European Mystery

Forty breathtaking short stories of gripping adventures, secrets and strange conspiracies. 'The Dust That Was Barren' by P. C. Wren. 'The Deserter' by Stacy Aumonier. 'The Lighthouse on Shivering Sand' by J. S. Fletcher. 'The Secret of the Smoked Spectacles' by William Le Queux. 'The 39 Steps' by John Buchan. 'Three Pennyworth of Luck' by Basil Murray. 'The Secret of Dr. Vaux’s Intrigue' by William Le Queux. 'A Thread of Scarlet' by J. J. Bell. 'How I Became a Secret Agent' by Dr. A. K. Graves.

Sophia leads an ordinary life in her quaint home in Richmond-upon-Thames, content with her role as a wife and mother. But when she stumbles upon a wartime mystery surrounding her great aunt Lily, her world is turned upside down. Through a collection of letters, journals, and old photographs kept by Lily during World War Two, Sophia uncovers a tale of forbidden love between her aunt and an Italian man named Luigi Leoni. As the letters grow increasingly intense, Sophia watches as Lily's chances for happiness slip away, leaving behind only secrets and regrets. Determined to solve the mystery ...

A famous Hollywood director arrives in Bologna to remake a cult film and the city's renown cinema archive decides to mark the occasion with a screening of the original, only to discover it has disappeared. After English detective Daniel Leicester follows the trail of Love Upon a Razorblade to an apparent murder-suicide, he begins to suspect there may be more at stake than missing negatives—could the film contain a clue to one of the city's most enduring mysteries?

A story of romance, humor, and true detective fiction, this novel begins with Arsène Lupin, a gentleman thief known for his strict moral code, forcing the French authorities to find an investigator who can put a stop to his dealings. In order to find a competitor keen enough, they must traverse the English Channel, where they find Herlock Sholmes and his assistant, Wilson - two of the most inquisitive and successful detectives in the world. Does Lupin stand a chance?

Susan has everything she ever wanted. A loving husband, an angelic daughter and the cottage of her dreams in County Cork. Her picture-perfect life seems too good to be true. And it is. At a housewarming party with their new neighbours, her daughter Amelia goes missing. As friends become suspects, Susan’s life spirals out of control. And when Amelia’s yellow cardigan is dredged from the lake, every parent’s worst nightmare suddenly seems horribly real. In the aftermath of Amelia’s disappearance Susan and her husband Paul are not themselves. Someone is hiding something.

As a widowed mother of three, new love seems impossible for Freya - until she meets Duncan, and suddenly she feels alive again. While Freya’s older children are less than welcoming, six-year-old Sophie helps Duncan find his place in the family - but even Sophie harbours fears that threaten to overshadow any chance of a new start. The past is hard to leave behind when pictures of Freya’s idolised late husband hang in every room, and the more Duncan tries to find the source of Sophie’s anxiety, the more he is convinced that Reuben was not the perfect husband and father Freya remembers.

The low taverns and backroom gambling dens of Dublin are a long fall for an English nobleman. It is in these environs, however, where the growling evil within Thomas Olocher feels most at home. Each night, his darkness grows as he continues his cascade down toward the ultimate evil. Can Alderman James, ever seeking redemption for his own dark past, stop Olocher before it's too late?

The Beetle tells the tale of an evil, ancient Egyptian spirit seeking revenge on an up-and-coming British politician, Paul Lessingham. The shape-shifting creature that pursues Lessingham is possessed of hypnotic powers and takes different forms, both male and female, as well as morphing into a beetle - a figure that induces terror in its victims.

Mars 1937. Le Mount Castle, un cargo républicain transportant trente tonnes d'or de la Banque d'Espagne et faisant route pour l'Union soviétique, s'est réfugié dans le port international de Tanger, où un destroyer franquiste le détruira s'il tente de reprendre la mer. Falcó reçoit pour mission de s'y rendre, de convaincre le capitaine du Mount Castle de changer de camp s'il veut sauver son bateau et son équipage, et de récupérer ainsi l'or républicain.

In an orphanage outside Oslo, twelve-year-old Olav is causing havoc. The institution's ageing director, Agnes Vestavik, sees sheer hatred in the boy's eyes. When Vestavik is found murdered at her desk, stabbed in the neck with a kitchen knife – with Olav nowhere to be found – the case goes to Hanne Wilhelmsen, recently promoted to superintendent in the Oslo police. Hanne suspects that Olav witnessed the murder and fled, and she orders an investigation of the orphanage staff.

Anthony Bacon returns after 13 years in France to live in his brother’s house at Gray’s Inn. Though seldom strong enough to leave his rooms, his gouty legs never hinder his agile mind. He’s built the most valuable intelligence service in Europe. Now the Bacon brothers are ready to offer it to the patron with the deepest pockets. Then Francis finds a body lying near Anthony’s coach. The clues point to Anthony’s secretary. Worse, the murdered man had been spreading rumors that could destroy Anthony’s reputation.

No one has forgotten the unsolved kidnapping of four-year-old Nicolás Acosta. It galvanized Madrid, shaking it to its core. Two years later, another young child - similar in age and appearance to Nicolás - disappears from the same suburban shopping mall, drawing Chief Inspector Ana Arén back into the case she could never close. This is her chance at redemption. As fears of a serial kidnapper threaten to consume the city once again, Ana’s friend, reporter Inés Grau, jumps at the chance to cover it. But the pressure on Ana is greater than ever as she straddles an ethical line.

When Stanley Lambchop is asked to help catch an art thief in Paris, he's thrilled! Posing as a painting in the Louvre museum on a wall across from the famous Mona Lisa? - c'est magnifique! But Stanley soon grows bored - until he meets Etoile, an art student who shows him around the City of Light. Then when Stanley goes back to the museum, he soon realizes that the Mona Lisa looks…different. It's been switched for a fake!

When Perry ends up in Venice on a European tour with his band Inchworm, he can’t resist a visit to Harry’s Bar, where Gobi told him she’d meet him someday. The last time he saw Gobi, five people were assassinated one crazy night in New York City. Well... Gobi shows up, and once again Perry is roped into a wild, nonstop thrill ride with a body count. Double crossings, kidnappings, CIA agents, arms dealers, boat chases in Venetian canals, and a shootout in the middle of a Santa Claus convention ensue.

They Forged the Signature of God is an enthralling fictionalized account of the recent and tumultuous history of the Dominican Republic. The story follows three seminary students trying to divine their proper paths in life amid a social climate marked by political repression and instability. Virato Sencion delivers an exacting take on his country's recent political history, and his book has become a best seller in Latin America.

Part human and part robot, private investigator Bruna Husky has been hired to locate a stolen diamond. But as Bruna's leads start to drop dead, her case becomes about much more than a stolen gem - and much more dangerous. Traversing the galaxy, Bruna races against the clock to uncover a nuclear power conspiracy that threatens all sentient beings.

What's going on over at Camp Ferrier? Why don't we see any campers during the day? What happens at night? Nazis are back. Who will stand against them? Who will take the risk of having their home burned, their family attacked? What happens when they fill the ranks of the police and government? Sometimes, you need evil to confront evil.

Max Anger is a man on the edge. The former fighter in an elite band of special-ops soldiers in Sweden, Anger is haunted by battle scars, a childhood spent in the Stockholm archipelago, and his own mysterious family past. Now behind a desk at Vektor, a think tank conducting research on Russia, he’s met his match - and fallen in love - with fierce fellow operative Pashie Kovalenko. Like all of Vektor, she’s set her sights on the tenuous future of her country.

Corrupt elements of the South African Intelligence Services are stalking Morne Delport, a South African industrialist and his eclectic band of friends. When no one is watching, their phones are tapped, they are followed, and violence is sanctioned against them. They are in a race to save their countrymen, and forever separate themselves from the legacy of Apartheid, but powerful forces have other plans. They are watching and wanting their wealth for their own.

When an eccentric millionaire presents at the Dublin Coroner's Office to report a found treasure, Benjamin Stirling sends him on to the National Museum. It is only when the man is found dead on his land on Tarrow Island and no treasure is mentioned when Stirling begins to get suspicious.