The Mysterious Mr. Quin by Agatha Christie

It had been a typical New Year’s Eve party. But as midnight approaches, Mr. Satterthwaite—a keen observer of human nature—senses that the real drama of the evening is yet to unfold. And so it proves when a mysterious stranger knocks on the door. Who is this Mr. Quin?

Mr. Satterthwaite’s new friend is an enigma. He seems to appear and disappear almost like a trick of the light. In fact, the only consistent thing about him is that his presence is always an omen—sometimes good, but sometimes deadly. . . . (Credit: William Morrow Paperbacks)

Giant’s Bread by Mary Westmacott

Agatha Christie’s pseudonym

In the first of six novels written under this nom de plume, Giant’s Bread tells the story of Vernon Deyre, a young composer who reinvents his identity after being declared dead in World War I. Vernon Deyre is a sensitive and brilliant musician, even a genius. But there is a high price to be paid for his talent, especially by his family and the two women in his life. His sheltered childhood in the home he loves has not prepared Vernon for the harsh reality of his adult years, and in order to write the great masterpiece of his life, he has to make a crucial decision with no time left to count the cost… 

Giant’s Bread is a bittersweet tale of passion and ambition. Critically acclaimed upon publication, it was published fifteen years before Mary Westmacott’s true identity was revealed. (Credit: William Morrow Paperbacks

Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers

Featuring an introduction by Elizabeth George, herself a crime fiction master, Strong Poison introduces Harriet Vane, a mystery writer who is accused of poisoning her fiancé and must now join forces with Lord Peter to escape a murder conviction and the hangman’s noose. (Credit: Harper Paperbacks)

It Walks By Night by John Dickson Carr

In the smoke-wreathed gloom of a Parisian salon, Inspector Bencolin has summoned his allies to discuss a peculiar case. A would-be murderer, imprisoned for his attempt to kill his wife, has escaped and is known to have visited a plastic surgeon. His whereabouts remain a mystery, though with his former wife poised to marry another, Bencolin predicts his return.

Sure enough, the Inspector’s worst suspicions are realized when the beheaded body of the new suitor is discovered in a locked room of the salon, with no apparent exit. Bencolin sets off into the Parisian night to unravel the dumbfounding mystery and track down the sadistic killer. (Credit: British Library Crime Classics)

The Door by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Elizabeth Bell runs a quiet household, with no family and no more than the usual number of servants. She passes her time thinking about crime and working on her biography of a relative. When a young cousin comes to stay, life in the house becomes uncharacteristically lively. First, cousin Judy burns a hole in Miss Bell’s desk. Next, they spy a burglar on the staircase–a shadowy figure who vanishes without a trace. And finally, Sarah, the nurse, takes the dogs for a walk and never returns.

But these mysterious goings-on take a dark turn when the vanished woman is found savagely murdered. According to the police, the killer must be part of the household, a fact which Ms. Bell struggles to believe. That is until more deaths follow, and the entire staff begins to look more threatening than the old lady ever could have imagined. (Credit: American Mystery Classics)

The Great Airport Mystery by Franklin W. Dixon

Also a series part of the Stratemeyer Syndicate.

Valuable electronic parts containing platinum are being stolen from shipments made by Stanwide Mining Equipment’s cargo planes, and Frank and Joe are called upon to assist their world-renowned detective father solve the baffling case.

While posing as Stanwide employees, the boys look into the truth behind the chief pilot’s death at sea.

The puzzling trail of clues leads the young sleuths to an uninhabited Caribbean island, but the final, and most startling, discovery is made in the boys’ home town of Bayport. (Credit: Grosset & Dunlap)

You can find more Hardy Boys Series on Project Gutenberg here.

The Yellow Knight of Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson

Sir Hokus of Pokes sets off on a quest and discovers instead of one of the greatest feats of enchantment in Oz history: two entire kingdoms transformed and hidden away for five hundred years by the evil Sultan of Samandra.

When a New York lad named Speedy rides a wayward ship to Oz, he arrives just in time to aid Sir Hokus and his noble steed the Comfortable Camel and to rescue Princess Marygolden from her enchanted life. (Credit: Random House Worlds)

Seven Types of Ambiguity by William Empson

Revised twice since it first appeared, it has remained one of the most widely read and quoted works of literary analysis.

Ambiguity, according to Empson, includes “any verbal nuance, however slight, which gives room for alternative reactions to the same piece of language.

” From this definition, broad enough by his own admission sometimes to see “stretched absurdly far,” he launches into a brilliant discussion, under seven classifications of differing complexity and depth, of such works, among others, as Shakespeare’s plays and the poetry of Chaucer, Donne, Marvell, Pope, Wordsworth, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and T.S Eliot.” (Credit: New Directions Publishing Corporation)

Growing Up in New Guinea by Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead was 23 when she traveled alone to Samoa on her first expedition to the South Seas. Her first book, Coming of Age in Samoa, chronicled that visit and launched her distinguished career. Following her landmark field work focusing on girls in American Samoa, noted anthropologist Margaret Mead found that she needed to study preadolescents in order to understand adolescents. In 1928 she went to Manus Island in New Guinea, where she studied the play and imaginations of younger children and how they were shaped by adult society. Mead and her second husband, Reo Fortune, lived in 24-hour contact with the inhabitants of this fishing village. (Credit: Mariner Books)

My Early Life by Winston Churchill

As a visionary, statesman, and historian, and the most eloquent spokesman against Nazi Germany, Winston Churchill was one of the greatest figures of the twentieth century. In this autobiography, Churchill recalls his childhood, his schooling, his years as a war correspondent in South Africa during the Boer War, and his first forays into politics as a member of Parliament. My Early Life not only gives readers insights into the shaping of a great leader but, as Churchill himself wrote, “a picture of a vanished age.” To fully understand Winston Churchill and his times, My Early Life is essential reading. (Credit: Scribner)

The Lives of a Bengal Lancer by Francis Yeats-Brown 

India was one of the most adventurous and romantic places on Earth in the early twentieth century. Though decades of political unrest, and eventual independence from Britain, were only a few years away, India in the early 1910s was a magnet for young men with a longing for adventure. Such a man was Francis Yeats Brown. Arriving in 1905, Brown soon discovered that life among his chosen regiment, the famed Bengal Lancers, was anything but boring. When he wasn’t practising his military skills, the young cavalryman was riding his various horses in polo matches, or chasing wild boars. Plus there were a million mysteries waiting outside his door to explore, including his forbidden love affair with Masheen, the dancing girl. Yet in addition to being a skilful soldier and an intrepid traveller, Yeats Brown was a terrific writer. He takes the reader to out-of-the-way corners of the India that once was, but is no more. There he introduces a timeless cast of fakirs, mercenaries, rajas, and rogues. It was normal in the colourful world that Yeats-Brown moved through to have breakfast with an English general, then pass the time of day with a native whose speciality was locating cobras in the bedroom! Thus “The Lives of a Bengal Lancer” remains a charming classic full of delightful descriptions, mystic experiences, and enduring legends from a place and a time now gone forever. (Credit: Long Riders Guild)