One evening, just as dark was falling, in a many-windowed room of a long, low building standing within the shelter of a cliff high up on a lonely mountainside, were seated three men. The building was the only structure in that profound solitude, and was so high and so far removed that from the habitations in the village below it required a good pair of binoculars to pick up with any accuracy the beginning of the winding road which led up to it.The three men were talking earnestly an...

An attractive and aristocratic-looking girl of apparently quite ordinary origin has always had good reason to believe she was not the daughter of her mother's husband. Losing both her parents, she seeks her fortune in London, makes her way into the social world and marries into a titled family. Then, through no fault of her own, she becomes involved in the death of a scoundrel who was attempting to blackmail her. Thanks to the help of the one-time great detective, Gilbert Larose, she at fi...

There is something about the number 3.The Ancient Greeks believed 3 was the perfect number, and in China 3 has always been a lucky number, and they know a thing or two.Most religions also have 3 this and 3 that and, of course, in these more mode

The Secret of the Garden transforms a seemingly orderly domestic landscape into a site of buried motive, concealed history, and criminal revelation. Arthur Gask writes in the brisk, lucid manner of early twentieth-century detective fiction: practical clues, sharp dialogue, sudden reversals, and a steady movement from social respectability toward moral exposure. The novel belongs to the interwar tradition that links late Victorian sensation fiction with the emerging Golden Age mystery, usin...

There is something about the number 3.The Ancient Greeks believed 3 was the perfect number, and in China 3 has always been a lucky number, and they know a thing or two.Most religions also have 3 this and 3 that and, of course, in these more mode

Arthur Gask's The Red Paste Murders is a taut interwar detective novel built around a sequence of deaths, false clues, and the ominous significance of "red paste"—imitation gemstones whose apparent triviality masks darker human motives. Written in the idiom of Golden Age crime fiction, the book combines brisk plotting, legal-medical detail, and a taste for sensational revelation. Its style is direct yet atmospheric, balancing puzzle mechanics with melodramatic menace and the moral clarity ...

Arthur Gask's *The Secret of the Sandhills* is a classic mystery novel shaped by the conventions of interwar sensation fiction: an apparently isolated landscape, a concealed history, and a crime whose implications extend beyond the immediate victims. The sandhills function not merely as picturesque scenery but as a symbolic and practical space, concealing evidence, memories, and motives beneath their unstable surface. Gask combines atmospheric description with steadily unfolding detection,...

Arthur Gask's Murder in the Night is a tightly plotted work of Golden Age detective fiction, built around the unsettling drama of crime committed under cover of darkness. Combining brisk narrative movement with careful clueing, the novel balances sensational incident with the rational satisfactions of investigation. Its style is direct, atmospheric, and suspenseful, reflecting the interwar taste for ingenious murder puzzles while retaining a distinctly popular, page-turning energy. Gask, a...

Pure laughter, whether our own or others, makes us all feel more comfortable with the world and situations we find ourselves in. Why something is funny is hard to say but we know that there are people who are funny and can say funny things. It’s an immediate advantage for them.In this volume your hosts including Mark Twain, Nikolai Gogol, J M Barrie, O Henry and many others range from the simply funny to the absurd to ….. well, other ways of funny.

“We may say what we will, Mr. Larose,” remarked the thin scholarly looking man in a rather regretful tone, “but evil in a jeweled setting is less repugnant to the human mind, than when met with in sordid surroundings, and crime among the well-to-do is more intriguing than breaches of the law among the lower classes.”“That is quite true, Mr. Jones,” replied the smiling young man opposite to him. “Wrong doing amongst educated and refined people seems always to have more element of adv...

One beautiful summer's evening a young man was bicycling slowly along the Military Road that runs between the great Outer Harbour of South Australia and Glenelg. The road was one very seldom used and wound a lonely, sinuous way among the sandhills by the sea.Dusk had just fallen and the young man was riding slowly and anxiously along. He was not anxious because the surface of the road was shockingly uneven and bad, but he was troubled because he was riding without a light.H...

In 'The Hidden Door,' Arthur Gask crafts a compelling narrative that intertwines elements of mystery and psychological intrigue. Set against a backdrop of decaying estates and hidden secrets, the novel invites readers into a labyrinthine plot where the ordinary becomes extraordinary through its rich descriptions and suspenseful pacing. Gask's literary style is characterized by his meticulous attention to detail, evoking a palpable atmosphere that immerses readers in the characters' emotion...