Archives
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Death Takes a Flat by Miles Burton
Death Takes a Flat (Collins Crime Club, 1940) by Miles Burton, one of the pen names of Cecil John Charles Street (1884-1964), is the 21st case of former military intelligence officer Desmond Merrion and Inspector Henry Arnold of Scotland Yard. Major Pontefract’s...
The Dust and the Heat by Michael Gilbert
The Dust and the Heat is one of Michael Gilbert’s stand-alone novels published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1967 and published by Harper in 1968 as Overdrive in the U.S. It was shortlisted for the Gold Dagger Award in 1968, which I am delighted to learn because I...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Eames-Erskine Case by A. Fielding / Dorothy Fielding
Some two dozen mysteries were published under the name Archibald Fielding or A. Fielding or A. E. Fielding between 1924 and 1944. They are attributed to Dorothy Feilding (sic) about whom little is known, not even her year of birth apparently, which is given as 1884...
Murder in High Provence by George Bellairs
Murder in High Provence (John Giffords, 1957) by George Bellairs, the 27th case of Inspector Thomas Littlejohn, opens with a visit to the Littlejohn home by the Minister of Commerce, Spencer Lovell. Lovell’s only brother Christopher and his wife Elise were killed...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: My Late Wives by Carter Dickson
One of the later Sir Henry Merrivale mysteries by Carter Dickson, My Late Wives (Morrow Mystery, 1946; Heinemann, 1947) starts in 1934 when a serial killer known under various names meets and marries young women who disappear after signing over their modest bank...
Angel Without Mercy by Anthea Cohen
Anthea Cohen was the pseudonym of Doris Simpson (1913-2006), a UK author who worked for twenty-five years as a nurse in hospitals and as a private nurse. She has written about medicine and hospitals, contributing to Nursing Mirror and World Medicine journals. She...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: One Murdered, Two Dead by Milton Propper
Milton Morris Propper (1906-1962) was an American writer of early police procedurals, publishing 14 novels between 1929 and 1943, all with the same series character Tommy Rankin, a detective in the Philadelphia Homicide Bureau. He joined the Pennsylvania...
Murder Superior by Jane Haddam
Jane Haddam was the pen name for Orania Papazoglou (1951-2019), a college professor, magazine editor, and full-time author. Her first mystery about Patience Campbell McKenna, a romance novelist who became an investigator, was nominated for the Best First Novel...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Thrones, Dominations by Dorothy L. Sayers & Jill Paton Walsh
Dorothy Leigh Sayers (1893-1957) is anything but forgotten but the focus of mystery readers is on her full-length novels and the collections of short stories, where Mr. Montague Egg, one of my favorite Sayers characters shines. No one talks much about the...
For Kicks by Dick Francis
For Kicks (Michael Joseph, 1965; Harper & Row, 1965) is an early stand-alone from former steeplechase jockey turned author Dick Francis (1920-2010) who wrote nearly 50 books and won multiple awards. It starts with Daniel Roke, a successful horse breeder and...
