He's the Man With No Name and the owner of No Alibis, a mystery bookshop in Belfast. But when a detective agency next door goes bust, the agency's clients start calling into his shop asking him to solve their cases. Suddenly he is catapulted along a murder trail which leads from modern dance to Nazi secrets and serial killers...
Often typecast as a menacing figure, Peter Lorre achieved Hollywood fame first as a featured player and later as a character actor who trademarked his screen performances with a delicately strung balance between good and evil. His portrayal of the grisly child murderer in Fritz Lang’s masterpiece M (1931) catapulted him to international fame. Lang said of Lorre: "He gave one of the best performances in film history and certainly the best in his life." Today, the Hungarian-born actor is also recognized for his riveting performances in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The Maltese Falcon (1941), and Casablanca (1942).
Added by: arcadius | Karma: 2802.10 | Fiction literature | 19 August 2010
3
Bert Smallways had always been fascinated by anything that moved. Bicycles were his latest fad - but that was before he discovered the thrilling possibilities of hot air balloons. Or rather they discovered him. Accidentally whisked away to Germany in one such contraption, he finds himself in possession of plans for a top-secret aeroplane. This is turn catapulted him into the very heart of Prince Karl Albert's airship raid on New York - a step that caused the nations to take up arms and fight; a step that wad to result in world war.
