Presents a collection of ghost stories from such authors as Louisa May Alcott, H.G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Joseph Conrad.

Brings together the most interesting, readable, and compassionate of events so catastrophic they will never be forgotten.

To reach freedom, the most famous escapers of all time have been willing to endure the most horrific conditions—and the direst consequences if caught. The collection of tales in The Greatest Escape Stories Ever Told is gripping as only true life-and-death struggles can be: Papillon fighting through the jungles of Guiana only to commit himself to the open ocean in a sixteen-foot boat rather than face a life in exile; Rocky Gause dodging bullets as he swims through shark-infested waters to escape the Japanese at Bataan, while those around him simply quit; Latude battling against the dreaded Bastille; Baron Trenck—with chains covering almost every inch of his body—digging and digging to free himself from wrongful imprisonment; Andre Devigny, so weak from starvation and poor treatment that he could barely lift himself, shimmying across a rope only yards above a German sentry during World War II on the eve of his execution. These are just a few of the twenty-five bold and ingenious tales of escape included in this collection. The Greatest Escape Stories Ever Told will hold readers captive for years to come!

When Sayers first began compiling anthologies of the best crime stories in the 1920s and '30s, the genre was in the flush of its first golden age. Now today's fans of mystery and crime fiction can experience a handpicked collection featuring outstanding stories of the era.

The Greatest Fishing Stories Ever Toldis sure to ignite recollections of your own angling experiences as well as send your imagination adrift. In this compilation of tales you will read about two kinds of places, the ones you have been to before and love to remember, and the places you have only dreamed of going, and would love to visit. Whether you prefer to fish rivers, estuaries, or beaches, this book will take you to all kinds of water, where you'll experience catching every kind of fish.Read on as some of the sport's most talented writers recount their personal memories of catching bass, trout, bluefish marlin, tuna, and more. You'll read about all kinds of fish, and all kinds of fishermen in these pages. Explore the Pacific with Zane Grey, as he fights a 1,000-pound blue marlin, or listen as A.J. McClane explains just what it really means to be an angler. Take a step back in time when you read Ernie Schwiebert's tale of fishing a remote lake in Michigan, when he was still only a young boy. Each of these stories, selected because of its intrinsic literary worth, reinforces the unique personal connection that fishing creates between man and nature.

At 3:17 p.m. on March 18, 1937, a natural gas leak beneath the London Junior-Senior High School in the oil boomtown of New London, Texas, created a lethal mixture of gas and oxygen in the school’s basement. The odorless, colorless gas went undetected until the flip of an electrical switch triggered a colossal blast. The two-story school, one of the nation’s most modern, disintegrated, burying everyone under a vast pile of rubble and debris. More than 300 students and teachers were killed, and hundreds more were injured. As the seventy-fifth anniversary of the catastrophe approaches, it remains the deadliest school disaster in U.S. history. Few, however, know of this historic tragedy, and no book, until now, has chronicled the explosion, its cause, its victims, and the aftermath. Gone at 3:17 is a true story of what can happen when school officials make bad decisions. To save money on heating the school building, the trustees had authorized workers to tap into a pipeline carrying “waste” natural gas produced by a gasoline refinery. The explosion led to laws that now require gas companies to add the familiar pungent odor. The knowledge that the tragedy could have been prevented added immeasurably to the heartbreak experienced by the survivors and the victims’ families. The town would never be the same. Using interviews, testimony from survivors, and archival newspaper files, Gone at 3:17 puts readers inside the shop class to witness the spark that ignited the gas. Many of those interviewed during twenty years of research are no longer living, but their acts of heroism and stories of survival live on in this meticulously documented and extensively illustrated book.

Exciting rescue stories on the high seas! The Coast Guard’s rescue personnel are second to none, and Coast Guard air and sea rescue missions have been the subjects of celebrated newspaper accounts, books, and movies, including The Perfect Storm. The Coast Guard is one of the nation's five military services, which exist to defend and preserve the United States. In The Greatest Coast Guard Rescue Stories Ever Told, the editor has pulled together some of the finest writings about air and sea rescues that capture readers imaginations, culled from books, magazines, and elsewhere. It is an unforgettable collection, and includes stories by Kathryn Miles, Eric Hartlep, Gerald Hoover, Martha Laguardia-Kotite, Geoffrey D. Reynolds, Kalee Thompson, H. Paul Jeffers, and many others.