Showing results by author "Israel Zangwill" in All Categories

On a chilling, foggy night in London, a baffling murder takes place. A man is brutally killed in his locked and bolted bedroom, leaving Scotland Yard at a loss. However, as Inspector Grodman insists, this seemingly unsolvable case hides a sublimely simple solution. Dive into this early “locked room” mystery tale, filled with an abundance of clues and a shocking finale that will have detective fiction enthusiasts on the edge of their seats. Beyond the suspense, The Big Bow Mystery also presents a satirical depiction of late Victorian society. (Summary by Adrian Praetzellis)

Love. Perhaps the one word solution for everything. An emotion, a state of mind that we strive for, search for. A wondrous force that binds, inspires, and a force that can spin out of control; unbalanced and fragile. Love reflects, changes and embraces us all. In this series we explore the many facets of love through literary talents that span both time and country.

The first in a new series of classic detective stories from the vaults of HarperCollins is the world's first locked-room mystery, a seemingly impossible crime story as powerful as any that has copied the scenario since. The Detective Story Club, launched by Collins in 1929, was a clearinghouse for the best and most ingenious crime stories of the age, chosen by a select committee of experts.

The Bachelors' Club is a sanctuary for an elite group of London's unmarried men to gather. To qualify as a Bachelor, each had to undergo a strict background check to ensure that they were not only unmarried, but a zealot in the movement that held marriage to be an undue punishment...upon women. As our story goes, we learn many revealing things about these men's convictions and pasts, as well as insightful commentaries on life and society in 1890 that is markedly similar to today.

'The Red Mark' tells the tale of Bloomah Beckenstein, whose family's many demands on her continually prevent her from getting to school on time. Week after week her lateness prevents her class from winning the attendance prize. But Bloomah is determined that her class should win the prize and have the honour of displaying the school banner on the classroom wall for a week. By Thursday it seems as if nothing can go wrong...but then a postcard arrives....

The Big Bow Mystery is a masterpiece of the form, as compelling a story today as when it was first published. The author has produced a seminal crime novel - the original "locked room" mystery. With a flair for storytelling and a literate style comparable to his contemporary, Charles Dickens, Israel Zangwill concocts a heady satire of Victorian England, setting his scene in London's picturesque Bow district.

Israel Zangwill was born in London on 21st January 1864, to a family of Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. His writing earned him the sobriquet ‘the Dickens of the Ghetto’ primarily based on his much-lauded novel Children of the Ghetto: A Study of a Peculiar People in 1892 and its glimpse of the poverty-stricken life in London's Jewish quarter.