<p> <span>Meet Auberon Quin. He is a man to whom the world is a punchline; a dangerous man, for he cares for nothing but a joke. And meet Adam Wayne – to whom the joke is quite serious. When Quin is appointed King of England, he decides to turn London into a medieval carnival for his own amusement. When Adam Wayne is appointed Provost of Notting Hill, he proposes to be patriotic about it and takes the new order of things seriously, organizing a Notting Hill army to fight invaders from other neighborhoods. Amidst the chaos of confusion, the stirring speeches, the epic battles, and the all-pervading Chesterton wit, The Napoleon of Notting Hill is a cry for renewed life in a deadened world – a call that compels mankind to fight for the small things, if only for the sake of fighting for something.</span></p>
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<p> <span>Have you wondered how the great detectives solved their cases? In The Secret of Father Brown, while visiting Flambeau’s house Father Brown meets a curious American who has to know as some of his countrymen think Father Brown is using mystical powers. The fourth of the Father Brown detective story collections has something the first three did not: a framing sequence at the beginning and end, in which Father Brown explains to a curious person his method for solving crimes – he becomes the criminal. In this collection he „becomes” several jewel thieves and murderers, all of whom carry out their crimes in bizarre circumstances. Father Brown, or rather Chesterton, takes opportunity on occasion to indulge in a bit of Catholic apologetic or homiletic, but it never takes over the story: it makes Father Brown that much more a priest and not just a mystery-solving machine.</span></p>
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<p> <span>Chesterton again allows us to accompany Father Brown, preternaturally-unbiased master of human nature, as he stumbles across another series of murders and mysteries. These stories in this series are not as compact as those in other books, notably „The Innocence of Father Brown,” but they have the same magnetic power to draw the reader in. As ever, Chesterton is interested not only in delivering first rate detective stories, but of describing human nature. His characters are flawed and biased, all blind in their own way, which is what makes it so difficult to see the truth that lies before them. Father Brown, ever kind and imperturbable, nearly always sees right through to the heart of the matter. Posing as a humble parish priest, which he is, he somehow sees beyond the class boundaries which it is Chesterton’s special gift to point out and puncture.</span></p>
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<p> <span>„The Shadow Over Innsmouth” follows a nameless narrator touring New England for information on his family, and studying the local architecture. The story describes a man who finds himself stranded in a half-deserted town with strange inhabitants. They look human – mostly, but there is something odd about their eyes and their behavior. He meets the town drunk, Zadok Allen, who tells him the terrifying history of the town, about Devil Reef and mutant humanoids, sea gods, gold, and human sacrifice. When the narrator finds himself stranded in town overnight, he comes face to face with the town’s horrifying secret... one not of this world... A story about the horror that could turn to wonder, the once perceived abyss is afterwards seen as the most fascinating destiny, and what was at first avoided at all costs is eventually embraced with open arms.</span></p>
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<p> <span>Despite being a horror story about necromancers, mutated creatures and summoning rituals, The Case of Dexter Ward is at its heart a cautionary tale about knowledge. As the story progresses, the full extent of Charles Dexter Ward’s madness is slowly revealed until the evil of the past seems ready to burst into the present with horrific consequences. Charles Dexter Ward is the scion of a well established Providence family who begins investigating esoteric matters and discovers that an ancestor, Joseph Curwen, was killed by a terrified town when they discovered his unhallowed necromantic studies. Here Lovecraft used all his talent to freak all his readers with a diabolic scheme filled with a frightful environment full of madness! The main character has discovered through Joseph Curwen’s manuscripts (An ancient resident involved with macabre subjects) some obscurities of the underworld. The more he gets involved with those things, the more he changes in a queer and sinister way. All the facts about the terrible deeds of Mr. Curwen and Charles’s insane behavior are described step by step by a third person (Charles’s doctor, Mr. Willett).</span></p>
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<p> <span>Master of horror writes a story of true forces of evil. There are six short stories that comprise this edition of The Dunwich Horror. The story beats a lot of modern writers in prose, characters and plot. The story started of well and gave us a spooky small village setting with the odd family of a Grandfather, deformed Albino mother and inhuman grandson and the strange events surrounding his birth and precocious development. Wilbur matures at an abnormal rate, reaching manhood within a decade – all the while indoctrinated him into dark rituals and witchcraft by his grandfather. And above all, there’s the mysterious presence in the farmhouse, unseen but horrifying, which seems to be growing... The Dunwich Horror follows the tragic events in Dunwich when Wilbur Whateley delves into dark occult practices with deadly repercussions.</span></p>
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<p> <span>In this novel, Dr. Thorndyke builds a card house of wild speculations to solve a perplexing murder case, astonishing all observers, including the police. The victim is Julius D ’Arblay, an artist highly skilled at the rare French art of making wax-work figures and portrait masks. D’Arblay has a beautiful daughter, which leads to a romance with a young Dr. Grey who discovers the father’s body and brings the case to Dr. Thorndyke’s attention. Before the end of the story, the young doctor and his love will each have survived two murder attempts by an increasingly frantic killer. There are lots of great scenes: stalking scenes, vicious attacks on Dr. Gray and Marion with various weapons, a sinister scene in a dense yellow London fog, a humorous exhumation of a dead man of dubious identity, and very funny vignettes with a tippler of an old doctor advising Gray on how to handle troublesome patients. Thorndyke’s lovable lab assistant Polton has a starring role in this novel.</span></p>
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<p> <span>R. Austin Freeman was one of the best mystery writers ever and this book is one to prove it. Harold Monkhouse is a very sick man but no one including his doctor seems to know what is wrong with him. When he is found dead of arsenic poisoning, his brother demands an investigation and everyone in the household is a suspect. Who was behind this cruel death; the loving wife, Barbara; her friend, Madeline or Wallingford, the rather eccentric secretary? They all inherit something when Harold Monkhouse dies. Rupert, their loyal friend enlists the help of Dr. Thorndyke who with a lot of twists and turns solves the case. In researching the crime, Thorndyke and his charming assistant Polton do some fascinating analyses with X-rays. And the reader learns a lot about the versatility of arsenic in the hands of a creative murderer.</span></p>
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