Kirjahaku

"It has the delicious irresponsibility of a Wodehouse plot. . . . It's one of the funniest books we've read in a long time. It contains a great deal of shrewd satire." "The New York Times"Multimillionaire and philanthropist Hugo Weiss is known in every capital of the Western world as a munificent patron of the arts. When Weiss suddenly vanishes while on a visit to Paris, his disappearance sets the stage for this uncommonly witty and urbane mystery. Homer Evans, an intrepid American detective, turns his keen intellect and remarkable intuition toward solving the puzzle of the financier's disappearance. Assisted by his sharpshooting girlfriend, a cowgirl from the American West, Evans plunges into a maelstrom of kidnapping, art forgery, tax evasion, murder, and a plot to restore the French monarchy.Set against the backdrop of bohemian Montparnasse, the story hurtles along at a breathless pace and in a tone of relentless good cheer, despite the rising body count. The first installment in a popular series that parodies the famous Philo Vance stories of S. S. Van Dine, this novel offers sophisticated humor amid a madcap romp as well as a challenging mystery."A rollicking, madcap comic mystery that will have you alternately laughing out loud and reading in silent amazement as the plot becomes more and more complex and the actions more extreme and unpredictable. It is impossible to predict what will happen next. A delicious treat for mystery lovers." The Mutt Cafe"

"A sizzling concoction of murder, merriment, and madness." -- Saturday Review.While vacationing in Normandy, suave sleuth Homer Evans and his stylish, pistol-packing companion Miriam Leonard catch sight of a notorious gang member. The two spot him again upon their departure from the Rouen train station, when he appears to be covertly signaling to someone in their compartment.The compartment's occupants include a very proper Bostonian with a formidable dog; the Bostonian's attractive sister; and the celebrated American violinist Anton Diluvio, along with his priceless Guarnerius. Dog and violin have a near-fatal encounter as the train enters the Gare St. Lazare, but fate does not play its full hand until the following evening. By the end of Diluvio's concert in the great Salle Gaveau, someone from the train compartment will be dead and the Guarnerius will have disappeared -- and with it, Diluvio's eccentric accompanist. A mixture of serious detection and madcap adventure, this stylish whodunit unfolds against a richly evoked background of Paris in the 1930s.

Waylaid In Boston: A Homer Evans Mystery is a thrilling novel by author Elliot Paul. The story revolves around Homer Evans, a private investigator who is hired to investigate the disappearance of a young woman named Lila. As Homer delves deeper into the case, he realizes that there is more to Lila's disappearance than meets the eye. With the help of his assistant, a streetwise teenager named Wally, Homer follows a trail of clues that takes him from the seedy underworld of Boston to the upper echelons of society. Along the way, he encounters a cast of colorful characters, including a crooked cop, a ruthless gangster, and a seductive femme fatale. As the stakes get higher and the danger increases, Homer must use all of his wit and cunning to solve the case and bring Lila home safely. Waylaid In Boston is a gripping mystery that will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the very end.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

When a famous art-loving millionaire disappeared from a Bohemian party in the artist quarters of Montparnasse, a number of colorful Parisians began to devote themselves to suspicious actions of one kind or another. Homer Evans, irresponsible playboy artist and Bohemian, combines his talents for quick thinking and kiss-stealing in a wild chase for the murderers through the streets of Paris. Following hot behind is Miriam Leonard, a belle from Montana whose shapely hand is quite as effective with the revolver as with a loving caress And then there is Hjalmar Jansen, strapping Norwegian artist friend of Homer's, ever ready to gird his loins for any kind of lusty brawl so long as there are women and wine in plenty. Bloodletting and love-making are liberally combined with infectious humor in an altogether irresponsible manner, and readers of The Mysterious Mickey Finn will find in these pages a witty story sprinkled in the classical manner with the proper number of bodies, some beautifully alive and kicking. ". . . I astonished and delighted myself by reading it. . . . The Mysterious Mickey Finn is like no mystery story I know. It may not please the orthodox mystery fans; it is, in its way a satire on orthodox mysteries. . . . I have seldom read a book which gave me so intensely the impression that the author had a grand good time writing it. The hilarity is infectious."-Lewis Gannett, New York Herald Tribune "Read it for the witty, sophisticated, tongue-in-the-cheek fluency of Mr. Paul, for the wicked innuendos, for the fiction-coated satirical barbs at men, morals and artists. It's grand."-Hartford Times

Homer Evans has a wacky group of friends who lead you all over Paris, up and down the Seine, through caf s filled with celebrities, taxidermist shops, subway stations, the musty dens of Egyptologists and the wards of a fantastic madhouse. There is violence aplenty and corpses are in the most unexpected places. The New York Herald Tribune Books says, "This, as you might guess, is the funniest mystery on tap-that is, the funniest by far, for all other comic thrillers seem pale and wan beside Mr. Paul's robustious works." You can't fail to get plenty of gusty guffaws and spine-tickling chills as you join lovely Miriam Leonard, hard-drinking Norwegian-American painter Hjalmar Jansen, former member of the Tsar's army Lvov Kvek, Chief of Detectives Fr mont of the Paris Police, and the medical examiner, Dr. Hyacinthe Toudoux, to help Homer Evans solve this mystery that starts with the theft of a famous Watteau painting from the Louvre. "Fantastically amusing and thrilling . . . completely cockeyed and hugely entertaining." Jack Ketch, New York Herald Tribune

The fourth in the series of Homer Evans mystery adventures takes the reader for the ride of his life all the way from Paris to the badlands of Montana. In the wide open spaces where the last survivors of be Blackfeet and Shoshone Indians still keep their tribal ways in the lower stretches of the Yellowstone, where sheepherders and cattlemen fight to the death on the lone prairie, where behind every clump of sagebrush a dead-eye marksman lurks, there go all the veterans of the bloody campaigns in The Mysterious Mickey Finn, Hugger-Mugger in the Louvre and Mayhem in B-Flat. Guided by Rain-No-More, the Blackfeet son of a chief, directed by the ever-resourceful Homer Evans and trigger-quick Miriam Leonard, and supported by Hugo Weiss the financier, Hjalmar Jansen, the scourge of the studios, Fr mont of the Paris police, Anton Diluvio the virtuoso, and all the tried and true shock troops of the previous books, they travel by ship and special train to the frontier battleground. They arrive just in time to participate in the first skirmishes between the cattlemen's forces and the sheepherders' mercenaries recruited among the Great Lakes palefaces, all of them trained braves who had had their baptism of tommy-gun fire in Chicago's gangland wars. The casualties among cowboys, Indians, trigger men, sheep and cattle are appalling. But Homer Evans, by a stroke of tactical genius, turns defeat into victory and forever puts an end to lawlessness in the badlands.

"'The Black Gardenia' is quite a book. Elliot Paul undoubtedly had a wonderful time writing it, and in addition to the usual mystery has made it a vehicle for a lot of good English and a lot of interesting information about mysterious Javanese plants, customs, and poisons. "And, we might as well say right now, you as a reader will be thoroughly] mixed up as to who dunit until very near the last page. "Suffice it to say that three persons die of very perplexing causes before the suave Homer Evans, detective extraordinary, and his partner, Finke Maguire, are able to bring the murderer to justice. In the meantime, you mix into a lot of Hollywood life, including the Brown Derby, Mike Romanoff, famous chefs and bartenders and assorted movie moguls, millionaires and morons. "The story revolves around the ambition of the Black Gardenia, a beautiful Mexican swimmer, to become a movie star. This ambition innocently sets off a train of intrigue which results in the killings and many times as much suspicion of one and another. "Elliot Paul's latest adventure of Homer Evans may not be so famous as his 'Murder on the Left Bank, ' but it is high above the average mystery and it is a pleasure to read it." (Syracuse, NY, Post Standard, 1952)

The third century AD was a turbulent and testing time for the Roman Empire. A new and powerful foe in the east had risen up to challenge Rome directly. Barbarians on the northern frontiers were now more aggressive and more numerous than before and internally the population of the empire had to contend with rampant inflation and a series of terrible plagues. Unfortunately, the chaos became magnified by a lack of continuity on the imperial throne. The army had real political power in the third century, making and unmaking emperors as it saw fit. It had been aided in this by Septimius Severus, the African emperor who had won out in the civil wars following Commodus' assassination. He increased the army's pay and granted other privileges. While the army gained rapidly in size, stature and political savvy during the reign of Septimius Severus, it also accelerated a material transformation. Armour, shields, helmets, swords and javelins all began to be replaced with new styles.Legions in Crisis looks closely at the new styles of arms and armour, comparing their construction, use and effectiveness to the more familiar types of Roman kit used by soldiers fighting the earlier Dacian and Marcomannic Wars. What did this transformation in military technology mean for the tactical choices used on the battlefield? Although the outcome had looked in doubt, the army and the empire it protected weathered the storm to emerge into the fourth century fully able to tackle the challenges of a new age.