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A collection and study of popular short stories from various regions in the world. Julian Hawthorne has provided the curious readers with enough material to understand the roots of modern pulp fiction. 'The Lock & Key Library' is the classic overview of the history of the genre, at once a rousing read for fans of the unsolved and unknown.

Edgar Allan Poe essentially invented the detective story in 1841 with Murders in the Rue Morgue. In the years that followed, however, detective fiction in America saw no significant progress as a literary genre. Much to the dismay of moral crusaders like Anthony Comstock, dime novels and other sensationalist publications satisfied the public's hunger for a yarn. Things changed as the century waned, and eventually the detective was reborn as a figure of American literature. In part these changes were due to a combination of social conditions, including the rise and decline of the police as an institution; the parallel development of private detectives; the birth of the crusading newspaper reporter; and the beginnings of forensic science. Influential, too, was the new role model offered by a wildly popular British import named Sherlock Holmes. Focusing on the late 19th century and early 20th, this volume covers the formative years of American detective fiction. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Under none of the accredited ghostly circumstances, and environed by none of the conventional ghostly surroundings, did I first make acquaintance with the house which is the subject of this Christmas piece. I saw it in the daylight, with the sun upon it. There was no wind, no rain, no lightning, no thunder, no awful or unwonted circumstance, of any kind, to heighten its effect. More than that: I had come to it direct from a railway station: it was not more than a mile distant from the railway station; and, as I stood outside the house, looking back upon the way I had come, I could see the goods train running smoothly along the embankment in the valley. I will not say that everything was utterly commonplace, because I doubt if anything can be that, except to utterly commonplace people—and there my vanity steps in; but, I will take it on myself to say that anybody might see the house as I saw it, any fine autumn morning. The manner of my lighting on it was this. I was travelling towards London out of the North, intending to stop by the way, to look at the house. My health required a temporary residence in the country; and a friend of mine who knew that, and who had happened to drive past the house, had written to me to suggest it as a likely place. I had got into the train at midnight, and had fallen asleep, and had woke up and had sat looking out of window at the brilliant Northern Lights in the sky, and had fallen asleep again, and had woke up again to find the night gone, with the usual discontented conviction on me that I hadn't been to sleep at all;—upon which question, in the first imbecility of that condition, I am ashamed to believe that I would have done wager by battle with the man who sat opposite me. That opposite man had had, through the night—as that opposite man always has—several legs too many, and all of them too long. In addition to this unreasonable conduct (which was only to be expected of him), he had had a pencil and a pocket-book, and had been perpetually listening and taking notes. It had appeared to me that these aggravating notes related to the jolts and bumps of the carriage, and I should have resigned myself to his taking them, under a general supposition that he was in the civil-engineering way of life, if he had not sat staring straight over my head whenever he listened. He was a goggle-eyed gentleman of a perplexed aspect, and his demeanor became unbearable.

The appearance of Sherlock Holmes in The Strand Magazine in 1891 began a stampede of writers who wanted to emulate, build upon or even satirize Arthur Conan Doyle's work. This book explores the development of detective fiction during the critical period between Conan Doyle's creation of Holmes and the advent of the Golden Age of the detective story during World War I. Both British and American detective writers of the period are surveyed--as well as writers who turned to gentleman burglars and master criminals.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, A Checklist, 1700-1974, Volume one of Two, contains an Author Index, Title Index, Series Index, Awards Index, and the Ace and Belmont Doubles Index.

The Second Mystery Megapack selects 25 more tantalizing mystery tales, by modern and classic authors. Included are: FUNNY STUFF, by Ron Goulart PIT ON THE ROAD TO HELL, by John Gregory Betancourt WHAT IS COURAGE? by Mack Reynolds JUST THE FACTS, by Meg Opperman TEN GRAINS OF SAND, by Christopher B. Booth MORE ALLISONS THAN I KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH, by Michael Hemmingson REFLECTION OF A DREAM, by Jean Lorrah GRIM REAPER'S HANDICAP, by Fergus Truslow CASH, by Arlette Lees SEAS OF MISUNDERSTANDING, by Ray Cummings HOCUS POCUS HOMICIDE, by Gene D. Robinson THE RIGHT BETRAYAL, by John L. French JEAN MONETTE, by Eugene Francois Vidocq THE SENDING OF DANA DA, by Rudyard Kipling PHANTOM GETAWAY, by Leon Mearson THE MURDER OF SILAS CORD, by Harold F. Sorensen A BOTTOMLESS GRAVE, by Ambrose Bierce DEAD WOMAN, by Dr. David H. Keller HOOK, LINE, AND SUCKER! by Robert Turner THE JUDGMENT OF THE GODS, by Robert Reginald WILL FOR A KILL, by Emil Petaja DYING FOR A CLUE, by C.A. Freeburn BODYGUARD, by James C. Glass THE MASKED ALIBI, by John Gregory DR. WATSON'S WEDDING PRESENT, by J. Alston Cooper If you enjoy this volume, check out other entries (including literature, mysteries, westerns, science fiction, ghost stories, and much more) in this best-selling series. Search on "Wildside Press Megapack" in your favorite ebook store to see the complete list. (Sort by date to see the most recent additions.)