Great Sea Mysteries

Ranging from prehistory to the 21st century, The Great Sea is above all the history of human interaction across a region that has brought together many of the great civilizations of antiquity as well as the rival empires of medieval and modern times.

In the third installment of his acclaimed anthology series, master of crime fiction Lawrence Block has gathered together the best talent from popular fiction to produce an anthology of short stories based on masterpieces of American art. Among the star-studded lineup of writers you'll find Jerome Charyn, Jane Hamilton, Christa Faust, John Sandford, Sara Paretsky, Walter Mosley, Charles Ardai, Barry Malzberg, and Janice Eidus.

Spring, 1921. Lady Eleanor Swift, explorer extraordinaire and accidental sleuth, hasn’t had a vacation since she arrived in England a year ago. So she books into the Grand Hotel in the fashionable resort of Brighton for some fresh air, fish and chips, and, of course, a dip in the ocean. Eleanor is enjoying her view of the waves and trying to find her bathing suit when calamity strikes: A guest has been found dead at her beautiful hotel. The distraught manager, who can’t afford a scandal, asks Eleanor to solve the case as swiftly as possible.

When the CIA needed a fall guy, Dugan was the one it betrayed. Forsaken by those he’d trusted and with nowhere to turn, he’s made it his mission to stop the miscreants who ruined his life before they can destroy anyone else’s. From human-trafficking rings and remorseless hit men to byzantine plots to alter the world order, Dugan must outwit those chartered with terminating him while battling overwhelming odds.

Miwaka: Vanished Shipby Harper Stanwick, Sr. is a gripping mystery novel set in the chilling expanse of Lake Michigan during the late 19th century. In the heart of a fierce December storm in 1895, the steel freighter Miwaka vanishes without a trace on its maiden voyage, carrying twenty-five souls. The legendary tribal drumbeat, said to echo whenever the lake claims a life, signals only twenty-four beats, leaving a lingering hope that one man might have survived. Benjamin Gagne, a seasoned lake captain turned shipping magnate, is haunted by this inexplicable mystery. Living in near isolation...

Intro (for Amazon Product Description – “Look Inside” preview): When the moon inexplicably shifts its orbit, the world’s tides surge beyond all reason—and humanity’s greatest coastal cities teeter on the brink of annihilation. Dr. Mira Patel, oceanographer and crisis-response leader, must race against time to decode an underwater network of electromagnetic nodes, combat gravity-warping anomalies, and confront the secret architects who would weaponize Earth’s oceans. From the flooded harbors of Nova Scotia to a hidden island fortress beneath the waves, Tides of Time is a high-...

"The world is in great peril," the Pope said. "Of being destroyed!" Jules Verne and Alexander Dumas stood in stunned silence at the words spoken by the Pope. If true, it could mean the end of the world . If not true, it could mean the end of their world. A mission is described which is so important and so dangerous that only these two brave young men were chosen to take it. But to be honest, can two authors, even if smart and brave, be enough to stop the destruction of the world? As they embark on their mission, they are joined by a third party. An international pirate. A man dedicated to ...

The pre-dawn quiet of the Lake Superior shoreline is shattered by the crack of a gunshot. Sheriff Jackson Holiday falls wounded in the snow. He recovers to tell the story of an anonymous phone call and a dark freighter looming in the icy shallows. A rogue FBI agent leads Jackson to believe that, on that fateful morning he'd been witness to the first phase of a momentous international incident. From the frozen waters of Lake Superior to an obscure destination in the North Atlantic, Sheriff Holiday is drawn into a frantic race against time where not just his own life, but the fate of a nation...

For over 3,000 years, the Mediterranean Sea has been one of the great centres of civilisation. David Abulafia's The Great Sea is the first complete history of the Mediterranean, from the erection of temples on Malta around 3500 BC to modern tourism. Ranging across time and the whole extraordinary space of the Mediterranean from Gibraltar to Jaffa, Genoa to Tunis, and bringing to life pilgrims, pirates, sultans and naval commanders, this is the story of the sea that has shaped much of world history.

In 1775 the little known Caribbean island of St. Eustatius is experiencing an economic boom unprecedented in scale. British Foreign Office spies based in Barbados are suspicious their French and rebel American counterparts are responsible and that much more is happening below the surface. Captain Owen Spence is tasked by his spymaster in Barbados with learning more. After establishing a trading operation as cover on St. Eustatius, Owen soon discovers weapon smuggling in support of the American rebels is rampant. Rumours the French are soon going to shift from covert support of the Americans...

A riveting collection of stories of ships, sailors, adventures on the high seas and maritime mysteries. The Tale by Joseph Conrad. The Saloon Passenger by E. W. Hornung. The Terrible Story of the "Mary Russell" by J. G. Lockhart. Marooned by J. G. Lockhart. A Rash Experiment by W. W. Jacobs. The Mystery of the Mary Celeste by J. G. Lockhart. Smoked Skipper by W. W. Jacobs. The Flying Dutchman by J. G. Lockhart. The Cabin Passenger by W. W. Jacobs. The Ship that saw a Ghost by Frank Norris.

Water covers the vast majority of the planet, and people have looked upon the oceans for thousands of years with a mixture of awe and fear. The world’s water offers transportation, connections with distant lands, food, and beauty. Furthermore, the deep seas and oceans remain largely unexplored, especially farther below. All of these factors have led to centuries worth of mysteries and stories. Countless people have ventured out on those vast expanses of water, never to return, while others have plumbed the depths and made strange discoveries.

When Ramona King’s fiancé, Keith, dies from a gunshot wound to the head, she doesn’t believe the ruling verdict of “suicide.” She suspects murder. Keith had sunk all his money into a luxury cruise liner, along with an even larger chunk of cash that wasn’t his. Could that be why he was killed? Ramona books herself onto its maiden voyage to find out. Her prime suspect is the ship’s owner, the devastatingly handsome and charismatic Damon Alexander. Passions ignite when they meet. Ramona has vowed nothing will stand in her way, but she’s never felt anything like this before.

After leaving behind a brilliant, but emotionally exhausting career in advertising, Mal Thomas wants nothing more than to enjoy the peace and serenity of the home he and his wife share in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. That serenity is interrupted when, seemingly out of nowhere, Mal gets a call that pulls him back into his old world, and on a path to undertaking an extraordinary assignment.

A deadly storm. A vanished crew. One woman’s fight to uncover the truth. When a routine coast guard rescue mission turns into a nightmare, Captain Emerson Blake is thrust into a high-stakes struggle for survival in the heart of the Great Lakes. Battling hurricane-force winds, betrayal within her own ranks, and a survivor who refuses to talk, Emerson must rely on her instincts—and the pain of her past—to find answers. But the deeper she digs, the more she realizes this wasn’t just a tragic accident. Someone wanted that ship—and its secrets—buried beneath the waves. Silent Shore ...