By J. F. C. Westerman

FROM THE COVER: When JohnWentleyunder- took to fly a British Secret Service agent to a forbidden part he little imagined what would result from his escapade. How he foiled an attempt by a dangerous and un- scrupulous enemy to steal the plans of his recently invented aero engine, took part in two thrilling aerial ducls, and fought against terrific odds to regain the safety of the Swiss border--with secrets in his possession on which de-pended the very existence of the British Empireis excitingly told by one of the foremost writers of boys' adventure stories.

London. The Children's Press. 1930s. 211p. USED BOOK

By Captain W. E. Johns. Illustrated By Alfred Sindall

A boys’ book from the classic series heralding World War 2, and highlighting the excitement and attractiveness of war..

FROM CHAPTER 1: “ PETER FORTYMORE RECEIVES BAD NEWS. THERE was a pensive, almost wistful, expression on the face of the Honourable Peter Fortymore as, with his chin cupped in his hands, he sat at his study window and stared out across the deserted, moonlit playing-fields of Rundell School, where for five years he had been a pupil. The door be- hind him opened, but he did not turn, for he knew from the heavy, deliberate footsteps that the new- comer washis friend and room-mate, Dick Ripley, known throughout the upper school as Rip…”

London. Geoffrey Cumberlege Oxford University Press. 1950. 245p

By Captain W. E. Johns

The classic boys’ books trumpeting the attraction and excitement of war, especially World War 2.

FROM CHAPTER 1: ““Air-Commodore Raymond, Chief of the Air Section of Scotland Yard, greeted his operational staff from behind a paper-littered desk, as, in obedience to his invitation, they filed into his office.

" Pull up some chairs," he requested. "This is only in the nature of a conference, and, strangely enough, for once there's nothing urgent about it. Help yourselves to cigarettes-we may be some time." He pushed the box forward.

London. Holder and Stoughton. 1954. 162p. USED BOOK

By Malcolm Bradbury

FROM THE COVER: Francis Jay, a Nineties person, streetwise but eco- friendly, smart but naive, makes a fool of himself at the Booker Prize ceremony and is determined to salvage his career as a journalist after the collapse of the Sunday newspaper that paid him. Jay embarks on a quest to find one of the greatest philosophers and political thinkers of the modern age, celebrated and respected in academic circles, yet of such obscure origins that he finds it almost impossible to penetrate the myth of the elusive Doctor Bazlo Criminale.

NY. Penguin. 1992. 379p. WELL USED BOOK

By Henry James

From Wikipedia: The Turn of the Screw is an 1898 horror novella by Henry James which first appeared in serial format in Collier's Weekly (January 27 – April 16, 1898). In October 1898, it was collected in The Two Magics, published by Macmillan in New York City and Heinemannin London. The novella follows a governess who, caring for two children at a remote estate, becomes convinced that the grounds are haunted. The Turn of the Screw is considered a work of both Gothic and horror fiction.

In the century following its publication, critical analysis of the novella underwent several major transformations. Initial reviews regarded it only as a frightening ghost story, but, in the 1930s, some critics suggested that the supernatural elements were figments of the governess' imagination. In the early 1970s, the influence of structuralism resulted in an acknowledgement that the text's ambiguity was its key feature. Later approaches incorporated Marxist and feminist thinking.

• Plot...

  On Christmas Eve, an unnamed narrator and some of his friends are gathered around a fire. One of them, Douglas, reads a manuscript written by his sister's late governess. The manuscript tells the story of her being hired by a man who has become responsible for his young niece and nephew following the deaths of their parents. He lives mainly in London and has a country house in Bly, Essex. The boy, Miles, is attending a boarding school, while his younger sister, Flora, is living in Bly, where she is cared for by Mrs. Grose, the housekeeper. Flora's uncle, the governess's new employer, is uninterested in raising the children and gives her full charge, explicitly stating that she is not to bother him with communications of any sort. The governess travels to Bly and begins her duties…………

NY.London. Collier Macmillan. 1898. 118p.

By Charles Dickens

From Wikipedia: “Like nearly all of Dickens's novels, Martin Chuzzlewit was first published in monthly instalments. Early sales of the monthly parts were lower than those of previous works, so Dickens changed the plot to send the title character to the United States.[3] Dickens had visited America in 1842 in part as a failed attempt to get the US publishers to honour international copyright laws. He satirized the country as a place filled with self-promoting hucksters, eager to sell land sight unseen. In later editions, and in his second visit 24 years later to a much-changed US, he made clear it was satire and not a balanced image of the nation in a speech and then included that speech in all future editions. The main theme of the novel, according to Dickens's preface, is selfishness, portrayed in a satirical fashion using all the members of the Chuzzlewit family. The novel is also notable for two of Dickens's great villains, Seth Pecksniff and Jonas Chuzzlewit. Dickens introduced the first private detective character in this novel.”

By Richard North Patterson

Richard North Patterson is the author of "The Spire" published in 2009. It is a legal thriller about a prominent San Francisco cathedral, its charismatic priest, and the secrets and scandals that threaten to tear the church apart. The story centers on a young female lawyer named Abby Chandlis, who is tasked with defending the church against a lawsuit brought by a former choirboy who alleges that he was sexually abused by a priest. As Abby delves deeper into the case, she uncovers a web of corruption, cover-ups, and betrayals that threatens to destroy the church and the people associated with it. The novel explores themes such as faith, justice, and the abuse of power, and is a thought-provoking and gripping read for fans of legal thrillers.

NY. Macmillan. 2009. 377p.

By Anthony Burgess

From the cover. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE_-Anthony Burgess' most famous novel-is a book of stunning force, the most cogent and terrifying vision of the future since George Orwell's 1984. Adrift in the impersonal, iron-gray society of the superstate, the novel's main character, 15-year-old Alex, leads his gang of teen-age rockers in all-night orgies of random violence and destruction. Told in a slang as electric as the events described, this is Alex's storyo f rapes and stompings and rumbles with the police, of prison life and the frightful "Ludovico Technique" by which Alex is "recon ditioned" into a model citizen, and of his subsequent adventures as a mindless pawn in the cynical hands of the authorities. "A brilliant novel . . . a tour de force in nastiness, an inventive primer in total violence, a savage satire o n t h edistortions o fthe single and collective minds."-New York Times.

NY. W.W. Norton. 1962. 184p.

By Richard Flanagan

Kif Kehlmann, a young, penniless writer, thinks he’s finally caught a break when he’s offered $10,000 to ghostwrite the memoir of Siegfried “Ziggy” Heidl, the notorious con man and corporate criminal. Ziggy is about to go to trial for defrauding banks for $700 million; they have six weeks to write the book.
 
But Ziggy swiftly proves almost impossible to work with: evasive, contradictory, and easily distracted by his still-running “business concerns”—which Kif worries may involve hiring hitmen from their shared office. Worse, Kif finds himself being pulled into an odd, hypnotic, and ever-closer orbit of all things Ziggy. As the deadline draws near, Kif becomes increasingly unsure if he is ghostwriting a memoir, or if Ziggy is rewriting him—his life, his future, and the very nature of the truth.
 
By turns comic, compelling, and finally chilling, First Person is a haunting look at an age where fact is indistinguishable from fiction, and freedom is traded for a false idea of progress.

London. Penguin, 2017, 392p.

By Daphne Du Maurier

From Amazon: This "highly personalized adventure, ultra-romantic" story from the author of Rebecca tells the tale of a woman looking for adventure, only to find it in the arms a rebellious criminal (New York Times). Bored and restless in London's Restoration Court, Lady Dona escapes into the British countryside with her restlessness and thirst for adventure as her only guides. Eventually Dona lands in remote Navron, looking for peace of mind in its solitary woods and hidden creeks. She finds the passion her spirit craves in the love of a daring French pirate who is being hunted by all of Cornwall. Together, they embark upon a quest rife with danger and glory, one which bestows upon Dona the ultimate choice: sacrifice her lover to certain death or risk her own life to save him.

U.K. Gollancz. 1941. 208p.

By Robert Barnard

“The perfect gem, one you wouldn’t change
a word of Los Angeles Times

Professor Belville-Smith had bored university au­diences in England with the same lecture for fifty years. Now he was crossing the Australian continent, doing precisely the same. Never before had the reaction been so extreme, however; for shortly after an undistin­guished appearance at Drummondale University, the doddering old professor is found brutally murdered. As Police Inspector Royle (who had never actually had to solve a crime before) probes the possible motives of the motley crew of academics who drink their way through the dreary days at Drummondale and as he investigates the bizarre behavior of some worthy lo­cals, a hilarious, highly satirical portrait of life down under emerges!’ —St. Louis PbstHDispatch.

London Collins. 1977. 190p.