Great Mysteries

Louis Auchincloss tells the story of a large Manhattan law firm - the kind of latter-day Olympus so rich and influential, so full of good grey heads, that it appears more a seat of government than a place of business.

This book explores the reality suggesting that, in fact, none of what is happening across the globe is happening by chance. Right under humanity’s nose, supranational organizations such as the United Nations, the Club of Rome, and Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum strive to usurp national sovereignties in the quest for a dystopian future.

During lockdown, small businesses went under, people lost their livelihoods, and there were huge losses suffered by many. On the other side, there were even bigger winners.

Jessy was a married man, a retired Army Veteran, and a successful pipeline welder who finds love in a very unexpected time and place in his life. A native from East Texas, Jessy grew up in Conroe Texas and attended Conroe High School. This is where he met Bruce, Chuck, and Penny, his lifelong friends. Because of Jessy’s disability, “PTSD”, that he got while in the US Army during wartime, Jessy learned to drink rum and Pepsi to deal with his bouts of depression and mood swings.

Cambridge, 1939. The opening weeks of the Second World War, and the first blackout - The Great Darkness - covers southern England, enveloping the city. Detective Inspector Eden Brooke, a wounded hero of the Great War, takes his nightly dip in the cool waters of the Cam. Daylight reveals a corpse on the riverside, the body torn apart by some unspeakable force.

East Africa, 1913. The disgraced English aristocrat Everard Dominey stumbles out of the bush and comes face to face with his lookalike, the German Baron von Ragastein. Months later, Dominey returns to London and resumes his glittering social life. But is it really Dominey who has come back - or a German secret agent seeking to infiltrate English high society?

Edgar Allan Poe's The Purloined Letter, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Crooked Man, and G.K. Chesterton's The Man in the Passage, comprise this anthology featuring famous sleuths.

The "Mary Celeste" (or Marie Celeste as it is wrongly referred to several writers) was a British merchant brigantine. The ship is best known for having been discovered on 5 December 1872 in the Atlantic Ocean, unmanned and apparently abandoned, although the weather was fine, the ship intact and her crew experienced and capable seamen. The "Mary Celeste" was in sound and seaworthy condition and was under full sail heading for the Strait of Gibraltar.

The Great Detective, by prominent Sherlock Holmes Society of London member Roger Johnson, offers the Holmesian another perspective on the beloved Canon. From a surrealist perspective, we find here a different and refreshing approach. We are transported to another time through the warmth of an English public house and immediately transfixed by the fascinating voices of those who contributed to the name Sherlock Holmes. This is a must listen for all those worshipers of the great detective.

A Boeing 777 takes off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport and rendezvouses behind an American tanker refueling fighters, thus falling in its radar. Chinese military computer hackers break into a key defense satellite, and a North Korean cargo ship drops a black box into the Indian Ocean. All the events, along with a flight simulator, combine to produce a perfect storm for The Great Hijacking.

The last thing Inspector Sam Blackstone wants to do is investigate the murder of a young lieutenant on the Western Front, but he owes a debt to General Fortesque - the soldier’s grandfather. Once he arrives at the front line, it does not take him long to realise that he is completely out of his depth. The officers resent his presence, and the enlisted men refuse - or do not dare - to talk to him. As thousands are slaughtered around him, Blackstone struggles to solve one of the most difficult cases of his career.

Sometimes a mouse just has to bust out and do something big. That's why Marvin (also known as "Merciless Marvin the Magnificent") decides it's time to lead Raymond the Rat and Fats the Fuse out of their cozy lair at the back of the movie theater and on to greater glory. Enough of stale popcorn and left over candy! It's time to go in search of...cheese!

Hello. I am Rory Branagan. I am a detective, and the time has come for me to solve the biggest and most important mystery in my life: where is my dad?

What do magnetic slime, a secret code, and the periodic table have in common? They're all part of the science-themed escape room that Kate's science teacher puts on for their class. Will Kate and her friends be able to use their science know-how to crack the code before time runs out?

Do you know the answer? No, it's not carpet and cornflake sandwiches. Well, whether you know the answer or not, you'll love The Great Big Fun Quiz. Not only will it make you laugh, you'll learn a thing or two along the way.... Voiced by the fantastic Nicholas Parsons, an English radio and televisions presenter and actor, described as "the ultimate quiz show host" thanks to his "geniality, clarity of diction and the speed with which he rattled through questions".

A gripping collection of classic spy stories by some of the great early masters of espionage fiction: 'The Secret of the Black Bag' by William Le Queux, 'How I Became a Secret Agent' by Dr. A. K. Graves, 'The Secret of the Smoked Spectacles' by William Le Queux,'The 39 Steps' by John Buchan, 'Matahari and Some Other Women Spies' by Sir Basil Thomson, 'The Secret of Dr. Vaux’s Intrigue' by William Le Queux.

A treasure chest of the most popular classic crime stories from the 19th century. •The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe •A Terribly Strange Bed by Wilkie Collins •Murder under the Microscope by William Russell •The Three Strangers by Thomas Hardy •The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe •The Mystery of Marie Roget by Edgar Allan Poe •Mr. Higginbotham’s Catastrophe by Nathaniel Hawthorne

During the last part of the nineteenth century, the detective story took off as a popular genre as literary magazines vied with each other to draw in readers with gripping page-turners by the likes of Arthur Conan Doyle, G. K. Chesterton, Guy Boothby and Wilkie Collins. This collection brings together some of the great detectives of the Victorian era, from the master sleuth himself, Sherlock Holmes, to the mild mannered Father Brown, to the feisty J. G. Reeder.

In the high days of the Raj, Captain Toby Larburgh meets a stranger in Calcutta’s Great Eastern Hotel. Over a drink Toby tells of his adventures in the mountains of British India’s northern borders. His quest to find out what lay behind the death of a local Imperial agent took him to the far-flung reaches of the British Empire, the distant princely state of Ghondabaur. When he reaches the lavish palace, he encounters a prince who is desperately attempting to save his father’s kingdom from brutal invaders.

An anthology featuring famous sleuths: Edgar Allan Poe's "The Purloined Letter", Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Crooked Man" and G.K. Chesterlon's "The Man in the Passage".