[Free eBook] The Unquiet Spirit by Marguerite Steen [Vintage 1950s Supernatural Thriller]

The Unquiet Spirit by the late English author Marguerite Steen, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature whose works enjoyed a period of popularity in the 1930s and 1940s, is her vintage standalone gothic-ish supernatural thriller novel, apparently with f/m romantic elements, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press’ THe Odyssey Press imprint.

This was originally published in 1955 by Collins.

The story takes place at an English countryside home where all is not what it appears, when an old schoolfriend invited to stay for the weekend finds himself following a strange and spooky drama being played out, where local family conflicts apparently centred around an unusual child turn into a battle against supernatural forces.

Offered worldwide, available at Amazon.

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[Free eBook] An Eastern Odyssey: The Early Adventures of Edward Enfield by Edward Enfield [1950s East Asia Travelogue Memoir]

An Eastern Odyssey: The Early Adventures of Edward Enfield by English author Edward Enfield, a former BBC television presenter and newspaper columnist, is his personal memoir cum travelogue, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press’ The Odyssey Press imprint.

This is one of their original publications by an established author who has previously written humorous bicycling travelogues published by Bloomsbury and Summersdale.

This travelogue memoir deals mostly with his coming-of-age as a young man in the Far East during the 1950s after having been a child evacuated to Canada during the London Blitz, seeing him return to England for education, join the National Service and travel abroad, taking employment with a shipping company which sent him to Asia where he experienced an assortment of life adventures while stationed in Hong Kong, Japan, Bangkok in Thailand, and elsewhere.

Offered worldwide, available at Amazon.

[Free eBook] Lunar Vengeance: A Collection of Science Fiction Stories by John Russell Fearn [Vintage Science Fiction]

Lunar Vengeance: A Collection of Science Fiction Stories by the late British author John Russell Fearn, edited by British author Philip Harbottle, is a collection of his vintage golden age science fiction stories, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press’ Venture imprint.

This new collection reprints six tales from the 1940s-1950s, apparently with a theme of exploring civilization (or the lack of it) on various settlements within our solar system, and includes a brief introduction to the author and his works by science fiction author and editor Philip Harbottle.

The title story was originally published in Amazing Stories magazine in 1943 under the pseudonym Thornton Ayre, and the other stories also appeared credited as by Vargo Statten, Mark Denholm, Volsted Gridban, as well as Fearn’s own name (mostly during reprints and translations).

Offered worldwide, available at Amazon.

[Free eBook] Hell Hath No Fury by Sydney J. Bounds [Vintage Mystery/Crime Thriller]

Hell Hath No Fury by the late English author Sydney J. Bounds is his vintage pulp noir-styled mystery/crime thriller, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press.

This was originally published in 1951 by John Spencer under the Rex Marlowe pseudonym.

The story stars a San Francisco P.I. who is hired to find a woman’s missing daughter, who has gotten involved with a dangerously unsavoury man who frames her for murder, in return for which she seeks not justice, but revenge, even as the P.I. tries to keep them both alive while figuring out exactly why the “killer” and victim were both targeted by the culprit.

Offered worldwide, available at Amazon.

[Free eBook] Becoming a Marihuana User by Howard S. Becker [Vintage Academic Drug Culture Sociology]

Becoming a Marihuana User by Howard S. Becker, an influential sociologist and professor at Northwestern University for decades before he retired, is his vintage sociology article, free for a limited time courtesy of the University of Chicago Press.

This is their featured Free Book of the Month for July.

The article, which is an in-depth look exploring the users and culture and various other issues surrounding marijuana during the 1950s, was originally published in the American Journal of Sociology in 1953, and this edition includes a new preface.

Offered worldwide through the month of July, directly from the University Press’ website.

[Free eBook] Richard’s Feet by Carey Harrison [Award-Winning Post-WWII Literary Identity Thriller]

Richard’s Feet by British author Carey Harrison, a multiple award-winning playwright and novelist who is also the son of classic actor Rex Harrison (of My Fair Lady and Cleopatra fame), is the 1st novel in his The Heart Beneath quartet of historical literary thrillers, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press’ Odyssey imprint.

This was originally published in 1990 by Mackays of Cheltham and won the UK Society of Writers’ Encore Award in 1990 and was also longlisted for the Booker Prize. The novel explores themes of post-World War II identity and starts in the late 1940s, set in England and Soviet-dominated Germany and continues there for some decades after, with references back to events during the 1930s.

The story stars an Englishman who goes in search of a woman he once loved during the pre-war years, hoping to find her in Soviet Germany, and eventually becomes a boss in the criminal underworld of Hamburg after faking his death and adopting a new identity, though he finds out he cannot fully escape the influence of the life he had before.

Offered worldwide, available at Amazon.

[Free eBook] Spaceship 13 by E. C. Tubb [Vintage Science Fiction Collection]

Spaceship 13 by the late British author E. C. Tubb, perhaps best known for his long-running science fiction Dumarest Saga, and edited by British author Philip Harbottle, is a compilation of his vintage science fiction tales, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press’ Venture imprint.

This contains 3 novellas and 1 short story, all originally published in various genre magazines during the 1950s. The stories deal with themes of space exploration or technology usage, and most are being reprinted for the first time.

Offered worldwide, available at Amazon.

[Free eBook] Rose Under Glass by Elizabeth Berridge [1950s Literary Drama Novel]

Rose Under Glass by the late British author Elizabeth Berridge, a well-regarded novelist and critic who was also a judge for various literary prizes, is her standalone literary drama novel with f/m romantic elements, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press’ Odyssey imprint.

This was originally published in 1961 by William Heinemann.

The story is set in 1950s London as various characters meet and intertwine, the main narrative split between a suddenly-widowed woman who may be able to move on from loss with the owner of a local coffee shop, and a husband moving his family from rural Wales to attempt his dream of publishing, who may find himself losing them as the cost of his career.

Offered worldwide, available at Amazon.

[Free eBook] The Hero of Saint Roger by Jerrard Tickell [Vintage Post-WWII Literary Satire]

The Hero of Saint Roger by the late Irish author Jerrard Tickell, whose WWII comedy novel Appointment with Venus has been twice adapted to film, is his vintage standalone literary fiction novel with satirical elements, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press’ Odyssey imprint.

This was originally published in 1954 by Hodder & Stoughton.

The story is set several years after World War II, on a fictional Caribbean island which is a popular tourist destination which one day experiences a disaster which forces them to rebuild. With resources difficult to obtain, the islanders hatch a scheme to deceive the outside world into aiding them, which some islanders begin to have second thoughts about even as it gets underway, in a story that both explores and skewers life in both the wartime and postwar years.

Offered worldwide, available at Amazon.

[Free eBook] A House on the Rhine by Frances Faviell [Vintage Post-WWII Literary Novel]

A House on the Rhine by Frances Faviell, a pseudonym for the late author and painter Olivia Faviell Lucas, is her vintage literary fiction novel, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Dean Street Press.

This was originally published in 1955 by Rupert Hart-Davis, and this new edition contains an afterword by the author’s son who also lived through the time period in the novel, along with other supplementary material. The novel, which is now historical, but contemporary at the time it was written and loosely based on the author’s own observations which she also recorded in a memoir of post-war Berlin where her family was stationed as part of the occupation, takes place in the aftermath of WWII near Cologne.

The story is a family/societal drama exploring conflicts in a German family and its surrounding society which is struggling with the changes brought about by the end of the war, and the divide between the parents, who were part of the Nazi-ruled establishment, and the children, who are rebelling in various ways.

Offered worldwide, available at Amazon.