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All free summaries — page 13
1,474 public-domain books, summarised. Page 13 of 31.
The tomb of Ts'in
Edgar Wallace
The tomb of a long-dead Emperor holds a two-million-pound fortune, but for those who seek to plunder it, the price of greed may be an eternity spent in the dark.
The amazing adventures of Letitia Carberry
Mary Roberts Rinehart
A trio of middle-aged, single women, driven by curiosity and an irrepressible flair for chaos, repeatedly find themselves entangled in the most unlikely mysteries. Their meddling—and their commitment to their own eccentric logic—transforms mundane hospital stays and quiet vacations into series of breathless, often…
The magic casket
R. Austin (Richard Austin) Freeman
A forgotten object, a discarded bag, and a series of seemingly inexplicable deaths draw a brilliant man of science into the shadows of London, where the truth is often hidden in plain sight.
Skeeter Bill comes to town
W. C. (Wilbur C.) Tuttle
A towering, laconic drifter walks into a town built on lies, intent only on celebrating a child’s birthday but finding instead a mystery that demands he set the record straight.
Maugis, ye sorcerer
Lord Gilhooley
The life of a legendary sorcerer is reconstructed from secret manuscripts, revealing a tale of honor, betrayal, and the heavy price of defying an emperor.
The new terror
Gaston Leroux
The boundary between the physical self and the wandering mind is thin, and once crossed, the shadows of the past can turn a wedding chamber into a prison of stolen souls.
The crimson circle
Edgar Wallace
The mystery begins with a singular mark upon a tree: a circle of wet crimson paint, signaling the presence of a predator who orchestrates crimes through terror and extortion. This is the dark inception of a hunt that leads into the heart of London’s shadows and the lives of those caught in the snare of a…
How to write Little Blue Books
Lloyd E. (Lloyd Edwin) Smith
Success as a writer for the world’s most prolific pocket-sized publisher requires more than just a good idea; it demands strict adherence to the uncompromising editorial standards of a "University in Print.
The Sign of the Seven Sins
William Le Queux
Wealth and ruin collide on the French Riviera, where a single night’s fortune at the gaming tables triggers a sequence of shadows, secrets, and a cold-blooded murder.
Snow-blind
Albert M. (Albert McKune) Treynor
The radio crackles through the sub-zero silence of the Saskatchewan barrens, carrying a message for a man who is already living a lie. In the frozen wilderness, identity is as shifting as the drifting snow, and the line between hunter and hunted vanishes with the light.
The blue scarab
R. Austin (Richard Austin) Freeman
The Blue Scarab is a collection of seven distinct, meticulously plotted mysteries featuring the legendary Dr. John Thorndyke. These cases prioritize scientific deduction, forensic analysis, and cold logic over intuition, offering a window into the evolution of crime detection in the early 20th century.
The servant's behaviour book
Emily A. (Emily Augusta) Patmore
To master the invisible art of domestic service, one must learn that silence, stillness, and a total surrender of the self are the ultimate marks of professional excellence in a gentleman’s home.
The woman of Andros
Thornton Wilder
The shadow of the past is long, yet the light of the present reveals a heart that must choose between the weight of duty and the grace of love.
The Republic of Plato
Plato
Imagine a dialogue so searching it dismantles the very foundations of how we live, demanding to know if justice is a mere social contract or the essential health of the soul itself.
The magic ring, Vol. 2 (of 3)
La Motte-Fouqué, Friedrich Heinrich Karl, Freiherr de
A golden-armored champion emerges from the shadows of history, binding his fate to a ring of power and a web of mystical prophecy.
A journey to the world under-ground
Ludvig Holberg
The world beneath our feet is a mirror held to our own, reflecting our vanity, our madness, and our peculiar habits with a cold, clear eye. A traveler descends into the abyss only to find that the absurdity of humanity is universal.
A silent witness
R. Austin (Richard Austin) Freeman
A medical student on a late-night stroll stumbles upon a discarded trinket and a hidden corpse, unknowingly stepping into a lethal trap set by a shadow in the London fog.
The thing in the woods
Harper Williams
HOOK When a young doctor arrives in a remote Pennsylvania woodland to cover a country practice, he discovers that the local superstitions about a "thing" in the woods are far more tangible—and dangerous—than science can explain.
The sociable ghost
Olive Harper
The city sleeps, but beneath the ancient stones of Trinity Church, a restless reporter discovers that the dead are far more talkative than the living. In this strange, shadowed assembly, class, vanity, and the weight of unfinished business persist long after the heart has ceased to beat.
Wanted—?
Eugene Cunningham
The truth is often buried in the sand, waiting for a man quiet enough to hear it. A young lawman tracks a killer across the Texas frontier, only to find the trail leading into his own heart.
They return at evening
Herbert Russell Wakefield
Even the most rational men are occasionally forced to admit that the past is never truly buried, and that some memories have a physical weight that threatens to crush the present.
Dr. Mabuse, master of mystery
Norbert Jacques
This is a story of a city gripped by a nameless, invisible terror—a master criminal whose reach, influence, and identity remain as shifting as the shadows he hides within.
Terror keep
Edgar Wallace
A mild-mannered man with side-whiskers and an umbrella routinely outwits the most dangerous criminals of his age, proving that even a quiet life can be the most effective weapon against chaos.
The Corbin necklace
Henry Kitchell Webster
The Corbin necklace is a prize that brings out the worst in a house full of people, but a young boy with a target rifle and a sharp eye is the only one who truly knows its value.
The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus: A new rendering based on the Foulis translation of 1742
Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius
A quiet conversation held within the walls of a soul, this work captures the singular struggle of a man tasked with ruling an empire while striving to govern only himself.
The corsair
William Brough
A weary pirate finds his cynical, storm-tossed life upended when a magical intervention forces him to confront the redemptive power of love and the absurdity of his own gloom.
The magic ring, Vol. 3 (of 3)
La Motte-Fouqué, Friedrich Heinrich Karl, Freiherr de
A tarnished heirloom holds the power to bend reality and command the spirit, binding a circle of noble souls in a desperate, sprawling quest across the map of the medieval imagination.
Twelve years in the army
John G. Gollan
The soldier’s path is paved with silence, broken only by the echo of old marches and the quiet, persistent ache of a life spent in the service of an empire that often forgets its own.
This star shall be free
Murray Leinster
A primitive man and a superior race of aquatic aliens collide, triggering an accidental experiment that dictates the survival of humanity and the ultimate fate of the stars.
The porcelain mask
John Jay Chichester
The porcelain mask is a quiet, deliberate puzzle where the truth is hidden not by a villain’s cleverness, but by the desperate, frantic attempts of the innocent to hide a tragedy. Beneath the veneer of a classic murder mystery, a deeper story of human frailty and the tangled webs of deception waits to be unraveled.
The dryad
Justin H. (Justin Huntly) McCarthy
The ancient pulse of the Greek forest beats against the cold steel of the Middle Ages, where a woodland nymph and a wandering soldier collide in a landscape of myth and ruin.
Kate plus 10
Edgar Wallace
The following is an account of the pursuit of a criminal mastermind and the tangled web of loyalties that form when a detective begins to admire the woman he is sworn to capture.
The strange transfiguration of Hannah Stubbs
Florence Marryat
Hannah Stubbs is a simple, frightened kitchen girl whose life is upended when she discovers her body is a magnet for spirits—a "gift" that leads her from a cramped life in Soho to the center of a dark and dangerous obsession.
The trail of the serpent
M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon
The gears of fate turn in the shadows of London and the provinces, where a single, haunting crime ripples outward to ensnare the innocent and the guilty alike. Justice is not a straight line, but a labyrinth.
Sergeant Dick of the Royal Mounted Police
John G. (John Gabriel) Rowe
A lone rider meets a family living in a fortress on a lake, only to find himself in a desperate war against elusive, masked outlaws.
The complete works of John Gower, volume 2
John Gower
The act of confession is a mirror held up to the human heart, where the soul’s deepest secrets are laid bare in the hope of finding a path toward virtue. It is a dialogue between a lover and a priest, a journey through the labyrinth of moral failing and the search for grace.
The golden journey of Mr. Paradyne
William John Locke
The respectable life is often a quiet cage, but for one man, a single, haunting melody acts as the key that unlocks the door to a sprawling, sun-drenched existence he never dared imagine.
The girl from Scotland Yard
Edgar Wallace
The shadows of London’s fog hide a conspiracy of secrets, where a resilient young detective peels back the layers of a high-society scandal to save a man lost in the machinery of the law.
Landscape with figures
Ronald Fraser
This is a story of seven Europeans who wander into a realm of ancient Chinese mystery, only to find that the most profound landscape they must navigate is the one within themselves.
Moon of madness
Sax Rohmer
The trail leads from a shimmering, sun-drenched cruise in Madeira to the fog-choked, dangerous streets of London. A high-stakes game of shadows, secrets, and stolen intelligence begins with a single, daring rescue.
False face
Ernest Haycox
The trap is set not with steel, but with a cigar box of cash and the quiet observation of a man who knows that human greed is the most predictable force in the wilderness.
Four square Jane
Edgar Wallace
A phantom thief with a penchant for high-stakes charity haunts the drawing rooms of London’s elite, leaving behind nothing but a marked trail and a series of humiliated millionaires.
Jewels of Gwahlur
Robert E. (Robert Ervin) Howard
The fortune of a thousand years is hidden in a dead city, guarded by ghosts and monsters—but the greatest threat to its recovery is the greed of the living.
The Nowadays Girls in the Adirondacks
Gertrude Hall Brownell
The world is wide, the woods are deep, and the Nowadays Girls have no intention of staying indoors. With a motorboat at their command and a spirit of adventure in their hearts, they discover that life’s greatest mysteries are best solved with a steady hand and a group of loyal friends.
Limanora
Godfrey Sweven
An island society masters the forces of life itself, turning biology into a canvas for perfection while drifting toward an existence beyond the reach of the physical world.
The world below
S. Fowler (Sydney Fowler) Wright
A man finds himself in a future world so alien that humanity is merely a relic, and its masters—the Amphibians—view him with the detached curiosity one might reserve for a common garden insect.
Cursed be the treasure
H. B. (Henry Burgess) Drake
The past is a phantom, but in this tale, the dead have a way of reaching out from the shadows to pull the living into their unfinished business.
Dancing Devil range
W. C. (Wilbur C.) Tuttle
The desert air is thick with mystery and the scent of sagebrush as two drifters arrive in a valley where a bank has vanished, a girl has been murdered, and a young man sits in jail for a crime he didn’t commit.