ruby

„A Detective’s Triumphs” (1891) by Dick Donovan – eleven intriguing detective short stories including: The Mystery of Surgeon-Major Palmer; The Great Ruby Robbery; The Abduction, etc. Dick Donovan is the pseudonym of British author James Edward Preston Muddock (28 May 1843 – 23 January 1934) who created a private detective, also named Dick Donovan, in the 1890s. Dick Donovan achieved an international...

In this dense novel, the house in which the Darke family exists apparently has its own impassive but claustrophobic influence on the family, which, in turn, tied itself up too quickly in its network of special hate agreements and connections. Jasper fights against his religion, Ruby is trapped between her need for conventions and her own desires, and Peter is forced to rebel.

A beautiful young woman is interviewed by Coroner Golden and new Deputy sheriff Mr. Hammersmith. Her mother has been found dead in the nearby forest but the woman alleges they both rented rooms in Three Forks Tavern. The landlord Mr. Quimby deny her story. She describes the room her mother was in but a search reveals no room that matches it. But the sheriff believes her and he insists on staying in...

South Africa, 1900. After his father dies, nineteen-year-old David Crawfurd is sent off to South Africa to earn his living as a storekeeper in the back of beyond. A strange encounter on the journey suggests that dark deeds and treacherous intrigues are afoot – all bound up with the mysterious primeval kingdom of Prester John. Laputa is a charismatic leader of an incipient native uprising, secretly...