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Mystery Novels |
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By: Joseph Lewis French (1858-1936) | |
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Masterpieces of Mystery, Vol. 1 (of 4) Ghost Stories | |
Masterpieces of Mystery Riddle Stories |
By: Joseph Sheridan LeFanu | |
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Uncle Silas
Uncle Silas is a Victorian Gothic mystery/thriller novel by the Anglo-Irish writer J. Sheridan Le Fanu. It is notable as one of the earliest examples of the locked room mystery subgenre. It is not a novel of the supernatural (despite a few creepily ambiguous touches), but does show a strong interest in the occult and in the ideas of Swedenborg. | |
Wylder's Hand
The marriage of Mark Wylder and Dorkas Brenden is supposed to end a history of arguments between the two families. However, both people involved do not seem to like the idea. Before the wedding, Mark disappears. But to where? And how will the people around him react to his disappearance? | |
The Evil Guest
Le Fanu’s inimitable style continues with The Evil Guest, a murder mystery fraught with dark imagery and mysterious characters. An unwanted guest visiting a dreary and isolated home is murdered; the thriller leads the reader down countless ‘dead’ ends before revealing the identity of the guilty party. (Introduction by Cathy Barratt) | |
The Room in the Dragon Volant
J. Sheridan LeFanu's Gothic mystery novel is narrated by Richard Beckett, a young Englishman abroad in Napoleonic-era France. He falls instantly in love with a mysterious and imperiled Countess, whom he glimpses momentarily behind her black veil. In order to be near her, he takes a room in the Dragon Volant (the Flying Dragon), a haunted inn that has been the site of mysterious disappearances. |
By: Joseph Smith Fletcher (1863-1935) | |
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The Middle Temple Murder
Midnight. A lonely courtyard. The dead body of a stranger—a prosperous looking, well dressed, elderly man is found in Middle Temple Lane, London. This is one of England's ancient Inns of Court where barristers were traditionally apprenticed and carried on their work. Middle Temple is just a few minutes walk away from busy Fleet Street and the Thames Embankment. In the dead man's pocket is a piece of paper with the name and address of a young barrister. One of the first people to reach the crime scene is the investigative reporter, Frank Spargo, who writes for a leading London newspaper, The Watchman... | |
The Chestermarke Instinct
Bank manager John Hornbury is missing, as are securities and jewels from the bank’s vault. Gabriel Chestermarke and his nephew Joseph have unaccountably refused to call in the police to investigate the theft from their bank. When Betty Fosdyke shows up to visit her Uncle John, she finds it past belief that he would simply disappear – let alone that he would commit larceny. Unable to simply sit by and wait while a detective from Scotland Yard investigates, Betty elicits the help of the chief clerk at Chestermarke’s bank and launches into the middle of the mystery. | |
The Borough Treasurer | |
Orange-Yellow Diamond | |
Talleyrand Maxim
John Mallathorpe, a wealthy Yorkshire industrialist and land owner dies in an accident, apparently without making a will. His estate goes to his wife and two children and they live the good life for a number of years. However, an old bookseller, whilst clearing some old books passed on from the Mallathorpe estate, finds a copy of Mallathorpe's will inside one of the books, and unfortunately for the family the will bequeaths the whole estate minus a small endowment for the family, to the city authorities... | |
Herapath Property
Jacob Herapath, a wealthy property developer and member of Parliament, is found dead in his office, a revolver at his side and a bullet wound to the head. An allegedly forged Will deepens the mystery. An intriguing puzzle with plenty of twists and turns. | |
Scarhaven Keep
The northern English sea coast provides a compelling backdrop for this genre of writing; a mysterious disappearance, a love interest, and plot twists 'se mijotent' to produce an intriguing read. | |
Rayner-Slade Amalgamation
Marshall Allerdyke is driving through the night from London to Hull in response to an urgent telegram from his cousin. As he nears Hull, a beautiful woman stops his car to ask for directions to Scotland. Odd time to be traveling so far and in such a hurry, but Allerdyke's mind is elsewhere. When he finally arrives in Hull, he finds his cousin dead in his hotel room and a valuable consignment of jewels missing. Allerdyke's only clue rests with that woman hurrying off to Scotland. | |
Borough Treasurer
Messrs. Mallalieu and Cotherstone were outsiders who had built a prosperous business in Highmarket and even been elected as Mayor and Treasurer of the borough. But when an ex-detective moves to town, 30 years of respectability is suddenly threatened by revelations from the past. |
By: Justin McCarthy (1830-1912) | |
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The Riddle Ring
This romantic mystery - or mysterious romance - tells the tale of jilted lover, Jim Conrad, who discovers an unusual gold ring while on a visit to Paris. What is the story of the ring? Why is Clelia Vine so sad? Who is the nameless 'chief'? And how is a dour English barber in a Parisian salon mixed up in all this?The novel, published in 1896, was written by Justin McCarthy, an Irish nationalist, Liberal historian, novelist and politician. (Introduction by Ruth Golding) | |
Red Diamonds
In the South African wilderness, six men got together to mine for diamonds and become very rich. They agree that the wealth is to be split equally between them or their heirs after a few years and that the share of any one who died without leaving an heir or whose heir died before the time would be split between the remaining partners. Soon, all heirs are notified and wait expectantly for the first of January, on which the diamonds are to be divided between the partners. However, the diamonds are becoming increasingly blood stained, and January the first is still some time off... |
By: Katherine Thurston (1875-1911) | |
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The Masquerader
The Masquerader is one of two Katherine Cecil Thurston’s books that appeared on the Publisher’s Weekly best-sellers list in 1905. The Masquerader is part mystery, part romance and part political thriller – all tied up in one neat package. Nature has a way of sometimes making two people nearly indistinguishable in appearance. Such is the premise for this book. John Chilcote, a British politician, and John Loder, a man down on his luck meet by accident one night during one of London’s worst fogs... |
By: L. A. Borah | |
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House of Dust
The old Lamont House sits still out in the Louisiana swamp, covered in dust and seemingly untouched since that terrible murder that occurred there twenty years ago. When daughter of murdered patriarch of the Lamont family Elise shows up at the Lamont House one stormy evening, escorted by intrepid doctor Kirk Hayward, to meet her brother and his new bride, they become entangled in a series of mysterious events that result in a fresh murder and dangers from someone, or something, lurking amongst the silence and dust of that decrepit mansion... |
By: L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) | |
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Mary Louise
The Bluebird Books is a series of novels popular with teenage girls in the 1910s and 1920s. The series was begun by L. Frank Baum using his Edith Van Dyne pseudonym, then continued by at least three others, all using the same pseudonym. Baum wrote the first four books in the series, possibly with help from his son, Harry Neal Baum, on the third. The books are concerned with adolescent girl detectives— a concept Baum had experimented with earlier, in The Daring Twins (1911) and Phoebe Daring (1912)... | |
Mary Louise Solves a Mystery
The Bluebird Books is a series of novels popular with teenage girls in the 1910s and 1920s. The series was begun by L. Frank Baum using his Edith Van Dyne pseudonym, then continued by at least three others, all using the same pseudonym. Baum wrote the first four books in the series, possibly with help from his son, Harry Neal Baum, on the third. The books are concerned with adolescent girl detectives— a concept Baum had experimented with earlier, in The Daring Twins (1911) and Phoebe Daring (1912)... | |
Mary Louise in the Country
The Bluebird Books is a series of novels popular with teenage girls in the 1910s and 1920s. The series was begun by L. Frank Baum using his Edith Van Dyne pseudonym, then continued by at least three others, all using the same pseudonym. Baum wrote the first four books in the series, possibly with help from his son, Harry Neal Baum, on the third. The books are concerned with adolescent girl detectives— a concept Baum had experimented with earlier, in The Daring Twins (1911) and Phoebe Daring (1912)... | |
Mary Louise and the Liberty Girls
The Bluebird Books is a series of novels popular with teenage girls in the 1910s and 1920s. The series was begun by L. Frank Baum using his Edith Van Dyne pseudonym, then continued by at least three others, all using the same pseudonym. Baum wrote the first four books in the series, possibly with help from his son, Harry Neal Baum, on the third. The books are concerned with adolescent girl detectives— a concept Baum had experimented with earlier, in The Daring Twins (1911) and Phoebe Daring (1912)... |
By: L. T. Meade (1854-1914) | |
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A Master of Mysteries
“It so happened that the circumstances of fate allowed me to follow my own bent in the choice of a profession. From my earliest youth the weird, the mysterious had an irresistible fascination for me. Having private means, I resolved to follow my unique inclinations, and I am now well known to all my friends as a professional exposer of ghosts, and one who can clear away the mysteries of most haunted houses….I propose in these pages to relate the histories of certain queer events, enveloped at first in mystery, and apparently dark with portent, but, nevertheless, when grappled with in the true spirit of science, capable of explanation... | |
The Sorceress of the Strand
From the moment Madame Sara arrived on the scene, she has taken London society by storm. Madame is both beautiful and mysterious, but it soon becomes clear to both Dixon Druce and his friend, police surgeon Eric Vandeleur, that there is something sinister about the woman and the goings on at her shop on the Strand. They soon become obsessed with proving her guilty of the many crimes that follow in her wake! |
By: Laura Lee Hope | |
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The Outdoor Girls at Ocean View Or, The Box That Was Found in the Sand |
By: Laurence Clarke (1873-1942) | |
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Bernard Treves's Boots; A Novel Of The Secret Service
What has Manton gotten himself into? His impersonation has broader implications -- and more dangerous ones -- than he had imagined. |
By: Lawrence L. Lynch (1853-1914) | |
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Against Odds
Believed to have been written by Chicago socialite, Emma Murdock Van Deventer, this detective story set at the World's Fair follows Carl Masters as he is in pursuit of international criminals Greenback Bob and Delbras. Conmen, lost handbags, jewel robberies, an adventuress... not to mention two missing young men and a murder, all come under the detective's eye. ( Lynne Thompson) | |
Madeline Payne, the Detective's Daughter | |
The Diamond Coterie |
By: LibriVox volunteers | |
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The Yellow Sheet – the NaNoWriMo project 2007
An atomic bomb explodes in the mountains of Montana. But was there really a bomb? And was it really in Montana, or in Tokyo? Are Liz and Elizabeth the same woman, is she married with children, is her husband a spy? |
By: Lilian C. Garis (1873-1954) | |
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Nancy Brandon's Mystery
Nancy spends the summer with a cousin she hardly knows who has a friend who seems to be a bad influence. Secrets, jealousy and bitterness fill their days until they learn how to believe in themselves and overcome their bitterness when the truth is revealed. |