E. W. Hornung

First published in 1899, The Amateur Cracksman was the first collection of stories detailing the exploits and intrigues of gentleman thief A. J. Raffles in late Victorian England. Raffles was E. W. Hornung's most famous character. Popular in its day, the book led to three later works: The Black Mask and A Thief in the Night, both collections of short stories, and Mr. Justice Raffles, a complete novel. In public a popular sportsman, in private a cunning burglar with a weakness for valuable jewelery, Arthur Raffles, with the help of his side-kick Bunny Manders, always manages to thwart the investigations of Scotland Yard's Inspector Mackenzie.

First published in 1901, The Black Mask is the second collection of stories detailing the exploits and intrigues of gentleman thief A. J. Raffles in late Victorian London. Raffles was E. W. Hornung's most famous character.

Doctor John Dollar is a learned scholar and practitioner who becomes obsessed with the idea of preventing criminal behavior before it takes hold - and he's willing to take extreme measures to fulfill his objective.

First published in 1909, A Thief in the Night is the first novel detailing the exploits and intrigues of gentleman thief A. J. Raffles in late Victorian England. The novel is a darker work than the three preceding short story collections (The Amateur Cracksman, The Black Mask and A Thief in the Night.) In it a more cynical Raffles finds a corrupt moneylender, Mister Brigstock, is entrapping the young sons of the wealthy with exorbitant interest on his loans, and its up to Raffles to teach him a lesson.

"Stingaree is a master of disguises. In Australia, he pretends to be the renowned British composer, Sir Julian Kent, visiting the wealthy Mr and Mrs Hugh Clarkson's house. There, he meets Hilda Bouverie, a lowly servant girl, who dreams of being an opera singer. However, Stingaree is discovered as being an impostor and he escapes with Hilda to his hideout, where he realises that he loves her. When the genuine Sir Julian eventually hears Hilda sing, it results in his inviting her to come to England. Meanwhile Stingaree's exploits lead to a shooting and his arrest."--Publisher.

From Google Books: "Rachel Minchin stands in the dock, accused of murdering the dissolute husband she was preparing to leave. The trial is sensational, and public opinion vehemently and almost universally against her. When the jury astonishes and outrages the world with a vedict of Not Guilty, Rachel quickly finds herself in need of protection. It comes in the form of a surprising offer of marriage from a mysterious stranger who has sat through every day of her trial. The marriage to this intriguing stranger, Mr. Steel, is by mutual agreement to be a platonic one, the only condition of which is that neither is ever to question the other about the past. The two travel to Steel's remote country estate, where Rachel accidentally discovers that her second husband's past was somehow intertwined with her first husband's history - but how, exactly, and why he determined to marry her, Steel will not say. As her doubts about her husband increase, local busybodies threaten to unearth Rachel's own past. And that is the least of the secrets that comes to light as this entertaining mystery unfolds."

I am still uncertain which surprised me more, the telegram calling my attention to the advertisement, or the advertisement itself. The telegram is before me as I write. It would appear to have been handed in at Vere Street at eight o'clock in the morning of May 11, 1897, and received before half-past at Holloway B.O. And in that drab region it duly found me, unwashen but at work before the day grew hot and my attic insupportable.

>The Shadows of Sherlock Holmes is a fascinating collection of stories featuring detectives, criminal agents, and debonair crooks from the golden age of crime fiction: a time when Sherlock Holmes was ensconced in his rooms at 221B Baker Street and London was permanently wreathed in a sinister fog. These gripping tales of mystery, suspense, and clever puzzles are wonderfully entertaining, and in them you will meet The Crime Doctor; Professor Augustus S.F.X.Van Dusen - The Thinking Machine; Max Carrados - the incredible blind detective; the repulsive but brilliant Skin o' My Teeth; and the natty, ingenious French sleuth Eugene Valmont. On the other side of the law, there are gentlemen crooks Raffles and Simon Carn, the Prince of Swindlers. The purloined letter (Edgar Allan Poe) -- The biter bit (Wilkie Collins) -- The stolen cigar-case (Brett Harte) -- A princess's vengeance (C.L. Pirkis) -- The absent-minded coterie (Robert Barr) -- The Swedish match (Anton Chekhov) -- The secrets of the Black Brotherhood (Dick Donovan) -- The episode of the diamond links (Grant Allen) -- A clever capture (Guy Clifford) -- Nine points of the law (E.W. Hornung) -- The stir outside the Cafe Royal (Clarence Rook) -- The Duchess of Wiltshire's diamonds (Guy Boothby) -- The problem of dressing room A (Jacques Futrelle) -- The hundred-thousand-dollar robbery (Hesketh Prichard) -- The Surrey cattle-maiming mystery (Herbert Jenkins) -- The ghost at Massingham Mansions (Ernest Bramah) -- Sexton Blake and the time-killer (Anonymous) -- One possessed (E.W. Hornung) -- The great pearl mystery (Baroness Orczy).

[Purloined Letter]( / Edgar Allan Poe A terribly strange bed / Wilkie Collins The three strangers / Thomas Hardy T[he red-headed league]( / Arthur Conan Doyle The corpus delecti / Melville Davisson Post Gentlemen and players / E.W. Hornung A journey / Edith Wharton The leopard man's story / Jack London A retrieved reformation / O. Henry The problem of Cell 13 / Jacques Futrelle The absent-minded coterie / Robert Barr The invisible man / G.K. Chesterton The infallible Godahl / Frederick Irving Anderson The adventure of the unique "Hamlet" / Vincent Starrett The Gioconda smile / Aldous Huxley Haircut / Ring Lardner The killers / Ernest Hemingway The hands of Mr. Ottermole / Thomas Burke The little house at Croix-Rousse / Georges Simenon The case of the missing patriarchs / Logan Clendening Clerical error / James Gould Cozzens The two bottles of relish / Lord Dunsany The chaser / John Collier The perfect crime / Ben Ray Redman Yours truly, Jack the Ripper / Robert Bloch The blind spot / Barry Perowne The catbird seat / James Thurber Recipe for murder / C.P. Donnel Jr. The nine mile walk / Harry Kemelman Kill or be killed / Ogden Nash The specialty of the house / Stanley Ellin Nearly perfect / A.A. Milne The Gettysburg Bugle / Ellery Queen The last spin / Evan Hunter Stand up and die! / Mickey Spillane A new leaf / Jack Ritchie The snail-watcher / Patricia Highsmith The long way down / Edward D. Hoch The man who never told a lie / Isaac Asimov I have / John Gardner [Quitters, Inc.]( / Stephen King Horn man / Clark Howard The new girl friend / Ruth Rendell By the dawn's early light / Lawrence Block Iris / Stephen Greenleaf High Darktown / James Ellroy The Pietro Andromache / Sara Paretsky Soft monkey / Harlan Ellison The hand of Carlos / Charles McCarry Karen makes out / Elmore Leonard