Trying to get away from an engagement he had got himself into more or less against his will, Stephen Knight travels to Algiers to visit his old friend Nevill. On the Journey there he meets the charming and beautiful Victoria. She is on her way to Algiers to search for her sister, who had disappeared years ago after marrying an Arab nobleman. With the support of his friend, Stephen Knight decides to help the girl - but when she also disappears, the adventure begins...
Cavanagh becomes involved in the adventurous search for a precious relic in the mysterious East.
Nothing is what it seems to be as events unfold in this entertaining mystery by Natalie Sumner Lincoln. Red seals and red herrings abound and will keep you guessing all the way through the final chapter!
Peculiar happenings aboard the schooner Helen B. Jackson when one night during a storm, the small crew found themselves diminished by one. Somebody had gone overboard, and it was surmised that it was one of the twin Benton brothers. But oddly enough, it seemed that the 'presence' of the missing twin continued to exist on board during the following weeks. For example, one extra set of silverware was found to be used after each meal, but nobody claimed to be using them. What then did happen that stormy night, and which brother, if indeed it was one of the brothers, was the man who went overboard?
Excellent murder mystery. On September 9, 1905, the NY Times Saturday Review of Books described this book as follows: "That painstakingly ingenious person, Fergus Hume, has devised another of his hide-and-seek, jack-o'-lantern murder mysteries. It begins with a queer and rich old woman found stabbed to death in her chair and not a clue to the murderer. Then so many clues turn up that even the story-book detective is bewildered. Then nearly everybody turns out to be somebody else under an alias, and all the clues lead nowhere..."
To get away from city life periodically, New Yorker Roger Locke purchases an abandoned farm house in rural Connecticut, and with the assistance of his cousin Phillida and her beau Ethan Vere, he sets about fixing up the place.
Immediately however, an unseen mysterious woman begins giving him warnings during nocturnal visits to leave the house at once. Soon he begins hearing strange ominous sounds emanating from the tiny lake at the back of the house coupled with a permeation of sickly odors. An evil presence then begins to visit him during the witching hours of the late night, challenging him to a battle of wits from which there can be only one victor.
Is his mysterious female visitor there to help and encourage him to flee from the house, or is she working in tandem with The Thing From the Lake?
A gripping, occasionally frightening tale, Ms. Ingram wastes no time in grabbing the reader into the story and manages to weave a tale that will leave the reader guessing at every turn of events.
A brilliant chemist and a shrewd businessman — die on the same day. The widow of the chemist, Mrs. Fontaine, is left with the poisons he was researching , while Mrs. Wagner is left with her husband's mental health institution reforms and his plans for hiring women along with men in his firm's offices. Mrs. Wagner believes in treating madmen gently, and requests for the funny little man Jack Straw to be released from the madhouse. At the same time, her nephew David Glenney is sent to the Frankfurt office, where he works with Mr Engelmann and Mr Keller. The Keller sun, Fritz, has fallen in love with Minna Fontaine, but the prospect of marriage is not being approved of by his father because Madame Fontaine is said to be in debt after her husband's death.
Mr. Philip Kirkwood, a not so successful painter, receives a visitor from his home town in America, who wants him to do him an unspecified favor, but Kirkwood doesn''t trust him and sends him away. That night, he sees the stranger dine with his beautiful daughter. In order to protect the girl, the stranger confesses to Kirkwood, that he will be arrested upon leaving the restaurant. Kirkwood agrees to take care of the girl, but when he brings her home, he knows that she is in danger and that there is a mystery attached. He decides to protect the girl?
A tale of mystery, romance, and honor, as David Carrigan must choose between his duty
as an officer of the law and a girl who holds him captive; a girl who Carrigan thinks he may
have fallen in love with no less! Who is this strange girl Jean-Marie, and why won't she give him
his freedom? And who are the people that she surrounds herself with along the great Canadian
rivers and wilderness barrens and forests of the northwest?
Summary by Roger Melin.
English romantic adventure starring a young American in London and inspired by the personal ads (agony columns) in the London papers. In this treacherous tale of murder and intrigue young American Geoffrey West tracks a killer from the posh dining room of the Carlton Hotel to the opium dens of London's Limehouse district in search of the truth and the heart of his true love only to find the culprit all too close to home.
"I was, perhaps, the plainest girl in the room that night. I was also the happiest—up to one o'clock. Then my whole world crumbled, or, at least, suffered an eclipse. Why and how, I am about to relate." Thus begins this mystery told by Anna Katharine Green, one of the first writers of detective fiction in America and renowned for writing well plotted, legally accurate stories.
Flower of the North finds Philip Whittemore on an adventure which takes him up the Churchill River of northern Canada to a land which he thought he knew. However, tucked in among the rocks and hills lies an unfamiliar outpost which he's been told is called Fort o' God whose inhabitants and history are shrouded in mystery. It is Jeanne D'Arcambal and her protector Pierre who have told him of this place, but there is so much which they haven't told him, including who they really are, where they come from, and their clouded past.
It's 1865 in the city of San Francisco. Pretty, young Ellie Fenwick is walking to the market early one morning to surprise her father with some fresh mushrooms. As she passes a gambling house, she hears a gunshot and two young men emerge. One man falls dead on the pavement and the other is Johnny Montgomery, a handsome young man Ellie recognizes from seeing him previously at a dance. Johnny is holding a smoking pistol in his hand. This incident propels the proper young Ellie into a world of prisons and courtrooms as a murder trial unfolds and the fate of Johnny may rest with her testimony. But, what is the connection with the mysterious Spanish Woman, who lives in a grand house and supposedly has friends in 'high places'? Who else was in the gambling house at that time of the morning before it had opened? What about the whispered conversations between Ellie's father, Mr. Fenwick, and his friend, Mr. Bingley, a prominent attorney prosecuting the case? Things are not always what they may seem...
May Agnes Fleming is renowned as Canada's first best-selling novelist. She wrote 42 novels, many of which have only been published posthumely.
The Midnight Queen is set in London, in the year of the plague 1665. Sir Norman Kingsley visits the soothsayer "La Masque" who shows him the vision of a beautiful young lady. Falling madly in love with her, he is astonished to find her only a short time later and saves her from being buried alive. He takes her home to care for her, but while he fetches a doctor, she disappears. Sir Kingsley and his friend Ormistan embark on an adventure to solve the mystery of the young lady - will they ever find her again?
On the evening before his marriage, Sinclair loses a precious curiosity from his collection: an amethyst box, containing a tiny flask of deadly poison. He suspects that this poison is in the possession of either his betrothed or her cousin, the girl his best friend Worthington loves. Turning to Worthington for help, they try to recover the box before the poison can be administered...
A valuable ruby is lost during a disturbance in the snow before a ball at The Evergreens. A detective is called for right away to recover it, but who, of the few guests, might have the jewel, and how to solve the mystery without causing a scandal?
Edward Royle is the head of a well-known chemical manufacturer in England, which he has inherited. He is engaged to the daughter of his father’s former partner, Phrida Shand, who lives with her mother. One night he is asked by his friend, Sir Digby Kemsley – a very famous railroad engineer, to come to his flat to discuss something although Kemsley is quite mysterious on the telephone. Royle visits, then returns home only to be summoned again by Kemsley, this time imploring him to return at once. Royle finds a gentleman in Kemsley’s place who is clearly not Kemsley, or is he? Kemsley asks Royle to trust him but that night, a young woman is murdered at Kemsley’s flat. Kemsley has disappeared. Royle discovers that his fiancé was in Kemsley’s flat at the time of the murder and is obviously hiding something. Once again, Le Queux takes us through a maze of intrigue and locations in Europe.
Austin Ford, the London correspondent of the New York Republic, is spending some idle time in the American Embassy chatting with the Second Secretary, when suddenly a note is brought in. This note is an appeal for help, found in the gutter in a dark alley. The writer claims to be a young girl, who is kept against her will locked up in a lunatic asylum by her uncle. Although the Second Secretary tries to convince him that there is nothing to it, the journalist is determined to follow the lead...
A true “whodunit” with as many twists and turns as an English country road. Old man Courtenay is found murdered in his bed. Dr. Ralph Boyd is summoned to Courtenay Manor to examine the slain man and discovers a clue that might solve the case. But, he decides to keep the clue private for personal reasons. In the meantime, Scotland Yard has no clues as the culprits or the motive. Dr. Boyd, because of his new found clue, is sure he knows who is the murderer. Or, is it a murderess? His intimate acquaintance, Ambler Jevons, is also investigating the crime but Dr. Boyd does not share his discoveries with him. Sure of his findings, a bizarre midnight encounter turns all Boyd's judgments upside down and the case becomes more peculiar than when it started. What are the seven secrets needed to decode this murder, or is it a conspiracy? One needs to listen to the end to discover the truth.
“No Clue! A Mystery Story” finds detective Jefferson Hastings at the home of wealthy but eccentric Arthur Sloane one hot summer night, when two other guests at Sloanehurst stumble across the body of young Mildred Brace lying dead on the lawn. Sloane’s daughter Lucille asks Hastings to help solve the crime, but Hastings gets surprisingly little help from anybody he interviews, including Mr. Sloane himself and even the mother of the victim. With few clues to aid him and nobody beyond suspicion, including himself, seemingly rock solid alibis begin to fall apart, expanding the list of potential suspects, and Hastings must rely on subtle expressions and the scant evidence at hand to try to solve the murder.
A shot rings out in the middle of the night in a quiet Chicago neighborhood. Patrolman Murphy is directed to an apartment where a man says the shot came from. The apartment is locked and apparently empty. Was there a murder here? And if so, where is the victim?
Volunteers bring you 18 recordings of Faded Pictures by William Vaughn Moody. This was the Weekly Poetry project for September 2, 2012.
"I really liked this one. It reminded me of Browning's monologues. Absolutely lovely...and dark at the same time." (Caprisha Page)
William Vaughn Moody was a United States dramatist and poet. Author of The Great Divide, first presented under the title of The Sabine Woman at the Garrick Theatre in Chicago on April 12, 1906. Moody's poetic dramas included The Masque of Judgment (1900), The Fire Bringer (1904), and The Death of Eve (left undone at his death).
On the steamer on his way to London, Austin Ford meets a young woman, who is going to London to find her missing husband. Being a specialist in finding people, Mr. Ford agrees to help her in her quest. However, something appears to be not quite right about the lady and her story...
Ashton-Kirk, who has solved so many mysteries, is himself something of a problem even to those who know him best. Although young, wealthy, and of high social position, he is nevertheless an indefatigable worker in his chosen field. He smiles when men call him a detective. "No; only an investigator," he says.
He has never courted notoriety; indeed, his life has been more or less secluded. However, let a man do remarkable work in any line and, as Emerson has observed, "the world will make a beaten path to his door."
Those who have found their way to Ashton-Kirk's door have been of many races and interests. Men of science have often been surprised to find him in touch with the latest discoveries, scholars searching among strange tongues and dialects, and others deep in tattered scrolls, ancient tablets and forgotten books have been his frequent visitors. But among them come many who seek his help in solving problems in crime.
"I'm more curious than some other fellows, that's all," is the way he accounts for himself. "If a puzzle is put in front of me I can't rest till I know the answer." At any rate his natural bent has always been to make plain the mysterious; each well hidden step in the perpetration of a crime has always been for him an exciting lure; and to follow a thread, snarled by circumstances or by another intelligence has been, he admits, his chief delight.
There are many strange things to be written of this remarkable man--but this, the case of the numismatist Hume, has been selected as the first because it is one of the simplest, and yet clearly illustrates Ashton-Kirk's peculiar talents. It will also throw some light on the question, often asked, as to how his cases come to him.
Nancy 'Nance' Olden, a young and very pretty woman, is an accomplished liar and thief. Raised in a horrific orphanage, called the Cruelty by its occupants, Nance and her criminal boyfriend, Tom Dorgan, are pulling a con when the book begins. The results of their act propel Nance into a series of events that she could never have imagined. This was Miriam Michelson's first novel and it was considered a 'blockbuster' in its day. Ranked fourth on the list of bestsellers of 1904 by "Publishers Weekly," Michelson's book was a source of controversy due to the dubious ethics and morals of its heroine.
The Bluebird Books is a series of novels popular with teenage girls in the 1910s and 1920s. The series was begun by L. Frank Baum using his Edith Van Dyne pseudonym, then continued by at least three others, all using the same pseudonym. Baum wrote the first four books in the series, possibly with help from his son, Harry Neal Baum, on the third.
The books are concerned with adolescent girl detectives— a concept Baum had experimented with earlier, in The Daring Twins (1911) and Phoebe Daring (1912). The Bluebird series began with Mary Louise, originally written as a tribute to Baum's favorite sister, Mary Louise Baum Brewster. Baum's publisher, Reilly and Britton, rejected that manuscript, apparently judging the heroine too independent. Baum wrote a new version of the book; the original manuscript is lost.
The title character is Mary Louise Burrows. In this, the third book of the series, Mary Louise and her Grandfather happen upon a mysterious pair of Americans whilst travelling in Italy. Jason Jones is a failed artist, and his companion is his daughter, Alora, an heiress. When the girl is kidnapped, truths stemming back to the time of her parents' marriage are brought to light by Mary Louise and her friend Josie O'Gorman.
A group of guests, at an exclusive luxury hotel in Hampshire, are the witnesses of an illustration of occult powers, demonstrated by “the Mystery”, as Mrs. Jefferson named the beautiful stranger who one day appeared in the Turkish Baths of the hotel. The events that follow lead Mrs. Jefferson to question the wisdom of her interest in the occult.
The Masquerader is one of two Katherine Cecil Thurston’s books that appeared on the Publisher’s Weekly best-seekers list in 1905 (The other, The Gambler, is also in the Librivox collection). The Masquerader is part mystery, part romance and part political thriller – all tied up in one neat package. Nature has a way of sometimes making two people nearly indistinguishable in appearance. Such is the premise for this book. John Chilcote, a British politician, and John Loder, a man down on his luck meet by accident one night during one of London’s worst fogs. Chilcote, addicted to morphine, needs to escape his political responsibilities and presents an offer to Loder to exchange places occasionally. Loder, reluctant at first, finally accepts the proposal and finds he fits into Chilcote’s role – perhaps better than Chilcote himself. The exchanges become more frequent and lengthy. Loder, finding his way, discovers he is worthy of Chilcote’s position, especially during an international crisis, but when Chilcote reclaims his life, Loder’s accomplishments try to unravel. Two women are intimately involved in this story – one is Chilcote’s wife, Eve, who is a wife of convenience rather than love. The second is Lady Astrupp. We will say little about Lady Astrupp except that she adds a great deal of suspense to the story. In such a charade, things do not always go as expected. Does Chilcote break his drug habit? What becomes of Loder? Does Eve become suspicious as a wife might? Is the masquerade exposed by……but then I would be telling you more than you should know beforehand.
The account of some adventures in the professional experience of a member of the Imperial Austrian Police.
A man is found shot dead and the man to whom all evidence points insists he is innocent.
Hugh Gabriel has recently been repatriated from the war and has rejoined his old firm as an electrical engineer. On the way to visit his uncle one night, he is asked by a servant if he would be willing to meet with his wealthy master who is in some distress. Hugh becomes witness to, and directly involved with, a dastardly murder. Or has he? Who is this mysterious millionaire Oswald De Gex he has been asked to meet with? Is Doctor Moroni an honest physician or a diabolical monster? And what about the fair Gabrielle - but then, is there more than one Gabrielle? Le Queux, the Master of Mystery once again weaves an intricate plot which takes Hugh Gabriel to locations throughout Europe as he tries to unravel a scheme that he does not understand, nor why he is involved.
Subtitled: A Story of the Three River Country. James Kent has learned that he is terminally ill with perhaps only days to live, and so decides to confess to a murder and thus save an innocent man. Nobody believes his confession, particularly Marette, a mysterious girl who had shown up at Athabasca Landing only weeks before. Kent’s illness takes a turn and his death is postponed, and he sets about to find out more about the girl, who he ends up falling in love with, although she’ll not reveal her past to him, nor what she knows about the murder. A story of intrigue, suspense, action, and above all, a story of love in the furthest outreaches of the Great White North where three great rivers flow; the Athabasca, the Slave, and the McKenzie, and where somewhere is hidden The Valley of Silent Men.
A young American archeologist, a masked ball in Cairo, an illusive young woman and the unexplained disappearance of a Frenchman fifteen years earlier all play into this mystery by Mary Hastings Bradley. (summary written by the reader)
As wealthy financier, Hugh Mainwaring dictates his last will and testament to his private secretary, it would be impossible for him to imagine the shocking chain of events that he is about to set into motion. This best-selling mystery novel was first published in 1901 and remains an entertaining mix of detective work, courtroom drama and family intrigue.
An extremely wealthy but reclusive man has died, leaving an eccentric will which hints at great riches hidden somewhere in the house. Most of the people at the reading of the will did not know the deceased in person, but had received kindnesses from him, for instance by the payment of school and university fees. The principal beneficiary, a great-nephew, also did not know him. The only two people who really knew him were the old lawyer who dealt with his affairs, and an old Indian servant. Yet when the will had been read, and they all went to where the treasure--gold, jewels and bank-notes--were supposed to be hidden, nothing could be found.
There are an unusual number of deaths, by murder and in self-defence, as the story unfolds, and we are left in total suspense until the very end of the very last chapter. The person who works out where the treasure must be, and how it got there, does not come on the scene until almost the last chapter, and even then he has to go on business to America
before he can come in and explain his theory, which proves to be right.
The Bluebird Books is a series of novels popular with teenage girls in the 1910s and 1920s. The series was begun by L. Frank Baum using his Edith Van Dyne pseudonym, then continued by at least three others, all using the same pseudonym. Baum wrote the first four books in the series, possibly with help from his son, Harry Neal Baum, on the third.
The books are concerned with adolescent girl detectives— a concept Baum had experimented with earlier, in The Daring Twins (1911) and Phoebe Daring (1912). The Bluebird series began with Mary Louise, originally written as a tribute to Baum's favorite sister, Mary Louise Baum Brewster. Baum's publisher, Reilly and Britton, rejected that manuscript, apparently judging the heroine too independent. Baum wrote a new version of the book; the original manuscript is lost.
The title character is Mary Louise Burrows.In this volume, Mary Louise and Gran'pa Jim take a house for the summer in a quiet place called Cragg's Crossing. There, they meet with any number of peculiar people - and one very peculiar mystery!!
Frank Lucius Packard (February 2, 1877 – February 17, 1942) born in Montreal, Quebec, was a Canadian novelist. Packard is credited with bridging the gap from the “cozy” style mysteries to the more gritty, hard-boiled style of such writers as Dashiell Hammet and Raymond Chandler. Packard also wrote a series of novels, beginning in 1917, featuring Jimmie Dale. A wealthy playboy by day, at night, Jimmie becomes a crimefighter “The Gray Seal” complete with mask and secret hide-out, “The Sanctuary”. This character certainly influenced later crimefighting characters such as Batman and The Shadow.
In The White Moll (1920) Rhoda Gray, “The White Moll”, an angel of mercy who spends her time helping the poor in the slums of New York City, is drawn into the criminal world when she attempts to help Gypsy Nan, who is not what she seems. Accused of a crime and on the run from the police, she must battle the most nefarious criminal gang in the New York underworld to prove her innocence. Populated by such characters as Pierre Dangler, the Pug, Pinkie Bonn, Skeeny, the Sparrow and above all “the Adventurer”, this story contains shoot-outs, car chases, adventure and enough suspense and deception to satisfy the most avid mystery lover.
Jewelry thefts, society parties, clairvoyance, and romance marks this mystery, which is set in England and the US in the early 20th century.
John Dene comes to England with a great invention, and the intention of gingering-up the Admiralty. His directness and unconventional methods bewilder and embarrass the officials at Whitehall, where, according to him, most of the jobs are held by those "whose great-grandfathers had a pleasant way of saying how-do-you-do to a prince."
Suddenly John Dene disappears, and the whole civilised world is amazed at an offer of £20,000 for news of him. Scotland Yard is disorganised by tons of letters and thousands of callers. Questions are asked in the House, the Government becomes anxious, only Department Z. retains its equanimity.
By the way, what did happen to John Dene of Toronto?
The Bluebird Books is a series of novels popular with teenage girls in the 1910s and 1920s. The series was begun by L. Frank Baum using his Edith Van Dyne pseudonym, then continued by at least three others, all using the same pseudonym. Baum wrote the first four books in the series, possibly with help from his son, Harry Neal Baum, on the third.
The books are concerned with adolescent girl detectives— a concept Baum had experimented with earlier, in The Daring Twins (1911) and Phoebe Daring (1912). The Bluebird series began with Mary Louise, originally written as a tribute to Baum's favorite sister, Mary Louise Baum Brewster. Baum's publisher, Reilly and Britton, rejected that manuscript, apparently judging the heroine too independent. Baum wrote a new version of the book; the original manuscript is lost. The title character is Mary Louise Burrows.
In this, the fourth book of the series, Mary Louise and friends form a group dedicated to supporting the soldiers in World War I, and she brings Josie O'Gorman in to spoil a treasonous plot against the government.
What is the secret of the old boarded up house? And what is the answer to the mystery of the long lost letter that is found in it? Best friends Joyce and Cynthia - along with their dog "Goliath", are determined to find out in this pre-Nancy Drew juvenile mystery for girls.
Augusta Huiell Seaman was the author of over 40 historical fiction and mystery novels for older children.
Trent's Last Case (US title The Woman in Black) is actually the first novel in which gentleman sleuth Philip Trent appears. The novel is a whodunit whose unique place in the history of detective fiction is because it is at the same time the first major send-up of that very genre: Not only does Trent fall in love with one of the primary suspects — usually considered a no-no — he also, after painstakingly collecting all the evidence, draws all the wrong conclusions. Convinced that he has tracked down the murderer of a business tycoon who was shot in his mansion, he is told by the real perpetrator over dinner what mistakes in the logical deduction of the solution of the crime he has made. On hearing what really happened, Trent vows that he will never again attempt to dabble in crime detection.
When this was written, literary traditions still decreed beauty to be the outward sign of inner saintliness, whereas evil characters tended to be “ugly as sin.” Jean Briggerland defies these expectations by being every bit as angelically beautiful as she is sociopathic. So lovely that all around her are blinded to her guilt no matter how blatant her crimes, only Jack Glover, best friend and lawyer of her most recent victim, is aware of her true nature. Can he stop her crime spree and bring her to justice before she murders her way to wealth and happiness? He really, really shouldn’t count on it. Despite the book’s outrageously implausible plot, it nevertheless manages to keep one in suspense from first page to last. Advisory: Antiquated attitudes and occasional profanity will add unintentional humor to the charms of the story for some listeners but might offend others.
The passengers in the sleeping car of the Rome Express were just woken and informed that they will reach Paris soon, and a bustle ensues. Only one passenger cannot be awoken by the porter, no matter how loudly he knocks. At last, when the door is forced open, the occupant of the compartment is found dead - stabbed to the heart. The murderer must be found among the passengers...
A top ten bestseller of 1906, The House of a Thousand Candles is part adventure/mystery and part romance. The book begins with young Jack Glenarm returning from various exploits in Europe and Africa for the reading of his grandfather’s will. In it, he stands to inherit his grandfather’s estate, but only if he can remain for one year in residence at the old man’s unfinished “House of a Thousand Candles” in Annandale, Indiana, with only his grandfather’s mysterious valet for company. If he violates the terms of the will, the house will go to a young woman, heretofore unknown to him, whom the will also forbids Jack to marry if he wants to retain his inheritance. This all sounds very mundane to Jack and he fully expects to be quite bored in very short order. Soon after Jack’s arrival at Glenarm House, however, various strange occurrences ensue, and he soon finds himself absorbed in the most lively adventure of his life!
A reputedly wealthy and eccentric old man dies in Vermont. His home, the House of a Thousand Candles, so called for the owner's preference to candle light, is left empty save a faithful servant -- his fortune mysteriously vanished, though rumored to still have been hidden in the house somewhere. John Glenarm, the late old man's grandson, stands to inherit the estate (and so the secret fortune) under the stipulation that he live in the house for one year. If he fails, the house will be forfeited and awarded to Marian Devereaux, the niece of the nun who operates the nearby Saint Agatha's School for girls. Mister Pickering, the executor of the estate and childhood rival of John's, decides to find the hidden treasure before young Glenarm does.
Bank manager John Hornbury is missing, as are securities and jewels from the bank’s vault. Gabriel Chestermarke and his nephew Joseph have unaccountably refused to call in the police to investigate the theft from their bank. When Betty Fosdyke shows up to visit her Uncle John, she finds it past belief that he would simply disappear – let alone that he would commit larceny. Unable to simply sit by and wait while a detective from Scotland Yard investigates, Betty elicits the help of the chief clerk at Chestermarke’s bank and launches into the middle of the mystery.
The Shrieking Pit is one of Arthur Rees's earlier works, and is a good old fashioned murder mystery story. Grant Colwyn, a private detective, is holidaying in East Anglia when he notices a young man at a nearby table behaving peculiarly. The young man later leaves the hotel without paying his bill, and turns up in a nearby hamlet in the Norfolk marshes where he takes lodgings at the village inn. The next day, another guest at the inn is found dead, and the young man is missing. Can Colwyn sort out the mystery and prove the young man's innocence one way or the the other?
Sixteen year old Leslie Crane has come to the New Jersey shore as a companion to ailing Aunt Marcia, whose doctor has sent her there for a some quiet rest and recuperation. While the beach is lovely in October, Leslie quickly finds herself getting lonely with no one her own age to talk to. Little does she realize that she will not only soon make a new friend, but that they will both end up in the midst of a puzzling mystery centered around the closed up bungalow next door.
Augusta Huiell Seaman is the author of over 40 historical fiction and mystery novels for older children most of which are currently out of print. The Dragon's Secret was originally published in 1921.
A millionaire is taken suddenly ill, and sensing his mortality, he asks his attorney to do him one last favor—to find and secretly watch over his missing niece, the daughter of his profligate deceased sister. This niece at the appropriate time would become heir to his millions. However, the millionaire is mysteriously murdered, stabbed to death in his sick bed. Oliva Cresswell, the unsuspecting niece, has been a cashier in a large West End store for five years when she meets a Mr. Beale, a self-described wheat merchant, is attacked in her flat and rescued by this Mr. Beale, is offered a job as his confidential secretary, refuses him, is unexplainably sacked and finds herself in need of his offer. The mysteries multiply and deepen as the story proceeds.