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Arrivés à une époque où le crime fait de nouveau salle comble, sortons cette œuvre extraordinaire, cet affreux roman de nos tiroirs. Plein de confiance, Monsieur Féval proclame qu' on ira pas plus loin dans la voie du crime à bon marché. Et c'est bien vrai : une moyenne de soixante-treize assassinats par chapitre, c'est inouï ! Sans parler des vols, viols, substitutions d'enfants, faux en écriture privée ou authentique, détournements de mineures, effractions, escalades, abus de confiance, bris de serrures, fraudes, escroqueries, captations, vente à faux poids et attentats à la pudeur dont cette histoire regorge. Amateurs d'humour grinçant, prêtez l'oreille et la bonne ! (résumé par Ezwa) Blood, blood, blood ! is what people want, and what they will get. In this dreadful novel, Paul Féval offers an average of seventy three, yes, 73 murders per chapter! I-N-C-O-N-C-E-I-V-A-B-L-E! Not to mention the thefts, rapes, babies being switched round, forged documents, corruption of minors, break-ins, breaches of trust, fraud, swindles, indecent assaults and other crimes galore. Who has ever competed with that? No-one, as the author proudly ass...

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Fiction, Humor, Mystery

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Voilà cinq ans que Hugues Viane est veuf. Voilà cinq ans qu'il est venu s'installer à Bruges, cette ville qui lui renvoie son image : triste et grise. Au cours d'une de ses promenades nocturnes, il croise sa morte ou, tout au moins, une femme qui lui ressemble. Mais alors qu'il la suit, elle disparait à un carrefour. La retrouvera-t-il ? Est-elle vraiment telle que celle qu'il a perdue autrefois et qu'il pleure encore ? Bruges demeurera-t-elle cette ville morte? (par Ezwa) Bruges-la-Morte is a short novel by the Belgian author Georges Rodenbach, first published in 1892. The title is difficult to translate but might be rendered as The Dead City of Bruges . It tells the story of Hugues Viane, a widower overcome with grief, who takes refuge in Bruges, where he becomes obsessed with a dancer he sees at the opera Robert le diable who is the exact likeness of his dead wife. The book is notable for its poetic evocation of the decaying city and for its innovative form. In 1920, the composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold used the novel as the basis for his opera Die Tote Stadt . Rodenbach interspersed his text with dozens of black-and-white photog...

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Fiction, Literature, Tragedy

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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 pla...

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Mystery, Fiction

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The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In is the second of Charles Dickens' Christmas books, published in 1844. Its contemporary setting is the Hungry Forties, a time of social and political unrest, and the book has a strong moral message. It remained popular for many years, although its fame has since been eclipsed by that of A Christmas Carol , the first of the series. Our hero Toby (Trotty) Veck is a poor but hard-working man, whose beloved daughter Meg is due to marry on New Year's Day. Trotty, who is appalled by newspaper reports of crime and immorality, is further depressed by his encounters with the rich and influential Alderman Cute and Sir Joseph Bowley, who make him feel that the poor have no right to exist in society, and his daughter has no right to marry. Trotty hears messages in the chimes of the church bells, which lead him to visit the belfry at night on New Year's Eve......

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Holiday, Fiction

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Crime and Punishment focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, an impoverished St. Petersburg student who formulates and executes a plan to kill a hated, unscrupulous pawnbroker for her money, thereby solving his financial problems and at the same time, he argues, ridding the world of evil. Crime and Punishment is considered by many as the first of Dostoevsky's cycle of great novels, which would culminate with his last completed work, The Brothers Karamazov, shortly before his death. (Summary from Wikipedia)

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Fiction, Literature

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The Black Star was a master criminal who took great care to never be identifiable, always wore a mask so nobody knew what he looked like, rarely spoke to keep his voice from being recognized, and the only mark left at the scenes of the crimes which he and his gang committed were small black stars which were tacked as a sign of their presence, and an occasional sarcastic note to signify his presence and responsibility. Even those who worked for him knew nothing of him, all of which were making his crimes virtually unsolvable. The police were at a complete loss as to his identity and at a method of stopping his criminal activities. He seemed to have the perfect strategic setup and all advantages were in his favor. He even somehow knew where the wealthy kept their jewels and money, and knew when they would remove valuable items from their safes and deposit boxes. Thus Roger Verbeck decided to take on the case of the Black Star using his own methodology. The Black Star will keep you guessing from beginning to end, just as he kept the police and Verbeck guessing. Johnston McCulley was a prolific writer in the pulp fiction vein, and his Z...

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Adventure, Fiction, Mystery

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An inquiry to the culture of the academe as symptomatic of the entire educational system in the country (with constant brownouts, the rise of the call centers, et. al.), and the culture of fraternity as metonymic to the societal violence. - Egay Samar...

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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 chase...

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Adventure, Mystery

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Reputed as Eliot’s favourite novel Silas Marner is set in the early years of the 19th century. Marner, a weaver, is a member of a small congregation in Lantern Yard. Falsely accused of a crime he didn’t commit, he leaves his home and lives a solitary life near the village of Raveloe. Dedicating his life to weaving and hoarding gold for the next fifteen years, circumstances beyond his control shape his destiny and help to restore his faith in humanity.(Summary by T.Hynes)...

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Literature, Religion, Fiction

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A collection of twelve short stories featuring Conan Doyle's legendary detective, originally published as single stories in Strand Magazine and subsequently collected into a single volume. There is not always a crime committed nor a culprit to find, and when there is, Holmes does not invariably get his man. However, his extraordinary powers of deduction generally solve the mystery, often to the discomfiture of the official police force. Holmes is a man of many facets, and I do not share the common perception of Holmes as cold and humourless: his sense of fun can be sparkling, and there are moments of rare pathos. (Summary by Ruth Golding)...

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Mystery, Short stories, Fiction

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Valeria Brinton marries Eustace Woodville despite objections from Woodville's family leading to disquiet for Valeria's own family and friends. Just a few days after the wedding, various incidents lead Valeria to suspect her husband is hiding a dark secret in his past and she discovers that he has been using a false name. He refuses to discuss it leading them to curtail their honeymoon and return to London where Valeria learns that he was on trial for his first wife's murder by arsenic. He was tried in a Scottish court and the verdict was 'Not Proven' rather than 'not guilty' implying his guilt but without enough proof for a jury to convict him. Valeria sets out to save their happiness by proving her husband innocent of the crime. In her quest, she comes across the disabled character Miserrimus Dexter, a fascinating but mentally unstable genius, and his devoted female cousin, Ariel. Dexter will prove crucial to uncovering the disturbing truth behind the mysterious death....

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Mystery

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Silas Marner (originally published in 1861): Betrayed by a beloved friend and accused of a crime he didn’t commit, awkward Silas Marner is expelled from his beloved religious community — the only community he has ever known. He exiles himself in the remote village of Raveloe. Friendless and without family, set apart from the villagers by their superstition and fear of him, he plies his weaving trade day after day, storing up gold which becomes his idol. When his gold is stolen, he is rescued from despair by the arrival on his lonely hearth of a beautiful little girl, whom he adopts, and through whom he and the other people of the village learn that loving relationships are more fulfilling than material wealth. (Summary by rachelellen)...

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Literature

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Can a spaceship go crazy? Well, yes it can if it has a brain. And the new MG (magnetogravitic drive) experimental robot space ship does indeed have a 'brain'. Completely bewildered as to why the first six models of their supposedly perfect new ship model, the MG-YR, nicknamed the McGuire, have gone totally bonkers after activation and before they could ever be used, the company has called in the services of Daniel Oak. They suspect sabotage of course. Daniel Oak is the hard boiled private investigator with nerves of steel and a mind of the same substance. He is extremely expensive to hire but gets results; and he knows his way around crime, space ships and especially women. What he finds out is surprising! (Summary by Phil Chenevert)...

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Science fiction

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Will Barrent awakes without memories just before being deposited on Omega, a planet for criminals where the average life expectancy is 3 years. He’s listed as a murderer and released into the illicit society as a “peon” the lowest class imaginable. A mysterious girl gives him a weapon that starts him on his path to status, a path that requires constant brutality. But it must be borne if our hero is to discover the reason for his imprisonment; A reason that pits him against himself, and involves the sardonically similar but devoutly different creeds of Omega and Earth. - The Status Civilization was first published as “Omega!” in the August and September 1960 issues of Amazing Science Fiction Stories Magazine. (Summary by Gregg Margarite)...

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Science fiction

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The Tragedy of the Korosko (1898) Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British author most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger. He was a prolific writer whose other works include science fiction stories, historical novels, plays and romances, poetry, and non-fiction. Plot Summary: A group of European and American tourists is enjoying its trip in Egypt in the year 1895. They are sailing up the River Nile in a a turtle-bottomed, round-bowed stern-wheeler, the Korosko. They intend to travel to Abousir at the southern frontier of Egypt, after which the Dervish country starts. They are attacked and abducted by a marauding band of Dervish warriors. (Wikipedia)...

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Adventure, Fiction

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The Milky Way - F. Tennyson Jesse's first novel - began life as a 1913 magazine serial called The Adventures of Viv. In it, poor-but-plucky Cornish painter/model Vivian Lovel recounts events of her twenty-first year: en route from Penzance to London by steamer, she catches a baby dropped over the side of a sinking ship - and decides to keep it. Penniless, however, she platonically pairs up with pan-like fellow passenger Peter Whymperis, an actor and aspiring writer, and together they find work with a fifth-rate repertory troupe. Soon sacked, they nevertheless leave with money enough to buy milk for the baby. They then spend a night locked in a wax museum devoted to notorious murders and later trace a fugitive from justice to his lair. At a costume party, Viv rescues her beautiful friend Chloe from a cruel seducer, by taking her place (and his car). Viv then flits to Cornwall for a stint of modeling at an artists' colony. She's tempted to put down roots, but Peter appears, and they dance away as faun and nymph into the night. Back again in London, a publisher, whose home they invade, commissions Peter to write and Viv to illustrate a...

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Adventure, Fiction

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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. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Mystery, Fiction

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Synopsis Madhu and his mistress Mala were poisoned and Pravar, Mala’s brother, implicates Madhu’s wife Radha in the double murder. Radha seeks Dhruva’s help even as Kavya, rescued by him, takes to her kidnapper Pravar. The series of death by poisoning that follow puzzle Dhruva no end....

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That June evening, the crimson sun gave in to the dark monsoon clouds to let them end its long summer reign over the Deccan skies. What with the thickening clouds thundering in triumph, Dhruva woke up from his siesta, and by the time he moved into the portico of his palatial bungalow at 9, Castle Hills, the skies had opened up to shower its sprawling lawns. It was as if the eagerness of the rainfall matched the longing of the parched soil to receive its fertile mate in an aroma of embrace, and in the ensuing echoes of that seasonal union, the roots of the garden plants devoured every raindrop, that is, even as their leaves shed the overburden to accommodate the new arrivals....

Table of Contents Details
Agenda for Revenge 1. Prey on the Prowl 2. Shakeel’s Fixation 3. Ranjit’s Predicament 4. Rags to Riches 5. Dhruva’s Dilemma 6. The Gatecrasher 7. Operation Checkmate 8. Foul on Pravar 9. Stockholm Syndrome 10. An Aborted Affair 11. Psyche of Revenge 12. Victim of Trust 13. Backyard of Life 14. Cuckoo’s Nest 15. ‘Untried’ Crime 16. Kavya’s Quagmire 17. Murders to Mislead 18. The Other Woman 19. Shakeel’s Demise 20. A Perfect Murder 21. Deaths in Spandan 22. Arraigned in Remand 23. Depressing Discovery 24. The Red Herring 25. Wages of Abuse 26. Decoding the Crime 27. A Poignant End ...

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Swift. Silent. Deadly. ***This is an sample copy of 4 Chapters - not the full book. The full book will be available for sale on 29th March 2013 and is also available for free, in full, at the author's website - details inside.*** Leopold Blake, expert criminology consultant for the FBI, had his weekend all planned out - and it didn't involve dealing with a murdered senator, a high-profile kidnapping, and at least three near-death experiences. Three politicians have been murdered in as many weeks, all expertly dispatched, and only Leopold can get to the bottom of it. Unfortunately, as all hell breaks loose on the streets of New York City, he soon finds himself the next target of a powerful enemy who wants him silenced. Permanently. Against the backdrop of political corruption and murder, Leopold and his team must fight for their lives to uncover the truth before it's too late. Panic is the first novel in the Leopold Blake series of thrillers. "Panic had me on the edge of my seat the whole time with its fast pace and nonstop action. A real page-turner, it leaps from crisis to crisis and never slows down, twisting all the ...

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“Here you are,” says Suzy as she walks into the lounge carrying Doug's dinner; “looks like you have had a hard day.” she says as she sees the frown on Doug's face. “Hard day? You don’t know the half of it.” he snaps as he stares into her eyes not attempting to take the tray from her hands. “We are not going to argue are we? Come on, I have cooked your favourite roast dinner.” Suzy replies holding the tray out towards him. Doug stands up and knocks the tray out of Suzy's hands slapping her on the face before the tray hits the floor; “What are you after?” he demands in a cruel voice. “I want a quiet evening for a change.” she screams back. Doug punches her hard on the shoulder as she turns away and only succeeds getting as far as the fireplace; when he grabs her hair, twisting it viciously. Trying to grab hold of the mantel piece her fingers touch the long silver letter opener and Suzy's hand curls around it instinctively. As Doug pulls her towards him she lashes out with the opener stabbing it into his throat below the right jaw, she hadn't meant to stab him, and she just wanted to hurt him back. Pulling t...

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Pulling up outside the corner shop Suzy is pleased to see it empty of customers inside and gets out the car quickly; locking it she enters the shop and makes her way to the coffee and sugar. The supermarket seems too much for her at the moment and Suzy picks up a large jar of coffee and two bags of sugar. Taking them to the till she puts them on the counter and walks over to the fridge picking up two large bottles of full fat milk and returns to the counter as the lad who is serving, totals them up on the till. Paying her money Suzy says a polite 'Thank you' and arms loaded with her shopping walks out to the car. Putting the milk down onto the pavement Suzy unlocks the car and puts the coffee and sugar onto the back seat. As she picks up the milk a Volkswagen Polo pulls up close to her car and parks. Suzy looks up in irritation as the driver, parking so close has made it difficult for her to drive away as a car is also parked in front of her. “Hello Suzy.” says the driver as he opens his door and gets out; it is her university friend Lewis. “Hello Lewis, long time no see.” she smiles. “Yes been a while, how are you?”...

Table of Contents Details
Table of Contents Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen The Author ...