The Adventures of Ellery Queen (1934) -- the premier short-story collection. Individual stories may be good or bad, but taken as a whole this is a superb collection. Ellery Queen was the pen-name of two cousins, Manfred B. Lee and Frederic Dannay (both also pseudonyms), as well as the pen-name used by the detective himself in his alter-ego as a mystery writer (and that is pseudonymous too, according to J.J.McC., the original 'presenter'). Confusing? Yes. EQ, especially Dannay, was also editor of the best of the detective story magazines (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine).
At the age of fifteen, Marie Antoinette, beautiful and charming bride to the impotent Dauphin, is plunged into the intrigue of Versailles. Frivolous and reckless, she flouts the strict and demanding etiquette of the glittering court, and discovers the true nature of love, hate and jealousy. But the clouds of revolution are overhead, and Marie Antoinette, who only wishes to enjoy life, learns too late that the price of her enjoyment is very high…
Legends told of how the evil God Torak had coveted the power of the Orb of Aldur, until defeated in a final battle. But the prophecy spoke of a time when he would awake and again seek dominance over the world. Now the Orb has been stolen by a priest of Torak, and that time is at hand.
Having cleared his name in Scotland Lymond takes on an unlikely alias in order to infiltrate the French Court and protect the future Mary - Queen of Scots from her would-be assassins, but in the whirl and rush of Europe's most decadent and reckless Court, he finds it increasingly difficult to remember where play-acting ends and self-destructive excess begins.
The Once and Future King - The Queen of Air and Darkness
The Queen of Air and Darkness, originally titled The Witch in the Wood, is a novel by English writer T. H. White. It is the second book in his epic work, The Once and Future King. It continues the story of the newly-crowned King Arthur, his tutelage by the wise Merlyn, his war against King Lot, and also introduces the Orkney clan, a group of characters who would cause the eventual downfall of the king. First published in 1939, it was re-released under the new title after some editing.
