James “The Early Bird” Early is tired of playing it safe. Eager to prove he doesn’t need a mentor, he bets he can swindle a Manhattan bank out of ten thousand dollars in just twenty-four hours. But his sophisticated partner, Amos Clackworthy, knows that impulsive schemes usually lead to prison cells. As the clock ticks down and the plan spirals out of control, the master confidence man must decide whether to let his protégé learn a hard lesson or step in to execute a bold rescue before the...

Freezing and starving, a nameless young man stumbles into an apartment lobby seeking warmth—but finds a passkey instead. Driven by desperation, he ascends into the building’s silent corridors.Inside his opulent apartment, Thomas Karch sleeps, oblivious to the intruder creeping closer. When the starving man’s frantic quest for food shatters the silence, it collides violently with the hidden tensions of the Karch household. Doomed at Four is a gritty, atmospheric tale of the...

A master grifter takes on the monopolistic ice industry with nothing but wit, bravado, and a wildly implausible home-refrigeration patent. As the scheme spirals into a full-scale operation, complete with staged demonstrations and fake financiers, the line between bluff and business blurs. A sharply comic tale of deception, desperation, and defiance, this satirical romp skewers greed with a grin and a cigar.

In the frigid winter of Prohibition-era Chicago, a master con artist and his faithful sidekick eye a dilapidated mansion with a legendary past. Once home to the notorious Van Kessler family, the crumbling estate is rumored to hide a fortune in pre-Prohibition liquor. With a clever scheme, they resurrect the long-absent Van Kessler heir, convincing the city’s elite that a reformed rake has returned to pen a moralistic book on temperance.As the staged homecoming draws gawking reporte...

When Amos Clackworthy, conman deluxe, spots a billboard proclaiming free factory sites for new industries, he gets off his train to investigate. Sure enough, he finds greedy men out to fleece would-be industrialists. And he can't wait to part them from their money...

A market collapse turns a polished swindler from millionaire to debtor in a single afternoon. With rent due and pride intact, he does what he does best: finds someone eager for “something for nothing,” then builds a scam fast enough to outrun disgrace.In a rain-soaked Illinois town run by a hard-edged bank president and widow, a worn-out farm becomes the bait. A partner plays the perfect rube, a real-estate fixer sweats under pressure, and a set of “laboratory” letters hints at a f...

Conman extraordinaire Amos Clackworthy was the primary mystery character of Christopher Belvard Booth (1889-1950) in the 1920s. Together with his henchman, the Early Bird, he raised grifting to new levels—and his targets were always those greedy, disreputable businessmen who more than deserved it.

Amos Clackworthy, conman deluxe, has a new get-rich-quick scheme using investments. But his intricately laid plans may come to nothing because he forgot to leave his latest mark enough time to get his money to Chicago from Texas!

Christopher B. Booth is best known for his tales of conman de luxe Amos Clackworthy (who always has a new scheme to part the wealthy and undeserving from their ill-gotten gains). But this tale focuses on

"Christopher B. Booth is almost entirely forgotten today; but in 1910s through the 1930s, he was a prolific author of mysteries and westerns under his own name and the pseudonuym “John Jay Chichester.” Street & Smith’s book publishing arm, Chelsea House, collected a number of his pulp stories in book form, most famously in the volume entitled Mr. Clackworthy. Mr. Clackworthy assembles 9 stories from Street & Smith’s Detective Story Magazine featuring con man Amos Clackworthy, who preyed on...

The Adventures of Mr. Clackworthy presents 8 tales of Christopher Booth's antihero -- Amos Clackworthy, swindler extraordinaire. Together with his henchman The Early Bird, Mr. Clackworthy pursues a life of crime, preying on those who deserve to be conned. Included in this volume are:MR. CLACKWORTHY: AN INTRODUCTION, by Steve LewisMR. CLACKWORTHY TELLS THE TRUTHMR. CLACKWORTHY WITHIN THE LAWMR. CLACKWORTHY’S PIPE DREAMMR. CLACKWORTHY TURNS CHEMISTM...

This volume is a follow-up to our Victorian Rogues MEGAPACK™ and presents no less than 31 additional tales of Victorian-era (or close to it!) villains, rogues, thieves, and criminals. You don't have to have read the previous volume, of course, since all of these works stand alone. But if you'd rather have an A.J. Raffles or Boston Blackie as the hero or center-point of a story than Sherlock Holmes or Charlie Chan, this is definitely the ebook for you!Included are no less t...