By E. Phillips Oppenheim.
The Great Impersonation is a mystery novel written by E. Phillips Oppenheim and published in 1920. German Leopold von Ragastein meets his doppelganger, Englishman Everard Dominey, in Africa, and plans to murder him and steal his identity to spy on English high society just prior to World War I. (From Amazon)
Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1920. 344p.
By Thomas W. Hanshew.
Meet Hamilton Cleek – man of mystery, and master of disguise and derring-do. Cleek’s exploits are, to say the least, highly improbable, but the book is enormous fun. The goodies are good and the baddies are very bad indeed, but beware – things are not always what they seem. Suspend your disbelief and enjoy a rattling good yarn!
Open Library. New York: McKinlay, Stone, and McKenzie , 1913. 320p.
By E. Phillips Oppenheim.
“…It was a home, this, in which a man could well lead a peaceful life, could dream away his days to the music of the west wind, the gurgling stream, the song of birds, and the low murmuring of insects. Peter Ruff stood like a man turned to stone, for even as he looked these things passed away from before his eyes, the roar of the world beat in his ears—the world of intrigue, of crime, the world where the strong man hewed his way to power, and the weaklings fell like corn before the sickle.” (Excerpt from Chapter 1).
London: Carswell, 1917, 318p.
By G.K. Chesterton.
Father Brown, an unassuming and shabbily dressed priest, possesses an incredible ability to solve crimes and murders. Here he reveals the secret of his success. He discovers the culprit by imagining himself to be inside the mind of the criminal. This fourth collection of Father Brown stories contains the magnificent ‘The Chief Mourner of Marne’- a fascinating story with unexpected twists – about a duel and a case of mistaken identity. —GoodReads.
London; Toronto; Melbourne: Sydney; Cassell & Co , 1927. 320p.
By G.K. Chesterton.
"The Incredulity of Father Brown," G.K. Chesterton treats us to another set of bizarre crimes that only his "stumpy" Roman Catholic prelate has the wisdom and mindset to solve. As usual, Chesterton loves playing with early twentieth-century class distinctions, "common-sense" assumptions, and the often anti-Catholic biases of his characters. He loves showing, through his characters, how those who hold themselves superior to the "fantasies" of Brown's Catholic faith themselves devolve into superstitious blithering when faced with the tiniest of mysteries. In this collection, Brown finds himself as the main event at his own funeral (The resurrection of Father Brown), contemplating the possibility of death from the sky (The arrow of heaven), piercing the mystery of a dog's "prophetic" behavior (The oracle of the dog), and facing off against a curse hanging about a medieval burial (The curse of the golden cross). From Goodreads
London; Toronto; Melbourne: Sydney; Cassell & Co., 1926/ 304p.
By Nicholas Carter.
A Detective Story.. “…As they went, man and dogs making frantic efforts to clutch at the edge of the ice, he had a glimpse of an evil face looking down at him. Amorak had run from the bowlder to the edge of the fissure, and was completing the catastrophe by pushing over the two dogs that led the team, and who would have been dragged over in any case. Usually, to fall into the fissure of a glacier means certain death, for these cracks are exceedingly deep, and the chances are that he who falls in will be ground to pulp by the movement of the vast river of ice upon the stony bed below. It was Amorak himself who saved Stokes' life….” —From Amazon. New York: Street and Smith, 1897. 236p.
By Cleveland Moffett.
From the Archives of the Pinkertons. NY. Stories include: The Northampton Bank Robbery; The Susquehanna Express Robbery; The Pollock Diamond Robbery; The Rock Island Express; The Destruction or the Renos; The American Exchange Bank Robbery.
Dillingham (1897) 262p.
By Emerson Hough..
A Story of the Western Desperado by Emerson Hough. In the old American west there were many men and boys who chose to live by the gun...and die by the gun. Some died by the Vigilante's Rope. The stories of Billy the Kid, The James Boys, The Dalton Gang, Tom Pickett, Bill Chadwell and many, many others can be read in this wonderful, fact-filled book originally published in 1907. This book is part of the Historical Collection of Badgley Publishing Company and has been transcribed from the original. The original contents have been edited and corrections have been made to original printing, spelling and grammatical errors when not in conflict with the author?s intent to portray a particular event or interaction. Annotations have been made and additional contents have been added by Badgley Publishing Company in order to clarify certain historical events or interactions and to enhance the author?s content. Photos and illustrations from the original have been touched up, enhanced and sometimes enlarged for better viewing.
New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1907. 426p.
By Mary Roberts Rinehart.
Often referred to as the "American Agatha Christie," Mary Roberts Rinehart did much to popularize and refine the mystery genre in the United States. The Street of Seven Stars follows an American musician, Harmony Wells, to Austria, where she has gone to hone her violin skills. Though the dashing doctor she meets there appears to want to protect her, there may be more to his motives than meets the eye.
New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1914. 390p.
By Mary Roberts Rinehart.
"THIS is the story of how a middle-aged spinster lost her mind, deserted her domestic gods in the city, took a furnished house for the summer out of town, and found herself involved in one of those mysterious crimes that keep our newspapers and detective agencies happy and prosperous."
New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1908. 301p.
By Mary Roberts Rinehart.
What starts out at as a simple train ride for Lawrence Blakely soon turns disastrous. The attorney-at-law is hand delivering decisive documents in a criminal case, and finds himself on the other side of the law when he is mixed up in a murder. Someone is after Blakely and his papers, and the classic mystery style of Mary Roberts Rinehart guarantees there’s a good story behind the strange happenings.The Man in Lower Ten was the first detective novel to make it to the national bestseller list, and it hasn’t lost its edge. It has the romance and the suspense of today’s mystery novels and boasts the ability to stand the test of time.
New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1909. 404p.
By Edgar Rice Burroughs.
The Most Feared Warrior In England. At 17 – The Greatest Swordsman in England — At 18 – A Price On His Head –At 19 – The Leader Of A Band Of A Thousand Who was this Norman of Tom? Where did he come from? All that anyone knew was that his blade was sharp, his arm strong. Then – As he was about to uncover the secret of his birth – he found himself in the greatest peril he’d ever known/
A. C. McClurg (1927) 170p.
By Wilkie Collins..
A Novel . When the elderly Allan Armadale makes a terrible confession on his death-bed, he has little idea of the repercussions to come, for the secret he reveals involves the mysterious Lydia Gwilt: flame-haired temptress, bigamist, laudanum addict and husband-poisoner. Her malicious intrigues fuel the plot of this gripping melodrama: a tale of confused identities, inherited curses, romantic rivalries, espionage, money—and murder. The character of Lydia Gwilt horrified contemporary critics, with one reviewer describing her as "One of the most hardened female villains whose devices and desires have ever blackened fiction.
New York: Harper and Brothers, 1874. 684p.
By George S. McWatters.
Or, Ways and By-ways in the Hidden Life of American Detectives. A Narrative of Marvellous Experiences Among All Classes of Society, Criminals in High Life, Swindlers, Bank Robbers, Thieves, Lottery Agents, Gamblers, Necromancers, Counterfeiters, Burglar, etc.
Hartford: J.B. Burr and Hyde, 1871. 684p.
By Ellis Parker Butler.
Philo Gubb, not being content with his job as wallpaper-hanger, has higher aspirations: to become a detective, just like Sherlock Holmes. To that end, he enrolls in a correspondence course, where he gets lessons through the mail as well as the necessary disguises for a detective. Philo Gubb, not being really clever or intuitive, or even looking good in those disguises, gets involved in one case after the other - and sooner or later happens to stumble on and solve the crime..Each of these stories is a complete mystery unto itself so if you read just one, you will know it's beginning and the unorthodox methods by which Philo Gubb, Correspondence-School Detective solves it using his woeful 'deteckative' (as he puts it) skills.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1918.412p.
By Wilkie Collins.
First published serially between 1859 and 1860, “The Woman in White” is Wilkie Collins’s epistolary novel that tells the tale of Walter Hartright, who encounters a woman all dressed in white on a moonlit road in Hampstead. Hartright helps the woman to find her way back to London. The woman warns him against an unnamed baronet and after they part he discovers that she may have escaped from an insane asylum. Hartright travels to Cumberland where he takes up a position as the art tutor of Laura Fairlie and her devoted half-sister, Marian Halcombe, who are somehow entangled with this mysterious “woman in white”. Wilkie Collins’s fifth published novel, “The Woman in White” is considered one of the earliest examples of the mystery genre, an early work of detective fiction, and one of the finest examples of sensationalist literature. While the novel was a commercial success when first published it was harshly reviewed by critics of the age. Since that time it has come to be regarded as a groundbreaking work of the mystery genre, one of Collins’s best.
London: Sampson Low, Son & Co., 1860. 336p.
By Joseph Conrad.
In the only novel Conrad set in London, The Secret Agent communicates a profoundly ironic view of human affairs. The story is woven around an attack on the Greenwich Observatory in 1894 masterminded by Verloc, a Russian spy working for the police, and ostensibly a member of an anarchist group in Soho. His masters instruct him to discredit the anarchists in a humiliating fashion, and when his evil plan goes horribly awry, Verloc must deal with the repercussions of his actions. While rooted in the Edwardian period, Conrad's tale remains strikingly contemporary, with its depiction of Londoners gripped by fear of the terrorists living in their midst.
Leipzig: Tauchnitz, 1907. 350p.
By Sax Rhomer.
The Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu is the first novel in the Dr. Fu Manchu (sometimes "Fu-Manchu") series by Sax Rohmer. It collates various short stories published the preceding year. The novel was also published in US under the title The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu.. We meet first Dr Petrie who is immediately surprised by a late night visitor, "a tall, lean ... square cut ... sun baked" man who turns out to be his good friend (Commissioner Sir Denis) Nayland Smith of Burma, formerly of Scotland Yard, who has come directly from Burma. We then learn that various men associated with India are the target of assassination by the Chinese Dr Fu Manchu, who seems to have been active in Burma (as distinct from India), in places such as Rangoon, Prome, Moulmein and the "Upper Irrawaddy" and who comes to England with dacoits and thuggees.
Collier (1913) 372p.
By E. Phillips Oppenheim.
A former defense attorney turned righteous crusader is the hero of this blockbuster novel from an early master of the thriller genreA businessman is found stabbed through the heart, the obvious suspect his partner: Oliver Hilditch, a cold-eyed fellow with a paper-thin alibi. Hilditch seems destined for the gallows, but he is saved by brilliant defense attorney Francis Ledsam, who uses every legal trick he knows to free his client. It is a defense to be proud of, but Ledsam’s joy vanishes when Hilditch’s wife informs him that her husband is guilty of crimes far more monstrous than murder. His faith in his career shaken, Ledsam vows never again to defend a guilty man. But when his newfound principles run up against the harsh reality of real-world justice, he finds himself trapped between his love for a beautiful woman and a powerful desire to do the right thing—no matter the cost.
Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1922. 322p.
By Frederick W. Waldo..
The Last of the New England Highwaymen. A desperado in the shadow of the gallows recounts his life of crime in this rollicking seventeenth-century memoir. Michael Martin, better known as Captain Lightfoot, confessed his history of highway robbery to a Boston reporter shortly before his execution. Martin had cut a dashing figure as Captain Lightfoot, renowned for his courtly manners and his Robin Hood-like predilection for stealing only from well-to-do men. His tale of adventure and intrigue, punctuated by daring escapes and desperate shootouts, created a sensation upon its 1821 publication. Born into a respectable Irish family, Martin exhibited "bad habits and vicious propensities" from an early age. His preference for low company and debauchery soon led to an acquaintance with John Doherty, alias Captain Thunderbolt. The latter provided Martin with his nom de guerre and indoctrinated him into the business of burglaries, hold-ups, and gunfights. Pursued by sheriffs and king's men throughout Ireland and Scotland, the pair parted company, and Martin emigrated to New England, where he terrorized travelers from 1819 until his arrest and hanging in 1821.
Toppsfield, MA: The Wayside Press, 1926. 192p.
