Mystery Reads

Season Three comes with serious firepower. The genre of adventure, science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance, melodrama, and the psychological are all present, turning the collection into a kaleidoscope of characters, plot twists, emotions, and revelations. Magicians hurl lightnings at each other, talking rabbits and vanishing cats talk to a little girl, while mad scientists try to create life from dead body parts. One of the most prominent names in this season is the American master of horror H. P.

1939: Claire Calais is broke and twenty-two years old. She has just figured out her lover is a saboteur. Homeless and penniless, she is suddenly immersed in the world of the international spy.

New England, 1890. Doctor John Shepherd arrives at a women's mental hospital to begin work as assistant to the owner. As Shepherd struggles to conceal his secrets, he finds the asylum has plenty of its own. Intrigued by a girl who is fascinated by books but cannot read, Shepherd embarks upon an experiment to help her. In this chilling literary thriller everyone has something to hide and no one is what they seem.

David Copperfield was a little boy who grew up in an unfortunate family. His father died six months before David’s birth. Later his mother remarried to a cruel man who beat him up. David however fought back and bit him. This resulted in David getting sent to a boarding school which he did not finish because of his mother’s death. All in all, David’s life has been a string of misfortunes. His development from infancy to maturity happened unnecessarily fast.

Edmond Dantes is falsely accused of treason on the day of his marriage. He is directly imprisoned in the fortress of If without any investigations being conducted. Edmond does not give up and he is determined to find his way out. The endpoint is the Isle of Monte Cristo which hides a great fortune.

Allan Quatermain is a hunter who lives in South Africa. One day, after he returns home from an unsuccessful elephant hunt, he meets Sir Henry Curtis and Captain John Good. The two men are looking for Curtis’ brother, who disappeared whilst trying to find King Solomon’s Mines. Quatermain owns a map that show the way to the mines, so he decides to help Curtis and Good. Allan organizes an expedition that will take them to the edge of the desert.

Rachel Innes is a rich lady who has been taking care of her niece and nephew since their father died. The three of them decide to rent a house in the country and although everything seems to be alright in the beginning, strange events soon begin to occur. Her niece disappears then reappears a few days later. There is a murder they are involved in. They hear strange noises. Things fall down the stairs in the middle of the night. Will Rachel solve the mysteries and how will their summer end? Find out in "The Circular Staircase". B. J.

Edward Malone is a young journalist at the "Daily Gazette", who is eager to impress his girlfriend Gladys. To do so, he requests a dangerous and complex task. After a few days, he is assigned to an expedition leaded by the notorious Professor Challenger. The the expedition is headed toward what Challenger’s claim is a new and isolated area of the Amazon jungle. He believes that thousands of years ago dinosaurs, pterodactyls and other exotic creatures were inhabitants of the area.

Narrated by Liz Miller, a penniless PhD candidate desperate to finish her dissertation, the novel begins when Liz's boyfriend abruptly ditches her, rendering Liz homeless and reduced to couch-surfing at best friend Petra's tiny Manhattan studio apartment. Trying to find an affordable living space, she stumbles across a Craigslist posting that will change her life: a room with a view in a prewar Greenwich Village apartment. The rent is a pittance, but in exchange, the tenant must be willing to read aloud daily to the apartment's sight-impaired landlady.

Tom Sawyer is an orphaned boy who lives together with his kindhearted aunt Polly. Although his poor aunt takes good care of him, Tom grows up to be rebellious who comes up with a new plan for troublemaking every day. He steals snacks, comes home late, lies to his friends, tricks them into giving him various things and each time he manages to get away with it. But when he falls in love with a girl and tries to win her heart, he gets into even bigger trouble.

"The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" is Sir Conan Doyle’s second collection about the great detective. In this collection we meet the same two protagonists, namely Holmes and Watson, but the cases and mysteries that must be solved are completely new. The disappearance of a champion horse, a dead coachman and stolen naval treaty are only a small portion of all the mysteries the two men will have to deal with.

An electrifying new voice in crime fiction: Allison LaMothe’s debut is a gritty, fast-paced mystery about a reporter running down two huge stories at once “Allison LaMothe is a wildly talented writer with an exacting eye for detail and her tenacious tabloid reporter, Parker Snow, is gutsy...

Megan Daniels was only three years old the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, but flashes of that day begin to trigger other disturbing memories. At first they are merely snippets, but then they begin to appear more frequently. In her attempt to learn more, she sets out to find her biological mother, but keeps hitting brick walls. No adoption papers exist, and all she has to go on is her possible birthday: November 22. In the small town of Meredith, California, Megan’s search takes on a dire, domino effect - one woman has already been murdered as a result of her inquiries.

Zorro is a mysterious man who always wears a large sombrero and a long black cloak. He covers his face with a black mask with two holes through which his sharp gaze follows everything that goes on around him. Zorro has some problems with the Californian governor, who thinks that the man is a thief. The governor is ready to pay a lot of money to the one who kills Zorro. This is where real problems begin for the mysterious man.

Ballantrae and Henry are two brothers and Scottish noblemen, whose family is torn apart during the Jacobite rising of 1745. Ballantrae is an unscrupulous and bold man, who joins the fights to restore the Stuarts to the English throne. His brother, an honest and good-natured man, stays as a supporter of King George. Just when everyone thinks that Ballantrae has been killed, he returns to find out the terrible truth about his younger brother.

"The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu" is the first book in the Fu-Manchu series, about the notorious evil mastermind. In the crime fiction world, Fu-Manchu stands on equal grounds with Professor Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis. Rohmer created an archetypal villain who is very much a product of his times, and a reflection of the social and political conditions. Fu-Manchu’s plans are always attacked and challenged by Detective Nayland Smith, who gives his all to defeat the mad doctor.

Jim Hawkins is a young boy who lives at his parents’ inn, near Bristol. After Billy Bones, an old sea captain, mysteriously dies at the inn, Hawkins unlocks his sea chest and finds a treasure map. The mysterious treasure map arouses Jim’s curiosity and sparks a wild and adventurous treasure hunt. Before long, Jim has gathered a crew of untrustworthy pirates and sails off to Treasure Island. Long John Silver with his missing leg and his parrot is part of the voyage.

Anthony William reveals the secrets of mystery illnesses and shares compelling insights from the Spirit on how to heal using the natural power of fruits, vegetables, and spiritual connections.

B. J. Harrison does not tire of the adventurous and mysterious settings in his choice of narratives. This time, the horror element is a bit subdued, though Edgar Allan Poe makes up for the lost thrills with his haunting poems "The Raven", "Annabel Lee", and "The Sleeper". P. G. Wodehouse appears with four works, scoring points for his humor.

Apart from the ubiquitous presence of the authors who work in the short story tradition, the Second Season introduces poems and novellas. The romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge is here with his haunting and supernatural sea adventure "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", while Rudyard Kipling tests the human condition with his famous poem "If". Perhaps the most potent addition in this second part is Joseph Conrad’s timeless novella "The Heart of Darkness", exploring the darkest recesses of the human soul. B. J.