The saint, whose real name is Simon Templar, is back, in some very special adventures that will captivate his TV fans and fascinate all lovers of good mystery fiction.Violence and murder among students, hippies and members of the “youth culture” involve. The Saint this time. An arch-black-mailer, a psychological experiment that involves students in a “murder game” that turns into the real thing these are some of the far-out ingredients in this boiling cauldron of homicidal happenings.

Murder and Mystery Ride the High Seas With The Saint and:A BEAUTIFUL BLONDE IN A BATHING SUIT who climbs on board his boat one night — under a hail of bullets!A MILLIONAIRE PIRATE whose fortune had been made looting sunken treasure ships — operating under the noses of the salvage companies.PLUS A strange invention which leads the Saint to a death-struggle at the bottom of the English Channel — with a fortune in gold bullion awaiting the winner!

When the Saint goes fishing, he catches an unusual specimen in the shape of a young lady claiming to be Adolf Hitler’s daughter. And when the Ungodly also arrive on the scene, it seems clear the fish will just have to wait...

A new opium ring was flooding the country with all the misery, vice, and murder that go with the illicit traffic in drugs. How could Dr. Zellermann, the Park Avenue psychiatrist, be linked with the distribution of the dope? What did New York's bawdiest rendezvous for seamen, Cookie's Canteen, have to do with it?And where did 903 Bubbling Well Road, Shanghai enter the picture? It was the business of Simon Templar (The Saint) to find the answers to these questions. It was his job to track down and bring to justice the "top brass" of the criminal organization that made these connections profitable.But, the Saint was sick — love-sick. He had been so ever since he first laid eyes on lovely Avalon Dexter. She was utterly desirable; her laughter was like "bells at twilight"; and honesty seemed to look out of her eyes! The Saint "had it bad."Most important, Avalon was in a position to help him immeasurably with his mission. However, she might be one of the international gang he had vowed to smash! Templar had to be sure. His life was at stake!

With the outbreak of the Second World War, the Saint has almost turned respectable. Employed by a secret wing of the government to track down spies and take on cases the ordinary police can't touch, he is dining in Washington DC when a young woman asks for his help. Her father, a noted scientist, has invented a new form of synthetic rubber — and now he has disappeared, and she is under threat. Simon is sceptical — but he swiftly realises there's something to her story. Soon he finds himself on the hunt of a band of conspirators who will stop at nothing to ensure the invention never sees the light of day.

Here, in his six intrigues, the Saint becomes involved with everything from haunted ladies, tycoon, and a Candy King in California to justice in Georgia and a Florida dragon whose scales were mathematical — and adventures that are “big enough” even for the swashbuckling Saint.

Simon Templar is the Saint — daring, dazzling, and just a little disreputable. On the side of the law, but standing outside it, he dispenses his own brand of justice one criminal at a timeIn these three stories, the Saint finds himself embroiled in further plots and facing new enemies. The Inland Revenue sees him up against the most unyielding opponent ever — the taxman. In The Million Pound Scandal, a good deed leads Simon to uncover a plot to undermine the Italian economy, and in The Melancholy Journey of Mr Teal the Saint's retirement plans are scuppered when a couple of murderous diamond smugglers object to his scheme of taking their loot for his pension.

The Saint was on the continent to get a little peace and quiet. But it was more to his liking to sample that lovely European intrigue that was so much in the air. It all began with a little man who had a pouch of diamonds chained to his wrist. Then there was the Munich chateau where the Baron displayed his fasinating medieval torture devices.

23 mystery stories by Richard Deming.

A Jack Reacher Novel – #25

Jack Reacher is back! The “utterly addictive” (The New York Times) series continues as acclaimed author Lee Child teams up with his brother, Andrew Child, fellow thriller writer extraordinaire. As always, Reacher has no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there. One morning he ends up in a town near Pleasantville, Tennessee. But there’s nothing pleasant about the place. In broad daylight Reacher spots a hapless soul walking into an ambush. “It was four against one” . . . so Reacher intervenes, with his own trademark brand of conflict resolution. The man he saves is Rusty Rutherford, an unassuming IT manager, recently fired after a cyberattack locked up the town’s data, records, information . . . and secrets. Rutherford wants to stay put, look innocent, and clear his name. Reacher is intrigued. There’s more to the story. The bad guys who jumped Rutherford are part of something serious and deadly, involving a conspiracy, a cover-up, and murder – all centered on a mousy little guy in a coffee-stained shirt who has no idea what he’s up against. Rule one: if you don’t know the trouble you’re in, keep Reacher by your side.

Talmage Powell (1920–2000) was one of the all-time great mystery writers of the pulp magazines (and later the digest mystery magazines). He claimed to have written more than 500 short stories, and we have no reason to doubt him — we are working on a bibliography of his work and have documented 373 magazine stories so far... and who knows how many are out there under pseudonyms or buried in obscure magazines? He wrote his first novel, The Smasher, in 1959. He went on to pen 11 more novels under his own name, 4 as “Ellery Queen,” and 2 novelizations of the hit TV series Mission: Impossible. Clearly, though short stories were his first love.

Nick and Nora Charles are Hammett\'s most enchanting creations, a rich, glamorous couple who solve crimes in between wisecracks and martinis. FROM THE PUBLISHER Nick and Nora Charles are Hammett\'s most enchanting creations, a rich, glamorous couple who solve homicides in between wisecracks and martinis. At once knowing and unabashedly romantic, The Thin Man is a murder mystery that doubles as a sophisticated comedy of manners. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING Hammett did over and over what only the best writers ever do...he wrote scenes that seemed never to have been written before. — Raymond Chandler The most breathless of Hammett\'s stories. — Sinclair Lewis

A kidnapping case links Hammer to a fourteen year-old mystery and the most venomous killer the private eye has ever faced.

Lew Archer #16As a mysterious fire rages through the hills above a privileged town in Southern California, Archer tracks a missing child who may be the pawn in a marital struggle or the victim of a bizarre kidnapping. What he uncovers amid the ashes is murder – and a trail of motives as combustible as gasoline. The Underground Man is a detective novel of merciless suspense and tragic depth, with an unfaltering insight into the moral ambiguities at the heart of California's version of the American dream.If any writer can be said to have inherited the mantle of Dashiell Hammet and Raymond Chandler, it was Ross Macdonald. Between the late 1940s and his death in 1983, he gave the American crime novel a psychological depth and moral complexity that his predecessors had only hinted at. And in the character of Lew Archer, Macdonald redefined the private eye as a roving conscience who walks the treacherous frontier between criminal guilt and human sin. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Lew Archer #3

The third Lew Archer mystery, in which a missing-persons search takes him "through slum alleys to the luxury of a Palm Springs resort, to a San Francisco drug-peddler's shabby room. Some of the people were dead when he reached them. Some were broken. Some were vicious babes lost in an urban wilderness.

This is the job they have all been waiting for. The job that will set them up for life. A million dollars split five ways, who wouldn’t be interested? The only catch is that it’s the very definition of impossible…or is it? Armed with a brilliant plan, the four men and one woman think they can crack it. But as tensions in the group begin to mount and things start to go wrong, the million dollars feels more out of reach than ever. Even though it is right with them…‘The thriller maestro of the generation.’–Manchester Evening News

Lew Archer #9

Phoebe Wycherly was missing two months before her wealthy father hired Archer to find her. That was plenty of time for a young girl who wanted to disappear to do so thoroughly – or for someone to make her disappear. Before he can find the Wycherly girl, Archer has to deal with the Wycherly woman, Phoebe’s mother, an eerily unmaternal blonde who keeps too many residences, has too many secrets, and leaves too many corpses in her wake.

In the last days of World War II, a sailor discovers a transcontinental conspiracy.

It is February 1945, and the war in the Pacific is nearing its climax. In Hawaii on his way to a new post, US Navy ensign Sam Drake stumbles across the girl of his dreams. Mary is a disc jockey, with a voice that’s famous across the islands for playing late-night jazz that no young lover can resist. Before he can follow this modern siren home, they go to check on Mary’s coworker Sue – but that lovely young lady will never spin another record.

They find her strung up and dangling outside the window of a bathroom, her face twisted into an ugly mask. The police call it suicide, but Sam is not so sure. Few beautiful women, even suicidal ones, are willing to be so hideous in death. Looking into Sue’s past, he finds another corpse – and a dangerous conspiracy that stretches all the way back to his Motor City home.

In these stories, Simon Templar proves by his timely intervention that those on the side of the angels can trust The Saint to defend them.The Helpful Pirate: The Saint searches for an antique glass and finds a most important old gentleman. Hamburg.The Bigger Game: The Saint acts as referee for a dangerous bet between a former matador and an arrogant white hunter. London.The Cleaner Cure: The Saint's memory of a police-proof murder method helps a deserving victim of violence. Paris.The Intemperate Reformer: Simon revenges himself in beautifully apropos style against a hypocritical teetotaller. London.The Uncured Ham: A miscreant actor is neatly caught when the Saint sets a trap for a ham, baited with a chance to play Hamlet. Sweden and Denmark.The Convenient Monster: The Loch Ness Monster may have been the agent whereby a murder plan backfires. Scotland.All these stories have appeared in magazines prior to publication in this book.Scene: Europe and the British Isles

Dick Francis "Unbestechlich", originaltitel: "Straight"."Unbestechlich" ist ein klassischer Francis: eine komplexe und fesselnde Story voller Intrigenspiel und Schurkerei, in der der Einsatz so hoch ist wie die Handlung rasant.Derek Franklin, Steeplechase-Jockey, hat genug eigene Probleme. Mit vierunddreißig nähert er sich dem Ende seiner Karriere, und einem Zusammenstoß mit dem letzten Hindernis in Cheltenham hat er es zu verdanken, daß er jetzt mit einem gebrochenen Knöchel an Krücken herumhumpelt. Der Tod seines Bruders Greville stürzt ihn jedoch in noch größere Schwierigkeiten.