Traditional Publishing

When we think of martial arts in “old China,” we get visions of violent convulsions of dynastic change, devastating rebellions, civil wars, and banditry. Throughout the centuries there was a need for masters who possessed highly effective martial skills for positions in the military, protection services, and law enforcement. Out of this historical reality emerged a national treasure we call taijiquan. Chen t’ai chi's mystique remains fundamentally a true fighting art, including bare-handed forms and applications, plus an arsenal of weapons that includes the spear, straight sword, ...

A body is discovered with the dismembered parts of six victims stitched together like a puppet, nicknamed the 'ragdoll' by the press. Assigned to the shocking case are Detective William 'Wolf' Fawkes, recently reinstated to the London Met, and his former partner, Detective Helen Baxter. The Ragdoll Killer taunts the police by releasing a list of names to the media and the dates on which he intends to murder them. With six people to save, can Fawkes and Baxter catch a killer when the world is watching their every move?

While lunching in the chic Gold Room, Tommy masquerades as a blind detective. It is then that the Beresfords are approached by the elegant Duke of Blairgowrie for help in locating his missing daughter.

For the right man, all doors are open ... Mike Mackenzie is a self-made man with too much time on his hands and a bit of the devil in his soul. He is looking for something to liven up the days and perhaps give new meaning to his existence. A chance encounter at an art auction offers him the opportunity to do just that as he settles on a plot to commit a "perfect crime".

Maxwell is anticipating a quiet summer, with perhaps some light gardening if necessary - and as long as plants don't grow over the door and trap them inside, it won't be. But, as often is the case, Mrs Troubridge happens and a day out for her and her special friend, Mrs Getty, takes Maxwell and Nolan to Haledown House and into a web of intrigue and death. Maxwell's summer is nothing like he planned.

It is 1910, and a widowed Dr. Watson moves back to Baker Street to discover that age has done nothing to dim his old friend's thirst for mystery and deduction. One morning, Watson returns from a client to find Holmes in a bright mood - the reason? Holmes and Watson have been invited to the farewell concert of celebrated former prima donna of the Warsaw Opera - Irene Adler. What happens when Holmes meets his one female equal 20 years after their first curious meeting?

Bazza Mackenzie, Pompey’s top criminal, is now beyond reach of DI Joe Faraday. Hungry for power and profile, Bazza decides to stand for Portsmouth North in the general election. And his campaign is taking the city by storm. But politics is an expensive business and so Bazza turns to ex-cop Paul Winter to call in a multi-million pound drug debt. Winter, though, is facing a nightmare of his own and knows his time with Bazza has to end.

In this thrilling short story from Lord Peter Views the Body, Dorothy L. Sayers presents another gripping adventure featuring the sharp-witted aristocratic detective, Lord Peter Wimsey. The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers unfolds as Lord Peter is drawn into a bizarre case involving a peculiar and unsettling figure—an artist with a sinister reputation and mysterious copper-coated fingers. When the artist's dark obsessions lead to murder, Lord Peter must unravel the clues hidden in the shadows of high society and the world of the avant-garde to reveal the truth.

An influential shipping firm, Goldwaters, pays Eric Ward a large retainer to work for them, much to his surprise. Then one of the Goldwaters fleet, the Sierra Nova, is “arrested” and is unable to leave port. The reason? A crew member, Edwards, has been caught in possession of drugs and is accused of smuggling—but now he’s been removed from the ship, why can’t the voyage go ahead? Then Edwards is murdered on his way to the courtroom. Ward soon finds himself sinking into the dangerous world of international conspiracy and modern-day piracy.

Unearthed after being lost for nearly a century, at last the memoirs of Mycroft Holmes are available to the general public. In this volume we see what it is when one extraordinarily talented person is the British Government as Mycroft Holmes applies his skills in statecraft to tax evasion, royal honors, Partygate, the 1918 Armistice, and the Abdication crisis of 1936.

Sherlock Holmes has been missing and is presumed dead for some time, and his grief-stricken landlady, Mrs. Hudson, is anxious for a distraction. However, she is in for a culture shock when she travels to Ireland with her friend, Kitty Melrose, to try and stop a forced marriage. What she finds is a countryside steeped in superstition and beliefs in the old ways, a place of fairy forts and holy wells, and of changelings and banshees. A place, moreover, where an impoverished peasantry remains under the heel of oppressive English landlords, but not for much longer.

Volume 2 includes more Sherlock Holmes and Watson tales collected by David Ruffle from writers around the world.

Arsène Lupin is a fictional gentleman thief and master of disguise created in 1905 by French writer Maurice Leblanc. The character was first introduced in a series of short stories serialized in the magazine Je sais tout. The first story, The Arrest of Arsène Lupin, was published on 15 July 1905. Lupin was featured in 17 novels and 39 novellas by Leblanc, with the novellas or short stories collected into book form for a total of 24 books.

Hotelier Stephen Sanderson is dead. Stabbed after hosting a police officer’s wedding. Chief Superintendent David Ashworth is a family friend of the victim and assigns the case to Meredith. Sanderson had a past that the family would rather keep quiet if it’s not related to his murder, but Sanderson’s life style provides the police with many suspects, including some in his own family.

Perry Stuart is a TV meteorologist who routinely works before the cameras. His life calm and ordered, his face familiar to every British household, Stuart's profound weather knowledge and accuracy have given him high status among forecasters, but no physical baptism by storm. Not, that is, until a fellow forecaster offers him a Caribbean hurricane-chasing ride in a small aeroplane.

ABOUT THE BOOK: Blinders, a novel by Kristy Shelton, portrays a beautiful relationship between a former slave couple, their love for a boy who wanders onto their farm, and the redeeming forgiveness of the heavenly Father. In this inspirational novel, Eugene, an eleven-year-old boy growing up in Kentucky in 1912, is drawn to a light in the distance that compels him to run away from his abusive stepfather. He is led to the farm of Franklin and Rachel Hawkins who live in a rundown house built on top of a cave yet have magnificent thoroughbred horses grazing in their bluegrass pasture. Eugene ...

"The Affair at the Victory Ball" unfolds as an enthralling short story within Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot series. In this intriguing narrative, the fastidious Belgian detective Hercule Poirot attends the glamorous Victory Ball, only to find himself entangled in a perplexing mystery when a murder takes place during the festivities.

This is the 25th story from The Art of Sherlock Holmes project and first appeared in The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, Part VI.

In Agatha Christie’s short story “The Adventure of the Cheap Flat”, Poirot’s suspicions are aroused when he hears of a sweetheart deal on a flat. Doing a little freelance investigation, he soon learns that the flat is at the center of a case of international espionage and a potentially fatal double cross.

In Agatha Christie’s short story “The Case of the Missing Will,” Poirot must help clever student Violet Marsh meet the terms of an unusual will by her Uncle Andrew. She must live in his house for a month and “prove her wits” if she is ever to receive his fortune. But is there another will?