Raffles: Further Adventures of the Amateur Cracksman by E.W. Hornung features his popular character A. J. Raffles, a well-known cricketer and gentleman thief. Any profits made from the sale of this book will go towards supporting the Freeriver Community project, a project that aims to support community and encourage well-being. To learn more about the Freeriver Community project please visit the website- www.freerivercommunity.com

\'The Shadow of the Rope\' is a novel about a woman on trial for the murder of her husband. She is found not guilty but public opinion is almost universally against her except for a stranger who offers to marry her and give her protection.

E.W. Hornung was an English author best known for writing the A.J. Raffles series about an English gentleman thief in the late 19th century.

Meeting failure in his search for wealth in the 1851 Australian gold rush, a dispirited Mr. Cole takes the next available ship back to England -- and falls in love with Eva Denison, a beautiful and accomplished young woman traveling with her exotic Portuguese step-father. After a disaster at sea Cole returns to anonymity in London... or so he thinks. Events lead to the discovery of a horrible conspiracy, and then to an adventure that may cost Cole his greatest love.

The Witching Hill Estate Office was as new as the Queen Anne houses it had to let, and about as worthy of its name. It was just a wooden box with a veneer of rough-cast and a corrugated iron lid. Inside there was a vast of varnish on three of the walls; but the one opposite my counter consisted of plate-glass worth the rest of the structure put together. It afforded a fine prospect of Witching Hill Road, from the level crossing by the station to the second lamp-post round the curve.

Ernest William Hornung (7 June 1866 – 22 March 1921) was an English author and poet known for writing the A. J. Raffles series of stories about a gentleman thief in late 19th-century London. Hornung was educated at Uppingham School; as a result of poor health he left the school in December 1883 to travel to Sydney, where he stayed for two years. He drew on his Australian experiences as a background when he began writing, initially short stories and later novels. Hornung’s prose is widely admired for its lucid-yet-simple style. Oliver Edwards, writing in The Times, considered that ”not the least attractive part of the Raffles books is the simple, plain, unaffected language in which each one of them is written”. The obituarist in the same newspaper agrees, and thinks Hornung had ”a power of good and clear description and a talent for mystery and surprise”. Colin Watson also considers the point, and observes that in Hornung’s writing, ”superfluous description has been avoided and account of action is to the point”, while Doyle admired his ”sudden use of the right adjective and the right phrase”, something the writer and journalist Jeremy Lewis sees as a ”flamboyant, Kiplingesque taste for the vivid”.

Young Blood by E. W. Hornung"When all the world is young, lad,"And all the trees are green;"And every goose a swan, lad,"And every lass a queen;"Then hey for boot and horse, lad,"And round the world away;"Young blood must have its course, lad,"And every dog his day."The Water Babies.CHAPTER I. THE OLD HOME.Harry Ringrose came of age on the happiest morning of his life. He was on dry land at last, and flying north at fifty miles an hour instead of at some insignificant and yet precarious number of knots. He would be at home to eat his birthday breakfast after all; and half the night he sat awake in a long ecstasy of grateful retrospect and delicious anticipation, as one by one the familiar stations were hailed and left behind, each an older friend than the last, and each a deadlier enemy to sleep. Worn out by excitement, however, he lay down for a minute between Crewe and Warrington, and knew no more until the guard came to him at the little junction across the Westmoreland border. Harry started up, the early sun in his sleepy eyes, and for an instant the first-class smoking-compartment was his state-room aboard the ship Sobraon, and the guard one of his good friends the officers. Then with a rush of exquisite joy the glorious truth came home to him, and he was up and out that instant—the happiest and the luckiest young rascal in the land.It was the 19th of May, and a morning worthy the month and the occasion. The sun had risen in a flawless sky, and the dear old English birds were singing on all sides of the narrow platform, as Harry Ringrose stretched his spindle-legs upon it and saw his baggage out of the long lithe express and into the little clumsy local which was to carry him home. The youth was thin and tall, yet not ungainly, with a thatch of very black hair, but none upon his sun-burnt face. He was shabbily dressed, his boots were down at heel and toe, there were buttons missing from his old tweed coat, and he wore a celluloid collar with his flannel shirt. On the other hand, he was travelling first-class, and the literary supplies tucked under his arm had cost the extravagant fellow several shillings at Euston book-stall. Yet he had very little money in his pocket. He took it all out to count. It amounted to five shillings and sixpence exactly, of which he gave half-a-crown to the guard for waking him, and a shilling to a porter here at the junction, before continuing his journey in the little train. This left him a florin, and that florin was all the money he possessed in the world.He was, however, the only child of a father who would give him as much as he wanted, and, what was rarer, of one with sufficient sense of humour to appreciate the prodigal's return without a penny in his pocket or a decent garment on his back. Whether his people would be equally pleased at being taken completely by surprise was not quite so certain. They might say he ought to have let them know what ship he was coming by, or at least have sent a telegram on landing. Yet all along he had undertaken to be home for his twenty-first birthday, and it would only have made them anxious to know that he had trusted himself to a sailing-vessel. Fifty days instead of twenty from the Cape! It had nearly cost him his word; but, now that it was over, the narrow margin made the joke all the greater; and Harry Ringrose loved a joke better than most things in the world.CONTENTS1. The Old Home2. The Breaking of the News3. The Sin of the Father4. The New Home5. A Wet Blanket6. The Game of Bluff7. On Richmond Hill8. A Millionaire in the Making9. The City of London10. A First Offence11. Beggar and Chooser12. The Champion of the Gods13. The Day of Battle14. A Change of Luck15. It Never Rains but it Pours16. A Dame's School17. At Fault18. Mr. Scrafton19. Assault and Battery20. Biding his Time21. Hand to Hand22. Man to Man23. The End of the Beginning24. Young Ink25. Scrafton's Story26. A Masterstroke27. Restitution

The creator of Raffles brings this adventuresome Australian mystery to an exciting conclusion.Ernest William Hornung (1866-1921) was an English author and brother-in-law to Arthur Conan Doyle. An accomplished writer, Hornung is most famous for writing the Raffles series of novels about a gentleman thief in late Victorian London.This unexpurgated edition contains the complete text, with minor errors and omissions corrected.

The Amateur Cracksman by E.W. Hornung features his most famous character, A. J. Raffles, a gentleman thief in late Victorian Great Britain. This is a classic tale that has been loved by many for generations. Any profits made from the sale of this book will go towards supporting the Freeriver Community project, a project that aims to support community and encourage well-being. To learn more about the Freeriver Community project please visit the website- www.freerivercommunity.com

Australian outback had always fascinated the British colonial imagination when rags to riches stories of the British convicts and other social outcasts transformed the image of Australia as a gold digger's paradise (remember Abel Magwitch's story in Charles Dicken's Great Expectations?). This interaction which proved deadly for the aboriginal culture and population of Australia also impacted the British literature in a way that it had stories to tell of its incomprehensible wilderness and its inhabitants. This edition brings you an assorted collection of stories about the Australian outback and its people from the pen of a renowned British author – E. W. Hornung. Hornung had also lived and travelled in Australia for two years and unlike his contemporaries wrote a lot of stories with Australia in the background. E. W. Hornung (1866–1921) was an English author and poet and also brother-in-law to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Hornung is known for writing the A. J. Raffles series about a gentleman thief based on a deliberate inversion of the Sherlock Holmes series. Hornung dedicated his creation as a form of flattery to Doyle. Hornung's works are also remembered for giving insight into the social mores of late 19th and early 20th century British society.

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Raffles Collection (The collected stories of A. J. Raffles. Four books in one volume!)Athletic, attractive, amorous and villainous A.J. Raffles is virtually the mirror-image of Sherlock Holmes. Small wonder, considering that he was created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle s brother-in-law E.W. Hornung . The master thief shares his Christian name with Holmes creator, and the 1892 Conan Doyle story The Doings of Raffles Haw may have provided his surname. The dedication for the first volume of Raffles adventures The Amateur Cracksman reads: To ACD this form of flattery .In his autobiography, Conan Doyle wrote: I think I may claim that his famous character Raffles was a kind of inversion of Sherlock Holmes, Bunny playing Watson. He admits as much in his kindly dedication. Bunny is Bunny Manders, real name Harry, Raffles friend from his schooldays. Bunny inherited money, and the two lost touch. But he couldn t hold onto his wealth, and on March 15th , 1891, he knocks at Raffles door seeking his old pal s help. The response he receives isn t quite what he hoped for D you think that because a fellow has rooms in this place, and belongs to a club or two, and plays a little cricket, he must necessarily have a balance at the bank? I tell you, my dear man, that at this moment I m as hard up as ever you were. I have nothing but my wits to live on absolutely nothing else. Raffles agrees to help, but as Bunny discovers when they enter a Bond Street jeweler s in the dead of night, his brand of assistance is far from conventional. Their destinies are joined that night, and Hornung charts their adventures in two further collections, The Black Mask and A Thief in the Night.Raffles is one of England s most celebrated gentlemen cricketers, but his taste for the high life is more than he can afford legally. His philosophy is very simple: Why should I work when I could steal? he asks in the Ides of March. Why settle down to some humdrum uncongenial billet, when excitement, romance, danger, and a decent living were all going begging together. Of course, it s very wrong, but we can t all be moralists, and the distribution of wealth is very wrong to begin with. Raffles has been played on film by Ronald Colman and David Niven and on television by Anthony Valentine and Nigel Havers.    The Amateur Cracksman (1899)The Ides of MarchA Costume PieceGentlemen and PlayersLe Premier PasWilful MurderNine Points of the LawThe Return MatchThe Gift of the Emperor    Further Adventures of the Amateur Cracksman aka The Black Mask (1901)No SinecureA Jubilee PresentThe Fate Of FaustinaThe Last LaughTo Catch A ThiefAn Old FlameThe Wrong HouseThe Knees Of The Gods    A Thief in the Night (1905)Out of ParadiseThe Chest of SilverThe Rest CureThe Criminologists' ClubThe Field of PhillipiA Bad NightA Trap to Catch a CracksmanThe Spoils of SacrilegeThe Raffles RelicsThe Last Word    Mr. Justice Raffles (1909) (novel)

From the grit of the Australian bush to the tangled traditions of cultivated English society, Under Two Skies is truly a lost literary treasure. The contrasting communities in these collected short stories of Ernest William Hornung, are also intrinsically intertwined. They take place equally in the Australia and England of the late 1800's, when Britain still ruled that far-flung and distant land of heat, hope, and heartache. Disgrace drives men to start new lives in the hard world of the colony, whilst life goes on in the green fields they have left behind. A Whim driver hides from a hidden past, a convict father threatens to cast a shadow on his son's achievements, an English lady longs for her love seeking his fortune on the other side of the world. Hornung paints vivid scenes with wonderful characters you will fall for again and again.Under Two Skies was first published in 1892.

Gladys, a spirited, beautiful girl raised in the heart of the Australian outback by her father, has married into British high society. Her husband Alfred, well meaning, kind and head-over-heels in love with her, unwittingly throws her into the lion's den that is the London summer season. Is her beauty enough to make up for her coarse ways and shocking behaviour? And will her new family ever recover from the shame of having such a wild member? Soon England promises to smooth her rough-edged vulgarity; but at what cost?This endearing exploration into the trials of being an animated, lively and vigorous young woman in late 1800's England is E. W. Hornung at his very best. It was first published in 1890.

Here are more of E. W. Hornung's famous stories of adventure and crime featuring the thrill seeking A. J. Raffles and his friend, accomplice and chronicler 'Bunny'. By turns urbane gentleman about town and accomplished cricketer, life is just too ordinary for Raffles and that sets him on a series of adventures that have long been treasured as a real antidote to the 'white knights' who are the usual heroes of the crime fiction of this period. This book, the second and final volume, includes the third collection of stories entitled A Thief in the Night including 'A Trap to Catch a Cracksman', 'The Raffles Relics' and 'The Criminologists Club' among others.