So, you’ve been ripped out from your mother’s paws and taken in by a strange family of humans that has kids who insist on flapping your floppy ears and dressing you up like a ladybug. These new human-folk are trying to “teach” you things, like sitting or not ripping apart their fun-looking shoes, and you might start to think you should try to “obey.” But I know better; I’ve been around the block and peed on most parts of it. Puppies like you need my—wait, somebody just walked in with a ham...

An extortionist's note, demanding $20,000 in cash and threatening the kidnapping of Kate Willett's two mentally unbalanced sons, sent Lieutenant Valcour rushing up to the Willetts' Adirondacks camp.There, death struck with slashing suddenness while Valcour was talking to young Arthur Willett, who was sprawled on a sofa smoking a cigarette. Listening to the crackling roar of flames in the fireplace, Valcour detected the odor of burning cloth. He glanced at Arthur to find the cigaret...

Perennial wisdom from one of history’s most important Stoic teachersThe Stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus was one of the most influential teachers of his era, imperial Rome, and his message still resonates with startling clarity today. Alongside Stoics like Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius, he emphasized ethics in action, displayed in all aspects of life. Merely learning philosophical doctrine and listening to lectures, they believed, will not do one any good ...

Lt. Valcour did not object to interrupting his vacation in order to help Chief Goodfriend of the Miami detective force solve the oddly similar murders of two distinctly dissimilar women. For one thing, the cases, or case as Valcour felt it to be, interested him and he felt a distinct apprehension that unless somebody solved it there would be more deaths to come. And Goodfriend appeared in desperate need of assistance. Consequently Valcour felt as though he were conducting a demonstration c...

ABSENT WITHOUT LEAVINGEvery Tuesday, Rufus Manning reports to the Job Centre with a diary full of jobs he never applied for, interviews he never attended, and an adviser who believes every word of it.Every other day belongs to someone else.Alone on the twenty-first floor of a crumbling tower block, Rufus has built a world to survive in: Earl Grey becomes an uninvited aristocratic guest. His mouldering chair becomes Charlie, a coward and deserter. Hi...

Rufus King, master of the macabre, penned a modern Bluebeard thriller of such unbearable suspense that Hollywood jumped at the chance to produce it as a movie. MUSEUM PIECE No. 13 (later renamed to match the movie) was filmed as SECRET BEYOND THE DOOR, starring Joan Bennett and Michael Redgrave, and produced by Fritz Lang. It became an instant noir classic, as tense, shocking, and suspenseful as the original novel.Lily Rumney, lovely and in love, could see no evil in her husband. N...

Rufus King returns to the maritime mystery genre with "Murder on the Yacht." A lawyer disappears from a taxi cab on the way to join a party aboard the giant luxury yacht "The Crusader." Where did he go and what happened to him? Lt. Valcour joins the cruise to find out, mixing with a varied bunch of eccentric guests and crewmen, including a psychic. But will she provide clues or a smokescreen for the culprits? Another thrilling Lt. Valcour mystery!

"To relax the mind is to lose it."Gaius Musonius Rufus (c. AD 30–100) was one of the four great Roman Stoic philosophers, the other three being Seneca, Marcus Aurelius and Musonius’s pupil Epictetus. Rufus taught philosophy in Rome during the reign of Nero, as a consequence of which he was sent into exile in 65 AD to Gyaros, a barren island in the Aegean Sea. Because Stoicism was, for Musonius, not merely a philosophy but a guide to daily living, he has been called “the Ro...

Welcome to our second volume of Detective stories! This is a grab-bag volume with contributions by many top mystery authors from the mid 20th Century pulp and digest magazines. There’s something to appeal to every taste, from noir to crime to even holiday capers and a Christmas tale by Johnson McCulley (creator of Zorro). Included are:DEAD MEN DON'T MOVE, by Thomas ThursdayALIBI--WITH SOUND, by Robert WallaceHOW? WHEN? WHO?, by Fletcher FloraHELL'S SIPHON, by G...

A large number of children have been leaving school for suspicious reasons, and Henrietta is convinced she knows who’s behind it. When her best friend Lina disappears, Henrietta follows the kidnapper onto the roof, into the school greenhouse, and to a whole new world - where pigs grow on trees, giant bees lurk beneath the ground, and the people have enormous goat-like horns.She makes friends with a grumpy Tree Pig called Dagenham, and a human who claims to be the world’s greatest d...

Rufus King (1893–1966) was an American author of Whodunit crime novels. He created four series of detective stories: the first one with Reginald De Puyster, a sophisticated detective similar to Philo Vance; the second one with his more famous character, Lieutenant Valcour; Colin Starr, who appeared in four stories in the Strand Magazine during 1940/41; and Detective Bill Duggan, who appeared in three stories in 1956/57. The Bill Duggan stories include King's most famous short work, “Malice...

Embark on an enchanting journey into the fascinating world of animals with "Book About Animals" by Rufus Merrill. This captivating book offers readers a delightful exploration of the diverse creatures that inhabit our planet.As Merrill delves into his subject matter, questions arise: What makes each animal unique? And what secrets of the natural world will be unveiled as we learn more about their behaviors, habitats, and characteristics?Experience the won...