Reading Essentials: 322 books

An Inspector Mallett mystery - Daylesford Gardens, South Kensington, is an unlikely address for the discovery of death by strangulation. Even more unusual is that the house does not belong to the deceased financier. In the meantime, the mysterious tenant, Colin James, has disappeared. Inspector Mallett of Scotland Yard is brought in to unravel a complicated trail.

Like the Jefferson Bible, this is an attempt to edit the four gospels into a consistent account, in this case focusing on the words of Jesus. There is plenty of connecting narrative around the instances where Jesus speaks, so this is better than simply presenting each quote out of context. The words...

What family secret drives Patricia to adopt a false identity and hide from everyone - even her childhood sweetheart? 

"Death in the Tunnel" is a mystery novel written in 1936 by Cecil John Charles Street (1884–1964) under his pseudonym Miles Burton: Sir Wilfred Saxonby travels alone in the 5 o'clock train from Cannon Street, in a locked compartment. The train slows and stops inside a tunnel; and by the...

Suicide Excepted shows a man committing an almost perfect murder, only to find that a quirk of the insurance laws may deprive him of the reward.

By a lonely roadside in the south-west corner of Western Australia, old-timer Karl Mueller is roused from his drink-sodden sleep by approaching footsteps and the sound of whistling. What he sees on waking (or thinks he sees) is enough to make him stiffen with fear, and more than enough to worry the...

Sapper receives a frantic phone call from a friend asking for help. But when the line suddenly goes dead, he rushes round to his friend's Hampstead abode, and is horrified to find him dead, with the receiver still in his hand and a horrific wound to his eye.

In the 1930s, Irish novelist Maurice Walsh placed the moors and mountains of Ireland firmly on the literary map with this celebrated collection of stories under the title Green Rushes, here re-titled The Quiet Man and Other Stories. Since then, readers have continued to be charmed by these accounts...

A pitch-black comedy set in London overshadowed by the looming threat of the Second World War, Patrick Hamilton's Hangover Square. London, 1939, and in the grimy publands of Earls Court, George Harvey Bone is pursuing a helpless infatuation. Netta is cool, contemptuous and hopelessly desirable to...

The picturesque village of Yew Hill, Markshire becomes an idyllic retreat for Francis Pettigrew and his wife until Francis is suddenly summoned to sit in as the County Court Judge and an elderly neighbor is brutally murdered.

Mankind is united under the rule of a single corporation and has begun to explore and settle the stars. The corporation maintains its control over mankind by having a monopoly on energy. But that's about to change and the corporation will do anything to hold onto its power, even plunge all of mankind into war. Powerful and poignant.

This is Sabatini's romantic adventure depicting the life of Christopher Columbus at the Spanish court, his voyages across the Atlantic Ocean in which he discovered the Americas and his relationship with the mother of his second son Beatriz Enríquez de Arana. The story is very much in the style of Captain Blood and portray Columbus as a swashbuckler.

When Don Pedro is shipwrecked and captured by the formidable Lady Margaret Trevanion, what he doesn’t expect is to fall in love and run away with her. And he certainly doesn't expect that the officers of the Spanish Inquisition be so ruthless that the lovers are forced to enlist the help of the Queen of England herself.

Once again this is dependable romance and adventure by Sabatini in an historical novel of early 18th century France. The country is virtually bankrupt; John Law wins control of the finances. Here is all the scandal, intrigue, jealousy, rivalry, debauchery, corruption and splendour of the court. The...