Gaston Leroux, perhaps best known as the author of The Phantom of the Opera in its novel form, was also the author of a popular series of mystery novels featuring a young journalist cum detective named Joseph Rouletabille. It is most likely that Leroux styled his hero after himself. Rouletabille was in the tradition of other great detectives who solved their cases by pure deductive reasoning. Much as Sherlock Holmes, who eliminated the impossible and concluded that whatever remained, however improbable must be the truth, Rouletabille included the known facts about the case and eliminated everything that was not a known fact, no matter how much it appeared to relate to the case...

Intrigue, murder, highwaymen... A British soldier serving in India has stolen a diamond bracelet from a Hindu idol. The bracelet comes into the possession of Colonel Thorndyke, who is subsequently sent home to England, where he dies of wounds received and bequeaths the bracelet to his relatives, having told his brother about it, but not its location. Meanwhile, the theft has caused a stir in India, and the Hindu faithful regard it as their religious duty to reclaim the jewel at any cost. Also published under the title: "The Brahmin's Treasure".

The Graustark novels are stories of court intrigue, royal disguise, and romance similar to Anthony Hope’s 1894 novel, The Prisoner of Zenda, and its sequels. They were popular best-sellers at the time they were published and the original editions are still readily available in used book shops. The novels gave their name to a fictional genre called Graustarkian: this genre contains tales of romance and intrigue usually featuring titled characters in small, fictional, Central European countries...

Beverly Of Graustark is the second book in the Graustark series. Lorry and his wife, the princess, made their home in Washington, but spent a few months of each year in Edelweiss. During the periods spent in Washington and in travel, her affairs in Graustark were in the hands of a capable, austere old diplomat–her uncle, Count Caspar Halfont. Princess Volga reigned as regent over the principality of Axphain. To the south lay the principality of Dawsbergen, ruled by young Prince Dantan, whose half brother, the deposed Prince Gabriel, had been for two years a prisoner in Graustark, the convicted assassin of Prince Lorenz, of Axphain, one time suitor for the hand of Yetive...

Mr. Crittenden Yollop makes friends with the man who came to burglarize his home and sets out to help him return to where he really wants to be...prison. This humorous satire takes a somewhat different look at prisons, criminals, the law and reformers.

New Yorker Robert Pagebrook travels to Virginia to visit relatives. The Civil War has ended and family ties are in order to be re-established. All goes well; the family relationships are as they should be, perhaps even better than expected. Unique character studies develop as Pagebrook finds himself in a financial predicament, becoming indebted and with no resources available, as his bank back home has dissolved. It is up to Robert Pagebrook to find a way to prove to his kin that he is still a Man of Honor.

From the preface: ".....of all the criminal events that have occurred in Scotland, few have excited so deep, widespread, and lasting an interest as those which took place during what have been called the Resurrectionist Times, and notably, the dreadful series of murders perpetrated in the name of anatomical science by Burke and Hare. In the preparation of this work the Author has had a double purpose before him. He has sought not only to record faithfully the lives and crimes of Burke and Hare, and...

An extremely wealthy but reclusive man has died, leaving an eccentric will which hints at great riches hidden somewhere in the house. Most of the people at the reading of the will did not know the deceased in person, but had received kindnesses from him, for instance by the payment of school and university fees. The principal beneficiary, a great-nephew, also did not know him. The only two people who really knew him were the old lawyer who dealt with his affairs, and an old Indian servant. Yet when the will had been read, and they all went to where the treasure–gold, jewels and bank-notes–were supposed to be hidden, nothing could be found.

Price Ruyler has been sent to San Francisco from New York to salvage the family business after the 1906 earthquake. His success makes him one of the city's most eligible bachelors but he resists the machinations of the local girls (and their mothers). Then he meets the beautiful and captivating Helene. He proposes within a week. Into the fourth year of their marriage, he realizes something has changed. He still loves his wife and he believes she loves him but he begins to wonder about her mysterious past and questions whether family secrets were buried in the rubble left by the earthquake.

Joseph Muller, quiet mannered detective, tries to solve the mystery of a man who died in his study, by a bullet hole in the chest. But all windows and doors were locked, from the inside.

Joseph Muller, police detective, travels to a remote Hungarian village to discover the truth behind the murder of a beloved village Pastor. (Introduction by Dawn)

In this early detective novel, the detective is Hilda Wade. She is a very capable nurse, but there is something mysterious about her from the moment she arrives at the hospital. Upon meeting her, Dr. Hubert Cumberledge greatly admires her and becomes a devoted friend. It turns out that Hilda has one purpose in life, and in pursuit of that purpose she will travel across the world, from London to South Africa, Rhodesia, India, Nepaul, Tibet and back. With Cumberledge's support, her extraordinary logic and clear thinking lead her on through deadly perils. But will that be enough to accomplish the secret purpose which has driven her so long and so far?

The Lane Fleming collection of early pistols and revolvers was one of the best in the country. When Fleming was found dead on the floor of his locked gunroom, a Confederate-made Colt-type percussion .36 revolver in his hand, the coroner’s verdict was “death by accident.” But Gladys Fleming had her doubts. Enough at any rate to engage Colonel Jefferson Davis Rand—better known just as Jeff—private detective and a pistol-collector himself, to catalogue, appraise, and negotiate the sale of her late husband’s collection.

Jacqueline seems to have contracted a touch of amnesia, as she is found in an apartment with a dead man, and with a weapon in her hand. But she remembers nothing of any incident, remembers not her name nor where she comes from, not even why she is where she was found. She only remembers her father, and that he is in danger. Action and adventure soon follow, as Paul Hewlett and Jacqueline attempt to get answers to her questions, taking them on a journey into Quebec and points northward, and Paul knows that they are being followed during their trip...

Seventh entry in the Rick Brant Science Mystery Adventure series has Rick and buddy Scott using infrared technology on the trail of smuggling no-goodniks in the vicinity of Spindrift Island, Rick's home and location of his dad's laboratory, off the New Jersey & New York coast.

The Pagan Madonna, one of Harold MacGrath's numerous novels, set in Shanghai, tells a story of intrigue, murder, and illicit art “collecting.” The paths of Jean Norman, a Red Cross nurse from the United States, Ling Foo, a shifty pawn shop keeper, and Anthony Cleigh, millionaire art collector, cross and recross in growing intrigue over a string of beads. It is a world where “. . . every move you make is governed by Chance--the Blind Madonna of the Pagan . . . .” (Introduction by Don Jenkins)

'He's one of us,' the burglar explained. 'You see, we are men who have pretty well exhausted the pleasures of life. We've all been in the Army or the Navy, all of us are sportsmen, and we are bachelors; so there isn't much excitement left for us. We've started a Burglars' Club to help things on a bit. The entrance fee is a town burglary, the subject to be set by our president, and every other year each member has to keep up his subscription by a provincial line.' Humour, crime and adventure in Victorian London. - Summary by Rapunzelina

Christmas Eve. Guests round a fireside begin telling each other ghost stories. One of them relates a true incident involving the governess of his little nephew and niece. Strange events begin to take place, involving the housekeeper, a stranger who prowls round the grounds, a mysterious woman dressed in black and an unknown misdemeanor committed by the little nephew. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James was published in 1893 and it remains one of the best-known and admired works of this great American writer...

A collection of short stories that chronicles the first year of the Malcolm Sage Detective Bureau.

John Dene comes to England with a great invention, and the intention of gingering-up the Admiralty. His directness and unconventional methods bewilder and embarrass the officials at Whitehall, where, according to him, most of the jobs are held by those "whose great-grandfathers had a pleasant way of saying how-do-you-do to a prince." Suddenly John Dene disappears, and the whole civilised world is amazed at an offer of £20,000 for news of him. Scotland Yard is disorganised by tons of letters and thousands of callers...

An account written by the infamous serial murderer H. H. Holmes in an attempt to exonerate himself while being tried for numerous crimes in Moyamensing Prison, Philadelphia. - Summary by Autumn