Showing results by narrator "John Bolen" in All Categories

Wilkie Collins' most financially successful novel, The Evil Genius, opens with a jury determining the fate of a sea captain whose ship allegedly facilitated a diamond theft. The story develops into a powerful novel of Victorian private life, including deception, adultery, and divorce...

"The possession of power, no matter how enormous, does not bring the knowledge how to use it." Raphael, a failed writer, deep in debt, and unrequited in love, is about to take a suicidal plunge into the Seine River. Just in time, he discovers the "Magic Skin" in an antiquity shop. Its supernatural powers grant every wish but it extracts a terrible toll! This parable depicts the malaise of 19th century France.

Richard Gale, a college football star, travels to Mexico to prove himself after failing in every business opportunity that his wealthy father had handed him. When he arrives at an Arizona border town, a chance meeting with an old friend launches him into an adventure to save a young Spanish beauty from a ruthless Mexican bandit.

Sir Wingrave Seton allowed himself to be imprisoned for nine years rather than betraying a lady's honor. He seeks revenge by acquiring immense wealth for the sole purpose of destroying the lives of others. But a new young lover slowly starts to thaw the Malefactor's icy heart, prompting him to abandon his misanthropic plans. Is it too late?

In the aftermath of World War I, a high-society New Yorker makes his new home in the wilds of the West. When his fiancé follows him out there, can she persuade him to return to New York? Or can she adapt to the rigorous life of the West? And will she be in time to save her beloved from a rival temptress?

From the Artic to Egypt to Australia, Doyle tells thrilling tales of crime, suspense, mysterious secrets, and humor.

The sacred cat of Bubastes has accidentally been slain; now young Chebron must pay for the offense with his own life, as this is the law of the Pagans in Egypt, 1250 BC. Chebron, the son of a high Egyptian priest, flees for his life taking his sister Mysa, one of the household slaves Amuba, and several companions with him.

A gentile sage-rider is about to be whipped by the Mormans to coerce the rich and beautiful Jane Withersteen to marry against her will. In desperation Jane whispers the prayer, "Whence cometh my help!" Just then, an unlikely hero, the infamous gunfighter Lassiter, routs the persecutors and is drawn into this conflict on the Utah-Arizona border.

Life has lost its savor for Mr. Pathurst. New York, fame, women, the arts, have all become tedious. Searching for excitement, he books passage on a cargo vessel sailing from Baltimore to Seattle on a route that travels around the treacherous Cape Horn.

In this 1876 "Mission Impossible" tale of intrigue set in Russia, a traitor has inspired the fierce Feofar Khan to invade Siberia and foment a rebellion. A sinister plot to assassinate the Czar's brother, the Grand Duke, is discovered but all telegraph lines have been cut.

Sir Oliver Tessilian, a Cornish nobleman, is abandoned or betrayed by everyone he ever loved. He is framed for murder, affronted and shunned by his fiancee and sold into slavery by his half-brother.

Take a journey on a giant raft with Joam Garral down 800 leagues on the Amazon. Garral, a Brazilian, lives on a thriving fazenda (plantation) in the Peruvian frontier with his loving family. But his daughter's imminent marriage to a Brazilian army surgeon compels him to return to his homeland to face the dark secrets of his past. Will his love and dedication to his family help him in his struggle to right injustice? Will a strange encoded message be deciphered in time to save him?

Napoleon's presumptuous but unsung hero, the Brigadier Gerard, faces certain death at every turn while outwitting the enemies of France! Gerard careens across Europe, swept along in the ebb and flow of the Napoleonic wars.

How far would a father go to keep his daughter from marrying the wrong man? Rufus Coleman, the respected editor of the New York Eclipse, plans to marry Marjory Wainwright. Yet to her father, Professor Wainwright, Rufus is still the wastrel that he thought him to be as a student in college.

The tulip craze of 17th century Holland has a dark side! Cornelius van Baerle, a wealthy but naive tulip grower, finds himself entangled in the deadly politics of his time, and he must decide where his true love lies.

What is the true root of royal blood? A young Viking prince is stranded in a strange world with nothing but a band of gold. Through the turmoil of history, the band of gold is passed from generation to generation.

In this 1920 best seller, Milt Dale, a lone camper, overhears a conversation that persuades him to leave his forest paradise to save a young woman from certain doom.

The surviving Nihilists have condemned the Russian General Trebassof to death for the crimes he and his troops committed against the revolution. Three attempts on his life have failed, but the Czar is determined to keep him alive.

Society has forgiven Jo Corbin for killing a man, but can he forgive himself? Will the Postmistress lose all in a bid to help a friend escape justice? Will the new teaching assistant's unorthodox ways tame the unruly pioneer children? These are just three of the nine wonderful short stories from Bret Harte, set in wild and wooly 19th-century California.

Mr. Kazallon thought that booking passage on a cargo ship from Charleston to Liverpool would be a charming way to return to his English homeland. If only he knew! A crazed sea captain, a disaster in the hold, storms, oppressive heat, sharks and starvation are just some of the many travails that will beset both passengers and crew. Will any of them survive the wreck of the Chancellor?