The Floating Press imprint: 2252 books

After a childhood beset by abject poverty, Jeckie Fletcher is determined to do whatever it takes to live a comfortable, stable life. That's why she rejects the love of her childhood sweetheart, Joe Bartle, and instead sets her sights on local merchant Albert Grice. When her dogged pursuit of Grice ends...

Fans of golden-era mysteries will relish the twists and turns of J. S. Fletcher's The Chestermarke Instinct. This cleverly crafted mystery begins with what seems like a common enough occurrence: a bank manager is late for work one morning. But what first appears to be simply a matter of a missed train...

Though he is today best remembered for the mysteries he began writing later in his literary career, English author J. S. Fletcher got his start in fiction as a writer of historical tales. In the Days of Drake immerses readers in the heady era of sixteenth-century British sea exploration in a rip-roaring...

In this gripping novel from Emerson Hough, long-simmering racial tensions come to a head in a small town in the Mississippi Delta when a powerful local land baron is tried for a gruesome crime; meanwhile, a confounding mystery of mistaken identity and lost fortune is resolved.

The Red House Mystery is a classic "whodunit" set in an English country house. An eclectic cast of characters are gathered in the house when the owner's brother, recently arrived from Australia, is found murdered in a locked room. Two of the house guests take the investigation upon themselves and they wade almost playfully through the abundance of evidence and theories.

One of detective fiction master Anna Katharine Green's earlier novels, The Sword of Damocles combines a budding romance set against the backdrop of New York City's hustle and bustle with a beguiling mystery. Green's best-known creation, master detective Ebenezer Gryce, makes a cameo appearance on the scene.

In this charming collection of stories, the author of beloved novels such as Little Women re-imagines several classic fairy tales and fables, setting them among the austere beauty of the nineteenth-century New England countryside. A Modern Cinderella a satisfying treat for readers of all age.

Charles Dickens attained an astounding level of popular acclaim during his lifetime; Victorian audiences clamored for his traditional Christmastime stories every year. The tale "A Message From the Sea" is an example of one of Dickens' Christmas publications; although the nautical setting of the story...

What starts out as a pleasant family sea voyage takes a nightmarish turn in R.M. Ballantyne's The Pirate City. A prosperous Italian businessman and his sons are captured by a crew of pirates and are forcibly entered into servitude in the vast, roiling den of iniquity known as "Pirate City." They make the best of their horrific ordeal, but will they ever be able to escape and make it back home?

In the gripping Civil War story "Rebel Raider," H. Beam Piper takes a break from the science fiction that was his typical stock-in-trade and beams readers back into the midst of the conflict that ripped the United States asunder. The tale focuses on the exploits of Confederate leader John Singleton Mosby, who gained acclaim as a ruthless and tactically brilliant raider.

The Little White Bird is a series of short episodes, narratives and day-to-day accounts of J M Barrie's life in London. The tone oscillates from whimsical to social comedy to darkly aggressive. Part of the book's continuing popularity was due to the couple of softer chapters telling the story of Peter Pan, later to become the hero of Barrie's most famous work.

Love Jane Austen's Emma? If so, you'll relish every page of Margaret Oliphant's Miss Marjoribanks. Part of the author's Carlingford Chronicles, this delightful novel follows the indomitable Lucilla Marjoribanks, who returns to her hometown to take care of her father. She inserts herself into the local...

In this varied collection of short stories, Bret Harte's unparalleled talent for crafting indelible characters shines through. In "The Judgment of Bolinas Plain," an unhappy wife escapes from her dull life by absconding with a circus acrobat, setting off a tragic chain of events. In a tale evoking the...

This engaging David-and-Goliath tale is set against the sprawling backdrop of Canada's open prairies. Rancher Ormesby and his group of chums hatch a clever plan to outwit greedy corporate interests, but will they be able to pull it off before it's too late? Along the way, Ormesby finds love where he least expected it.