In the Twelfth Century an intrigue at the court of the great Sultan Saladin brings forth the Sphinx Emerald to play its strange magic role. A miniature image of the sphinx hypnotizes its owners and inspires them to make history-changing decisions. Ninth story in the series about the Sphinx Emerald from the master story tell H. Bedford-Jones!
Traveling through southern Florida, a New Yorker Don Counsel is being framed by Ernest Riever for a murder he did not commit. Riever is holding the real killer captive on his yacht while detectives are searching for Counsel. Meanwhile a young Pen Broome tries to help Counsel out. Riever’s men find Counsel and trap him in a ballast bulkhead, but Pen rescues him. Will Counsel be able to prove his innocence?
The Sphinx Emerald passed into other hands – to reappear centuries later when conquering Cambyses came storming into Egypt with his Persian legions... Readers are treated to authentic historical dramas, all centering on the mysterious jewel that seems to contain a miniature image of the sphinx. A great pulp extravaganza!
„Richelieu Raids a Tomb” is the fourteenth installment about the Sphinx Emerald from a Canadian-American historical, adventure fantasy, science fiction, crime and Western writer H. Bedford-Jones. Here the malign magic of the Sphinx Emerald works its spell anew in one of the famous dramas of history. And again the strange Sphinx Emerald came to the scene to play its part in the unrolling drama.
Written by James Edward Preston Murdock (1843–1934), an author of mysteries, thrillers, and horror stories. For a time, his popularity rivaled that of Arthur Conan Doyle – and he was certainly more prolific than Doyle. This collection of short stories dates from 1896: 1: In the Shadow of Sudden Death, 2: The Doom of the Star-gazer, 3: The Strange Story of Some State Papers, 4: The Problem of Dead Wood Hall, 5: Trapped, 6: The Riddle of Beaver’s Hill, 7: A Railway Mystery, 8: ...
Penned by George Eliot, „Romola” is an intense, gripping historical novel set in 15th-century Italy. In the narrative, Tito, a handsome but scheming Greek opportunist, marries Romola, the daughter of a scholar. He deceives Romola, is unscrupulous in his political dealings, and is finally killed by his adoptive father. Romola finds strength in helping to care for Tito’s other wife and the children of that union. A true classic!
The definite collection of Fitzgerald’s short stories; edited and with a preface by the foremost Fitzgerald scholar Matthew J. Bruccoli. The forty-three masterpieces range from early stories that capture the fashion of the times to later ones written after the author’s fabled crack-up, which are sober reflections on his own youthful excesses. This essential collection is ample testament to that statement, and a monument to the genius of one of the great voices in the history ...
Ford Madox Ford was a prolific English novelist and poet in the early 20th century. Ford wrote the best-selling novel „The Good Soldier”, as well as the „Parade’s End” series. „Privy Seal” is the second novel in the well-known „Fifth Queen” trilogy that recreates Tudor England in a masterful story of court intrigue, romance, and betrayal. Here Ford focuses on the figure of Thomas Cromwell, a powerful advisor to the King who comes to see Katharine as a rival whose good nature ...
„Lucia’s Progress”, previously published in the U.S. as „The Worshipful Lucia” is the fifth of E. F. Benson’s famous series, opening about a year after the previous story ended. In this volume both Lucia and Mapp stand for election to the Town Council, and Lucia speculates in gold shares. While re-decorating Miss Mapp’s house, Lucia discovers and hide the remains of a Roman Villa. Excitements ensue!
Perhaps the most light-hearted of all Chesterton’s works, „Manalive” follows the fun loving Innocent Smith who, after bringing joy to a boarding house, is charged with a series of crimes. Later accused even of murder and denounced for philandering everywhere he goes, Smith prompts his newfound acquaintances to recognize an important idea in most unexpected ways. In this delightfully strange mystery, Chesterton demonstrates why life is worth living, and that sometimes we need ...
The fourth installment of the popular series-a hilarious study of 1930s manner and pecking order-begins when Lucia Lucas rents a summer place-the home of Elizabeth Mapp-in the English village of Tilling. So begins a battle of one-upmanship, peppered with queenly airs, ghastly tea parties, and unnerving bridge evenings as the two combatants attempt to out-do each other to win social supremacy. The pompous Lucia and malignant Mapp are characters you will love to hate, wonderful...
The fourth part in the series, „Master of the World” continues adventures of strange and mysterious gem named the Sphinx Emerald that leaves its trail through history. Alexander of Macedon had conquered most of the world, and his legions were rolling toward Carthage when a wily little priest strangely presented to him the Sphinx Emerald...
E. F. Benson’s subject is always the petty concerns of petty people, but his talent is to make those concerns nearly as important to us as they are to his characters. For us, what happens to Benson’s people is also much funnier than it is to them. This is another of Benson’s social comedies with women battling it out for social supremacy in the village. „Mrs. Ames”, first published in 1912, has been described as a forerunner to the author’s Mapp and Lucia novels
Despite his intellectual brilliance, successful career, and sizeable inheritance, Christopher Tietjens is a largely unhappy man. Tortured by his wife’s open infidelity, caught up in his own heated affair, Tietjens attempts to put his past behind him by volunteering to fight for his country. Tragic and emotionally piercing, „No More Parade’s” by Ford Madox Ford, is a story of romance, war and betrayal that proves a brilliant sequel to „Some Do Not”.
„The heart of a man is full of hypocrisy; the heart of Nature is utterly without guile”. Harold Preston discovers this when he goes prospecting for gold in the uncharted bush with a rival he considered a friend. This is a fairly decent tale of jealousy, betrayal and vengeance written by a prolific British journalist and author of mystery and horror fiction James Edward Preston Muddock also known as „Dick Donovan” (28 May 1843 – 23 January 1934).
„Paul Clifford” is a novel published in 1830 by Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803-1873) who was an English novelist, playwright, and politician. It tells the life of Paul Clifford, a man who leads a dual life as both a criminal and an upscale gentleman. Paul Clifford tells the story of a chivalrous highwayman in the time of the French Revolution. This is the novel that first used the opening line ’’It was a dark and stormy night...’’
The story is set around the Wentworth mention, a small boarding house in Bolton Spa and its owners and lodgers. They are quite unlikable, mainly upper-middle-class English people who came to the Spa to cure their body illnesses, but also to fill the time and escape boredom despite having no passions, interests and work. A delightful book for anybody familiar with Benson’s work, full of all the usual light, wit and satirical caricatures that Benson does so well.
The third novel in the series, „Lucia in London” continues the adventures of Benson’s famously irrepressible characters, and bring them into hilarious conflict. Using her best social-climbing instincts and refusing to be embarrassed, Lucia sets out to conquer London and mingle with the beau monde. Soon a secret group of ’Luciaphiles’ springs up; the social climbers who make up its rank never tire of watching her get into and out of all kinds of trouble.
Found and Fettered – A Series of Thrilling Detective Stories is a collection of short stories dates from 1894 written by British journalist and author of mystery and horror fiction J. E. Preston Muddock. For a time his detective stories were as popular as those of Arthur Conan Doyle. Between 1889 and 1922 he published nearly 300 detective and mystery stories. This varied collection includes material that gives readers a 19th century view of the world.
A novel series by G.K. Chesterton of four intertwined novellas whose central characters appear to be involved in murder, fraud, theft and treason. Are these friends involved in crimes? Are these individuals faultless as the book’s title suggests? A good book for people who love suspenseful novels that features mind-blowing twists, awesome plots, and events that will keep you engaged page by page.
Meet the widow anxious to bury her husband before the autopsy, the artist who’s brushes have never been used, the bedridden drunk who contracts lead poisoning from a pub miles away. These strange stories are designed to baffle the mind and entertain the crime buff and newcomer alike. Set in the early days of the nineteenth century, the six tales here take place in various parts of rural England -- wherever the young physician-detective’s assignments take him.
Written by British journalist and author of mystery and horror fiction J. E. Preston Muddock. In these thrilling stories, Muddock writes under the guise of his fictional alter ego – the private detective Dick Donovan. From the murky underworld of Victorian London to the grand houses of the upper classes, Donovan investigates crime in all its forms, recovering priceless jewels, exposing villainous conspiracies and solving dastardly murders!
An old secret and a lovely woman and three men: Barr Radison, an American adventurer, searching for the mysterious source of black and silver fox pelts, Macferris Montenay, a ruthless giant of a man, trying to carve out his own kingdom in the wilderness, and Jean Nichemus, a halfbreed and Montenay’s henchman, harboring his own sinister plans. „Ghost Hills” is one of the adventure stories of a prolific H. Bedford-Jones who is rightly called the „King of Pulps”.
Again the strange Sphinx Emerald came to the scene to play its part in the unrolling historic drama. This series about the Sphinx Emerald constitutes, as has been said, a veritable Outline of History – or perhaps „Highlights of History” would be more accurate. For this reason the greatest event in all history could not be left out.
