It gives us considerable pleasure to be able to offer to the public the “inside” record of those of former District Attorney Markham’s criminal cases in which Mr. Philo Vance figured so effectively. The true inwardness of these famous cases has never before been revealed by S. S. Van Dine, Mr. Vance’s lawyer and almost constant companion, being the only person who possessed a complete record of the facts and has only recently been permitted to make them public.After inspecting Mr. ...

This is a whodunit that neatly fits into the history of detective fiction. It features artist Philip Trent as he unexpectedly becomes an amateur detective. Some of his carefully collected information often proved erroneous. It begins when a wealthy American plutocrat, Bigsbee Manderson, uses his finances in an attempt to establish rules controlling society. When Manderson is found murdered on the grounds of his country house in England, Trent is hired as a reporter by a press association t...

This story is by the second most translated author in the world, ranking below Agatha Christie and above William Shakespeare. The name is Jules Verne, often called “the father of science fiction,” and he was a tremendous inspiration for many writers that followed. His methods were definitely not scientifically accurate but were made into overwhelming literature by vivid imagination. A myth-like feeling is engendered by dining in Le Jules Verne restaurant in the Eiffel Tower in Par...

This story was first published more than a century ago and it tells of intrigue, murder, and crime in high places.It was a lonely English courtyard where attorneys received traditional apprenticeship … one of the ancient Inns of Court. The bludgeoned body of a well-dressed elderly man was found there at midnight, an apparent murder victim. Investigative newspaper reporter Frank Spargo was one of the first to arrive at the crime scene and he was puzzled about why such a prosperous l...

This is a very unusual book, wherein the majority of the story is contents of an ancient diary found by two friends on a fishing holiday while on the grounds of an old dilapidated house. The moldy manuscript has inscribed tales of strange things seen and heard. There are horrible creatures and huge monsters described as though they were old gods of mythology.They find stories saying the devil may have built the house. While reading the tattered and torn manuscript the two vacatione...

The Middle of Things by J. S. Fletcher will certainly come up to expectations if you’re in the mood for a cracking good classic murder mystery. Fletcher’s novels were essentially puzzles and were not meant to be realistic portrayals of crime and criminals. This fine example has to do with Richard Viner, basically an average young man on the street who, more or less accidentally, finds a dead body in a dimly lit alley while he’s taking his usual nightly stroll. He calls police and ...

It seems very unreal but the author is not only top-notch with his plot handling but he never strays from the bounds of reason. It isn’t easy to fool someone like detective sergeant Blick of Scotland Yard, but he does it. Blick is called in by an archeologist named Mr. Fransenmery to help solve the killing of Guy Markenmore, who had been away from the area for seven years and had returned because of the expected death of his father. There was a question of inheritance but Guy wanted it kno...

A late-night murder of a diamond merchant’s veteran employee in London’s Hatton Gardens has Scotland Yard calling on Inspector French to investigate. When French gets there he finds not only the victim but missing diamonds and money from an open safe. There are meager clues as the Inspector follows a trail to mainland Europe and back. There are many false clues and several suspects with much of the searching leading to nothing but dead ends. We can listen as French sorts it all out, findin...

Unassuming in plot and style, Heidi may none the less lay claim to rank as a world classic. In the first place, both background and characters ring true. The air of the Alps is wafted to us in every page; the house among the pines, the meadows, and the eagle poised above the naked rocks form a picture that no one could willingly forget. And the people, from the kindly towns-folk to the quaint and touching peasant types, are as real as any representation of human nature need be. Ev...

A young veteran of WWI in poor health heads to Arizona to try and recover. He meets young Flo Hunter, who successfully nurses him. However, life gets more complicated when his fiancée, Carley Burch, comes to him from back east. She winds up not liking life in the west and goes back to New York.Flo gets badly injured in an accident and vet Glenn Kilbourne wants to repay her for her assistance and proposes marriage. As wedding day approaches, Carley decides she made a mistake and ret...

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.The fiction world of today needs a “Saint” more than it ever did. For years now that scene has been dominated by the “anti-heroes"— those grim gray operators in a sunless sub-culture where global issues are worked out with totally unemotional pragmatism, those hapless uninspired puppets manipulated and expended by ruthlessly dedicated little brothers of B...

An older woman of the elite class has lots of money and abundant courage and determination. Miss Cornelia Van Gorder wants some adventure in her life, so she rents a large mansion to see what she can stir up. She moves in with her niece and an unpredictable Irish maid and is confronted by an embezzlement problem at the owner’s bank. But that’s just the beginning of troubles, because a murderous masked criminal known as the Bat is using the mansion as a hideout.All this becomes more...