Uncle Henry has a history of heart trouble and doesn't wake up one morning. No one, even his physician, is surprised. But dear Aunt Gertrude, listening to Intuition, suspects Foul Play and insists on an autopsy. Since Aunt Gertrude is a cross between a battleship and a Victorian bulldog, an autopsy she gets. Surprise! Uncle Henry was, indeed, poisoned. The problem is that all of his relations have a motive. You see, Uncle Henry was not well liked at all; he took positive delight in thwarting his erstwhile relatives. They included two sisters, one sister-in-law, a niece, two nephews, and an attending physician who all had reason to hate him, and all benefited in one way or another from his unlamented passing.

The plague struck, and ninety percent of Earth's population died. Those who survived tried to maintain some sort of civilization… which meant more killing, as it turned out. But bit by bit, generation by generation, people began to succeed. With occasional setbacks.

Madame Rosika Storey is a detective living near Gramercy Park, NY, created in the mid-1920s by Canadian born Hulbert Footner. Storey's secretary, companion and gushing admirer, Bella Brickley narrates through five novels and thirty short stories as her hero solves crimes and straightens out people's problems. The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection calls her, "a stunningly beautiful young woman who describes herself as 'a practical psychologist--specializing in the feminine." Mike Grost wrote: "Hulbert Footner's tales of Madame Rosika Storey have a period charm. They tend not to be overwhelmingly brilliant as puzzle plots. Footner's tales, from the 1920's and 30's seem oddly old-fashioned for their era. His detective technique would have seemed familiar to Émile Gaboriau in the 1860's: footprints, rooms searched for hidden clues, an obvious suspect and a hidden suspect, mild sorts of financial skullduggery lurking in the background. Footner was good at describing every sort of romantic attraction. He was alert to the emotional feelings of his characters. His characters are oddly, rawly sexual for their eras: one is especially startled by the gigolos in "Wolves of Monte Carlo", but Footner liked to include really handsome, seductive young men in many of his tales. Footner is perhaps a bit influenced by the Jazz Age tradition of F. Scott Fitzgerald, and its emphasis on both romance and sexuality. Madame Rosika in Madame Storey is somewhat unusual as a great detective of the era who happens to be a woman. She works as a paid professional, uses her brains, is universally respected for her skill, and basically plays the same role in her world that Hercule Poirot does in his."

Lyman Frank Baum (1856-1919) was an American writer of children's books, best known for creating the marvelous Land of Oz in "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". This fanciful kingdom was catalogued in a series of children's books beginning with the publication of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". Baum's Oz series compasses the first fully developed fantasy world created by an American author. In 1900, Baum and Denslow, famous illustrator with whom he shared the copyright, published "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", making it one of the first commercially successful uses of color illustrations in American publishing. Dorothy and her friends soon began their journey toward becoming an integral part of the American consciousness. "The Patchwork Girl of Oz" is Baum's seventh contribution to the set of Oz stories. This tale is the first since the original "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" to send its hero on a quest through Oz. Ojo, a Munchkin boy, along with the Patchwork Girl and others set out to remedy his uncle after he is turned into a marble statue.

Time travel is possible, but only forward in time. Visitors from the past are multiple and dangerous as they carry deadly germs people of the future do not have immunity against anymore. So all the time travelers are promptly apprehended and isolated. The head of the institution responsible for isolation of the time travelers is implacable and absolutely inflexible in carrying out his duties. Until one of the time travelers gives him a device allegedly capable of moving people back in time...

Richard Jefferies’ “remarkable fantasy novel After London (1885), set in a future in which urban civilization has collapsed after an environmental crisis.” (From Encyclopædia Britannica ). * * * This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

During the waning months of World War II, sharp-tongued Eugenia Gates accepts Mary Fredon's invitation to borrow her apartment for an unexpected two-week vacation. Mary herself is away recuperating from her own unexpected development -- her colorless husband Homer apparently has skipped town with Betty, the wife next door who, unlike Mary, shares his interest in Egyptology. Unknown to Eugenia, the disconcerted Mary has also offered the use of the apartment to army sergeant Kendall Smith for his furlough. Eugenia wants to rest, the sergeant wants to party, and Lucy, the batty chaperone Mary sends when she realizes her mistake, is more interested in snooping than in keeping the sergeant from pursuing Eugenia. Other residents of the building join in their partying, including an undertaker only too eager to share the intimate details of his craft and the rakish husband of the straying spouse from next door, who seems more interested in locating a lost eye than in the whereabouts of his wife. Mary returns in time to see a murder committed and to express alarm at her guest's untidy ways, prompting Eugenia to offer a heartfelt soliloquy on the dangers of housework. Besides, why bother about dust and crumbs when bodies are being found under beds, nestled in armchairs, or tucked away in vegetable bins?

Every antique dealer is a bit of a detective, following clues to find the trophies that pay the rent, but when Lovejoy takes on the job of tracking down a pair of duelling pistols so rare that he's not even sure actually exist, he needs all the instincts of a detective to pick his way through an unsolved crime.Along the way, he becomes convinced that the weapons do exist but that they have fallen into the hands of a vile murderer. Locating the ancient weapons seems like the least of his problems when Lovejoy then finds himself fighting for his life in a duel to the death!Review“One of the most likable rogues in mystery history” – Chicago Sun-Times --Chicago Sun-Times About the AuthorJonathan Gash is the pen name ofJohn Grant, who also wrote under the name of Graham Gaunt. Born in 1933 in Bolton, Lancashire, Grant trained as a doctor and worked as both a GP and a pathologist. He also served in the Royal Army Medical Corps, where he rose to the rank of Major, and was head of bacteriology at the University of London's School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His first Lovejoy novel, The Judas Pair, won the Crime Writers' Association prestigious John Creasey award in 1977. Grant lives in Colchester, Essex.

Book DescriptionCallahan's Place is the neighborhood tavern to all of time and space, where the regulars are anything but. Pull up a chair, grab a glass of your favorite, and listen to the stories spun by time travelers, cybernetic aliens, telepaths...and a bunch of regular folks on a mission to save the world, one customer at a time.About The AuthorSpider Robinson, winner of three Hugos and a Nebula, was born in the Bronx and raised on Long Island, and has been a Canadian resident for 30 years. Holder of a bachelor's degree in English from the State University of New York, he worked as a folksinger and journalist before publishing his first story in Analog in 1973. He now lives with his wife Jeanne Robinson (co-author of the Hugo- and Nebula-winning Stardance trilogy) on an island outside Vancouver, B.C., where they raise and exhibit hopes. Eleven of his 31 books are set in Callahan's Place, a fabulous tavern founded by a time traveler, where puns flow as freely as beer, and smell far worse. The most recent is Callahan's Con [Tor July 2003]. He has contributed a regular editorial column, "Future Tense," to Canada's national newspaper, The Globe & Mail, since 1995. In 2000, he released Belaboring the Obvious, a CD of original music with the legendary Amos Garrett ("Midnight at the Oasis") on lead guitar, and in 2001 he was a celebrity judge at the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam.

During the American Revolution, a woman fights to save her familySeveral years have passed since American colonists rose up against the tyranny of King George III, yet the war has no end in sight. As the struggle drags on, colonial commander George Washington's army supports itself by seizing land from those loyal to the Crown. In South Carolina, rebel leaders have their eyes on the Mallam estate, whose owner has fled to Jamaica, leaving his daughter Amity to manage the plantation. As a last-ditch effort to save her family's land, she marries Simon Mallam, a cousin and a rebel, then travels to Jamaica to learn if her father is alive or dead.There she finds no less turmoil than she left behind. Her father's sugar plantation, Mallam Penn, is in danger. If the Mallam family is to have any future in the new world, one woman must stave off the armies of two nations.

How to Read a Book, originally published in 1940, has become a rare phenomenon, a living classic. It is the best and most successful guide to reading comprehension for the general reader. And now it has been completely rewritten and updated. You are told about the various levels of reading and how to achieve them -- from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading, you learn how to pigeonhole a book, X-ray it, extract the author's message, criticize. You are taught the different reading techniques for reading practical books, imaginative literature, plays, poetry, history, science and mathematics, philosophy and social science. Finally, the authors offer a recommended reading list and supply reading tests whereby you can measure your own progress in reading skills, comprehension and speed.

Name: Matt HelmCode Name: EricMission: The RetaliatorsRemarks:Matt Helm was unexpectedly rich and he didn't like it. The $20,000 that had been deposited in his account was a complete surprise.Very nice. Except Matt knew that someone was setting him up, making it look as though he was a traitor and getting a payoff. Someone who wanted Matt out of business.Suddenly, another secret agent with an unexplained surplus in his bank account was murdered. Matt figured he'd better track down his "benefactors" before they retired him for good.