By John Oxenham

On the wind-scoured granite islands of Chausey, off the coast of Normandy, young sailor Ronan Kerzec loves Aliette Kerello. Her father, the ruthless quarry-master who rules the islands, has sworn they will never marry. When Kerello is found murdered, the island whispers turn to Ronan, and he is far away when they do.

Swept into the Franco-Prussian War, Ronan defends Paris through the long siege at Fort Issy. Then, as the city turns on itself, the cunning Fernande Vilard, a schemer from Chausey who wants both Aliette and her fortune, presses him into the doomed Paris Commune. Ronan is trapped between the barricades and the firing squads as Paris burns. With his faithful giant friend Gros-Alain beside him, he must survive the Bloody Week, a living tomb, and the prison yards of Versailles, only to be shipped home in chains, to his own islands, where Vilard waits for him.

First published in 1913, Red Wrath is a sweeping story of love, loyalty and revenge set against one of the most savage episodes in French history.

This Read-Me.Org Modernized-Classic has been rewritten line by line in plain modern English and tightened for today’s readers, with a new introduction and discussion questions for book groups.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 300 p.

By Netley Lucas

In 1926, Netley Lucas, a young English con man turned crime writer, promised to lead his readers into the hidden underworld of Paris. In the company of the international crook Etienne Gaspard, he descends from the cafés of the boulevards into the cellars of Montmartre and the shadows of the Seine. There he meets apache gangs and their fearless women, forgers and jewel thieves, drug dealers, blackmailers, and spies. He also tells the stories of the Bonnot motor bandits and of the murderer Henri Désiré Landru, the “Bluebeard” of Gambais.

Vivid, entertaining, and often unreliable, Criminal Paris is a revealing portrait of crime and its fascination in the 1920s. Its author was himself a gifted deceiver. Within a few years Lucas was exposed as a fabricator and jailed for selling a bogus royal biography. The book carries a foreword by Dr. Edmond Locard, one of the founders of modern forensic science.

This Read-Me.Org Modernized-Classic edition updates the language for today’s readers and retains the original frontispiece portrait of the author. A new introduction by Colin Heston places Lucas and his book in historical context. Review and discussion questions make it suitable for courses in criminology, criminal justice, and social history.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 157 p.

JOHN OXENHAM

Wanderlust in her blood. A crown in her future.

At seventeen, Alix Roustaine can bear the walls of her London boarding school no longer. Her father, a famous explorer, appears only once a year on her birthday, and this time she refuses to be left behind. Within weeks she is in breeches on the headwaters of the Amazon, commanding canoe-men, shooting, paddling, and loving every minute of it.

Then disaster strikes. Captured by headhunting tribesmen, rescued by a mysterious and gallant cousin, and left alone in the wilderness after her father’s death, Alix marries her rescuer in a tiny mission church deep in the forest. What follows is one of the most breathless adventures in Victorian fiction: an island paradise in the South Seas destroyed by kidnappers and a hurricane, a thousand-mile voyage in a home-built boat, and arrest, imprisonment, and escape through the burning streets of Valparaiso during the Chilean Civil War of 1891.

But the greatest trial still lies ahead. Widowed, penniless, and with only her small son left to her, Alix carries a letter from her dead husband to the mountain kingdom of Vascovia, and learns a secret that could put her boy on the throne. To claim his birthright she must face King Rolf, a ruler with a tiger’s temper and designs of his own, along with his scheming minister, kidnappers, and a doubt about her own marriage that threatens everything she holds dear.

First published in 1899, A Princess of Vascovy combines the exotic adventure of Rider Haggard with the palace intrigue of The Prisoner of Zenda, carried along by one of the boldest and most spirited heroines of the age. John Oxenham (William Arthur Dunkerley, 1852–1941) wrote more than forty novels, and this is among his liveliest.

This Read-Me.Org Modernized-Classic presents the complete novel, newly transcribed and restored from the original edition, with modernized spelling and punctuation. It also includes a new Introduction by Colin Heston and review and discussion questions for reading groups and classrooms.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 296p.

Edited by  Nella Braddy . Designed and Edited with an Introduction by Colin Heston

Fifteen classic tales of danger, mystery, suspense, and the unexpected.

Adventure knows no boundaries. It can unfold on a ghostly ship in a deserted ocean, in the skies above the earth, or behind the locked doors of a mysterious house.

Bringing together Nella Braddy's original collections, Stories of the Sea and Sky and Adventures within Walls, this volume presents fifteen remarkable stories by celebrated authors, including Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, O. Henry, Anton Chekhov, Honoré de Balzac, and Charles Dickens.

From terrifying encounters with the forces of nature to disturbing mysteries of human behavior, these stories explore courage, deception, survival, confinement, and the darker corners of the imagination.

Featuring a new introduction by Colin Heston, this carefully prepared edition preserves the original stories while inviting contemporary readers to rediscover the excitement and literary richness of classic adventure fiction.

From the boundless ocean to the locked chamber, fifteen unforgettable adventures await.Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 203p.

by JOHN OXENHAM. Modernized with a new Introduction by Colin Heston

A powerful historical novel of religious persecution, courage, and the struggle for freedom of conscience.

In Under the Iron Flail, John Oxenham transports readers to a turbulent age when religious conviction could mean imprisonment, exile, or death. Against a background of political upheaval and bitter religious conflict, ordinary men and women confront extraordinary choices as they struggle to preserve their faith, dignity, and humanity.

Oxenham combines historical drama with personal tragedy, exploring the devastating consequences of intolerance and the courage required to resist oppression. His characters must navigate a world in which loyalty, love, and conscience are repeatedly tested by forces beyond their control.

More than a tale of persecution, Under the Iron Flail examines the relationship between religious authority and political power, the cruelty that can arise from unquestioning obedience, and the resilience of individuals determined to remain true to their beliefs.

Written at the beginning of the twentieth century, the novel reflects Oxenham's deep concern with moral responsibility, spiritual conviction, and the human cost of fanaticism. Its themes remain strikingly relevant in an age still troubled by ideological division, authoritarianism, and struggles over freedom of belief.

This Read-Me.Org Modernized Classic introduces Oxenham's historical fiction to contemporary readers through updated language and presentation, making the narrative more accessible while seeking to preserve its dramatic intensity, historical atmosphere, and central moral questions.

For readers interested in historical fiction, religious persecution, the history of intolerance, and the enduring struggle between individual conscience and institutional authority, Under the Iron Flail offers both a compelling narrative and an invitation to reflect on the meaning of courage and freedom.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 320p.

Edited by  Nella Braddy . Designed and Edited with an Introduction by Colin Heston

Two classic collections. Thirteen extraordinary stories. A world of adventure.

Journey into distant lands where danger, mystery, courage, and the unexpected transform ordinary lives into extraordinary adventures.

Masterpieces of Adventure — Volume I brings together two remarkable collections originally selected by Nella Braddy in the early twentieth century: Oriental Stories and Stories of Desert Places. Together, they offer thirteen compelling tales that capture the fascination of an era when unfamiliar landscapes, ancient cities, remote deserts, and encounters across cultures stirred the literary imagination.

In Oriental Stories, readers enter a world of intrigue, strange encounters, conflicting loyalties, and unexpected discoveries. The stories reflect the imaginative richness of classic adventure fiction, combining suspense, atmosphere, and the complexities of human character.

Stories of Desert Places takes readers into vast, unforgiving landscapes where isolation, endurance, ambition, and survival become central themes. Against dramatic natural settings, the characters confront dangers that test their resourcefulness, determination, and moral judgment.

These stories offer more than excitement. They provide a fascinating glimpse into the attitudes, assumptions, and literary traditions of their time, revealing how earlier generations imagined distant societies and the challenges of exploring unfamiliar worlds.

This edition features:

• Both original collections in one volume, comprising thirteen complete stories.

• The original editorial selection by Nella Braddy.

• A new introduction by Colin Heston, placing the collections within the tradition of classic adventure literature.

• A carefully designed modernized edition for contemporary readers.

For lovers of classic literature, historical adventure, exotic settings, and the enduring art of storytelling, Masterpieces of Adventure — Volume I offers a rewarding journey into the imaginative world of early twentieth-century adventure fiction.

Rediscover the excitement, mystery, and literary richness of adventure's golden age.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 214p.

by JOHN OXENHAM. Modernized with a new Introduction by Colin Heston

In two novels published a year apart, John Oxenham sent his readers to opposite ends of the earth. One is set in the frozen prison camps of Tsarist Siberia and the other among the coral reefs of the South Pacific. Yet both tell the same story: what happens when love and conviction burn so fiercely that they will carry a person anywhere, at any cost.

In Hearts in Exile (1904), Hope Arskaïa gives her hand not to Paul Pavlof, the young doctor who adores her, but to his friend Serge Palma, who will share her dangerous work for Russia’s oppressed. When both men are condemned to Siberia, Paul makes a secret sacrifice on the long convict road that binds the three of them together. Hope follows her husband five thousand miles to the penal settlement at Kara, only to find what she least expects.

In White Fire (1905), Jean Arnot, a spirited Scottish heiress, defies convention by proposing marriage to Kenneth Blair, a missionary home from the South Seas. Aboard their armed schooner, the Torch, they sail for the Dark Islands. There they confront tribal warfare, epidemic, natural catastrophe, and the “blackbirders” who kidnap islanders for forced labor.

John Oxenham, the pen name of William Arthur Dunkerley (1852–1941), was a bestselling novelist and poet whose hymn “In Christ There Is No East or West” is still sung today. These two adventure romances show him at his most energetic, combining fast-moving plots with stories of courage, faith, and self-sacrifice.

This Read-Me.Org Modernized-Classic has American spelling and modern typography while keeping Oxenham’s text and chapters intact. It includes fourteen original illustrations by G. Grenville Manton. Colin Heston’s new Introduction places the novels in their historical setting, from the Russian exile system to the Pacific labor trade, and discusses candidly the period attitudes modern readers will meet. Review and discussion questions make the book well suited to book clubs and classrooms.

Read-Me.Org Inc. is a nonprofit publisher dedicated to free online access to classic literature.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 414p.

By John Oxenham. Introduction and discussion notes b y Colin Heston

A murder no one suspects. A prisoner no jail can hold.

In a locked office in the City of London, James Ayrton faces ruin. His partner, John Brodie, has discovered the forged ledgers, and in a moment of rage and despair a single shot rings out. Within the hour, Brodie’s body is sealed in a packing case and lodged in a safe deposit vault under his own name. By morning Ayrton is beyond suspicion, free to take everything. He is also, as he soon discovers, a prisoner.

Then the impossible begins. Letters arrive from the Far East in Brodie’s handwriting. The newspapers report that Brodie survived a shipwreck and has married a fellow passenger. Ayrton, who knows exactly where Brodie lies, is driven to the edge of madness by a mystery he cannot confess and cannot solve.

First published in 1898, God’s Prisoner moves from the fog and gaslight of Victorian London to the blue water and coral reefs of the South Pacific. There, sailing under a new name aboard the trading schooner Bluewing, with a stubborn Yankee captain hunting a lost cargo of gold, Ayrton must face the question at the heart of the novel: can a man who has escaped all earthly justice ever be free?

Part psychological thriller, part sea adventure, and part story of redemption, this was among the first novels of John Oxenham (William Arthur Dunkerley, 1852-1941), the much-loved author of Bees in Amber and the hymn “In Christ There Is No East or West.” Readers who know Oxenham as a poet of quiet faith will discover here a gripping storyteller in the tradition of Wilkie Collins and Robert Louis Stevenson.

This Read-Me.Org Modernized-Classic edition features:

• The complete text of the 1899 Henry Holt edition, corrected and lightly modernized in spelling and hyphenation, with Oxenham’s language and dialogue preserved

• A new introduction by Colin Heston on the novel, its author, and its themes of guilt, conscience, and grace

• Three original illustrations opening each of the novel’s three books: The Crime, The Punishment, and The Redemption

• Review and discussion questions, ideal for book clubs, classrooms, and readers of Victorian fiction

Read-Me.Org Inc. is a nonprofit publisher dedicated to free online access to classic books. Every purchase supports its mission.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. p237.

By A. Maynard Barbour. Introduction b y Colin Heston.

A mining expert loses his past. Can he find out who he is before it is too late?

At the Time Appointed (1903) by A. Maynard Barbour is a gripping blend of crime story, Western adventure, and romance that went through ten editions within two years of publication.

Traveling west under an assumed name, a young mining expert calling himself John Darrell witnesses a midnight train robbery high in the mountains. A young friend is stabbed to death beside him, and for one instant he glimpses the murderer's face. Struck down by fever, Darrell wakes weeks later at The Pines, the home of a blunt, kind-hearted mine owner, with no memory of who he was. He knows only the borrowed name.

Darrell builds a new life in the mining camps of the Rockies. He works as an assayer, weathers a bitter strike, and finds a mentor in John Britton, a gentle, wealthy miner whose own past hides a deep sorrow. He also falls in love with Kate Underwood, the mine owner's spirited daughter. He cannot ask her to marry a man without a name, and her father has already chosen another husband for her: his polished, secretive new business partner. When a bolt of lightning on the Great Divide restores Darrell's memory, the hidden threads of many lives begin to draw together toward a final reckoning.

Barbour, whose first novel was praised alongside the work of Anna Katharine Green, explores memory and identity, justice and revenge, and the belief that every life unfolds "at the time appointed."

This Read-Me.Org Modernized-Classic presents the complete, unabridged text with modernized American spelling and punctuation. It adds a new introduction by Colin Heston on the novel's themes, its mining-frontier setting, and its place in early crime fiction, plus review and discussion questions for classrooms and reading groups.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. p232.

By John Oxenham. Edite, adapted and introduced by Colin Heston.

A wealthy woman dies. A young heiress stands accused of murder. A mysterious poisoned arrow holds the key to a deadly secret.

First published in 1924, The House of the Arrow is one of the outstanding detective novels of the Golden Age of crime fiction. Written by A. E. W. Mason, creator of the celebrated French detective Inspector Hanaud, this ingenious mystery combines psychological suspense, forensic investigation, and an intricate puzzle in which appearances are dangerously deceptive.

When wealthy widow Jeanne-Marie Harlowe dies at her home in Dijon, France, her considerable fortune passes to her young niece, Betty Harlowe. But Betty's inheritance brings an unexpected nightmare. Boris Waberski, an embittered relative who has been excluded from the will, accuses her of poisoning her aunt.

An English solicitor, Jim Frobisher, travels to France to defend the frightened heiress. There he encounters the formidable Inspector Hanaud of the Paris Sûreté, a brilliant, unpredictable investigator whose methods alternately astonish, amuse, and exasperate his English companion.

At the center of the investigation stands the mysterious Maison Grenelle, an old French mansion filled with valuable antiques, concealed secrets, suspicious inhabitants, and a remarkable collection of exotic weapons. Among them is a poisoned arrow that may explain a death previously attributed to natural causes.

As anonymous letters spread fear through Dijon and suspicions multiply, Hanaud must unravel a complex web of greed, deception, jealousy, and carefully concealed motives. Every apparently insignificant detail may matter, from a clock on an antique cabinet to a misplaced book and the behavior of those who insist they have nothing to hide.

More than an ingenious whodunit, The House of the Arrow explores the difficulty of proving murder when the physical evidence is uncertain or nonexistent. Mason's vivid characterization, atmospheric French setting, and sophisticated treatment of criminal investigation make this novel both a compelling entertainment and a fascinating contribution to the history of detective fiction.

ABOUT THIS MODERNIZED EDITION

This complete and unabridged edition preserves Mason's original story, characters, dialogue, and intricate mystery while updating spelling and selected older language conventions for contemporary American readers.

A substantial new introduction by Colin Heston examines the novel's publishing history, its place in Golden Age detective fiction, the character and investigative methods of Inspector Hanaud, and its treatment of poisoning, criminal evidence, and French justice.

For readers of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Arthur Conan Doyle, and classic British mysteries, The House of the Arrow offers an absorbing encounter with one of the genre's most distinctive detectives.

A classic mystery of murder, suspicion, and the elusive nature of truth-restored for a new generation of readers.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. ..2026. p 221..

By John Oxenham. Edite, adapted and introduced by Colin Heston.

July 25, 1914. In a quiet London suburb, merchant John Dare walks his garden at dawn. He has slept badly. Shipments from Germany have stopped without explanation, payments from the Continent have dried up, and the newspapers talk only of a minor quarrel in the Balkans. Within ten days Britain will be at war.

John Oxenham's 1914 follows two neighboring families, the Liberal Dares and the Conservative Luards, through the first six months of the Great War. Ray Luard races across a mobilizing Europe to bring Lois Dare home from Leipzig, and the two are stranded in Switzerland with less than five pounds between them. At home, Mr. Dare's business collapses overnight, the women organize relief for Belgian refugees, and spy fever turns a trusted local doctor into a suspect. The young men who once spent their days on the golf links enlist in the London Scottish and march toward the battle of Messines.

Oxenham wrote the novel while the war was still being fought, and it was published in 1916, before anyone knew how it would end. The result is a vivid record of how ordinary people met the opening months of a catastrophe, with courage, confusion, faith, and grief.

This Read-Me.Org Modernized-Classic presents the complete text with American spelling and lightly updated punctuation. It also includes:

• A new Introduction by Colin Heston on the novel, its author, and its historical moment
• 23 Review and Discussion Questions, ideal for book clubs and classrooms
• A clean, carefully formatted 5.5" × 8.5" layout

John Oxenham (William Arthur Dunkerley, 1852–1941) was one of the best-selling poets and novelists of the First World War era. He is remembered today for the hymn "In Christ There Is No East or West."

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. ..2026. p 285..

By John Oxenham. Edite, adapted and introduced by Colin Heston.

A Modernized Edition

It is the winter of 1870–71, and France is losing the war with Prussia. Captain Patrice de Valle serves in its last army, starving, half-frozen, and badly led, as it marches through the snows of the Jura toward defeat. He watches his closest friends die in the final rearguard fight, lays down his sword at the Swiss frontier, and walks away from all of it: his country, his rank, and his loveless marriage to a society beauty. Even his own name goes.

Reported dead, he becomes Constant Duval, a sawyer in a remote Alpine valley below the Jungfrau. There, among pine forests, avalanches, and honest mountain people, he finds what he never had before: work he loves, a faith of his own, and the love of the remarkable Christine Bayr.

But a dead man is still a married man. And the past has a long memory. An old enemy recognizes him, and keeping his new life means keeping his secret.

First published in 1914, Broken Shackles combines a vivid, historically accurate account of the collapse of Bourbaki’s Army of the East with a love story and a moral dilemma. Can a good man build a good life on a lie? Oxenham leaves the verdict to the reader.

This modernized edition presents the complete novel, all three books and forty-five chapters, in clear modern English. It includes:

• Frank Wright’s original color frontispiece.

• A new introduction by Colin Heston on the novel’s history, its questions of crime, self-defense, and concealment, and the shackles of the past.

Download the original book

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. ..2026. p 205..

Bondman Free: The Remarkable Adventures of a Gentleman Convict
By John Oxenham. A Modernized Edition, with an Introduction by Colin Heston.

John Bellenger is an honest bank cashier with a dying wife. When his employer refuses him a small advance on his salary, he takes the money anyway, gives his wife a last few happy months by the sea, and then comes home to give himself up. The judge who sentences him is the feared “Hanging Judge,” Sir James Alleyne.

Prison turns out to be the easy part. Back in the world, Bellenger loses one job after another to rumor, prejudice, and an anonymous enemy. Then, near despair, he walks up to the door of a lonely house among the sand dunes to ask for work. The house belongs to the man who sent him to prison.

What follows is shipwreck, kidnapping, a manhunt across the dunes, an escaped murderer bent on revenge, and a family secret buried in the sand. It is also an unlikely friendship between a convict and his judge, which becomes the heart of the book.

First published in 1902, Bondman Free asks questions that still matter: what punishment is for, what society owes people who have served their sentences, and how far loyalty can justify hiding the truth from the law.

Downlaod the original book here.

This edition presents Oxenham’s complete text in clear modern English, with nothing abridged. It includes:

• Louis F. Grant’s three original illustrations.

• A new introduction by Colin Heston on the novel’s ideas about crime, rehabilitation, and the lasting stigma of a criminal record.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026.175p.

by Israel Zangwill (Author), Colin Heston (Introduction) Format: Paperback

A man is found dead in his locked room, throat cut, with both door and windows bolted from the inside. There is no way in. There is no way out. And yet a murder has been committed in a room that should have made one impossible.

Written in a fortnight for a London evening newspaper in 1891, The Big Bow Mystery is widely regarded as the first full-length locked-room detective novel in English — a book that helped invent the puzzle mystery a full four years before Sherlock Holmes made the form famous. Israel Zangwill built his novel on a strict promise to the reader: every clue would be given fairly, with nothing held back for a last-page surprise. Readers of the original serial tried for weeks to guess the solution. Zangwill claimed, with a wink, that only one person ever succeeded — himself.

Set among the cobblers, poets, labor leaders, and newspapermen of working-class Bow in London's East End, the novel is as much a comedy of Victorian London as it is a puzzle. Rival detectives compete for the glory of solving the case while the press whips the public into a frenzy of theories, confessions, and armchair sleuthing. Beneath the wit runs a sharper question: how does a neighborhood — or a newspaper, or a jury — turn a mystery into a story, and a story into a verdict?

Filmed three times in Hollywood and named among the cornerstones of detective fiction, The Big Bow Mystery remains a sly, funny, and genuinely puzzling read more than a century after it first appeared.

This Read-Me.Org Classic Reprint presents the 1895 text with a new introduction placing the novel in its historical and literary context, along with the four original illustrations.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 139p.

by Israel Zangwill (Author), Colin Heston (Introduction)

A vivid and deeply human portrait of Jewish life at the end of the nineteenth century.

First published in its expanded form in 1899, Israel Zangwill’s Ghetto Tragedies brings to life a world caught between ancient traditions and the pressures of modernity. Set largely among the Jewish communities of London, these powerful stories explore family, faith, poverty, ambition, love, prejudice, assimilation, and the often painful struggle between inherited beliefs and a rapidly changing society.

Zangwill writes with an extraordinary combination of compassion, irony, humor, and social observation. His characters are not merely representatives of a vanished community: they are parents and children, husbands and wives, believers and doubters, dreamers and outsiders confronting circumstances that test both their convictions and their humanity.

Among the collection’s most affecting stories is “They That Walk in Darkness,” the extraordinary account of Zillah and her beloved son Brum. When the intellectually gifted boy becomes blind, his mother’s desperate search for a cure carries them from London across Europe to Rome, where faith, superstition, maternal devotion, and tragedy converge in an unforgettable conclusion.

Other stories illuminate the tensions of migration and social advancement, generational conflict, religious observance, marriage, identity, and the difficult accommodation between Jewish tradition and Victorian society. Although rooted firmly in its historical setting, the collection repeatedly addresses questions that remain strikingly contemporary: What happens when cultures collide? How much of the past should be preserved? What is lost in the pursuit of acceptance and prosperity? And what happens when faith encounters suffering that it cannot explain?

Israel Zangwill (1864–1926) was one of the most important Anglo-Jewish writers of his generation. His fiction documented the lives of Jewish immigrants and their descendants with an intimacy, wit, and complexity rarely found in the popular literature of his era.

This Read-Me.Org Classic Reprint presents Ghetto Tragedies in a newly designed edition for modern readers, with an analytical introduction by Colin Heston examining Zangwill’s characters, social world, themes, and enduring significance.

A compelling collection of stories about faith and doubt, tradition and change, suffering and survival—and the human beings caught between them.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 232p.

by Israel Zangwill (Author), Colin Heston (Introduction)

The groundbreaking novel that brought the vibrant world of London's East End Jewish community to the English-speaking world.

First published in 1892, Children of the Ghetto is widely regarded as one of the most important novels of Anglo-Jewish life ever written. Drawing upon his own experiences growing up in London's immigrant neighborhoods, Israel Zangwill creates a rich and unforgettable portrait of a community caught between ancient traditions and the challenges of modern society.

Set amidst the bustling streets of Whitechapel and Spitalfields, the novel follows a diverse cast of characters as they grapple with faith, family, poverty, ambition, love, and identity. Through their struggles and triumphs, Zangwill illuminates the hopes and hardships of immigrant life in Victorian England with remarkable insight, humanity, and wit.

More than a century after its publication, Children of the Ghetto remains a powerful exploration of cultural change, belonging, and the search for meaning in a rapidly evolving world. Its themes resonate as strongly today as they did when the book first captivated readers on both sides of the Atlantic.

This beautifully presented edition includes:

• A new introduction by Colin Heston

• Historical background and literary context

• Carefully edited text for modern readers

• An essential work of Jewish, British, and world literature

Perfect for readers of Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, and classic immigrant narratives, Children of the Ghettostands as a landmark achievement in nineteenth-century literature and an enduring testament to the complexity of community, tradition, and change.

Rediscover the novel that transformed the literary portrayal of Jewish life and earned Israel Zangwill international acclaim.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 427p.

Edited by Colin Heston. Three classics of British crime and detective fiction: The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes, The Woman in Black by E. C. Bentley, and Tracked by a Tattoo by Fergus Hume.

Three celebrated mysteries—carefully condensed and abridged for the modern reader in one substantial volume.

The original novels are substantial works written in the expansive style of their period. For this special edition, each has been carefully condensed and abridged, removing repetition, lengthy exposition, incidental description, and passages that do not materially advance the mystery. The aim is not to summarize or rewrite the novels, but to provide a more concentrated reading experience while retaining the essential storylines, principal characters, important clues, suspense, atmosphere, memorable scenes, and complete solutions of the originals.

In The Lodger, respectable but impoverished Robert and Ellen Bunting take a mysterious stranger into their London home. Mr. Sleuth brings desperately needed money, but his peculiar habits and nocturnal excursions coincide with a terrifying series of murders committed by the killer known as The Avenger. Gradually Mrs. Bunting is forced to contemplate an appalling possibility: has she given sanctuary to a murderer?

In The Woman in Black, wealthy American financier Sigsbee Manderson is found murdered at his English country residence. The brilliant Philip Trent sets about reconstructing the crime from apparently persuasive evidence. Yet E. C. Bentley has something more ingenious in mind. What appears certain may be false, and even the detective's most convincing deductions can lead him dangerously astray.

In Tracked by a Tattoo, Fergus Hume sends Scotland Yard detective Fanks into a labyrinth of murder, disguise, secret identities, suspicious characters, and misleading evidence. Among the bewildering clues is a physical mark—a tattoo—that may provide the thread capable of leading the detective to the truth.

Together, these three novels explore a theme at the heart of classic mystery fiction: the dangerous difference between appearance and reality. A respectable exterior may conceal guilt; an apparently decisive clue may deceive; and a murderer may remain hidden even while standing in plain sight.

This condensed and abridged edition allows readers to experience three substantial classics in a single accessible volume, preserving the mystery and character of the originals while moving more rapidly through their stories.

With an Introduction by Colin Heston, The Mark of Murder offers both longtime enthusiasts and newcomers an inviting way to rediscover three distinctive works from the formative age of crime and detective fiction.

Three classic mysteries—shortened, sharpened, and brought together in one volume, with the murder, mystery, characters, clues, and surprises intact.

.Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 294p.

by Fergus Hume (Author), Colin Heston (Introduction)

From the author of The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, the bestselling Victorian crime novel that helped shape detective fiction, comes a pair of gripping mystery adventures where hidden fortunes, dangerous ambitions, and murder lurk behind every secret.

In The Green Mummy, a rare Peruvian mummy purchased by an eccentric archaeologist disappears before it can be opened. When the body of a young assistant is discovered in its place, a baffling mystery unfolds. As clues point toward blackmail, stolen treasure, family intrigue, and long-buried secrets, a colorful cast of artists, soldiers, scholars, and fortune hunters are drawn into a deadly search for the truth.

In Red Money, the stakes are even higher. A fortune worth two million pounds hangs in the balance after the death of a wealthy woman. Multiple claimants emerge, old secrets resurface, and a murder threatens to determine the fate of the inheritance. As conspiracies, blackmail, and deception spread through English society, only the truth can reveal who deserves the fortune—and who is willing to kill for it.

Blending suspense, romance, mystery, and social satire, Fergus Hume creates two captivating tales where greed drives motives, fortunes change lives, and murder follows close behind.

This special edition includes:

• The Green Mummy (1908)

• Red Money (1911)

• A new introduction by Colin Heston

• Fully restored and unabridged texts

Perfect for readers of Wilkie Collins, Arthur Conan Doyle, and early British detective fiction, Mummies, Money and Murderoffers two forgotten classics from one of crime fiction's most influential pioneers. [Mummies, M...ney+Murder

Perfect for readers of classic mysteries, Victorian crime fiction, historical detective novels, Wilkie Collins, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Australian literary classics.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 391p.

by Anna Katharine Green (Author), Colin Heston (Introduction)

Before Sherlock Holmes, there was Ebenezer Gryce.

When wealthy New York merchant Horatio Leavenworth is found shot dead at his library table, the crime appears impossible to solve. The house was locked, nothing was stolen, and suspicion falls upon the two women closest to him: his beautiful nieces, Mary and Eleanore Leavenworth. As secrets, rivalries, hidden relationships, and conflicting loyalties emerge, lawyer Everett Raymond finds himself drawn into a mystery that grows darker with every clue.

Guiding the investigation is the unassuming but brilliant detective Ebenezer Gryce, one of literature’s earliest professional detectives and the forerunner of generations of sleuths to come. Through missing keys, disputed documents, hidden motives, and shocking revelations, the case unfolds with a level of forensic logic and fair-play clueing that was decades ahead of its time.

First published in 1878, The Leavenworth Case was an international bestseller and helped establish the detective novel as a distinct literary genre. Widely admired by later mystery writers, including Agatha Christie, it remains one of the most influential crime novels ever written.

This special edition reproduces the complete text of the original first edition, featuring its classic illustrations, diagrams, chapter epigraphs, and a new introduction exploring the novel's remarkable place in literary history.

Inside you'll discover:

• One of the first full-length detective novels ever published

• The debut of legendary detective Ebenezer Gryce

• An ingenious locked-house murder mystery

• A cast of unforgettable suspects and narrators

• Original illustrations, floor plans, and documentary evidence presented to readers

• A landmark work that paved the way for modern detective fiction

For readers of Wilkie Collins, Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and classic Golden Age mysteries, The Leavenworth Caseremains a masterfully constructed puzzle and a fascinating glimpse into the birth of detective fiction.

A timeless mystery. A groundbreaking detective. A crime that changed literary history.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 265p.

by Fergus Hume (Author), Colin Heston (Introduction)

Before Sherlock Holmes, there was Fergus Hume.

Discover two landmark works of Victorian crime fiction in this beautifully restored collection from one of the founders of the detective novel.

Set against the booming cities, goldfields, and social intrigues of colonial Australia, these classic mysteries transport readers into a world of murder, deception, hidden motives, and carefully concealed secrets.

In The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, a man is found murdered inside a cab on the streets of Melbourne. The victim's identity is unknown, the killer has vanished without a trace, and the investigation leads from fashionable society into the city's darkest corners. First published in 1886, this sensational bestseller became one of the most successful detective novels of the nineteenth century.

In Madame Midas, fortunes made in the Ballarat goldfields attract greed, ambition, and betrayal. As powerful interests collide and dangerous schemes unfold, a web of mystery and crime stretches from rural mining communities to the drawing rooms of Melbourne.

Rich in atmosphere, suspense, and colorful historical detail, these novels capture a rapidly growing Australia where wealth and respectability often concealed corruption and criminal intrigue. Together they showcase the storytelling talent that helped establish detective fiction as one of the world's most enduring literary genres.

This edition includes a new introduction by Colin Heston and presents both novels in a carefully reset and modernized text while preserving Hume's original stories and Victorian character.

Included in this volume:

• The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886)

• Madame Midas (1888)

Perfect for readers of classic mysteries, Victorian crime fiction, historical detective novels, Wilkie Collins, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Australian literary classics.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 394p.