. In addition to „The Great Portrait Mystery”, this collection features four more of these tales which show a more whimsical and humorous side o...
R. Austin Freeman’s character Dr. Thorndyke is considered the first modern forensic scientist in literature. This is one of the oddities of detective fiction. The first part of this story is an „autobiography” of Thorrndyke’s lab assistant Polton. Polton, Dr. Thorndyke’s lab assistant and a servant has graced every Thorndyke mystery with his mechanical ingenuity, his sumptuous meals and teas, and his crinkly smile. The second part is a mystery tale, which builds on some of ...
John Gillum arrives in London from Australia apparently a wealthy man and then proceeds to cheerfully gamble his entire fortune away. During this period he cultivates the friendship of Mortimer, the bank official after meeting him at the scene of a murder near the bank. He mentions in conversation that he felt suicide was a very understandable option to someone who had lost everything. When Gillum’s body is found, the inquest duly returns a verdict of suicide and blackmail ...
