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The Big Sleep: A Novel (Sparknotes Literature Guide Series)
by Raymond ChandlerThe renowned novel from the crime fiction master, with the "quintessential urban private eye" (Los Angeles Times), Philip Marlowe. • Featuring the iconic character that inspired the film Marlowe, starring Liam Neeson.A dying millionaire hires private eye Philip Marlowe to handle the blackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters, and Marlowe finds himself involved with more than extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, seduction, and murder are just a few of the complications he gets caught up in.&“Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious.&” —The New York Times Book Review
Playback: A Novel (A\philip Marlowe Novel Ser. #7)
by Raymond ChandlerThe renowned novel from crime fiction master Raymond Chandler, with the "quintessential urban private eye" (Los Angeles Times), Philip Marlowe • Featuring the iconic character that inspired the film Marlowe, starring Liam Neeson.In noir master Raymond Chandler's Playback, Philip Marlowe is hired by an influential lawyer he's never heard of to tail a gorgeous redhead, but then decides he'd rather help out the redhead. She's been acquitted of her alcoholic husband's murder, but her father-in-law prefers not to take the court's word for it. "Chandler wrote like a slumming angel and invested the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence:" -- Ross Macdonald
The Simple Art of Murder (Vintage Crime Ser. #Vol. 27)
by Raymond ChandlerThe renowned novel from crime fiction master Raymond Chandler, with the "quintessential urban private eye" (Los Angeles Times), Philip Marlowe • Featuring the iconic character that inspired the forthcoming film Marlowe, starring Liam NeesonIn The Simple Art of Murder, which was prefaced by the famous Atlantic Monthly essay of the same name, noir master Raymond Chandler argues the virtues of the hard-boiled detective novel, and this collection, mostly drawn from stories he wrote for the pulps, demonstrates Chandler's imaginative, entertaining facility with the form. Included are the classic stories "Spanish Blood," Pearls Are a Nuisance," and "Guns at Cyrano's," among others.
Trouble Is My Business: A Novel (A Philip Marlowe Novel #8)
by Raymond ChandlerThe renowned novel from crime fiction master Raymond Chandler, with the "quintessential urban private eye" (Los Angeles Times), Philip Marlowe • Featuring the iconic character that inspired the film Marlowe, starring Liam Neeson.This collection by crime fiction master Raymond Chandler features four long stories in which private eye Philip Marlowe is hired to protect a rich old guy from a gold digger, runs afoul of crooked politicos, gets a line on some stolen jewels with a reward attached, and stumbles across a murder victim who may have been an extortionist.
The Essential Robert Louis Stevenson Volume Two: The Master of Ballantrae, Kidnapped, and In the South Seas
by Robert Louis StevensonTwo historical adventure novels from the author of Treasure Island, as well as a rare travel memoir of his experiences in the Pacific Islands.The Master of Ballantrae: In this tragic tale of a family divided by the eighteenth-century Jacobite rising, two brothers join opposing sides of the conflict. The story follows their epic rivalry from Scotland to the high seas and the American wilderness.Kidnapped: This adventure novel, inspired by true events in eighteenth-century Scotland, tells the tale of young David Balfour—who is betrayed by his uncle and kidnapped onto a ship, and survives shipwreck with his friend, the famous Jacobite Alan Breck Stewart.In the South Seas: In the 1890s, Robert Louis Stevenson chartered a ship to the Pacific Islands and recorded his experiences and observations. This autobiography of his journey offers a rare window into the author&’s real, adventurous life.
The Mysteries of Robert Louis Stevenson: The Wrong Box and The Body Snatcher
by Robert Louis StevensonA short thriller and a comic crime novel by the author of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde explore murderous greed in nineteenth-century Scotland.The Wrong Box: Two elderly brothers, Joseph and Masterman, are the last surviving members of an investment agreement known as a tontine. All their two nephews have to do to inherit everything is make sure Joseph outlives Masterman. But that&’s easier said than done. Robert Louis Stevenson cowrote this comic crime novel with his stepson Lloyd Osbourn.The Body Snatcher: Inspired by the notorious Burke and Hare murders, this chilling short story tells the tale of two medical students in charge of receiving human cadavers for dissection in their anatomy class. When one of them begins to suspect murder is afoot, the other starts acting increasingly suspicious—until both find themselves in a terrifying predicament.
The Sign of Four (The Penguin English Library)
by Arthur Conan DoyleThe Penguin English Library editionA dense yellow miasma swirls in the streets of London as Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson accompany a beautiful young woman to a sinister assignation. For Mary Marston has received several large pearls - one a year for the last six years - and now a mystery letter telling her she is a wronged woman. If she would seek justice she is to meet her unknown benefactor, bringing with her two companions. But unbeknownst to them all, others stalk London's fog-enshrouded streets: a one-legged ruffian with revenge on his mind - and his companion, who places no value on human life . . .
Behind the Lines: A Novel (Casemate Classic War Fiction #6)
by W. F. MorrisAfter killing a fellow officer, a British World War I fighter joins the ranks of deserters and outlaws in a suspenseful novel from the author of Bretherton.Behind the Lines follows army man Peter Rawley, who accidentally kills an overbearing, taunting fellow officer and, terrified that he will not receive a fair hearing amid the chaos of the trenches, flees the battlefield. Now a fugitive, Rawley must join forces with other deserters, criminals, and lost soldiers in a hand-to-mouth existence, trying to survive in the no-man's-land between opposing armies. He will encounter both adventure and disaster, including capture by the Germans and the threat of a firing squad--and will need to call upon his own bravery and the support of the woman he loves to survive. A thriller from the author of Bretherton: Khaki or Field-Grey?--which was praised by the Sunday Times as "a mystery as exciting as a good detective story and an extraordinarily vivid account of trench-warfare"--this is a meditation on the issues of identity and allegiance, as well as the role of chance. Behind the Lines is a classic of WWI fiction and an exciting read that brings the drama of the Great War to life.
La casa Julius (Serie Aurora Roe Teagarden #Volumen 4)
by Charlaine HarrisEn la nueva entrega de la exitosa serie de Charlaine Harris, el amor a primera vista se convierte en felicidad absoluta de recién casados para la exbibliotecaria Aurora Roe Teagarden, hasta que la violencia interrumpe la luna de miel... Roe nunca se ha sentido tan feliz que desde que conoció a su prometido, el adinerado hombre de negocios Martin Bartell. A pesar de la diferencia de edad y origen, él parece conocer exactamente lo que ella quiere, como la Casa Julius... Roe, una especie de detective aficionada, está encantada cuando él la ofrece la casa como regalo de bodas. Siempre le ha intrigado su historia, tristemente célebre. Hace seis años desapareció la familia que vivía ahí y nunca más se supo de ellos. Mientras Roe se lanza a restaurar la Casa Julius, sus recelos acerca del pasado de Martin, bastante turbio, se alejan. Pero cuando Roe sufre el ataque de un maniaco armado con un hacha, se da cuenta de que los secretos que se encierran entre sus cuatro paredes -y su flamante matrimonio- pueden destruirla. Reseñas: «El estilo de la autora, ágil y alegre, mantiene la tensión en ebullición».Publishers Weekly «Harris brinda al lector una muestra de la vida en una pequeña localidad del sur de Estados Unidos. No te la pierdas».The Knoxville News-Sentinel «Roe es encantadora».Mostly Murder
Sherlock Holmes's Greatest Cases
by Sir Arthur Conan DoyleTHE GAME IS ON: the greatest adventures of the greatest detective of them all - Sherlock Holmes.The most famous of all fictional detectives in a selection of his most challenging cases, including the stories A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA and THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE and his most famous novel THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES.'Arthur Conan Doyle is unique in simultaneously bringing the curtain down on an era and raising one on another, ushering in a genre of writing that, while imitated and expanded, has never been surpassed.' Stephen Fry 'Why do people still read Sherlock Holmes in an age of DNA testing and electron microscopes? It's elementary. Holmes has a timeless intelligence that puts him head, shoulders and deer-stalker above all other detectives.' Alexander McCall Smith 'Now, as in his lifetime, cab drivers, statesmen, academics, and raggedy-arsed children sit spellbound at his feet... No wonder, then, if the pairing of Holmes and Watson has triggered more imitators than any other duo in literature.' John Le Carre
La sangre de Montalcino
by Giovanni NegriUna original novela policiaca con el mundo del vino como telón de fondo. Roberto Candido, un enólogo de fama mundial, aparece asesinado en la abadía de Montalcino. El comisario Cosulich y el inspector Mastrantoni se deben ocupar de indagar el delito. Para ello deberán adentrarse en el mundo vitivinícola. No tardarán en descubrir que Candido poseía información relevante que podría haber traído graves consecuencias para la imagen y los negocios de empresas de fama internacional. Pero no solo eso: el enólogo estaba obsesionado por descubrir la primera uva en tierras de Mesopotamia y por el «intercambio de parejas», una práctica vitivinícola experimental. Todos estos elementos son de por sí suficientes para hacer que se tambaleen los intereses del establishment del vino. Por si fuera poco, a ellos se añaden una infinidad de circunstancias más. «La tierra conoce misterios ignotos para el hombre. Esa es la verdad», había escrito Candido. Corresponderá al introvertido y visionario Cosulich averiguar de qué misteriosa verdad se trata. La sangre de Montalcino es una novela negra clásica, divertida y aguda, que, con una buena dosis de suspense e ironía, abre mucho más que un resquicio sobre el mundo internacional del vino y sobre su trasfondo más oculto. Reseña:«Fondo turbio, color rojo sangre, bouquet impredecible, retrogusto sutilmente irónico. Una magnífica novela negra de óptima añada. Se aconseja apurarla de un solo trago.»Carlo Lucarelli
The Wonderful City (Prologue Crime)
by J. S. FletcherJ. S. Fletcher (b. 1863, d. 1935) was a prolific British author and journalist. He wrote over 230 titles, both fiction and non fiction. He was one of foremost writers of detective fiction during the Golden Age of murder mystery novels.
The King in Yellow
by Robert ChambersA central influence on HP Lovecraft and countless other authors, including Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison, THE KING IN YELLOW is finding new fame as a vital element of HBO's hit series TRUE DETECTIVE, starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey. Presented here with a short story by Ambrose Bierce, AN INHABITANT OF CARCOSA, which was a direct influence on this collection, this is a perfect read for fans of classic horror and fantasy.
The Chinaman
by Mike Mitchell Friedrich Glauser"After reading Friedrich Glauser's dark tour de force In Matto's Realm, it's easy to see why the German equivalent of the Edgar Allan Poe Award is dubbed 'The Glauser.'"--The Washington PostPraise for the Sergeant Studer series:"Thumbprint is a fine example of the craft of detective writing in a period which fans will regard as the golden age of crime fiction."--The Sunday Telegraph"In Matto's Realm is a gem that contains echoes of Dürrenmatt, Fritz Lang's film M and Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain. Both a compelling mystery and an illuminating, finely wrought mainstream novel."--Publishers WeeklyWhen, in later years, Sergeant Studer told the story of the Chinaman, he called it the story of three places, as the case unfolded in a Swiss country inn, in a poorhouse, and in a horticultural college. Three places and two murders. Anna Hungerlott, supposedly dead from gastric influenza, left behind handkerchiefs with traces of arsenic. One foggy November morning the enigmatic James Farny, nicknamed the Chinaman by Studer, was found lying on Anna's grave. Murdered, a single pistol shot to the heart that did not pierce his clothing. This is the fourth in the Sergeant Studer series. Friedrich Glauser is a legendary figure in European crime writing. He was a morphine and opium addict much of his life and began writing crime novels while an inmate of the Swiss asylum for the insane at Waldau.
False Evidence (Prologue Crime)
by E. Phillips OppenheimThe story of a gallant soldier who is dismissed his regiment, and disowned by his father, because he has been found guilty, on "false evidence," of cowardice in the field. He changes his name, and later his son falls in love with the daughter of the man whose false evidence led to his ruin.
Fever
by Mike Mitchell Friedrich GlauserPraise for Friedrich Glauser's other Sergeant Studer novels:"Thumbprint is a fine example of the craft of detective writing in a period which fans will regard as the golden age of crime fiction."-The Sunday Telegraph"In Matto's Realm is both a compelling mystery and an illuminating, finely wrought mainstream novel."-Publishers Weekly"A despairing plot about the reality of madness and life, leavened with strong doses of bittersweet irony. The idiosyncratic investigation of In Matto's Realm and its laconic detective have not aged one iota."-Guardian"With good reason, the German-language prize for detective fiction is named after Glauser. . . . He has Simenon's ability to turn a stereotype into a person, and the moral complexity to appeal to justice over the head of police procedure."-The Times Literary SupplementWhen two women are "accidentally" killed by gas leaks, Sergeant Studer investigates the thinly disguised double murder in Bern and Basel. The trail leads to a geologist dead from a tropical fever in a Moroccan Foreign Legion post and a murky oil deal involving rapacious politicians and their henchmen. With the help of a hashish-induced dream and the common sense of his stay-at-home wife, Studer solves the multiple riddles on offer. But assigning guilt remains an elusive affair.The third in the Sergeant Studer series.
Te acordarás de mí
by Vicente Martín Terán"Qué despacio pasa el tiempo cuando aguardas al hombre al que vas a matar". Semana Santa de 1928, Madrid es una ciudad convulsa donde se mezcla lo nuevo y lo viejo. Mientras la dictadura del general Primo de Rivera da sus últimos estertores, Tomás Halcón, antiguo policía y legionario de la guerra de África, recibe la visita de Marcial, amigo y excompañero del ejército, para que colabore en la resolución de un asesinato. La violencia con la que se ha perpetrado el homicidio pone en alerta a los altos cargos del Gobierno, pues temen que el asesino pueda ser un militar. Su nerviosismo aumenta con cada víctima; saben que solo Halcón puede resolver el caso. Entre el desasosiego producido por los recuerdos de la guerra, los crímenes y la barbarie aparece Ana, una mujer que hará que Tomás recupere la cordura entre tanto desconcierto. Haciendo gala de un estilo muy visual, casi cinematográfico, Vicente Martín Terán construye un thriller trepidante en el que cazador y presaquedarán atados para siempre. Mezclando crónica histórica y novela negra, realiza una indagación psicológica sobre el origen del mal, la venganza y la culpa y el amor como única vía de redención posible.
The Enduring Flame
by Denise RobinsA sweeping tale from the original Queen of Romance, originally published in 1929 and now available in eBook for the first time. Joanna is distraught when Richard leaves. It is difficult to be brave, knowing he is returning to his wife. The decision seemed right; but alone now, she writhes in the torment of separation. The vast wastes of snow and spruce stretch out into the black of the moonless Arctic night and Joanna loses herself in the overwhelming expanse...Suddenly, a sled pulls up to the cabin and stops. A man in furs jumps off and shakes back the hood to reveal a face that Joanna once knew... a face that now makes her heart beat faster in terror.
The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance (The Heinle Reading Library: Illustrated Classics Collection Level A)
by H. G. WellsA brilliant scientist&’s experiment leads him into a life of crime in this classic tale—the inspiration for the suspenseful film starring Elisabeth Moss. On a frigid night in a remote English village, a visitor inquires about a room. The innkeeper welcomes him, filling the hearth with a roaring fire, but no matter how warm the room becomes, the traveler will not remove his coat or the scarf that hides his face. If he did, he would disappear. The invisible man is Griffin, a brilliant scientist who tested a new invention on himself and found that it worked far too well. When his lab was destroyed in a fire, Griffin was forced out onto the streets of London, where he turned to theft to survive. He came to the English countryside in a last-ditch attempt to return himself to normal, but he will soon be driven back into the night—and to the very edge of madness—in this original science fiction novel that inspired the psychological horror film starring Elisabeth Moss and Oliver Jackson-Cohen. This ebook edition has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
Daughter of Astrea (Prologue Crime)
by E. Phillips OppenheimE. Phillips Oppenheim (b. 1866, d. 1946) was a British author who wrote nearly 150 novels during his career. He styled himself as the ''prince of storytellers,'' and is credited with creating the 'rogue male' genre of adventure thrillers and was one of the earliest writers of spy fiction.
Green Darkness: A Novel
by Anya SetonA 1960s guru sends a troubled American woman back over 400 years into a past life to save her marriage in this classic New York Times–bestselling romance.Strange things are afoot after English aristocrat Richard Marsdon takes his new wife Celia, an American heiress, to his family home in Sussex. Richard acts out of character, and Celia is suffering a debilitating emotional breakdown.A friend of Celia&’s mother, a wise, Hindu mystic, realizes the couple is haunted by an event from their past lives, and the only way to repair the damage is to send Celia back in time. She journeys back almost four hundred years to the reign of Edward VI and her former life as the servant girl Celia de Bohun—and her doomed love affair with the chaplain Stephen Marsdon. Although Celia and Stephen can&’t escape the horrifying consequences of their love, fate—and time—offer them another chance for redemption.Praise for Anya Seton and Green Darkness &“Seton's use of language, the crisp descriptions, the depth of emotions shown subtly growing to an almost unbearable pinnacle.&”—Barbara Samuel, a.k.a. Ruth Wind &“Elegantly mannered and exhaustively researched, the writing of Anya Seton has captivated readers for decades.&”—The Austin Chronicle &“Anya Seton has a knack of vividly painting the glory, cruelty, passion, and prejudice of long-ago days.&”—Hartford Courant
Revolutions in Time
by Jonathan DunnThe author of this book donated a digital copy to Bookshare.org. Join us in thanking Jonathan Dunn for providing his accessible digital book to this community. The Revolutions of Time is a "timeless" philosophical thriller / science fiction novel. Its premise is this: Time flows in a circular motion, repeating itself in "seasons" that are much like a year on earth, similar time periods with the same general events. Because of these revolutions, the geological record shows not the immediate past, but the events of the last "season" or age, making the fossils and formations show what will happen rather than what has happened. Jehu is transported to the end of his age by the mysterious Lord of the Past, and finds himself caught in the middle of a society at war over how to divert the Big Bang that is foretold by their geologists. What follows is, as they say, history.
The Burglar: A Library of America eBook Classic
by David GoodisFor the first time, the best work of a distinctive master of American noir is available in authoritative e-book editions from The Library of America. In The Burglar (1953), first published like all his later novels as a paperback original, David Goodis explores his characteristic notion of the criminal gang as surrogate family, wracked by thwarted aspirations and contradictory desires. Other David Goodis novels available as Library of America E-Book Classics include: Nightfall, Dark Passage, The Moon in the Gutter, and Street of No Return.
David Goodis: Five Noir Novels of the 1940s and 50s
by Robert PolitoIn 1997 The Library of America's Crime Novels: American Noir gathered, in two volumes, eleven classic works of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s--among them David Goodis's moody and intensely lyrical masterpiece Down There, adapted by François Truffaut for his 1960 film Shoot the Piano Player. Now, The Library of America and editor Robert Polito team up again to celebrate the full scope of Goodis's signature style with this landmark volume collecting five great novels from the height of his career. Goodis (1917-1967) was a Philadelphia- born pulp expressionist who brought a jazzy style to his spare, passionate novels of mean streets and doomed protagonists: an innocent man railroaded for his wife's murder (Dark Passage); an artist whose life turns nightmarish because of a cache of stolen money (Nightfall); a dockworker seeking to comprehend his sister's brutal death (The Moon in the Gutter); a petty criminal derailed by irresistible passion (The Burglar); and a famous crooner scarred by violence and descending into dereliction (Street of No Return). Long a cult favorite, Goodis now takes his place alongside Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett in the pantheon of classic American crime writers.
The Case of the Unconquered Sisters (The Hugh Rennert Mysteries)
by Todd DowningAn American family in Mexico hosts a group of archaeologists—butis there an assassin among them? &“Satisfactorily sinister . . . class-A sleuthing&” (Saturday Review). &“Unconquered&” is the family motto of the Faudrees, whose ancestor, a Confederate officer, fled to Mexico decades ago. Now his two granddaughters, Lucy and Monica, live there in a beautiful old house near some black lava fields. The fields have recently attracted a team of archaeologists from an American university, and they&’ll be the sisters&’ guests during their expedition to Pedregal. But Lucy and Monica soon discover the visiting academics may be unearthing trouble: A professor has died. Strange and threatening letters have been sent. And oddly, owls seem to be invading. To dig up the truth about what&’s going on, the Faudree sisters will need some help from US Customs agent and amateur sleuth Hugh Rennert, in this tale featuring &“good background, atmosphere and characters&” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). &“You won&’t go wrong in giving Todd Downing a try.&” —Michael Dirda, The Washington Post