Showing results by narrator "Michael Langan" in All Categories

In Lady Dragonfly and other Sherlock Holmes Stories, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson encounter criminals and enemies of various kinds and in different places. A kidnapped girl is rescued, a stolen skeleton is recovered, an inheritance is identified and returned, and the Great War brings them into conflict with German spies and enemy forces. Holmes also finds himself working in cooperation with Solar Pons, and with G. K. Chesterton Father Brown. In all of these stories, the game is unquestionably afoot.

The Little Ice Age tells the story of the turbulent, unpredictable, and often very cold years of modern European history, how climate altered historical events, and what they mean in the context of today’s global warming.

Sherlock Holmes stories are transportive things. They move listeners through the cloistered sitting room at 221-B Baker Street in late 19th Century Victorian London amid the cluttered sideboard, the inviting armchairs, the comforting hearth, the sprawling divan, the formidable bookshelves — all the beloved trappings in the room of the world's greatest detective and his faithful associate. The stories unfold and the listeners can almost sense the physical presence of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, characters whose vitality has defied the diminishments of time.

In 410 CE, Roman rule of Britain collapsed, bringing a centuries-long occupation to an end. A century later, Britain was dividing into two areas with contrasting cultures, an expansive "Anglo-Saxon" south and east, and a shrinking Celtic west and north. How did this transition happen? And why did the customs of the Germanic incomers prevail in England, unlike elsewhere in Europe? In this account, Nicholas J. Higham addresses these questions head on. Higham draws on archaeological evidence and contemporary literature, including the writings of Gildas, to reconsider the accepted narrative.

From 1913 to 1934, mystery readers were treated to Carrados' published adventures in the form of twenty-six short stories and one full-length novel. In his time, Carrados was one of the most popular detectives in literature. The July 1924 issue of The Strand contained a new Sherlock Holmes story - but it was the announcement of a new Carrados adventure that decorated the magazine's cover.

In the late 1800's and early 1900's, the usefulness of consulting detectives in the war against crime was very well established by Mr. Sherlock Holmes. By the early Twentieth Century, Holmes had retired to Sussex, and the void he left behind in London was capably filled by a number of other noted criminal specialists: Solar Pons, Hercule Poirot, Dr. John Thorndyke, Father Brown, Albert Campion, and Lord Peter Wimsey, to name a few. But another who made a name for himself with his unique skills tends to receive less attention today: Max Carrados.

What's behind a series of mysterious deaths among the favourite concubines of Sultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid II? Suspecting a plot against himself, the Sultan has called on Sherlock Holmes to investigate. However, as a man, the detective is clearly unable to penetrate the exotic enclosed world of the harem, so he reluctantly enlists the help of his landlady, Mrs Hudson. Together with Dr Watson, they travel across Europe by Orient Express to Constantinople, on the way encountering Holmes's old enemy, Baron Mauterpuis.

Charity Buntington's husband describes his wife as the most lovely and inoffensive person, whom nobody would want to hurt. But someone enters their home in broad daylight, strangles her, then cuts off and takes away her right forefinger. Inspector Hopkins asks Sherlock Holmes to help him investigate the case, but Charity's friend Aurora Jones is also a private detective, and wishes to help bring her friend's murderer to justice. Holmes is impressed with Jones' skills, and although Hopkins is reluctant, he agrees to let Miss Jones assist in the case under Holmes' guidance.

Money issues dominate the news, but economic jargon and the complexity of it all can be bamboozling for regular folks. Paul Sheard, a leading economist and research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, is known for his ability to see the forest and the trees and demystify complex economic phenomena. With The Power of Money, Sheard empowers listeners to become better-informed economic citizens by providing context for some of the biggest questions surrounding money.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the late Terry Golledge wrote 10 Holmes masterful pastiches that perfectly captured Dr. Watson's voice, as well as Holmes’ personality and methods. Mr. Golledge passed away in 1996, before these stories could be published. In early 2022, Terry’s son, Niel Golledge, reached out to Sherlockian editor David Marcum, who was electrified to read such wonderful previously lost tales about the heroes of Baker Street.

This is the first thoroughly revised edition of The Rape of the Nile—Fagan’s classic account of the cavalcade of archaeologists, thieves, and sightseers who have flocked to the Nile Valley since ancient times. Featured in this edition are new accounts of stunning recent discoveries, including the Royal Tombs of Tanis, the Valley of Golden Mummies at Bahariya, the Tomb of the Sons of Ramses, and the sunken city of Alexandria (whose lighthouse was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World). 

It's easy to think that ancient history is, well, ancient history—obsolete, irrelevant, unjustifiably focused on Greece and Rome, and at risk of extinction. In What Is Ancient History?, Walter Scheidel presents a compelling case for a new kind of ancient history—a global history that captures antiquity's pivotal role as a decisive phase in human development, one that provided the shared foundation of our world and continues to shape our lives today.

Séamas Duffy’s fourth novel, Sherlock Holmes and the Sixty Steps, follows a similar format to his previously published Holmes collections: a novella together with some shorter stories. The four stories are: “The Tragedy of Langhorne Wyke” (1890); “The Mystery of the Thirteen Bells” (1895); “The Adventure of the Sixty Steps” (1897); and “The Problem of the Coptic Patriarchs” (1898).

221B is more than an address on Baker Street...it is also the code-name for special agents of Her Majesty's Secret Service who are called upon to combat extreme threats to the Realm-Sherlock Holmes, Loveday Brooke and Dr. John Watson. Now they face their most deadly challenge-a shadowy futurist organization called the Hephaestus Ring conspires to subvert the Paris World's Fair and use the opening of the Eiffel Tower to unleash a new terror weapon.

Rhys Northwick, Duke of Whitby, has unabashedly devoted himself to a life of debauchery and hedonism. With his friends falling prey to the despicable institution of marriage, the responsibility of hosting the sinful Wicked Dukes Society house parties has fallen largely on his shoulders. Rhys doesn’t mind. He’ll happily seduce bored widows and wives out of their drawers any day. Until an encounter with a tempting divorcée leaves him longing for the only woman in London who is immune to his rakish charms.

Sherlock Holmes is no stranger to humanity's most fiendish crimes. In fourteen classic stories, Holmes and Dr. Watson confront exceptionally challenging and notoriously vicious cases. Can guilt be used as a murder weapon? When does beauty become a deadly lure? Are even the most seemingly innocent members of society capable of killing in cold blood? Cloaked in terror and tragedy, dangerous and often bloody, these are adventures which plunge Holmes and Watson into the realm of nightmares.

In thirteen classic pastiche stories, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson confront confounding and puzzling problems. Why do white roses fall from the sky, heralding death to follow? Who is the veiled man hiding in a manor, and why does he refuse to show his face? What diabolical creature lurks inside a child's painted travelling trunk, and has an ancient priestess's curse descended upon an archeologist's family? Twists and turns abound as Holmes investigates some of the most mysterious cases in his career.

An eclectic mix of eight stories drawn from the annals of the MX Series of New Sherlock Holmes stories and the many Holmes anthologies of Belanger Books, all from the pen of emerging pastiche author Stephen Herczeg.

In the last thirty years, the developing world has undergone tremendous changes. Overall, poverty has fallen, people live longer and healthier lives, and economies have been transformed. And yet many countries have simply missed the boat. Why have some countries prospered, while others have failed? Stefan Dercon argues that the answer lies not in a specific set of policies, but rather in a key "development bargain," whereby a country's elites shift from protecting their own positions to gambling on a growth-based future.

The rise of human civilization and all of recorded history occurred in this warm period, known as the Holocene. Until very recently, we had no detailed record of climate changes during the Holocene. Now we do. In this engrossing and captivating look at the human effects of climate variability, Brian Fagan shows how climate functioned as what the historian Paul Kennedy described as one of the “deeper transformations” of history—a more important historical factor than we understand.