It's never easy reviewing a classic; obviously it is good or it wouldn't be regarded as such, and if it has just been reprinted then its charm and relevance still exist for readers today. Since its publication in 1958, Robert Van Gulik's enchanting stories about the crime-solving exploits of historical character Judge Dee have delighted readers all over the world. If you haven't met Judge Dee yet, now is a good time to start! In this early novel he has just taken up a post as magistrate in the town of Poo-Yang and soon finds his work cut out for ...
In this, the second book in Robert van Gulik's classic mystery series of ancient China, Judge Dee must look into the murder of his predecessor. His job is complicated by the simultaneous disappearance of his chief clerk and the new bride of a wealthy local shipowner.Meanwhile, a tiger is terrorizing the district, the ghost of the murdered magistrate stalks the tribunal, a prostitute has a secret message for Dee, and the body of a murdered monk is discovered to be in the wrong grave. In the end, the judge, with his deft powers of deduction, uncovers the one cause for all of these seemingly unrelated events.
The Chinese Lake Murders describes how Judge Dee solves three difficult cases in A.D. 666, shortly after he has been appointed magistrate of Han-yuan."[Robert van Gulik] deftly interweaves three criminal cases involving exotic yet universally recognizable characters, then has his Judge Dee provide a surprising yet most plausible solution."-New York Times Book ReviewRobert Van Gulik (1910-67) was a Dutch diplomat and an authority on Chinese history and culture. He drew his plots from the whole body of Chinese literature, especially from the popular detective novels that first appeared in the seventeenth century.
Judge Dee must solve three complex mysteries in this case. Poisoned plums, secret messages in a scroll picture, passionate love letters and a murderer with a penchant for torturing and killing women lead him into the heart of the Governor's garden maze and the answers to these mysteries.***Poisoned plums, a cryptic scroll picture, passionate love letters, and a hidden murderer with a penchant for torturing and killing women lead Judge Dee to the heart of the Governor’s garden maze and the answers to three interwoven mysteries. The Chinese Maze Murders represents Robert van Gulik’s first venture into writing suspense novels after the success of Dee Gong An, his translation of an anonymous Chinese detective novel from the sixteenth century.
On New Year's Eve, 1940, James Paradine makes a speech to his family. Valuable documents have disappeared and the culprit has until midnight to confess. A few minutes after twelve James is dead and it is up to retired governess turned private detective Miss Silver to solve the mystery.
In celebration of the 75th anniversary of the first appearance of Nancy Drew, Applewood Books is pleased to release the 20th volume in its reproductions of the Original Nancy Drew-Just as You Remember Her. The Clue in the Jewel Box was ghostwritten by Mildred Wirt. It was first issued in January 1943. Its nostalgic dust jacket art and frontispiece were illustrated by Russell Tandy. In The Clue in the Jewel Box Nancy and her friends help Queen Madame Alexandra search for her missing grandson. With only an old photograph of the prince at four years of age, Nancy begins her search. She discovers a secret in a jewel box that helps reunite the royal family.
Chase was raised as a getaway driver by his grandfather, Jonah, a con man feared by even the hardened career criminals who make up his crew. But when Jonah crosses the line and murders one of his own, Chase goes solo, stealing cars and pulling scores across the country…And then he meets Lila, a strong-willed deputy sheriff with a beguiling smile who shows him what love can be. Chase is on the straight and narrow for the first time in his life-until tragedy hits, and he must reenter the dark world of grifters and crooks. Now Chase is out for revenge-and he'll have to turn to the one man he hates most in the world. Only Jonah can teach Chase how to become a stone-cold killer. But even as the two men work together, Chase knows that their unresolved past will eventually lead them to a showdown of their own.
Twenty months spent as the shogun's sosakan-sama – most honorable investigator of events, situations, and people – has left Sano Ichiro weary. He looks forward to the comforts that his arranged marriage promises: a private life with a sweet, submissive wife and a month's holiday to celebrate their union. However, the death of the shogun's favorite concubine interrupts the couple's wedding ceremony and shatters any hopes the samurai detective had about enjoying a little peace with his new wife. After Sano traces the cause of Lady Harume's death to a self-inflicted tattoo, he must travel into the cloistered, forbidden world of ...
Suzanne Perry is having a vivid nightmare. Someone is in her bedroom, touching her, and she can't move a muscle. She wakes, relieved to put the nightmare behind her, but when she opens the curtains, she sees a polaroid stuck to the window. A photo of her sleeping self, taken during the night. And underneath the words: 'I'm watching over you'. Her nightmare isn't over. In fact, it's just beginning. Detective Inspector Phil Brennan of the Major Incident Squad has a killer to hunt. A killer who stalks young women, insinuates himself into their lives, and ultimately tortures and murders them in the most shocking way possible. But the more Phil investigates, the more he delves into the twisted psychology of his quarry, Phil realises that it isn't just a serial killer he's hunting but something? or someone? infinitely more calculating and horrific. And much closer to home than he realised…
When she's not digging up bones or other ancient objects, quirky, tart-tongued archaeologist Ruth Galloway lives happily alone in a remote area called Saltmarsh near Norfolk, land that was sacred to its Iron Age inhabitants – not quite earth, not quite sea.When a child's bones are found on a desolate beach nearby, Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson calls Galloway for help. Nelson thinks he has found the remains of Lucy Downey, a little girl who went missing ten years ago. Since her disappearance he has been receiving bizarre letters about her, letters with references to ritual and sacrifice.
On a break from his policing duties, Joe Sandilands is visiting his old army friend, James Lindsay, commander of the British army's front line fort at Gor Khatri on the Afghan border. An uneasy peace is in operation, but into this situation is injected an ill-assorted group of visitors to the fort.
The Phantom Detective, was Standard Magazine's answer to The Shadow and even outlived his more famous cousin. Phantom Detective was written by a plethora of authors, all hidden under the house name of Robert Wallace. DEATH'S DIARY "White Orchids spell death in this action-packed novel of The Phantom's perilous pursuit of a master criminal whose diabolical, gruesome crimes follow each other in a grim procession.
The house talked; Linda Randolph could hear it. The objects in it talked, too, but the house's voice was loudest. Linda was afraid that, as her husband suggested, she was losing her mind. Either that, or her husband was involved with dark, brutal forces beyond the limits of human sanity.
Winner of the Glass Key Award for best Nordic Crime NovelWinner of Sweden’s Best Crime Novel of the YearNominated for a Barry Award International BestsellerIt is bitter mid-winter on the Swedish island of Oland, and Katrine and Joakim Westin have moved with their children to the boarded-up manor house at Eel Point. But their remote idyll is soon shattered when Katrine is found drowned off the rocks nearby. And the old house begins to exert a strange hold over him.
A brand-new mystery in the "exceptional" (Booklist) series by the national bestselling author.Rumors are sprouting in Depression-era Darling, Alabama. The town's newest visitors, Nona Jean Jamison and Miss Lake, may be the Naughty and Nice Sisters from the Ziegfeld Frolic, who specialize in dancing nearly naked.The Dahlias suspect more than modesty when Nona denies her association. They'll have to dig through clues to get to the root of the mystery…
When all contact is lost with two Icelanders working in a harsh and sparsely populated area on the northeast coast of Greenland, Thora is hired to investigate. Is there any connection with the disappearance of a woman from the site some months earlier? And why are the locals so hostile?Already an international bestseller, this fourth book to feature Th?ra Gudmundsd?ttir ('a delight' – Guardian) is chilling, unsettling and compulsively readable.
Anne Scott's address was scribbled on a crumpled note in the pocket of Morse's smartest suit. Inspector Morse turned the corner of Canal Street, Jericho, on Wednesday afternoon. He hadn't planned a second visit, but was back the same day as officer in charge of a suicide investigation.
The jogger ran north along the water's edge, the sand heavy underfoot after the night's rain. At the promontory he turned and headed back down the beach. In the distance he saw a figure walking towards him. Suddenly the person stumbled and fell, then just lay there not moving. Feeling uneasy, he ran forward.'Are you all right?'The face that turned towards him was expressionless, the eyes cold.For the jogger, time seemed to stand still. Deep down inside him something came alive, something he had tried to bury for years.Then he saw the muzzle of the gun. It was pointed straight at him. He sank to his knees; everything in his mind went still…
The nightmare tale of the life and death of Dillon, American gangster. From the first to the last page, the ruthlessness of an inhuman killer is set down with stark realism. Chase’s second book.
Disgruntled, disheveled, fish-out-of-water mobile librarian Israel Armstrong is finally going home to London, rattling along with his irascible companion Ted Carson in their rust bucket book van en route to the Mobile Meet. The annual library convention gives Israel the opportunity to catch up with his family, eat paprika chicken and baklava, and drink good coffee. But they've barely found parking when the unimaginable occurs: their library-on-wheels is stolen!Who on earth would want to take a thirty-year-old traveling disaster with the words "The Book Stops Here" painted across the back? Israel and Ted are determined to find out. But their search is leading them on a very twisty trail through the countryside in pursuit of a suspicious convoy of New Age travelers. And the hunt is raising numerous troubling questions – such as where exactly is Israel's high-flying girlfriend, Gloria? And is Ted really making a move on Israel's widowed mother?
Acclaimed New Yorker writer and author of the breakout debut bestseller The Lost City of Z, David Grann offers a collection of spellbinding narrative journalism.Whether he’s reporting on the infiltration of the murderous Aryan Brotherhood into the U.S. prison system, tracking down a chameleon con artist in Europe, or riding in a cyclone- tossed skiff with a scientist hunting the elusive giant squid, David Grann revels in telling stories that explore the nature of obsession and that piece together true and unforgettable mysteries.Each of the dozen stories in this collection reveals a hidden ...
Freelance photographer and wildcat smuggler Dan Abatangelo blows into Vegas to hit the tables and taste the nightlife. In his path waits Shel Beaudry, a knockout redhead with a smile that says Gentlemen, start your engines. The attraction is instant – and soon the two are living the gypsy life on the West Coast, where Dan captains a distribution ring for premium Thai marijuana. His credo: "No guns, no gangsters, it's only money."But the trade is changing. Eager to get out, Dan plans one last run, judges poorly, and is betrayed by an underling and caught by the ...
"We can't help loving sleuth Kylie Kendall… We'll follow her wherever her brunette ambitions take her."-GirlfriendsKylie may still be a private eye in training, and she may still be reeling by the secret her business partner finally revealed to her. But nothing can compare to her family's interference, even from far-away Australia. When her mother asks Kylie to check in on "distant" relative Doug "Dingo" O'Rourke, who has landed a TV gig in Los Angeles, Kylie realizes she has no choice. Dingo, though, wants nothing to do with an interfering private investigator, despite the fact that something dreadful is worrying him.
A collection of storiesThe first major English translation of one of contemporary Japan's bestselling and most celebrated authorsFrom Akutagawa Prize – winning author Yoko Ogawa comes a trio of novellas about love, motherhood, fertility, obsession, and how even the most innocent gestures contain a hairline crack of cruel intent. A lonely teenaged girl falls in love with her foster brother as she watches him leap from a high diving board into a pool-a peculiar infatuation that sends unexpected ripples through her life. A young woman records the daily moods of her pregnant sister in a diary, ...
