AustLit

US narrative of a man's second wife, his tightfistedness and her strength of character. Humour. (PB)

Sinclair travels to Dunedin on a case and visits a friend, a theatre manager. He becomes involved in an attempted jewellery swindle by an aspiring amateur actress and the manager's leading man; discovers the woman to be a rich squatter's runaway wife; and witnesses the revenge of the actor's wife escaped from a Victorian mental asylum. (PB)

A country man decides to repair pots and pans himself - but hot solder changes his plans. (PB)

An intellectual man returns from arranging the publication of his book to find the young wife he has neglected gone away with a feigning friend. He awaits her return, fearing he has lost her. Smoothly told. (PB)

An apprentice pig farmer's antics in attempting to slaughter his bacon. Humour. (PB)

A US naval ship rescues an Englishman and his daughter from pirates in the West Indies in 1820 - and romance follows. Slight, action-packed. (PB)

Anecdote of hospitality shown to an Archbishop wrecked off the Welsh coast in 1640. (PB)

The disappearance of increasingly large sums of money from a Scots bank at Tollkirk cause great anxiety until the manager's sleep-walking is discovered. Cheerful with companionable tone. (PB)

A crippled heiress comes to love her young doctor but discovers too late that he is already engaged. She becomes their close friend after mastering her emotions. (PB)

Magdalene Faucit arrives in a Victorian goldrush town determined to avenge the death of her sister and nephew through Ralph Somerton's cruelty and desertion. She plays piano in the local theatre until she wins his love, then spurns and leaves him. He follows her to prove her mistake ... Pleasantly told, if improbable. (PB)

A dandy argues for a poor woodbearer he takes to court - by a clever device. (PB)

A wealthy man is cured of lumbago when he mistakes a sweep falling down his chimney for an imp from hell. (PB)