"A war-torn soldier overhears the doctors give up hope for his recovery. He has a feeling that if he could go to the sea and get plenty of fresh air, exercise and sunshine, he might make a real effort to cure himself. So one day he slips out of the government hospital, and tottering down toward the sea, he starts penniless and weak on his great adventure. Within a few days he finds a home, becomes a bee-keeper in a green little California valley,...

Maisie Dobbs entered domestic service in 1910 at thirteen, working for Lady Rowan Compton. When her remarkable intelligence is discovered by her employer, Maisie becomes the pupil of Maurice Blanche, a learned friend of the Comptons. In 1929, following an apprenticeship with Blanche, Maisie hangs out her shingle: "M. Dobbs, trade and personal investigations." She soon becomes enmeshed in a mystery surrounding The Retreat, a reclusive community of...

Larry Darrell, a World War I veteran haunted by his memories of the war, abandons his easy life for first Paris and then a Tibetan monastery.

"A soldier returns home to find his parents displaced and their property stolen in this classic Western. "He leaned propped against the rail of the great ship, in an obscure place aft, shadowed by the life-boats. It was the second night out of Cherbourg and the first time for him to be on deck. The ridged and waved Atlantic, but for its turbulence, looked like the desert undulating away to the uneven horizon. The roar of the wind in the rigging bore...

Growing up in the shadows cast by two world wars, Annabelle has lived a mostly quiet, steady life in her small Pennsylvania town. Until the day new student Betty Glengarry walks into her class. Betty quickly reveals herself to be cruel and manipulative, and while her bullying seems isolated at first, things quickly escalate, and reclusive World War I veteran Toby becomes a target of her attacks. While others have always seen Toby's strangeness, Annabelle...

"Along the notorious Rogue River, gold seekers, crazed by the discovery of nuggets that made them rich overnight, are at war with one another. The river itself swarms with salmon, bringing along with them another kind of wealth and violent fighting between the fishermen and the fish-packing monopoly. Into this scene comes Keven Bell, returning to face life after being handicapped by a disfiguring wound he received in World War I. Keven teams up with...

After coming to America, building a business and a home for his family, the butcher starts a singing club, consisting of the town locals. The story spans World War I through World War II and beyond 1954, full of memorable characters.

It's Christmas Eve, 1931. On the way to see a client, Maisie Dobbs witnesses a suicide on a busy London street. The following day, the prime minister's office receives a letter threatening a massive loss of life if certain demands are not met - and the writer mentions Maisie by name. After being questioned and cleared by Detective Chief Superintendent Robert MacFarlane of Scotland Yard's elite Special Branch, she is drawn into MacFarlane's personal...