"The Black Star" is a wonderful crime-adventure book by the creator of the famous "The Mark of Zorro." The author worked as a police reporter before becoming a prolific and successful writer for pulp magazines and Hollywood. His real-life experiences often find reflection in his novels. The book, presented here, features a villain, The Black Star, a master to escape from the police. Yet the successful amateur detective who finally captures him, discovers that sending the Black Star to the police would ruin his fiancée's family. Now, he needs to outwit the law and the Black Star to ensure a happy ending.

Winds whistled up the river, and winds whistled down from the hills, and they met to swirl and gather fury and rattle the city’s millions of windowpanes. They carried a mixture of sleet and fine snow, the first herald of the winter to come. In the business district they swung signs madly back and forth, and roared around the corners of high office buildings, and swept madly against struggling trolley cars. They poured through the man-made cañons; they dashed out the broad boulevards—and so they came to the attention of Mr. Roger Verbeck, at about the hour of midnight, as he turned over in his warm bed and debated whether to rise and lower the window or take a chance with the rapidly lowering temperature. “Beastly night!” Verbeck confided to himself, and put his head beneath the covers. He slept—and suddenly he awakened. A moment before he had been in the midst of a pleasant dream; now every sense was alert, and his right hand, creeping softly under the cover, reached the side of the bed and grasped an automatic pistol that hung in a rack there. From the adjoining room—his library—there came no flash of an electric torch, no footfall, no sound foreign to the apartment, nothing to indicate the presence of an intruder. Yet Verbeck sensed that an intruder was there. He slipped quietly from the bed, shivering a bit because of the cold wind, put his feet into slippers, and drew on a dressing gown over his pajamas. Then, his pistol held ready for use in case of emergency, he started across the bedroom, taking short steps and walking on his toes. A reflection entered the room from the arc light on the nearest street corner. This uncertain light was shut off for an instant, and Verbeck whirled quickly, silently, to find another man slipping up beside him. It was Muggs—a little, wiry man of uncertain age, who had been in Verbeck’s employ for several years, valet at times, comrade in arms at times, willing adventurer always. Muggs bent forward until his lips were close to Verbeck’s ear. “I heard it, too, boss,” he said. “Somebody in the library!” Verbeck nodded; they crept nearer the door. Inch by inch, Verbeck pulled aside one of the curtains, until they could peer into the other room. A gleam from the corner arc light penetrated the library, too. It revealed the interior of the room in a sort of semi-gloom, causing elusive shadows that flitted here and there in such fashion that they scarcely could be distinguished from substance. Also, it revealed an open window near the fire escape—and it showed the form of a man standing before Verbeck’s antique desk in a corner. Muggs bent beneath his master’s arm to see better. He felt Verbeck grip his shoulder, and looked up to find him indicating the open window. Like a shadow, Muggs, who also held a weapon in his hand, slipped through the curtains, crept along the wall, and advanced toward that window to cut off the intruder’s retreat.

Some of the greatest detective stories every wrote are collected in this massive anthology. Works include: Zadig The Rector of Veilbye Mlle de ScudÈri The Murders In The Rue Morgue The Mystery of Marie Roget The Purloined Letter The Woman in White Bleak House A Study In Scarlet The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes? Initials Only The Moonstone Whose Body? Clouds of Witness Trentís Last Case The Woman in Black The Red House Mystery The Mysterious Affair at Styles The Secret Adversary Room Number 3 Against Odds The Black Star The Blue Lights The Brand of Silence The Diamond Cross Mystery The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective The Gloved Hand The Gray Mask The Great Ruby Robbery: A Detective Story Guy Garrick Hagar of the Pawn-Shop The House of Strange Secrets The Last Stroke Malcolm Sage, Detective The Mansion of Mystery The Master Detective The Mystery of the Boule Cabinet The Riddle of the Spinning Wheel The Romance of Elaine A Successful Shadow Tangled Trails Tom Sawyer, Detective The Vanishing Man The Case of the White Footprints X Y Z Case of Jennie Brice Murder! The Attic Murder The Cinema Murder Murder in the Gunroom

The pulp fiction master Johnston McCulley is most famous today as the creator of Zorro, though over a long career he issued a plethora of exciting heroes and villains. Colourful characters such as Black Star, Thubway Tham, The Spider, The Bat, The Crimson Clown, The Thunderbolt and many more helped influence the development of American pulp and comic book literature. This eBook presents McCulley’s collected works, with numerous illustrations, many rare texts, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to McCulley’s life and works * Features numerous pulp novellas and stories appearing in digital print for the first time * Concise introductions to the major series * A wide range of McCulley’s famous creations * Images of how the books were first published, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts * Excellent formatting of the texts * Easily locate the stories you want to read * Ordering of texts into chronological order and genres CONTENTS: The Zorro Series The Curse of Capistrano (1919) The Further Adventures of Zorro (1924) The Black Star Stories The Black Star (1916) Black Star’s Subterfuge (1916) Return of the Black Star (1917) Black Star’s Campaign (1919) Black Star Comes Back (1921) The Thubway Tham Stories Thubway Tham Stories The Spider Series The Spider’s Den (1918) The Spider’s Sign (1918) Into the Spider’s Jaws (1918) The Spider’s Strain (1919) The Spider’s Reward (1919) The Thunderbolt Tales Master and Man (1920) The Kidnapped Midas (1920) The Big Six (1920) The Man in Purple Series The Man in Purple (1921) The Man in Purple Meets a Man in Blue (1921) Breath of Disaster (1921) The Bat Stories The Bat Strikes! (1934) Bite of the Bat (1934) Shadow of the Bat (1935) Code of the Bat (1935) The Crimson Clown The Crimson Clown (1926) The Avenging Twins The Avenging Twins (1927) The Rollicking Rogue Stories The Rollicking Rogue (1930) The Rollicking Rogue’s Second Deal (1930) The Green Ghost Series The Green Ghost (1934) The Day of Settlement (1934) Swift Revenge (1934) The Green Ghost Stalks (1934) The Murder Note (1935) Deadly Peril (1935) Bloodstained Bonds (1935) The Mongoose Cases Alias the Mongoose (1932) The Voice from Nowhere (1932) The Mongoose Strikes Again (1932) Smoke of Revenge (1932) Jewels of the Rajah (1932) Ransom for Vengeance (1932) Six Sacks of Gold (1933) Profit for the Mongoose (1933) Trap of the Mongoose (1933) The Whirlwind Stories Alias The Whirlwind (1933) The Whirlwind’s Revenge (1934) The Whirlwind’s Red Trail (1934) The Whirlwind’s Rage (1934) The Whirlwind’s Ready Blade (1934) The Whirlwind’s Frenzy (1934) The Whirlwind’s Private War (1935) Other Pulp Stories Wild Norene (1914) Captain Fly-by-Night (1916) The Jungle Trail (1917) The Brand of Silence (1919) Four Hours (1919) Carden, Crook Comedian (1920) Flaming Hate (1920) The Mystery of the Private Dining Room (1920) Mysterious Doctor Toke (1921) The Obvious Clew (1921) The Ghost Phone (1921) Jerry, the Boaster (1923) The Black Jarl (1923) The Scarlet Scourge (1925) Miscellaneous Stories

The pulp fiction master Johnston McCulley is most famous today as the creator of Zorro, though over a long career he issued a plethora of exciting heroes and villains. Colourful characters such as Black Star, Thubway Tham, The Spider, The Bat, The Crimson Clown, The Thunderbolt and many more helped influence the development of American pulp and comic book literature. This eBook presents McCulley’s collected works, with numerous illustrations, many rare texts, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to McCulley’s life and works * Concise introductions to the major series * All the Zorro novels for the first time in digital publishing, with individual contents tables * Includes a selection of Zorro short stories * A wide range of McCulley’s famous creations * Features numerous pulp novellas and stories appearing in digital print for the first time * Images of how the books were first published, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts * Excellent formatting of the texts * Easily locate the stories you want to read * Ordering of texts into chronological order and genres CONTENTS: The Zorro Series The Curse of Capistrano (1919) The Further Adventures of Zorro (1924) Zorro Rides Again (1931) The Sign of Zorro (1941) A Task for Zorro (1947) Zorro’s Fight for Life (1951) Miscellaneous Zorro Short Stories The Black Star Stories The Black Star (1916) Black Star’s Subterfuge (1916) Return of the Black Star (1917) Black Star’s Campaign (1919) Black Star Comes Back (1921) The Thubway Tham Stories Thubway Tham Stories The Spider Series The Spider’s Den (1918) The Spider’s Sign (1918) Into the Spider’s Jaws (1918) The Spider’s Strain (1919) The Spider’s Reward (1919) The Thunderbolt Tales Master and Man (1920) The Kidnapped Midas (1920) The Big Six (1920) The Man in Purple Series The Man in Purple (1921) The Man in Purple Meets a Man in Blue (1921) Breath of Disaster (1921) The Bat Stories The Bat Strikes! (1934) Bite of the Bat (1934) Shadow of the Bat (1935) Code of the Bat (1935) The Crimson Clown The Crimson Clown (1926) The Avenging Twins The Avenging Twins (1927) The Rollicking Rogue Stories The Rollicking Rogue (1930) The Rollicking Rogue’s Second Deal (1930) The Green Ghost Series The Green Ghost (1934) The Day of Settlement (1934) Swift Revenge (1934) The Green Ghost Stalks (1934) The Murder Note (1935) Deadly Peril (1935) Bloodstained Bonds (1935) The Mongoose Cases Alias the Mongoose (1932) The Voice from Nowhere (1932) The Mongoose Strikes Again (1932) Smoke of Revenge (1932) Jewels of the Rajah (1932) Ransom for Vengeance (1932) Six Sacks of Gold (1933) Profit for the Mongoose (1933) Trap of the Mongoose (1933) The Whirlwind Stories Alias The Whirlwind (1933) The Whirlwind’s Revenge (1934) The Whirlwind’s Red Trail (1934) The Whirlwind’s Rage (1934) The Whirlwind’s Ready Blade (1934) The Whirlwind’s Frenzy (1934) The Whirlwind’s Private War (1935) Other Pulp Stories Wild Norene (1914) Captain Fly-by-Night (1916) The Jungle Trail (1917) The Brand of Silence (1919) Four Hours (1919) Carden, Crook Comedian (1920) Flaming Hate (1920) The Mystery of the Private Dining Room (1920) Mysterious Doctor Toke (1921) The Obvious Clew (1921) The Ghost Phone (1921) Jerry, the Boaster (1923) The Black Jarl (1923) The Scarlet Scourge (1925) Miscellaneous Stories