A shot rings out in the middle of the night in a quiet Chicago neighborhood. Patrolman Murphy is directed to an apartment where a man says the shot came from. The apartment is locked and apparently empty. Was there a murder here? And if so, where is the victim?

The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy on November 22, 1963, was a cruel and shocking act of violence directed against a man, a family, a nation, and against all mankind. . . . This Commission was created on November 29, 1963, in recognition of the right of people everywhere to full and truthful knowledge concerning these events. This report endeavors to fulfill that right and to appraise this tragedy by the light of reason and the standard of fairness. It has been prepared with a deep awareness of the Commission's responsibility to present to the American people an objective report of the facts relating to the assassination. - Summary from Chapter 1 of the report

The Eye of Osiris is an early example from the Dr. Thorndyke series of detective stories written by R. Austin Freeman. In these stories, the author drew on his extensive medical and scientific knowledge for his main character, a medico-legal expert who relies on forensic evidence and logical deduction in solving cases. In this case, Thorndyke steps in to investigate the disappearance of one John Bellingham, an English gentleman and amateur Egyptologist, who has vanished under very mysterious circumstances...

Jeffrey Blackmore suspiciously made two wills, both deceptively alike, but still, in a cunning way, completely different. John Thorndyke, equally cunning and smart, smells something fishy. With stylish cool and logic, he leads the story up to its marvelous and fully credible climax.

Missing diamonds, untouched safe, two blood smeared thumb prints and a mysterious Mr X. If these are present, Dr Thorndyke must be there too. Will he be able to solve this case?The Red Thumb Mark is the first novel of Freeman’s best-selling Thorndyke series.

Humphrey Challoner is a solitary old man who spent a lifetime collecting for his private museum, primarily mammals exhibiting osteological abnormalities but also 24 articulated human skeletons without any apparent defect. His friend, Dr. Wharton, is puzzled by the collection, but he humors Challoner's eccentricities and tends to him in his final illness. When Wharton inherits the collection on Challoner's death, the dark mystery that ties the collection together is finally revealed.

A young doctor, former student of the legal and medical expert Dr. John Thorndyke, finds himself almost accidentally drawn into a case in which a man has vanished. Perhaps he has died; perhaps not;but the issue is very important because the will that he has left behind is curiously -- annoyingly curiously -- worded. Fortunately, Dr. Thorndyke's rationality combined with his forensic skills, bring the case to a conclusion, while the young doctor meets the love of his life in the Egyptian rooms of the British Museum. ( Nicholas Cifford)

FBI Agent Kenneth Malone is back with another case, this one involving a gang of car thieves that only steal Red 1972 Cadillacs. The only problem is that the thief, or thieves as the case may be, seem to have the ability to make themselves invisible. Of course that’s impossible, isn’t it? But with the help of the usual beautiful girl, Agent Boyd, and Queen Elizabeth I , Malone finds himself hot on the trail of the impossible. - Summary by Paul Hampton

Frances Baird is a detective with the Watkins Agency of New York City. She and a colleague are sent undercover to "The Maples" to guard a valuable set of diamonds during the festivities leading up to the marriage of Mr. Deneen's eldest son, James Jr. Within a few hours of their arrival, however, this seemingly simple task turns into something much more sinister, and it is ultimately left to Frances to unravel the truth of the matter.

From the dedication: "On a train by day, or abed by night, you will read "Money to Burn" and immediately forget it--which is as it should be, for then you can profitably reread it a year hence--but I'm certain it will entertain you while you are reading it. If it gives you the realization of good fights on strange islands in tropic seas, if it stirs you with the sense of its hairbreadth escapes, if its mystery "keeps you guessing" and inveigles you past your proper railroad station, or runs up the house electric light bill by holding you tight until morning, then it is the sort of book that I have planned it to be..." - Summary by Steven Seitel

The Hound of Heaven stalks the death house in pursuit of the soul of a modern Dismas in this true story of a doomed criminal who found God in the solitude of a prison. The author, Father Raymond, was a Trappist monk from Gethsemani, Kentucky. He was a well known author of such books as "The Man Who Got Even With God", "The Family That Overtook Christ", and many others.

Under the Andes was written by Rex Stout years before his creation of the immensely popular Nero Wolfe series of novels, and while perhaps his future writing style is still blossoming, certainly his knack for weaving a fantastic tale of mystery and adventure will have most readers anxious for the next phase of adventure at every turn. The story finds two brothers and a pretty female companion on a journey which eventually takes them to a series of underground caves under the Andes of South America, where they encounter a lost tribe of Incas who have apparently survived hundreds of years oblivious of the outside world...

This murder mystery, written in 1903 by Richard Dallas (pseudonym), describes a fictional crime that took place in the New York City of 1883. A fine period piece as well as a clever detective story. (Introduction by Delmar H. Dolbier)

On the steamer on his way to London, Austin Ford meets a young woman, who is going to London to find her missing husband. Being a specialist in finding people, Mr. Ford agrees to help her in her quest. However, something appears to be not quite right about the lady and her story...

The story is set in London, at an elite gentleman’s club called "The Grill," where an American gentleman arrests the attention of four other men by relating how one night he got lost in a thick London fog. He stumbled upon a house where a double murder was just committed. The victims of the murder were a young nobleman and a Russian princess. He escaped from the house and reported the killings to Scotland Yard. But they were unable to find the location of the dwelling. All very strange, as three of the other gentlemen all offer more information and perspectives on various details of the incident as they endeavor to solve the mystery. (Introduction by Bob Gonzalez)

Austin Ford, the London correspondent of the New York Republic, is spending some idle time in the American Embassy chatting with the Second Secretary, when suddenly a note is brought in. This note is an appeal for help, found in the gutter in a dark alley. The writer claims to be a young girl, who is kept against her will locked up in a lunatic asylum by her uncle. Although the Second Secretary tries to convince him that there is nothing to it, the journalist is determined to follow the lead...

On Christmas Eve, journalist Bronson is sent to wait outside of Moyamensing Prison to report on the release of a certain infamous prisoner. His case had gotten a lot of attention, so the paper wants a man on the spot. However, what Bronson hears and sees outside the prison that night is not quite what he was expecting.

Randall Clayton was surrounded by enemies. His father’s business partner had looked after him in the years since his father’s death. But Hugh Worthington’s motives were not altruistic – he had a secret to hide and a scheme to bring to fruition that would make him millions at Clayton’s expense. Clayton’s roommate, Arthur Ferris, had his own schemes, including stealing the affections of Worthington’s daughter away from Clayton. Clayton worked for a pittance in New York, where he was watched day and night by Worthington’s spies, and by the ruthless Fritz Braun, who plotted to rob Clayton of the large deposit that he daily carried for his employer...

A story about a mysterious oriental figure who pursues a British politician to London, where he wreaks havoc with his powers of hypnosis and shape-shifting, Marsh’s novel is of a piece with other sensational turn-of-the-century fictions such as Stoker’s Dracula, George du Maurier’s Trilby, and Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu novels. Like Dracula and many of the sensation novels pioneered by Wilkie Collins and others in the 1860s, The Beetle is narrated from the perspectives of multiple characters,...

This is a collection of 12 short stories of mystery and humor, which are, as the title says, for amusement only.

Oh dear! The Duchess of Datchet's diamonds, worth a quarter of a million pounds, have been stolen. Just as Mr. Paxton, a ne'er do well gambler planning to leave the country to escape his losses, reads this news item on a train, he overhears, in the next compartment, the actual thief boasting of his accomplishment. Then, when he arrives at his hotel and opens his Gladstone bag, he finds the bag is not his -- and it contains the spoils of the robbery! Will our hero take them directly to the magistrate and tell all he knows? Or will things take another turn, leading to brigands, danger, and possibly romance? - Summary by Jacquerie

After a night of drinking and gambling, John Ferguson has a terrifying dream of his neighbor being violently torn to shreds by an unknown attacker. When he wakes up, he sees a strange and bloodied woman climbing through his window, suffering from amnesia. These strange occurrences are brought to a chilling climax when, the next day, Ferguson learns that his dream came true, and his neighbor was indeed brutally murdered during the night! With suspicion mounting against the mysterious woman, Ferguson sets out to uncover her true identity and find the vicious killer in the process...

Clare awakens in the middle of the night with no idea why. Her husband is not in his bed and as she goes in search of him she runs into her cousin Elsie who's heard a terrified shout from Rupert. When Clare returns her husband is burning papers in the grate. Next morning they discover that Uncle John a very shady and disagreeable usurer has been murdered!! Who is the culprit and will the earlier interrupted kiss ever be completed? - Summary by Celine Major

A group of guests, at an exclusive luxury hotel in Hampshire, are the witnesses of an illustration of occult powers, demonstrated by “the Mystery”, as Mrs. Jefferson named the beautiful stranger who one day appeared in the Turkish Baths of the hotel. The events that follow lead Mrs. Jefferson to question the wisdom of her interest in the occult.

Short stories by a colleague of Jerome K. Jerome, and friend of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Barr probably wrote the first parody of Sherlock Holmes (included in this collection). He co-edited “The Idler” with Jerome. [written by Czechchris]

The Heart of Mystery by L. T. Meade and Robert Eustace was published in 1901 in six installments in the Windsor Magazine, Vol. 14. The stories relate the adventures of a young Englishman summoned to the deathbed of an old friend in Paris who subsequently finds himself embroiled in a web of danger, espionage and intrigue. - Summary by J. M. Smallheer

Robert W. Chambers (1865-1933) studied art in Paris in the late 80’s and early 90’s, where his work was displayed at the Salon. However, shortly after returning to America, he decided to spend his time in writing. He became popular as the writer of a number of romantic novels, but is now best known as the author of “The King In Yellow”. This is a collection of the first half of this work of short stories which have an eerie, other-worldly feel to it; but the stories in the second half are essentially love stories, strongly coloured by the author’s life as an artist in France...

MANUAL OF SURGERY, OXFORD MEDICAL PUBLICATIONSBY ALEXIS THOMSON, F.R.C.S.Ed.PREFACE TO SIXTH EDITION Much has happened since this Manual was last revised, and many surgical lessons have been learned in the hard school of war. Some may yet have to be unlearned, and others have but little bearing on the problems presented to the civilian surgeon. Save in its broadest principles, the surgery of warfare is a thing apart from the general surgery of civil life, and the exhaustive literature now available on every aspect of it makes it unnecessary that it should receive detailed consideration in a manual for students...