’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.

Some year and a half ago, my friend and erstwhile neighbour. Dr. Archibald More d’Escombe, died suddenly, and shortly after his decease I received from his solicitors a sealed packet addressed to me in his handwriting, with instructions that it was not to be opened until after his death.

Let me gaze down the vista of the tristful past. Ah! there are things that cannot be uttered; there are scenes that still entrance me, and incidents so unexpected and terrible that they cause me even now to hold my breath in horror. The prologue of this extraordinary drama of London life was enacted three years ago; its astounding dénouement occurred quite recently.

Edgar Wallace’s 1931 novel „The Devil Man” is the mysterious and thrilling story of Charles Pearce, an small, unnerving, musician, gifted but terribly boastful. Pearce is physically repulsive, tiny in stature, but a Samson in strength. Woman can’t resist him, but they don’t know the real Pearce. He is also a burglar. And a murderer. There is a baffling mystery that someone urgently needs to solve... Full of dispense, action and amusing characters, „The Devil Man” constitute...

Zbiór opowiadań i wierszy Pawła Leskiego to doskonała pozycja dla tych, którzy lubią teksty o charakterze satyrycznym. W swoich utworach ukazuje absurdalne sytuacje, bardziej lub mniej realistyczne, a jednak w pewnym sensie zawsze można się w nich doszukać odniesienia do rzeczywistości. To książka dla wszystkich, którzy cenią dobry humor a jednocześnie pragną zagłębić się w nonsensy dnia codziennego zabarwionych dowcipem, wertując je z przymrużeniem oka, ale i z odrobin...

Pewnego wieczora dziewięcioletni Antoś znajduje pod śmietnikiem malutkiego, zmarzniętego na kość pieska i zabiera go ze sobą do domu. Rodzice początkowo nie są zachwyceni pomysłem zatrzymania szczeniaka, jednak Marcelka – bo okazuje się, że to suczka – szybko zaskarbia sobie miłość domowników i staje się nieodłączną częścią rodziny. Charcica dostaje do spania ciepłą poduszkę, uczy się nowych rzeczy, a podczas spacerów poznaje inne psy z sąsiedztwa – amstaffa Dextera, wi...

Z jednej strony wielkie, europejskie bitwy, podgraniczne starcia, leśne potyczki i brawurowe pościgi ulicami miast Rzeczpospolitej. Z drugiej strony karczemne burdy, obozowe awantury, sąsiedzkie zajazdy i honorowe pojedynki na ukrytych polanach. Z jednej strony piękne kobiety, oświeceniowe idee, nauka, muzyka i teatr. Z drugiej strony publiczne zniewagi, płomienne romanse, samobójstwa i szpiegostwo. Dyplomacja i intrygi. Wolność i swawola. Władza i pieniądz. Autor zabier...

Uczył się sztuki wojennej w warszawskiej Szkole Rycerskiej, walczył o niepodległość Stanów Zjednoczonych, przyjaźnił z przyszłym prezydentem tego kraju i z... wodzem Indian. Po powrocie do ojczyzny został obwołany naczelnikiem powstania przeciw Rosji i Prusom napastującym Polskę. Bohater dwóch krajów, o których wolność walczył: Polski i Stanów Zjednoczonych. Wielki zwolennik wolności, równości i braterstwa wszystkich ludzi. Kiedy mama oznajmia Antosiowi, że spędzi wakacj...

Thomas Maple lives on Crystal Palace Road with his niece Verity. He works for a firm of bank note engravers. However, the dollar bills he shows Wentworth Gold are forgeries – perfect except for the missing Treasury sign. When Verity meets her new employer she develops serious misgivings, and arriving back home she can hear a menacing voice. „"A Debt Discharged"” is a novel about forged dollar bills and a young girl’s investigations into her suspicious new employer. These we...

An enjoyable short work from Edgar Wallace, originally published in 1915. Few people today would recognize the name „Edgar Wallace” but before his death in 1933 he was a literary force to be reckoned with. He was both prolific and popular and his books reportedly sold at the rate of 5,000 a day. „The Melody of Death” is a novel about a young man who starts behaving strangely upon hearing a certain melody. Fearing that he may be suffering from cancer, Gilbert Standerton asks...

Contents of the collection: Moonlight at the crossroads Selling Miss Minerva The heart of the loaf Possessions The dollar chasers Idle hands The girl who paid dividends A letter to Australia Nina and the blemish Broadway Brocade. Earl Biggers was a master of stories that highlighted the madness of human nature, both good and bad. The reader wants to see the roots for disadvantages and feel guilty for the villain. These stories are the last epoch when the romantic flourished...

In the aftermath of their father’s death, two orphans set out for the wild desert lands of New Mexico with a plan to eke out a living on a goat ranch. Helen May and her brother Vic should moved to this desert after their father arranges to buy property there, to save Helen May from the TB which is threatening her health. Soon after arriving at their destination, the pair strikes up an acquaintance with a mysterious fellow who goes by the name of Starr. Is he a true friend, ...

American author Bertha Muzzy Sinclair (1871–1940) was known by her pen name B. M. Bower. She wrote novels and screenplays, mainly about the American Wild West. This is one of her novels. Casey Ryan loves speed but his passion led to his unemployment. He, known as the most reckless stage driver ever to carry the mail, was bitten by the speed bug and deserted his stage coach for a Ford; but not even a Ford could stand Casey’s handling and he eventually found himself bereft of...

Another fast-paced murder mystery by J.S. Fletcher told in the first person. He wrote about 200 books on a wide variety of subjects, both fiction and non-fiction. He was one of the leading writers of detective fiction in the „Golden Age”. It was first published in 1920, and has just the right stock of truly good characters, balanced by a couple of nasties. A young apprentice solicitor in a rural English town bordering Scotland, is riding his bike through lonely stretches of...

Charlie Chan, the first Chinese detective in literature, is modeled after Chang Apana, a real-life police detective in Honolulu. A family originally from Boston, the Winterslips, has some members living in Hawaii. You can almost feel the gentle trade winds of Hawaii during the 1920s in this classic novel by Earl Derr Biggers. One of the wealthy Winterslips living in Hawaii is murdered. A younger member of the family, John Quincy Winterslip, has been sent to Boston to check ...

No sooner had Bob from the Silver Star ranch reached Italy than a telegram arrived asking for $1,000. A pretty woman was behind it, but that wasn’t all. This early work by Earl Derr Biggers was originally published in 1916. „The Ebony Stick” is one of Biggers shorter stories, published after his death. The son of Robert J. and Emma E. (Derr) Biggers, Earl Derr Biggers was born in Warren, Ohio, and graduated from Harvard University in 1907. While on holiday in Hawaii, Bigger...

Geoffrey West falls in love at first sight with a girl in a hotel breakfasting with her father. They’re all Americans, but the scene is London on the eve of the Great War. Both Geoffrey and his ladylove Marian are reading the personals (The Agony Column) of the Daily Mail. Later that day he has an idea to place an ad to catch her attention, and vows to send her a letter each day for a week to win her heart. Each letter becomes more interesting than the previous because West...

The basic plot of this book is built around the reputation the Lloyds of London insurance firm had for ensuring all manner of unlikely propositions. Lord Harrowby is advised to marry a wealthy heiress. Luckily he meets Cynthia. She is rich, beautiful and willing to marry him. But, since he comes from a family of gamblers, he goes to Lloyds of London and takes an insurance policy to ensure his bride makes to the alter. Lloyds sends a handsome young man to make sure nothing s...

Earl Derr Biggers’ second Charlie Chan novel took the detective to the California desert where he uncovers the reason for the mysterious disappearance of a millionaire. Biggers was always a great romance writer who simply incorporated mystery into his books to propel the story forward. The story concerns a valuable string of pearls which is purchased by a wealthy and eccentric financier. Charlie Chan embarks on an incognito journey across the desert to find the answer to a ...

The death of Hollywood actress Shelah Fane in her Waikiki beach house brings Charlie Chan of the Honolulu police to seek the identity of the killer. The story behind her murder is linked with the three-year-old murder of another Hollywood actor and also connected with an enigmatic psychic named Tarneverro. Through the confusion of alibis, false clues, and bizarre characters, Chan moves with the utmost calm – until the classic „gathering of suspects” climax, when his form of...

One of the most thrilling novel ever, this is a medley of mystery, farce and intrigue an especially fine example of the American mystery play and one of the outstanding dramatic successes of modern times. A hotel closed for the winter, a snowy night, our hero and a key begin this delightful mystery. As we soon learn, our hero looking only for solitude, isn’t the only one with a key. Other colorful characters arrive one by one... men and women with stories of love, loss, and...

Just as in Biggers’ first Charlie Chan mystery, „The House Without a Key,” that romantic link between the Hawaii of a different era and the city of San Francisco is explored and holds the key to the mystery. Henry Drew has cheated young Winthrop out of a partnership in a Hunan mine. Other shady deeds abound in the past of this rich and outwardly respectable old man. Despite his antagonism to Drew, Winthrop accepts the old man’s invitation to a birthday dinner, mainly to be ...

The fifth of the Earl Derr Biggers Charlie Chan books books involves the Honolulu detective in a case of murder that stretches around the world, as members of a tour group are dying, one by one. Charlie’s old friend Chief Inspector Duff from Scotland Yard comes to his rescue in this book. Duff is investigating the murder of Hugh Morris Drake, a sweet old man strangled in London’s famous and exclusive hotel, Broome’s. Drake is with a tour group encircling the globe. While Du...

In this last written adventure, the plot unfolds with an intriguing scenario. Wealthy and hospitible Dudley Ward gathers together Charlie Chan along with Ellen’s three later husbands to his large house on Lake Tahoe. After hearing his former wife, Ellen Landini, may have been pregnant when she left him, Dudley Ward is determined to find his son. There are four ex-husbands, including Ward, all of them angry with Landini, who is about to marry a fifth husband, also present, w...