Bøger af Gwen Bristow

"e;Murder and Mardi Gras together! Ain't we got fun?"e;For years New Orleans has been enthralled by the secret society dedicated to Dis, Greek god of Inferno, whose membership of fifty is closely guarded from the press, and whose rites burlesque the proud tradition of the city's Mardi Gras festival. Lovely Cynthia Fontenay gives Dis a ball each year, and no member of the order has ever been seen without satanic mask and sinister robes of black and scarlet-this is well known, but despite many efforts, the secret of its roster has never been penetrated.When murder strikes with vicious efficiency in this charmed circle, its visit casts a shadow over the city. Captain Murphy, of the Homicide Squad, and Wade, New Orleans journalist, confront a case of fifty suspects, smouldering motives which overnight become front page news, and incredible circumstances which make for the most famous of many unusual crimes on the Police Calendar.The Mardi Gras Murders was first published in 1932. This new edition includes an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.

"e;Thou Shalt Not Kill."e;All New Orleans is disturbed at the rumour that one of its civic treasures, a fragment of the Gutenberg Bible, has been stolen. But when the rumour becomes a fact and is followed by a series of murders so hideous that every paper's headlines screamed each new phase of the case, the concern changes to panic. Each new crime centres on the same group of people: wealthy, respected and influential. Yet the police and District Attorney struggle to find a definite clue on which to base an arrest.Each of the suspects could benefit from the death of the murder victims, and each new clue further embroils the seemingly most innocent. In the deft weaving of the plot, and in the vivid delineation of District Attorney Dan Farrell-honest, capable and trustworthy-the journalist Wade-shrewd and persistent-Terry Sheldon-rich, impulsive and hot-headed-and Winifred Gonzales, with a charm too rich for youth and face too young for age, the authors have provided a set of characters the reader will remember long after the book is finished.The Gutenberg Murders was originally published in 1931. This new edition includes an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.

"e;A woman in a red raincoat killed Linton Barclay."e;Paradise Island, the brightest spot of all playgrounds edging the Gulf of Mexico, caters gladly to those who can afford to pay well for their entertainment. Twelve miles from the mainland, it has, under the suave management of Brett Allison, come to be known for sports, gaming tables, and the Peacock Club.For some time Federal authorities have suspected a connection between the Island and the increased activities in the drug traffic along the coast, but when Major Jack Raymond, stocky as the cigars he smokes, and Andrew Dillingham, scion of one of the south's oldest families, are sent to investigate, they encounter in the person of lovely Eva Shale, whose wealth comes from an unknown source, an enigma of the first order.A tropical storm, so common to the locale, which sweeps the island, brings with it a murder which fastens its suspicious fingers upon every resident of the Peacock Club-save Daisy Dillingham who does as she pleases, says what she pleases, and for years has been dreaded, adored and obeyed.Two and Two Make Twenty-Two was originally published in 1932. This new edition includes an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.

"e;Do not doubt me, my friends; you shall all be dead before morning."e;New Orleans, 1930. Eight guests are invited to a party at a luxurious penthouse apartment, yet on arrival it turns out that no one knows who their mysterious host actually is. The latter does not openly appear, but instead communicates with the guests by radio broadcast. What he has to tell his guests is chilling: that every hour, one of them will die. Despite putting the guests on their guard, the Host's prophecy starts to come horribly true, each demise occurring in bizarre fashion. As the dwindling band of survivors grows increasingly tense, their confessions to each other might explain why they have been chosen for this macabre evening-and invoke the nightmarish thought that the mysterious Host is one of them. The burning question becomes: will any of the party survive, including the Host . . . ?The Invisible Host (1930) established one of the best-loved and most durable forms in classic mystery fiction. It was famously to reappear in Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None (1939). How much Christie's novel is indebted to its predecessor is open to conjecture (and the subject is discussed in our new introduction, by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans). Whatever the verdict, readers will delight in The Invisible Host, an innovative and most unusual mystery from the golden age of crime fiction. It was adapted into a play, and a Hollywood movie as The Ninth Guest (1934).

The history of California in the mid-19th century comes alive in this captivating historical novel. Garnet Cameron, a fashionable young lady of New York, is leading a neat, proper life, full of elegant parties and polite young men, yet the prospect of actually marrying any of them appalls her. Yearning for adventure, she instead marries Oliver Hale, a wild trader who is about to cross the mountains and deserts to an unheard-of land called California. During Garnet and Oliver's honeymoon in New Orleans, she meets a dance-hall performer on the lam who calls herself Florinda Grove and is also traveling to California. Along the Jubilee Trail, Garnet and Florinda meet kinds of men never known to them before, and together they make their painstaking way over the harsh trail to Los Angeles, learning how to live without compromise and discover both true friendship and true love.

New York Timesbestselling author Gwen Bristow presents a captivating love story that dramatizes the struggle between the ways of the old Louisiana plantation families and those of the new twentieth-century SouthIn 1912, Eleanor Upjohn sits with her father near the work camp, overseeing the construction of a levee on the Mississippi. In a region shattered by war, levees mean stability, prosperity, and modernity. While Eleanor is a member of a modern clanpractical, impatient, and ready for the futureshe cannot help but fall for a man steeped in the ways of the Old South.Kester Larne is the heir to Ardeith, a sprawling Louisiana plantation whose glory days are long behind it, and his antebellum charm sweeps Eleanor off her feet. Only after they marry does she learn that Ardeith is mortgaged to the hilt and she will need every ounce of her modern ingenuity to save it . . . and her marriage.This is the third novel in Gwen Bristow's Plantation Trilogy, which also includesDeep SummerandThe Handsome Road.

The Civil War alters life for a Louisiana plantation mistress and a poor seamstress in this novel by the New York Timesbestselling author of Jubilee Trail. Corrie May Upjohn stands on the levee, watching men unload the riverboats and wishing she could travel far away. A poor preacher's daughter, she is only fourteen, and her life is already laid out for her: marriage in a year or two, and then decades of drudgery. At nearby Ardeith Plantation, Ann Sheramy Larne lives in luxury, but feels just as imprisoned as Corrie May. Their lives could not be more different, but when the horrors of war and Reconstruction come to Louisiana and the Old South begins to fall, these two women will band together to survive. From the bestselling author of Calico Palace, this is the second novel in the poignant Plantation Trilogy, which also includes Deep Summerand This Side of Glory.

The New York Timesbestselling author of Jubilee Trail does ';a grand job of storytelling' in thissaga of the pioneers who settled the Louisiana wilderness (The New York Times). For his service in the king's army during the French and Indian War, Judith Sheramy's father, a Puritan New Englander, is granted a parcel of land in far-off Louisiana. As the family ventures down the Mississippi to make a new home in the wilderness, Judith meets Philip Larne, an adventurer who travels in the finest clothes Judith has ever seen. He is a rogue, a killer, and a thiefand the first thing he steals is Judith's heart. Three thousand acres of untamed jungle, overrun with jaguars, Indians, and pirates, wait for Philip in Louisiana. He and Judith will struggle with their stormy marriage and the challenges of the American Revolution as they strive to build an empire for future generations. This is the first novel in Gwen Bristow's Plantation Trilogy, which also includesThe Handsome RoadandThis Side of Glory.

A wife and mother grapples with love and loss in World War IIera Hollywood, in a New York Timesbestselling author's emotional tour de force. For two decades, Elizabeth Herlong has been a devoted Hollywood wife, supporting her husband as he built an empire in the budding motion picture industry. But far from the bright glamour of her current life, World War II rages in Europe, forcing Elizabeth to remember her past, awakening feelings and longings she thought she would never experience again. Most of all, she fears for her eldest son, who turns eighteen in less than a year and will have to enlist in the army. Then one night, Elizabeth's husband introduces her to a German screenwriter he's been working with. Erich Kessler is a disabled veteran of World War I attempting to make a new life for himself. Something in his face stirs Elizabeth's heartsetting her on a journey of discovery about the meaning of true love and the things that war cannot destroy. Made into a film starring Claudette Colbert, Orson Welles, and Natalie Wood, this is a novel of a woman haunted by the shadows of war both past and present, from the New York Timesbestselling author of JubileeTrail, Deep Summer, and other acclaimed novels.