Set in the San Francisco environs of the 1930s, this series of five short stories covers the intrigues of brilliant, stylish, and very polite amateur sleuths Claire Delacroix and her millionaire boss, Akhenaton Beelzebub Chase. They are a perfect pair to solve impossible crimes set forth by police captain Cleland Baxter, who once served with Chase in the Great War. Mystery abounds, beginning with the intriguing puzzle of a Hungarian actor found dead in his locked dressing room with vampire-like puncture wounds in his neck. A deep water explorer disappears from his diving suit, as does a fighter plane[alpha]s passenger after traveling through a cloud. Both Chase and Delacroix have a penchant for re-enacting the scene of the crime, their many talents in evidence as they do. Delacroix is a medical doctor, pilot, and multi-instrument musician with a weakness for movie magazines and a San Francisco Call reporter (who gets his own bonus story set in 1923), while her partner Chase is a professor, inventor, and autodidact polymath whose parents went down with both the Titanic and the Lusitania, with his wartime gassed lungs as a weakness. The crimes solved range from a very deadly massacre of even the house servants, to a missing person caught in the act of attending a bar mitzvah. Through it all there are colorful gadgets and gizmos galore, food both delicious and deadly, and a setting that sparkles as brightly as the characters of the well-matched sleuths. Great fun!

Veteran broadcaster 'Radio Red' Bob Bjorner is the last of the red-hot lefties working at radio station KRED in Berkeley. His paranoia makes him lock his studio against intruders while he's on the air - but his precaution doesn't save him from a horrible death that leaves him slumped at the microphone just before his three o'clock daily broadcast. Homicide detective Marvia Plum scrambles to the station to investigate. Who amongst the broadcasters, engineers, and administrators present at the station was the murderer - and why?

MURDER ME FOR NICKELS Walter Lippit makes music all over town. He owns the juke boxes that play the tunes that keeps the bars and the diners hopping. Jack St. Louis works for Lippit, smoothing the customers and keeping the nickels coming. But then along comes Benotti and the Chicago syndicate to louse up the operation. It's everything Jack can do to stay one step ahead. One step ahead of Benotti's gang, Lippet--and Lippit's willing wife Patty, who wants to be a singer and is convinced that Jack can make that happen too. And maybe he can. It's all in a week's work. BENNY MUSCLES IN Benny Tapkow has worked as crime boss Pendleton's chauffeur for seven years, but he's itching to get ahead. He feels like he deserves a piece of the action, but Pendleton won't budge. So Benny strikes a deal with Big Al Alverato to kidnap Pendleton's daughter Pat to get him in with the rival gang. But the snatch doesn't come off as planned, and now Benny is stuck with Pat, a hellion with a temper and plenty of mood swings. Pendleton's men are after him and he has to dope her just to keep her in line. The last thing he figured on was falling in love.

Blood on the Desert Anthony Wheeler didn't want the job. When Major Pitt called him into the London office, Wheeler was trying to track down his old mentor, Fairchild. It had been Fairchild who had pulled him into the business. Not everyone is cut out to be a spy--Wheeler excelled at it. And Pitt would simply not accept his refusal. Now he is off to Kaden in North Africa, where three Arab chieftains who had been feuding for years are suddenly acting very friendly. Wheeler's mission--find out why. The last person he expects to run into is Fairchild. It is good to see his old friend--so why did it all feel so wrong? A House in Naples Charley had a sweet set-up in Naples. He and his partner Joe Lenken run a tight blackmarket operation. But tonight there is trouble and Charley is shot--and worse, he is recognized. Fleeing the police, he has to get his hands on a passport fast. Luck is with him in the form of a dead American drunk. All Charley has to do is get rid of the body. Weighting the body, he lowers it into the Tiber, his body wracked with pain from the bullet wound. But his luck runs out--he is seen! She is standing on the bridge overhead. But instead of crying "murder" she helps him up the bank and takes him away to tend his wounds. But is she Charley's guardian angel--or the sweet angel of death?

Abigail Goodman is the forty-one-year-old married mother of two grown children who finds herself unexpectedly pregnant. After much soul-searching, she opts to terminate the pregnancy. One month later, Abigail is arrested under a law that makes abortion a capital offense. Now she is fighting - not for her right to choose, but for her life.

TRICK I-- The first thing to vanish is a worthless doorstop. Then in the twinkling of an eye, goes its rich and eldely owner. and, for the grand finale, both reappear--each as dead as the other. TRICK II--From the House of Darkness issues more bafflement. In total darkness and from a distance of twelve feet, four bullets are pumped within an inch of each other into a spectator's back. A feat utterly impossible to perform--yet brazenly and undeniably done. TRICK III-- The piece de resistance. This time it's an entire house, a real house, a solid house which Ellery Queen had been in only the day before...vanished from the face of the earth. And in its place, one of the most incredible conundrums ever to face the master crime solver. * The Lamp of God (Detective Story, October 1935 as House of Haunts) * ...The Treasure Hunt (Detective Story, 1935) * ...The Hollow Dragon (Redbook, December 1936) * ...The House of Darkness (The American Magazine, February 1935) * ...The Bleeding Portrait (original "The Gramatan Mystery" * Man Bites Dog (Blue Book, June, 1939) * Long Shot (Blue Book, September 1939) * Mind Over Matter (Blue Book, October 1939) * The Trojan Horse (Blue Book, December 1939)

Drury Lane, a retired Shakespearean actor and amateur detective, investigates the poisonings of two members of the eccentric Hatter family

Christmas in New York. The city's legendary Ramsey's Department Store is suffering its worst season in years. General manager Barnaby Tischler knows it's because their rival, Weatherly's superstore, is scaring off the store's customers--with bomb threats! But when Ramsey's Santa-for-hire is found in a utility closet shot through the heart, Tischler's only hope lies in his old buddy, Mayor Ed Koch.

In a huge Hawaiian mansion by the sea live Jack Wolfe, ruthless millionaire, and his knockout wife, ex-hooker Nora. Weary of their marriage, Nora seduces dim-bulb aging surfer Chad to kill her husband. But then it seems as if Jack wants Chad to kill him--or rather, he wants it to look like he was killed so he can avoid legal prosecution and begin a new life. So he offers Chad a better deal. Then it gets complicated: who are allies and who are conspirators is not known. It's all observed by Hawaiian Jewish detective Dani Kahana--also in love with Nora. This complicated tale ends explosively with a hilarious and unexpected close. Martin's Press.

For widow Hattie Clements, a job at a local school should be ideal. Hattie can handle the problems that occur - but then the accidents start: Her determination to get to the truth, threatens to expose a terrible secret that has already scarred too many lives.

International intrigue, professional rivalry, the criminal underworld of nineteenth-century Moscow, and an irresistible femme fatale: if Erast Fandorin was hoping for a quiet homecoming, he is about to be disappointed.Erast Fandorin returns to Moscow after an absence of six years, only to find himself instantly embroiled in court politics and scandal. His old friend General Sobolev - the famous 'Russian Achilles' - has been found dead in a hotel room, and Fandorin suspects foul play.Using his now-famous powers of detection - powers that belie his twenty-six years - Fandorin embarks on an investigation, during which the political and the personal may become dangerously blurred. With the assistance of some formidable martial arts skills, acquired whilst Fandorin was in Japan, our eccentric and ingenious hero must endeavour to discover not so much whodunit, as why ...

From WATER STREET PRESS A children's story for grown-ups. ..".amongst their own kind, children are the world's most thoroughgoing skeptics." But not eleven-year-old Jeff Greenaway. When his parents suddenly come into possession of hard-to-get tickets to the smash musical How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, but can't find a babysitter, Jeff ventures out in the Manhattan night to meet his hero, Count Zackuloff, the mad, moldy host of Channel 5's Midnight Mystery Theater, a horror movie program. Amazingly, the Count takes Jeff along on a publicity stunt in costume to the Horn and Hardart Automat, drawing crowds of curious fans. Next, the Count takes Jeff to a double feature horror matinee at the 58th Street Translux. An unusual friendship develops between the boy and the ghoul. Through it all, Jeff nutures dreams of becoming the Count's on-screen sidekick. But the Count has his own dreams-and they do not include a lifetime of introducing old horror movies on a third-rate New York TV station. James Howard Kunstler's charming tale takes us back to an age when New York City was a natural playground for a little boy and his own, personal vampire hero-a time when it seemed possible that all of our dreams could come true.

Tancred: or, The New Crusade by Benjamin Disraeli , 1847.Tancred, Lord Montacute, the novel's idealistic young hero, seems destined to live the life of any conventional member of the British ruling class. Dissatisfied with his life in fashionable London circles, he instead leaves his parents and retraces the steps of his Crusader ancestors to the Holy Land, hoping there to "penetrate the great Asian mystery" and understand the roots of Christianity.He meets the beautiful Eva, daughter of a Jewish financier, and becomes involvedin the political machinations of her foster-brother, the brilliant Fakredeen, a Lebanese emir. Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)was a British politician and writer who twice served as Prime Ministerof the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation of themodern Conservative Party, defining its policies and its broadoutreach. Disraeli is remembered for his influential voice in worldaffairs, his political battles with the Liberal Party leader WilliamEwart Gladstone, and his one-nation conservatism or "Tory democracy".He made the Conservatives the party most identified with the glory andpower of the British Empire.

A woman enters a room. The phone rings. A male voice on the other end of the line seems to know everything about her, down to the most intimate details. Someone is watching. The woman has just fled her homeland, but the whereabouts of her lover, Martin, remain a mystery. Is Martin in danger? Can the voice on the phone be trusted? Is she telling the truth? Has Martin betrayed his country, or his cause, or her? A tense, political allegory that inevitably challenges our assumptions about character, the foundations of our knowledge, and the making of history, Konfidenz stands as Ariel Dorfman's most fully realized fiction to date.

Death By Deadline is a mystery thriller that takes you deep into the heart of local TV News, with heroes, villains, and a look at how the battle to be first with a story can climax in unbelievable catastrophe. Can local news kill people? That's the essential question as the author takes you through a mosaic of politics. the underworld, government, and the life of a big city as seen through the prism of courageous journalists and their corrupt and devious counterparts. Death by Deadline is a story of murder, mayhem, and hope. accompanied by unforgettable characters, and some of the most unusual newsroom humor that you will ever read. This is not for the fainthearted, but is IS for people who want to walk the fine line between solid reporting and the tragedy of journalistic deceit. The people are not real. Can it happen? Maybe, on some dark day in the future, unless it is too late. "Too late" is a real possibility. But in the meantime, the thread of corruption, sexual tension, heroes and villains fighting an internal struggle, produces a newsroom full of tightrope walkers in a novel with so many surprises, that the reader must be prepared to face the unthinkable.

"The Frontier Garrison" is the first English translation of "Az elõretolt helyõrség" by the Hungarian novelist Jenõ Rejtõ (1905-1943), originally published in 1939 under the pen name of "P. Howard." The translator, Balint Kacsoh (a university professor) also annotated the edition. The preface provides biographical data of Jenõ Rejtõ in historical and literary context. The genre is fiction; elements of action, adventure, mystery, and comedy are mixed in the story. It is suitable for young readers and adults. Synopsis: Action and adventure are mixed with a healthy dose of offbeat humor in this P. Howard classic, set in the second half of the 1930s. Harrincourt is dishonorably discharged from the French Naval Academy for a prank. He realizes that his carefree behavior put the livelihood of his widowed mother and teenage sister in jeopardy. To secure their financial future, he pays the premium on his life insurance policy and joins the French Foreign Legion destined to Africa, where his death "in the course of professional duty" would be all but guaranteed. While in basic training in Oran, he unwittingly becomes mixed up in murder and espionage and encounters the ghost of a murdered woman who has a penchant for singing. In short order, his unit is dispatched to a frontier garrison established to support French colonial expansion into equatorial Africa. Rival foreign powers, however, attempt to thwart the French plans and Harrincourt finds himself in the crossfire of international intrigue and falls in love with the beautiful woman whose haunting ghost follows the legionnaires as they march through the deadly Sahara. It is up to Harrincourt to save the day and uncover the secret of a mysterious watch, even if it might mean foregoing the death benefit his insurance policy would pay to his family.

At the 37th libel suit Thurlow Potts has brought to court to protect the family name, the family's beleaguered lawyer Charlie Paxton loses the case. Thurlow seems driven beyond reason to protect the million dollar shoe business of his mother, Cornelia Potts, known to the press as the 'Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe.' But some people in the courtroom think Thurlow should be taken seriously, including Ellery Queen, who is looking on while waiting with his father, Inspector Queen of the New York Police Department, for another case. Afraid Thurlow will make good on his threats, Paxton begs Queen for help. Paxton's fiancee is Thurlow's sister, and she secures Queen an invitation to dinner, where Queen meets the extended and unusual Potts family. But before the meal ends, Thurlow challenges his younger brother to a duel, and not one, but two murders ensue. For the twin victims, and for Queen who must now solve the crimes, the fairytale is over. From his first appearance in print in 1929, Ellery Queen became one of America's most famous and beloved fictional detectives. Over the course of nearly half a century, Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee, the duo writing team known as Ellery Queen, won the prestigious Edgar Award multiple times, and their contributions to the mystery genre were recognized with a Grand Master Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Mystery Writers of America. Their fair-play mysteries won over fans due to their intricate puzzles that challenged the reader to solve the mystery alongside the brilliant detective. Queen's stories were among the first to dominate the earliest days of radio, film, and television. Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, which the writers founded and edited, became the world's most influential and acclaimed crime fiction magazine.

Brash, sexy, investigative journalist Margo Ross runs her hip news program with wit and intelligence. Tipped off that Albert Einstein might have been murdered by a group of right-wing militarists, Margo pursues the scoop of her life, tangling with a network of clues and an outlandish cast of suspects.

Simone Purdy is a manipulator of the nicest kind with the best of motives: to keep order among her post-college circle of friends, all established couples.

A novel of airport intrigue. She was young. She was beautiful. And in more danger than she knew. Rebel Martin worked out of National Airport in Washington DC as a stewardess for Coastal Airlines. She lived in the high rent section of Alexandria, VA courtesy of one friend. She had a wardrobe that would make a movie star envious, courtesy of another. And she played the field, in the sky and on the ground. There was Pilot Jim Lindsay, who had a wife and two children. He wanted to marry Rebel. So did young Robert Denham, a handsome ramp agent who didn't make enough to keep Rebel in cosmetics. One man involved with Rebel who didn't want to marry her was Frak Gilcannon, Coastal's executive vice president....Captain McDermott, recently reassigned from Coastal's Chicago office to Washington as a check pilot on the Boeing 727, had formerly been a homicide detective. Now, reluctantly, he finds himself back on the homicide trail seeking the person who'd strangled Rebel. And he finds his answer in two places. In the sky. And on the ground