Hamilton knows the way to the ruins, deep in the Brazilian jungle - and the secret they hold. The millionaire who calls himself Smith seeks the lost city to avenge a wrong from his hidden past. Their journey down the River of Death is an epic of violence and danger. But the secret that awaits them in the lost city is more dangerous still - as a legacy of theft, treachery and murder stretching back to war-torn Europe comes to a deadly climax beneath the ancient walls...

THE LONELY SEA is a collection of Alistair MacLean's stories, writing about the power of the sea, and of the men and women who sail, fight and die in it. The first story in this collection is 'The DILEAS', which tells of a sea rescue on a violent and stormy night. A night dangerous enough for any vessel, let alone a forty-year-old boat. Yet this rescue involved so much more than just braving the wild seas...

When an anonymous threat of sabotage is made, it involves two of the most important oil fields in the world. One in Canada and the other in Alaska are both seriously threatened. These unknown saboteurs are deadly and efficient. If the oil flow is interrupted, it could be in any one of thousands of places down the trans-Alaskan pipeline - and the result would be catastrophic. One man, Jim Brady, is called in to save the life-blood of the world as, unerringly, the chosen targets fall at the hands of a hidden enemy...

World War II rages, and while Tito's rebel forces resist occupation, the Germans infiltrate and plan their destruction. Yugoslavian Peter Peterson and his team of compatriots set out from Rome to relay the German battle plan - but where do their loyalties lie? Aboard a damaged motor torpedo boat, in bitter winter conditions, it's a dangerous journey with dangerous companions, where no one is who they seem...and where the three men find intrigue and betrayal around every corner.

Day and night Jay Gatsby's mansion on West Egg buzzes with bright young things drinking, dancing and debating his mysterious character. For Gatsby - young, handsome, fabulously rich - always seems alone in the crowd, watching and waiting, although no one knows what for. Beneath the shimmering surface of his life he is hiding a secret longing that can never be fulfilled...

These Gothic TALES OF MYSTERY AND HORROR are stories of the supernatural...and the chilling, as in THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO. Deeply resentful of his friend, Fortunato's latest insult, Montresor plots an evil revenge. During the Carnival, he lures the unsuspecting, and inebriated, Fortunato away from the revels, to the wine cellars of his pallazzo - seemingly to seek his opinion on some rare vintage Amontillado. But Fortunato, having taken the bait, is about to find himself trapped...forever.

What is the connection between a failed suicide attempt, a wrongful accusation of theft against a schoolgirl, and the romantic life of a famous tennis player? To the casual observer, apparently nothing. But when a houseparty gathers at Gull's Point, the seaside home of an elderly widow, earlier events come to a dramatic head. As Superintendent Battle discovers, it is all part of a carefully laid plan - for murder...

Six people sit down to a sumptuous meal at a table laid for seven. In front of the empty place there is even champagne in the glass. George Barton leads the toast - 'To Rosemary for remembrance' - although no one is likely to forget the night, nearly a year ago, that Rosemary Barton died at exactly the same table, her beautiful face unrecognisable, convulsed with pain and horror. But then Rosemary had always been memorable - she had the ability to arouse strong passions in most people she met. In one case, strong enough to kill...

The Leonideses are one big happy family living in a sprawling, ramshackle mansion. That is until the head of the household, Aristide, is murdered with a fatal injection. Suspicion naturally falls on the old man's young widow, fifty years his junior. But the murderer has reckoned without the tenacity of Charles Hayward, fiance of the late millionaire's granddaughter...

Baghdad is holding a secret superpower summit, but the word is out, and an underground organisation in the Middle East is plotting to sabotage the talks. Into this explosive situation appears Victoria Jones, a girl with a yearning for adventure who gets more than she bargains for when a wounded spy dies in her hotel room. The only man who can save the summit is dead. Can Victoria make sense of his dying words: '...Lucifer...Basrah...Lefarge...'?

When a number of leading scientists disappear without trace, concern grows within the international intelligence community - and the one woman who appears to hold the key to the mystery is dying from injuries sustained in a plane crash. Meanwhile, in a Casablanca hotel room, Hilary Craven prepares to take her own life. But her suicide attempt is about to be interrupted by a man who will offer her an altogether more thrilling way to die...

According to the courts, Jacko Argyle bludgeoned his mother to death with a poker. The sentence was life imprisonment. But when Dr Arthur Calgary arrives with the proof that confirms Jacko's innocence, it is too late - Jacko died behind bars following a bout of pneumonia. Worse still, the doctor's revelations re-open old wounds in the family, increasing the likelihood that the real murderer could strike again...

When an elderly priest is murdered, the killer searches the victim so roughly that his already ragged cassock is torn in the process. What was the killer looking for? And what had a dying woman confided to the priest on her death bed not even an hour before? Mark Easterbrook and his sidekick Ginger are determined to find out. Maybe the three women who live at the Pale Horse, and who are rumoured to practise the 'Dark Arts', can provide some answers?

When penniless Michael Rogers discovers the beautiful house at Gipsy's Acre and then meets the heiress Ellie, it seems that all his dreams have come true at once. But he ignores an old woman's warning of an ancient curse, and evil begins to stir in paradise. As Michael soon learns: Gipsy's Acre is the place where fatal 'accidents' happen...

Sir Stafford Nye's flight home from Malaya takes an unexpected twist when a young woman confides in him that someone is trying to kill her. In a moment of weakness, he agrees to lend her his passport. Unwittingly, the diplomat has put his own life on the line. When he meets the mystery woman again, she is a different person, and he finds himself drawn into a battle against an invisible - and altogether more dangerous - enemy...

All great crime writers have their favourite creations. Similarly, every great sleuth has his, or her, own preferred method of deduction. Take the charming Parker Pyne, who relies upon his intuitive knowledge of human nature to solve the PROBLEM AT POLLENSA BAY. Or Mr Satterthwaite, who seeks inspiration through his collaboration with the enigmatic Mr Quin in THE HARLEQUIN TEA SET mystery. Then, of course, there's Poirot, whose measured analysis of motive and opportunity is tested to the full in YELLOW IRIS, when he receives an anonymous call about a matter of life or death...

A macabre recurring dream; revenge against a blackmailer; jealousy, infidelity and a tortured conscience; a stolen gemstone; the haunting attraction of an ancient relic; a race against time; a tragic love triangle; a body in a box; an unexpected visitor from beyond the grave... Nine quintessential examples of Agatha Christie's brilliance are contained in this collection of early short stories - including the very first one she ever wrote - providing a unique glimpse of the Queen of Crime in the making.

The first of these Tales of Mystery and Horror begins with the most puzzling of murders... Dupin's brilliant powers of analysis always reached ingenious conclusions. So, when he read about THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE, Dupin was keen to search the crime scene. Newspapers portrayed the locked apartment as impossible to escape from, making the case so mysterious. Inside, there was a blood-smeared razor, locks of grey human hair, an opened safe and bags of money. Then a grisly discovery was made, distracting the police but leaving Dupin to investigate the small details that had gone unnoticed...

Lord Henry Wotton observes the artist Basil Hallward painting the portrait of a handsome young man named Dorian Gray. When he asks to meet Dorian, Basil is at first hesitant, but agrees. Dorian, who had been completely unaware of his own beauty, becomes enthralled by Lord Wotton's world view and begins to think that beauty is the only worthwhile aspect of life - the only thing left to pursue. However, Dorian realises that his beauty will fade and expresses, out loud, a desire to sell his soul to ensure that the portrait Basil is painting will age - whilst his own appearance remains unchanged...

India, in the late nineteenth century. In Lahore, Kim is the orphaned son of an Irish soldier and nursemaid, who have both died in poverty. Kim begs in the streets, occasionally working for a horse trader, who is one of the native operatives of the British secret service. Few people realise that Kim is white, and that he carries on him documents from his father. Kim befriends an aged Tibetan Lama and becomes his disciple...and so begins his journey. An adventure both spiritual and educational, which leads also to espionage.

Harvey Cheyne was fifteen years old, the son of an American business tycoon and spoiled by his parents. But then he was washed overboard from a transatlantic steamship and rescued by fishermen, and neither Harvey, nor his affluence could persuade them to take him ashore. However, the Captain of the WE'RE HERE, Disko Troop, took him on as a member of the crew until they returned to port. Harvey befriended the captain's son, Dan, with whom he had many trials and adventures. When the schooner eventually returned to port in Gloucester, Massachusetts, his parents found Harvey no longer the bad-mannered youth of before...

A sea-faring man all his life, Captain Whalley's change in fortunes sees him captaining a steady, sturdy steamer, the SOFALA, for a grasping and unpleasant owner - Whalley's only choice if he is to continue to support his family. But Captain Whalley is becoming increasingly unfit for the post and an ambitious young mate has seen his chance to progress. However, Massy, the increasingly dissatisfied owner of the SOFALA, has sabotage in mind...

There are crimes for which no punishment is adequate, offences that the written law cannot efface. Herein lies the justification for The Council of Justice - a meeting of great and passionless intellects. These men are indifferent to world opinion. They relentlessly wage their wits and cunning against powerful underworld organisations, against past masters of villainy and against minds equally astute. And to breakers of the unwritten laws they deal death...

Father Brown's ability to solve apparently unsolvable crime is challenged again in these tales. In the story of THE QUICK ONE, the eccentric Mr Raggley, in a Sussex hotel on the coast, drinks cherry brandy - because of the poor quality of all other drinks sold - and pays a fatal price for his tipple... Then in the tale of THE CRIME OF THE COMMUNIST, two philanthropists are invited to a university dinner and then found dead in the garden - both have been poisoned. And in THE INSOLUBLE PROBLEM, Father Brown's old friend, Flambeau, wants his help in pursuit of a team of jewel thieves...