Archives
If It Isn’t One Thing by Steven F. Havill
Steven F. Havill, a resident of New Mexico, launched his Posadas County series in 1991 with his older undersheriff Bill Gastner as the protagonist in a vivid depiction of small town police work on the border of the United States and Mexico. Havill progressed the...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Fly Country by Anthony Lang
John George Haslette Vahey (1881 – 1938) was born in Belfast and was educated at Ulster, Foyle College, and Hanover. He first worked as an architect and then as an accountant and then became a full-time writer. His first of 52 novels was published in 1916 and his...
Untouchable by Mike Lawson
Run, don’t walk, to your nearest bookstore and grab a copy of the latest Joe DeMarco adventure, which is out today. Untouchable by Mike Lawson (Atlantic Monthly Press, February 2025) is the 18th title in a consistently fine political thriller series that began 20...
Blackout and Other Tales of Suspense by Ethel Lina White
Crippen & Landru Publishers (C&L) produces single-author short story collections, both current crime fiction authors and uncollected stories by mystery and detective writers of the past. It’s the latter that I find most valuable, since so many authors...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Unfinished Clue by Georgette Heyer
Georgette Heyer (1902–1974) has long been one of my all-time favorite authors. Well known for creating the Regency romance, she also produced mysteries and historical fiction. She considered a trilogy about the House of Lancaster her master work but she was unable...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Coffin, Scarcely Used by Colin Watson
Colin Watson (1920–1983) was an English journalist and author of a successful detective series set in the prosperous market and port town of Flaxborough in East Anglia. Flaxborough is a fictionalized version of the town of Boston in Lincolnshire where Watson was a...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: It’s Her Own Funeral by Carol Carnac
Perhaps of all the obscure authors brought back into the public’s eye by the British Library in its Crime Classics series, I enjoy the work of Edith Caroline Rivett (1894–1958) the most. Her 70 plus mysteries, originally published between 1931 and 1959, are...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Swan Song by Edmund Crispin
Robert Bruce Montgomery (1921-1978) who wrote crime fiction under the name Edmund Crispin and composed music for films under his real name is hardly a forgotten author. His literary output was small compared to some of his contemporaries, only nine novels and two...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Clock That Wouldn’t Stop by E. X. Ferrars
Morna Doris MacTaggart Brown (1907-1995) wrote several novels under that name before adopting the pseudonym Elizabeth Ferrars, which became E. X. Ferrars in the United States. Her first mystery was published in 1940, the initial appearance of Toby Dyke, a...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: About the Murder of a Startled Lady by Anthony Abbot
Charles Fulton Oursler (1893-1952) was an American journalist, playwright, and author. He started out in the newspaper and magazine business and became senior editor of Reader's Digest in 1944. He wrote for a number of publications including The Black...
