Frederick Irving Anderson was a New York newspaperman who had a second career writing mystery stories for the "slick" magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post. The Infallible Godahl is a collection of some of his first stories. Godahl is a clever gentleman thief, who might be thought of as an American version of Raffles or Arsene Lupin. - Summary by Winston Tharp

In a post-apocalyptic world where every government in the world has been overrun by its own military machinery, only to see that military machinery self-destruct, people are randomly being affected by a plague that seemingly takes over their brains and forces them to commit heinous crimes. Chandler is one of these unfortunate victims, the perpetrator of rape and murder. He is driven out of his community as a Hoaxer , branded on his forehead with the letter H. But he is not feigning. In his travels, he finds the source of the plague, and it's not what people think. It's up to him to deal with it, and he does. But to what end? - Summary by Nick Bulka

"In the whole history of man there is no chapter more instructive for the heart and mind than the annals of his errors. On the occasion of every great crime a proportionally great force was in motion. If by the pale light of ordinary emotions the play of the desiring faculty is concealed, in the situation of strong passion it becomes the more striking, the more colossal, the more audible, and the acute investigator of humanity, who knows how much may be properly set down to the account of the mechanism...

A mysterious crime is being plotted in a tiny garret above a dilapidated apartment building in St Petersburg in Russia. The plotter, Rodion Raskolinikov, is a poor student who has delusions of ridding the world of “worthless vermin” and counter balancing these crimes with good deeds. He commits a murder to test his own theories and prove that crime comes naturally to the human species. Crime and Punishment is a path-breaking novel of ideas that changed the course of novel writing in the 20th century...

Two poets in a London park at sunset, debating on the attributes of poetry and whether it's really a metaphor for anarchy. A group that meets in secret, planning to overthrow the world order. Disguises and deceptions, ideals and ideology. A medley of themes and genres makes this a great read for anyone who's a fan of Chesterton and his iconic Father Brown. The Man Who Was Thursday includes Chesterton's favorite theme of Christianity with touches of delightful humor to enliven the twists and turns that abound throughout the book...

A Chief of Police hosts a dinner party for an American millionaire wishing to will his entire fortune to the Church of France. Jewels that have been stolen and recovered so many times that they're known colloquially by thieves as The Flying Stars. A murder committed by an invisible man. These and many others are the mysteries that are presented to the lovable, bumbling, stumpy Man of God, Father Brown. The Innocence of Father Brown, by G.K. Chesterton is a collection of eleven stories which marks the debut of this most unusual detective...

A collection of six wonderfully quirky detective stories, featuring the ‘mystic’ former judge Basil Grant. Each story reveals a practitioner of an entirely new profession, and member of the Club of Queer Trades.

The flying blast struck London just where it scales the northern heights, terrace above terrace, as precipitous as Edinburgh. It was round about this place that some poet, probably drunk, looked up astonished at all those streets gone skywards, and (thinking vaguely of glaciers and roped mountaineers) gave it the name of Swiss Cottage, which it has never been able to shake off. At some stage of those heights a terrace of tall gray houses, mostly empty and almost as desolate as the Grampians, curved...

Three trees, known as the Peacock trees, are blamed by the peasants for the fever that has killed many. Squire Vane scoffs at this legend as superstition. To prove them wrong, once and for all, he takes a bet to spend the night in the trees. In the morning he has vanished. Is he dead, and if so who has killed him? The poet? The lawyer? The woodsman? The trees?

These eight Father Brown mysteries depart from Chesterton’s two earlier Father Brown collections – The Innocence of Father Brown, and The Wisdom of Father Brown – in that most take place in America and/or centrally feature American characters. Father Brown is a nondescript, shy, poorly clad and clumsy Catholic priest – and an exceptionally talented detective. He shines not despite, but because he is a humble, quiet, commonplace, Catholic priest. Because of his personal attributes he is frequently underrated and even ignored by professionals, by those with higher status or less reticent personalities...

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.

Of course every one has heard of the Motor Pirate. No one indeed could help doing so unless he or she, as the case may be, happened to be in some part of the world where newspapers never penetrate; since for months his doings were the theme of every gossip in the country, and his exploits have filled columns of every newspaper from the moment of his first appearance until the day when the reign of terror he had inaugurated upon the roads ended as suddenly and as sensationally as it had begun. Who...

Jack Carstares, oldest son of the Earl Wyncham, has been disgraced by his brother. Gone for six years, living the life a highwayman he meets the woman he will fall in love with. Saving her from being kidnapped by a dastardly blackguard he is injured and must stay with her family until he is able to return to his life…will she discovery his true identity? Will he be able to leave her when the time comes? Mystery and humor follow this intriguing cast of characters until the very end. (Summary by Terra Mendoza)

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.

Enid Belfame: 42 years old, 22 of them as a married woman; eminently respectable; founder of The Friday Club; small town dignitary; a paragon of virtue. But does she have what it takes to commit murder? And will the young and handsome Dwight Rush benefit if she does?

Mark Brandon, a writer from Australia is in England to visit an old friend, Sir Quenton Rotherdene. However, while walking across the Downs on his way there, he sees a mysterious woman and then finds a murder victim with a moonflower clasped in his hand. More mysterious happenings, shocks and surprises ensue! - Summary by J M Smallheer

An English country home during a house party becomes the scene of a double mystery. One of the three detectives employed on the case is a woman whose common sense, calm, and plain logic are skillfully employed in straightening the tangle. - NY Times Book Review, Aug 16, 1914.

A shot penetrates the still night air and one of Galton's leading citizens is a victim of a desperate killer's gun. Murder becomes entangled with politics and it takes a parish priest to discover "whodunit" in this thriller by a husband and wife novelist team.

County Prosecutor Wally Brighton was found shot to death one evening, a broken rosary in one hand and a .32 automatic inches away from the other. Was it murder or suicide? It takes two sharp-eyed reporters, who combine romance with amateur sleuthing, to find the surprising solution to this baffling and thrilling murder mystery.

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?