A celebration of the San Francisco films of Alfred Hitchcock, this book examines the master director's familiarity with Northern California and how it greatly influenced his decision to use the Bay Area location in several of his landmark motion pictures. More importantly, this book shows how San Francisco was often the source of inspiration for many of these same cinema classics. The masterpieces that are examined are Shadow of a Doubt, Vertigo, The Birds, Suspicion, Psycho, and Family Plot. Hitchcock fans are taken on a journey around the Bay Area, experiencing cinematographic intrigue and learning about Bay Area history, lore, and the timeless elegance of San Francisco and its picturesque surroundings. Hundreds of historical and contemporary photos are included, with an emphasis on those buildings and businesses that no longer exist.--From publisher description.
A dynamic engagement of the past and fascinating story of a courageous young man who was a "Bobby on the Beat" age 19, Detective Constable Probationer age 20, Detective Constable Suspect Branch age 22, Detective Sergeant age 24, Member of Special Force of twelve detectives to hunt down German spies and saboteur in South Africa during WW2 (1939, age 26). At the end of the war he was discharged as medically unfit due to various injuries sustained during the war. E. W. Tonkin joined the Cape Times as a crime reporter and entered the world of twilight politics and head-on confrontation with the South African Apartheid Government. He died very suddenly on the 11th September 1950 age 37 on the same night as South Africa's wartime Prime Minister Field Marshall Jan Smuts.
BEWARE THE CALIGINENT. Saffron has been imprisoned in Medlock's Detention, where the guards are soulless, the prisoners are secretive, and the shadows are sharpening their claws. But she knows something even darker is lurking in the depths of the cells. Her friend Ray was detained here before he mysteriously vanished. The only clues he left were warning messages about a monster that feeds on thoughts and devours sanity. A monster that may still be watching from the dark corners of every room. THE CALIGINENT WILL EAT YOUR MIND. Saffron is now determined to discover what happened to Ray. She is willing to search through forbidden rooms, cultish séances, and brainwashing drug trials to uncover the secrets kept in the ever-growing shadows. Including the secrets she's keeping from herself. RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN.
Five houses, haunted by shadows from the past. Unsuspecting victims, battling with events that have no rational explanation. A race against time to unravel dark secrets and confront vengeful spirits… In these five stories of haunted houses and restless ghosts, everyday heroes dig deep to find the strength and courage to face the past, for the sake of a better future. THE HAUNTING OF TRUSCOTT HOUSE A house with a dark secret. A grieving daughter determined to carry out her parents’ last wishes. A grandmother with something to hide… Chloe Thomas brushes aside her grandmother’s pleas that she stay away from Truscott House, and moves in with her friend Emily to finish the project her parents had begun before their death—the renovation of a property that had been in the family for a century. It isn’t long before Chloe has to admit that something doesn’t seem want them there—but who? Or what? And why? THE HAUNTING OF ARMITAGE HOUSE Little Isabella Burnside is fading away, and no matter how many specialists her mother takes her to, they can’t pinpoint the problem. Her twin brother, Jack—once open and gregarious—can now barely communicate. Isabella’s father, desperate to help his children, calls in Lincoln Sweeney and his partner Katie Dyer, paranormal investigators, to see if there is any basis to his children’s nightmares. Then Lincoln disappears, and his twin, Tara, knows immediately that something unspeakable has happened to him. Where is Lincoln? Is he on this plane, or the next? Has a vengeful ghost condemned him to a fate worse than death? THE HAUNTING OF WYATT HOUSE Jodie Wyatt is missing. Nick, her husband and a police detective, is convinced that her disappearance is payback from a criminal he’s put away. His son Josh knows differently. He has always been able to see and hear those on the other side, and he is certain that a malevolent spirit inhabits Wyatt House. But how can he convince his father? THE HAUNTING OF KNOTT COTTAGE A picturesque but dilapidated cottage. Centuries of ownership by a family of doctors with a chequered past A little girl who is too scared to come to lessons in a converted stable… What secrets does Knott Cottage hold? Carla Sinclair jumps at the chance to sell her soulless modern home and buy Knott cottage. But Carla is not in the cottage for more than a day when things start going wrong. Someone—or something—seems to be averse to her delving into the past. When one of her students is too terrified to return to her lessons, Carla knows something must be done. But what? How can she stop the interference in her life from a force she can’t see? THE HAUNTING OF MORETON MANOR It started as a joke: a couple of backpackers upload a YouTube video about their stay in a supposedly haunted house… But then, someone spots a strange column of light that has been picked up by the camera, and things quickly go from bad to worse. Amy’s and Dylan’s friends share the video… and it goes viral. As the days go on, and the ghost becomes more vengeful, Amy’s fear grows. She wants to leave, but with millions of eyes on his nightly YouTube updates, Dylan is certain that this will make his career. He’s staying, no matter what….
The steps to murder were cluttered by such clues as a torn ticket stub and dried mud on a man's trouser cuffs. Isabel and her boyfrield, Al Branson of the Homicide Squad, had to walk carefully to avoid being tripped up!
Aewyn returns to her home, the Kingdom of Erun, to find it in absolute ruin. The once lush green plains have been burned to ashes and the trees torn to shreds. The blue skies are now filled with gray smoke from the plumes of fire that rage across the lands. Her quest to find her sister and stop the Pit Lord from resurrecting the Lich King has come full circle. Robyn is still learning her newfound powers that she learned from her training with the Shifters. She, along with Tirador, Rick and Kara are ready to support Aewyn in finding Leila and stopping Lord Lazarus. As the five of them traverse the dangerous lands, Aewyn senses something is horribly wrong, her sister has succumbed to the Call of the Krakenos. The group learn that Aewyn's connection with her sister puts them all in danger, yet they refuse to stop fighting. They decide to meet Lord Lazarus head on and devise a strategy to enter the castle and sneak into the Library of High Arts before taking on Lord Lazarus. Once the plan executes things start to get more and more troubling...
Séamas Duffy’s fourth novel, “Sherlock Holmes and the Sixty Steps” follows a similar format to his previously published Holmes collections: a novella together with some shorter stories. The four stories are: “The Tragedy of Langhorne Wyke” (1890); “The Mystery of the Thirteen Bells” (1895); “The Adventure of the Sixty Steps” (1897); “The Problem of the Coptic Patriarchs” (1898). “The Tragedy of Langhorne Wyke” sees the detective and his chronicler travel to Yorkshire's North Riding to solve the double murder of a well-heeled but mysterious couple. Holmes and Watson are immediately confronted with the sudden, and ominous, disappearance of the two witnesses to the murder – an elderly widow and her travelling companion. The trail eventually leads back to London and to crimes committed, but unavenged, from Holmes’s past. In “The Mystery of the Thirteen Bells”, Holmes and Watson, along with Inspector Lestrade, are involved in a grisly treasure hunt of a murder. In a London mired in thick November fog, their footsteps are dogged by a silent unseen adversary as they follow a series of cryptograms which they must decipher. These macabre clues lead them to some of Victorian London’s queerest places, and to one of its most bizarre institutions (which Holmes describes as “a citadel of the mad and the dead”). In “The Adventure of the Sixty Steps”, Holmes and Watson travel to Glasgow in an attempt to save an innocent man – who has been wrongly convicted of the brutal murder of a rich, elderly spinster – from the gallows. Their peregrinations take them into some of the lowest quarters of the city, peopled by shady underworld characters such as “The Moudie,” “Cauld Kale,” and “The Acrobat.” In uncovering a web of police corruption and malpractice, they are perplexed by the enigmatic genealogy of the victim and encounter more than one miscarriage of justice. “The Problem of the Coptic Patriarchs” (a reference to one of Holmes's unrecorded cases from the canonical “The Adventure of the Retired Colourman”), Inspector Lestrade of the Yard arrives at Baker Street to inform Holmes that the rare and priceless 10th century Alexandrian Scroll has been stolen and Father Philoxenus of the London Coptic Patriarchate has been kidnapped and ransomed. Holmes and Watson travel to the sleepy Thameside village of Bourne End to unravel the mystery of how the burglar-cum-kidnapper managed to escape from the scene of the crime in the middle of a blizzard without leaving a single trace in the snow.
THE APOCALYPSE CODEX PROPHESIZES THE COMING OF THE APOCALYPSE, UNLESS, OF COURSE, THE UNDERGROUND APOCALYPSE RESISTANCE CAN PREVENT THE APOCALYPSE FROM HAPPENING. HOWEVER, IN THE TRICKY PROCESS OF TRYING TO PREVENT THE APOCALYPSE, THE APOCALYPSE RESISTANCE INSTEAD CAUSES THE APOCALYPSE TO BEGIN. IS THE ZOMBIE DOOMSDAY UPON US: IN SHADOW OF TOMORROW, HELLREBEL AND HELLDEVIL ARE ORPHANED TWINS RAISED AS DAY-WALKING VAMPIRE HUNTERS BY THE BROTHERHOOD OF BLOOD, OTHERWISE KNOWN DOWN THE ROAD AS THE UNDERGROUND APOCALYPSE RESISTANCE. WALKING DEAD MEN WANTED AS VIGILANTE OUTLAWS HUNTED DOWN BY THE LAW, HELLREBEL AND HELLDEVIL MUST HUNT DOWN THE DEVIL INCARNATE BEFORE THE DEVIL INCARNATE HUNTS DOWN SIN INCARNATE. OTHERWISE, SIN INCARNATE WILL GIVE BIRTH TO DEATH INCARNATE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DID YOU KNOW ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON PENNED DR. JECKYLL AND MR. HYDE ON A SIX-DAY COCAINE BINGE? LIKE DR. JECKYLL AND MR. HYDE, EACH ONE OF US HAS A SPLIT PERSONALITY. THE GOOD SIDE THAT WE SHOW OFF DURING THE DAY, AND THEN THAT DARK SIDE THAT WE TRY TO KEEP HIDDEN IN THE DARKEST CORNER OF OUR CLOSET. I HIDE THESE EPISODES INSIDE THE CLOSET. WE ALL HAVE SKELETONS BURIED IN OUR CLOSET. BUT ME, I HAVE A CEMETERY BURIED IN MINE. HOWEVER, I FEAR SOMEONE WILL UNLOCK MY CLOSET. I SEE IT EVERY NIGHT IN MY NIGHTMARES, NIGHTMARES THAT WAKE ME EVERY NIGHT. LIKE FRANKENSTEIN, I SEE MYSELF FLEEING IN FEAR, RUNNING FASTER AND FASTER, RUSHING DOWN A DARK ROAD DISAPPEARING THROUGH THE SNOW-SWEPT WOODS GROWING DARKER AMIDST A BITTER WINTER, RUNNING FARTHER AND FURTHER AWAY, RUSHING THROUGH THE WIND-SWEPT WILD. IT WANDERS WAYWARD ACROSS UNFOLDING VIRGIN VISTAS AS IT WONDERS TO GOD IN HEAVEN, WHY THE HELL IN THE WORLD ARE THE RABID DOGS IN SUCH RUTHLESS, PITILESS, RELENTLESS PURSUIT? THERE ARE SOME DOGS THAT BARK. HOWEVER, THERE ARE OTHER DOGS THAT BITE. SAVE ME FROM MY SINS BEFORE THEY CATCH UP TO ME. MAN MAKES HIS HELL AND MY MIND IS MINE. SAVE ME FROM THE DEVIL AND FREE MY SOUL FROM THIS LIVING HELL. AS A WALKING DEAD MAN HUNTED DOWN IN THE DEAD MANS LAND, YUPPIE CITY WAS HOOKED ON MALE FUEL. MALE FUEL TURNED YOU INTO A MAN. MALE FUEL TURNED YOU INTO A MACHINE. MALE FUEL TURNED YOU INTO A MONSTER. HOWEVER, WHEN BIO/CIDE WENT UNDER, BIO/CIDE CITY NO LONGER MASS-PRODUCED MALE FUEL. THE ALICE-IN-WONDERLAND WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOM OF MALE FUEL WAS THAT YOU DEVELOPED VIOLENT ZOMBIE-LIKE BEHAVIOR THAT TURNED YOU INTO A HUMAN BEAST THAT BEHAVED LIKE A ZOMBIE. WHAT WAS STILL LEFT AT THE BIO/CIDE CITY WAS HORDED BY HUMANS THAT TOOK REFUGE UNDERGROUND. HOWEVER, FOR THOSE THAT WERE STILL ALIVE, THE UNDERWORLD WAS NOT ANY BETTER THAN THE WORLD THEY LEFT BEHIND. FOLLOWING THE GRAVEYARD WARS, THE WORLD OF HORROTICA WAS RECLAIMED BY THE OUTCASTS AND THE OUTLAWS WHO WEATHERED THE STORM WHILE LIVING UNDERGROUND WHERE THE REMAINING REMNANTS OF THE HUMAN CIVILIZATION RETURNED TO THE MORTAL WORLD WHERE THE OUTCASTS AND THE OUTLAWS TOOK CONTROL OF THE HUMAN WORLD, WHICH BECAME KNOWN AS THE LAWLESS LAND.
