3 women can make a mess out of a man's life. The Right One--Michele, the dark-eyed French beauty who looked like she had just stepped out of a European movie. The Wrong One--Wilma, the red-headed temptress who came along at the wrong time with the right invitation. The Dead One--Francine, whose lifeless body was found in a rowboat in the middle of the bay. Ed Lacy's latest suspense novel is a hard-hitting story of fast-living men and women caught in a web of passion and violence, with a stunning surprise ending.

Ten short stories. Miss Mott is a newspaper columnist, offering advice to readers on various personal matters. Is she now to become a consultant on crime? Of course, her uncle does work at Scotland Yard...In the ten cases, Lucie Mott solves only two-inding a missing woman locked in her own house and recognizing that an apparently philandering husband was actually out thieving--and in a third helps rescue her uncle. In five stories she is saved from her own folly by a supposed criminal known as Violet Joe with whom she immediately falls in love. Three strains of action are interwoven throughout the volume: the romance of Lucie and Violet Joe, the maniacal attraction of the criminal gang leader Meredith for Lucie, and Miss Mott's investigative career. All are neatly tied up in the final case.

- 'An ingenious country house mystery... keeps the reader on tenterhooks from the very first page' NEW YORK TIMES - 'J. Jefferson Farjeon is quite unsurpassed for creepy skill in mysterious adventures' DOROTHY L. SAYERS - The much-revered crime writer J. Jefferson Farjeon's second crime novel back in print for the first time in almost a century. To Brambles, a dilapidated yet comfortable English country house, come the uninvited guests: a motley crew, who appear at the most unexpected hours and on the most impossible errands. Singly and in procession they arrive to trouble the calm of Ambrose Blythe, sexagenarian owner of Brambles, and of Peter Haslam, his house guest. Add to these an imperturbable butler, a tragic-eyed damsel and the super-logician Detective Grant to complete the ingredients of the perfect Golden Age of Crime story. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joseph Jefferson Farjeon was born into a literary family in Hampstead, north west London in 1883. He was a prolific crime writer, writing over sixty novels over the course of thirty years, many published by William Collins & Sons and featuring in their hugely popular Collins Crime Club. Dorothy L. Sayers said of his work, 'every word is entertaining.' His best-known novel (and play) NUMBER 17, was made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock. He died in 1955. PRAISE FOR J. JEFFERSON FARJEON: 'Jefferson Farjeon writes thrills enhanced by good writing, good humour, and good character sketches' THE SUNDAY TIMES; 'A Sherlock Holmes novel of the first degree' NEW YORK POST; 'This delightful writer delivers the goods once again' THE DAILY HERALD; '"Mystery in White" is the perfect book for a winter's evening, a cosy chair and an open fire' THE DAILY MAIL; 'An undiluted joy... Ben is the plum of the book; his personality impresses itself upon the imagination' LIVERPOOL POST; 'A top-hole thriller by a writer who knows his job' THE DAILY EXPRESS.

One of many great works by E. Phillips Oppenheim, "prince of storytellers" from the late 19th and early 20th Century England.

A fine August morning in Fowey on the Cornish Riviera, a noble yacht appears round the western point of the estuary, and enters the broad river. The Rajah of Puht is arriving. In the early afternoon, as the palatial yacht lies at anchor, Lady Constance Bolliver and sundry other distinguished guests will arrive by train, to be rowed across to her. On board is half-a-million pounds in diamonds. This tranquil scene has been preceded by a cat-and-mouse pursuit by Detective Inspective Edward Strood - one of Scotland Yard's finest - of a master criminal, a person unknown, intent on grand larceny of the exquisite stones." -- Back cover.

"An inspector and four uniformed constables arrive one morning, unannounced, at Greystones, the imposing and remote country house of the Elderly family. Inspector Biggs brushes past the immaculate and outraged butler and demands to see John Elderly, head of the family. Behind the dark oak library door is the scene of a struggle; overturned and disarranged furniture, the telephone receiver is off the hook... Where has the master gone? Who has cut the telephone wires and disabled the motor-cars? What is the inspector holding back from the assembled guests and country house staff?"--

Richard Temperley arrives at Euston station early on a fogbound London morning. He takes refuge in a nearby hotel, along with a disagreeable fellow passenger, who had snored his way through the train journey. But within minutes the other man has snored for the last time-he has been shot dead while sleeping in an armchair. Temperley has a brief encounter with a beautiful young woman, but she flees the scene. When the police arrive, Detective Inspector James discovers a token at the crime scene: a small piece of enamelled metal. Its colour was crimson, and it was in the shape of the letter Z. Temperley sets off in pursuit of the mysterious woman from the hotel, and finds himself embroiled in a cross-country chase- by train and taxi - on the tail of a sinister serial killer. This classic novel by the author of the best-selling Mystery in White is a gripping thriller by a neglected master of the genre. J. Jefferson Farjeon (1883-1955) was the author of more than sixty crime and thriller novels that were highly acclaimed in his lifetime. Farjeon is the author of Number Seventeen, a play that was adapted for the big screen by Alfred Hitchcock. His Christmas crime novel, Mystery in White, was republished as a British Library Crime Classic and became a bestseller. Front cover (c) NRM/Pictorial Collection/Science & Society Picture Library

The Avenger By Edward Phillips Oppenheim Unravels the deepest of mysteries with consummate power. The story of an English curate and his connection with the fair occupant of a near-by yellow house. Every page in it suggests a mystery. We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.