As long as we are talking about crime fiction that deserves to be reprinted, I want to mention one of my enduring favorites which has been long out of print. There is one first edition copy on eBay for $476 in the UK. ABE Books has one first edition for $217 in Australia.
Novelist and screenwriter Audrey Erskine Lindop (1920–1986) wrote historical and suspense fiction, I have been unable to find an authoritative complete list. I Start Counting (Collins, 1966; Doubleday, 1966) seems to have been the most well-known of them, based on the success of the film adaptation with Jenny Agutter in her first starring role. The book won the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière-International Category in 1967.
I did not know any of this when I found the book in my small hometown library. All I knew is that the teenaged protagonist and I were both unsure of ourselves and mortified by our families and we were probably sisters separated by fate. I see from the reviews on Goodreads that others feel the same way. Reading it again at a much later date revealed clever plotting that downplayed the serial killer at large in the town and drew on the classic crime tendency to hide the culprit in plain sight.
The story is narrated by Wynne Kinch, an orphaned 14-year-old in the suburban Midlands, set during the free-wheeling 1960s of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, a time of social change that affects all of the characters. Wynne is part of a blended family, routine now but unusual then, living with her paternal grandfather, her aunt by marriage Lucy, and Lucy’s three children. The twins Nellie and Len are Wynne’s cousins from Lucy’s second marriage. George, Lucy’s older son from her first marriage, is no relation at all. But they are a true family, squabbling internally and coalescing at the slightest hint of external threat. Wynne has developed a walloping schoolgirl crush on George, and he’s doing his best to wait for it to run its course.
In addition to the general angst of a self-conscious teenage girl with an embarrassing family and excess baby fat, Wynne is sad because the family recently moved to a high-rise apartment when the neighborhood where she’d lived most of her life was slated for reconstruction. She makes frequent trips to the old house, unbeknownst to the rest of her family who would be horrified, as the serial killer’s targets have been teenage girls just like Wynne. So far responsible for the deaths of four girls, the strangler has given the police few clues to work with. But self-absorbed Wynne does not think twice about disappearing alone to visit the old house, with no one knowing where she is.
Wynne gradually decides, with the flawed judgment of the young, that George is the strangler and that she must protect him at all costs. Her bumbling eventually brings George to the attention of the police, and Wynne herself is charged with accessory to murder after the fact.
Apparently readers either love or hate this book, there seems to be no middle ground. Multiple readers on Goodreads had reactions similar to mine, while others didn’t understand the fuss. Sergio Angelini of Tipping My Fedora didn’t care for it either. https://bloodymurder.wordpress.com/2015/11/17/i-start-counting-1966-by-audrey-erskine-lindop/.
I found (and still find) the extended family hilarious. Of course Granddad raises mice. Keeping pigeons would be far too ordinary. The offhand mentions of mice breed shows and mice industry newsletters still evoke snickers. I am familiar with the domestic chaos the book describes that results from six adults sharing living space, as at the time of first reading my family of eight was wedged into a house far too small for it.
The mystery is not prominent, it simmers on the sidelines most of the time and seems to be a catalyst to the characters and their interactions with each other, which I consider a fascinating way to construct a suspense novel. My reaction to the identity of the strangler was first to be startled and then to ask myself how I missed it. Definitely a fair-play mystery. All in all, I still love this book and believe it should be reprinted.