Murder is easy....
... so long as no one suspects you and the person in question is the last person one would suspect.Surely you won't let Agatha Christie diddle you again--it would be again, wouldn't it?
Murder is easy....
... so long as no one suspects you and the person in question is the last person one would suspect.Surely you won't let Agatha Christie diddle you again--it would be again, wouldn't it?
The ghost of Mark Twain looms over an oblivious Tom Sawyer—who incidentally, looks more like a teenager in this picture than a "small boy". Still, it's a bright cheerful cover that successfully conveys the mood of the classic boys' adventure story. The really puzzling thing about this edition of Tom Sawyer, is why the editor insists on calling the author by his birth name of "Samuel L. Clemens", rather than his better known nom de plume "Mark Twain"!A Bright, Fresh, Summertime World of Boyhood
When "Mark Twain"--as Samuel L. Clemens signed his books--was writing TOM SAWYER, published in 1876, he was already in his 40s. The carefree days of boyhood in a small Missouri town were already far behind him. He remembered them sharply, but the years brought a humorous perspective. He could appreciate all the fun of being a boy.
What did small boys do in a small town so long ago, when there was no television, no telephone, no movie houses?
They went swimming, they whitewashed fences, traded marbles and other prized possessions, they formed secret societies and had adventures filling up every minute of the time. Tom Sawyer even managed to attend his own funeral, though he was very much alive!
Samuel L. Clemens was born in 1835 and spent his youth in a small town not much different from the one depicted in the book. Before he died in 1910 at the age of 75, he adventured across the country and around the world, and wrote many books.
The New English Library's science fiction paperbacks had some fascinatingly odd cover art—including this one. It really doesn't have much to do with the stories inside, all of which were either set in the present or the very near future on Earth. It does give an impression of strangeness, however, which is perhaps the best come-on you can make to a potential buyer of science fiction!PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE... A wide canvas--and a wide group of stories. All the way from the downright vicious to the most gently tender: stories rich with humour, ripe with passion.Just two from man's short past--a blink in time. A few more for the present we all live in. And more from the long reach of the future.Here is a brilliant collection of stories representing the amazing talent of John Brunner. Read them and discover why the author is fast becoming one of the most popular science fiction writers of the sixties.
Of course it did.Sam Moraine, businessman, poker player and friend of the D.A. agreed as a lark to act as go-between in a kidnapping case. Following instructions, he went to the boat, delivered $10,000 in old bills and received in exchange a bundle of blonde dynamite named Ann Hartwell.
As they reached the mooring float, they were met by the beam of a flashlight and a man's voice saying:
"You're under arrest, both of you. Get your hands up in the air and keep them that way."
It was the Federal boys, and when they'd finished working him over, Sam thought the case was finished.
But it was only beginning. What had started out as a simple adventure turned into a boiling mess of crooked politicians, double-crossing cops, ex-cons, a certain lady of elegant if easy virtue - and MURDER!
Oh look! It's The Saint. Younger readers might not have heard of him, but older readers over a certain age will probably remember him well. They might even have watched a young Roger Moore playing The Saint (aka Simon Templar) in the TV series of the same name.ALIAS THE SAINT tells of three adventures of Simon Templar. In "The Story of a Dead Man' we find the Saint supervising an office in which many irregular things take place; there is a network of mystery about the firm of Vanney's Ltd. and Pamela Marlowe, who is employed there as a secretary, is very puzzled--as indeed she has a good reason to be, for she and the Saint are soon in a very dangerous situation, shared (curiously enough) by Chief Inspector Claud Eustace Teal of Scotland Yard. "The Impossible Crime" displays the Saint pitting his wits against a gang of smuggling crooks; there is an amazing battle in a London square, where a night porter is shot dead. "The National Debt" opens with the Saint making a trip to a quiet seaside village, hot on the track of three men who have kidnapped a girl analytical chemist whom they hope to compel to carry out a nefarious scheme.
KANE looked at her appreciatively. "I don't know whether anybody's ever told you, but you've got the swellest pair of legs I've ever seen" he said. Valetta looked at him sideways along her dark eyelashes. He thought she was very beautiful; her mouth delicate, sensitive, almost tremulous. He could look at her for hours on end. It was that sort of mouth...
World War II was a major influence on Nevil Shute's writing--all his best known novels involve the war in one way or another. However, he wasn't a writer of straight combat stories. No, Shute's fiction is mostly about the civilians caught up in the war, and the human effects on the men who have to fight it.THE CHEQUER BOARD'One of them was a Negro from America,' Turner said. 'The last one to go out... Dave Lesurier, his name was... Then there was Duggie Brent - he was a corporal in the paratroops. And then there was the pilot of the aeroplane... Flying Officer Morgan. We was all in a mess one way or another, excepting him, and yet in some ways he was in a worse mess than the lot of us.'THE CHEQUER BOARDBrilliantly interweaving the chequered fates of four men brought together by one violent moment in war, this unforgettable story matches A TOWN LIKE ALICE with its heart-stirring romance, its rich humanity and compelling drama.