Showing results by narrator "John Rayburn" in All Categories

It seems very unreal but the author is not only top-notch with his plot handling but he never strays from the bounds of reason. It isn’t easy to fool someone like detective sergeant Blick of Scotland Yard, but he does it. Blick is called in by an archeologist named Mr. Fransenmery to help solve the killing of Guy Markenmore, who had been away from the area for seven years and had returned because of the expected death of his father.

It was a lonely English courtyard where attorneys received traditional apprenticeship … one of the ancient Inns of Court. The bludgeoned body of a well-dressed elderly man was found there at midnight, an apparent murder victim. Investigative newspaper reporter Frank Spargo was one of the first to arrive at the crime scene and he was puzzled about why such a prosperous looking man had been wandering there at that time of night. The only item found on the body was a small paper with a young barrister’s address.

The character of Bertram “Bertie” Wooster told the stories in first person style. He had a valet who stole some of his silk sox and was discharged. The agency sent replacement Reginald “Reggie” Jeeves. He arrived, mixed a hangover cure that was much needed and accepted, and the two were together from then on. Bertie, rich and toil-free, disliked hard work, some bossy women, and most children. He had a somewhat dingbat friend, Bingo Little, who fell in love with every girl he met.

There were times when Bertie Wooster, the fictional narrator of these stories, was thought of as being at least a trifle feather-brained. However, he had a valet who seemed to know everything about everything. These are among more than 300 short stories written by a man who began a short-lived career in banking after his college days. However, it didn’t take long for P. G. Wodehouse to decide he didn’t like that kind of job, and he began writing in whatever spare time he had.

It was a clear, apple-green evening in May, and Four Winds Harbour was mirroring back the clouds of the golden west between its softly dark shores. The sea moaned eerily on the sand-bar, sorrowful even in spring, but a sly, jovial wind came piping down the red harbor road along which Miss Cornelia’s comfortable, matronly figure was making its way towards the village of Glen St. Mary. Miss Cornelia was rightfully Mrs. Marshall Elliott, and had been Mrs. Marshall Elliott for thirteen years, but even yet more people referred to her as Miss Cornelia than as Mrs. Elliott.

Just what is nostalgia? Here are provocative and exciting stories about a great period of popular music. It was a time when the nation was facing desperate days of the Great Depression as well on-going fears of a World War. The still young radio industry was a major force in helping provide a worried nation with a source of entertainment and comfort. The author/narrator had conversation/interviews with many of the major stars and he tells you about their talent and their wonderful music. It’s as though you’re sitting there listening as to one of the most memorable eras in the nation’s history.

Penny’s father is a newspaper owner being sued for libel in his home base of New York. He sends her on a western ski vacation in order to avoid the legalities, but she manages to gain entrance to a room with a mysterious Green Door, an entrance to an illegal fur importation racket from Canada. The culprits turn out to be those pursuing the libel situation back east. She is threatened with possible death, but not only solves the fur racket but winds up scooping a rival reporter.

It gives us considerable pleasure to be able to offer to the public the “inside” record of those of former District Attorney Markham’s criminal cases in which Mr. Philo Vance figured so effectively. The true inwardness of these famous cases has never before been revealed by S. S. Van Dine, Mr. Vance’s lawyer and almost constant companion, being the only person who possessed a complete record of the facts and has only recently been permitted to make them public.

This is a very unusual book, wherein the majority of the story is contents of an ancient diary found by two friends on a fishing holiday while on the grounds of an old dilapidated house. The moldy manuscript has inscribed tales of strange things seen and heard. There are horrible creatures and huge monsters described as though they were old gods of mythology.

The story began when the lord of Erl was told by his people they wanted a magic lord to rule them. That took some doing, but he sent his son, Alveric, to retrieve Lirazel, daughter of the king of Elfland, to be his wife and thus fix the situation. At first, the king was angered and sent guards to kill Alveric, but the young man of Erl fought them off, and Lizarel fell for him and decided to leave with him. Later, under a spell, she decided she wanted to see her old home again.

A 17th-century writer named Charles Perrault was sometimes called Mother Goose, an imaginary author of fairy tales. His early material was inspired and derived from earlier folk tales that he greatly embellished and improved. This collection includes "Cinderella", along with other such known favorites as “Sleeping Beauty", “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Blue Beard”, and “Puss in Boots”, along with such lesser known fairy tales as “The Ridiculous Wishes”, “Little Thumb”, “Ricky of the Tuft", “Griselda,” and “Donkey Skin”.

Altogether, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote four novels and 56 short stories about Sherlock Holmes. Throughout, Dr. Watson (or just Watson) was included as a catalyst for Holmes’s massive ego and mental processes. Eventually, Doyle felt the stories were distracting him from more serious literary work, but he did finally wind it up with the seven stories you’re about to hear. In the words of Watson (Dr. John H. Watson, MD), we have the pleasure of knowing about the declining years, beginning now.

The story you’re about to hear took place primarily in what is Southern Utah and has been called the quintessential Western, meaning simply it is a top-notch example of quality. It is composed of an extensive list of ingredients: adventure, action, violence, crisis, suspense, conflict, sentimentalism, and sex - they are all there. This classic of the Western genre was the kind of story the public clamored for, and author Zane Grey had great skill in supplying the desire.

Seven Keys to Baldpate was such an intriguing tale it brought on an effort to build an actual counterpart of Baldpate. The site selected was about five miles south of Estes Park, Colorado, opposite Lily Lake on Highway 7. It turned out to be a fascinating getaway location; vacationers were not only intrigued by the concept, but many actually made extensive contributions of various keys to match the mood. This erased the story’s description of the “Seven Keys”, and the inn’s collection of keys reached an astounding total of 20-30,000 of them.

A teenager with dreams of glory enlists with the Union army in the American Civil War. With not much in the way of immediate action, Henry Fleming begins to have doubt and fear while waiting.

The Lone Ranger kept the mask across his eyes and experimented with his guns. His shoulder made it hard for him to draw the gun on his left, but he found that his smooth speed seemed to have suffered no loss when he drew the other shining weapon. As a test he unloaded and holstered the pistol. “I’ll just make sure”, he muttered to Tonto. Standing with his right hand straight before him, palm down, he placed a pebble on the back of his hand....

In the whole history of the English people there is no period so absolutely heroic, so full of enthralling interest, as that in which the might of England made itself apparent by land and sea—the period which saw good Queen Bess mistress of English hearts and Englishmen and sovereign of the great beginnings which came to such a magnificent fruition under Victoria. That was indeed a golden time—an age of great venture and enterprise—a period wherein men’s hearts were set on personal valor and bravery—the day of great deeds and of courage most marvelous.

Nothing is so easy as falling in love on a long sea voyage, except falling out of love. Especially was this the case in the days when the wooden clippers did finally land you in Sydney or in Melbourne under the four full months. Passengers and crew all saw far too much of each other, unless, indeed, they were to see still more. Their superficial attractions were mutually exhausted, they lost heart and patience in the disappointing strata which lie between the surface and the bed-rock of most natures.

This book is an example of Alternative History. That, in essence, is asking what the future could be like. It suggests the US could have become a Dominion of America. Call this standard history with a twist, or even mythology in part. It is certainly historical material, told in fictional fashion.

In truth the mastery of flying was the work of thousands of men—this man a suggestion and that an experiment, until at last only one vigorous intellectual effort was needed to finish the work. But the inexorable injustice of the popular mind has decided that of all these thousands, one man, and that a man who never flew, should be chosen as the discoverer, just as it has chosen to honor Watt as the discoverer of steam and Stephenson of the steam-engine.