Archives
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Polo Ground Mystery by Robin Forsythe
Robert “Robin” Forsythe (1879-1937) began writing short stories and poetry as a teenager. In middle age after a stint in prison he took up mystery writing, publishing five mysteries with amateur sleuth and landscape painter Algernon/Anthony Vereker as the amateur...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Death in Desolation by George Bellairs
George Bellairs was the pseudonym of Harold Blundell (1902-1982), a Manchester bank manager as well as a freelance journalist. He published 57 popular classic police procedurals featuring Inspector Thomas Littlejohn of Scotland Yard between 1941 and 1980. He also...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Crossword Mystery by E. R. Punshon
I realized it had been quite awhile since I looked at the Bobby Owen detective mysteries by Ernest Robertson Punshon (1872-1956). I was a bit disappointed by the last one or two I read in the series so I thought perhaps I would have better luck with an early title....
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Murder at the WPA by Alexander Williams
Alexander Hazard Williams (1894-1952) was born in Washington, DC, attended Georgetown University in his hometown, served in the Army and then in the Air Corps. He worked as a newspaper correspondent, among other things, and became an executive in the Works Progress...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Murder at Cambridge by Q. Patrick
Q. Patrick was the pseudonym of Richard Wilson Webb (1901-1966), who also published under the names Patrick Quentin and Jonathan Stagge. Webb wrote some books alone and then with Martha Mott Kelly under the name Q. Patrick for a few years before Webb teamed up with...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Case of the Terrified Typist by Erle Stanley Gardner
With so many reviews of Perry Mason mysteries popping up, I went back to one of my favorite titles in the series by Erle Stanley Gardner (1889-1970). Not his best written nor his strongest characters, I loved The Case of the Terrified Typist (Morrow, 1956) for its...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Death of a Bovver Boy by Leo Bruce
Rupert Croft-Cooke (1903-1979) began his long literary career early, publishing a volume of poetry at age 19. He wrote a number of biographies and screenplays and literary fiction under his name and used the name Leo Bruce for his crime fiction. In addition to...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Worm of Death by Nicholas Blake
I discovered my copy of The Worm of Death (Harper, 1961) by Nicholas Blake this week and of course had to re-read it. Nicholas Blake is the pseudonym of Cecil Day-Lewis (1904–1972), the UK Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death. While he was a distinguished...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: I Want to Go Home by Frances and Richard Lockridge
Crippen & Landru’s recent release of a collection of short fiction by Richard and Frances Lockridge reminded me that I had not looked at any of their books for awhile. Frances Davis Lockridge (1896-1963) and Richard Lockridge (1899-1982) were journalists known...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Death of a Ghost by Margery Allingham
It has been a full couple of weeks and I have fallen back on some old favorites for my night reading. It is always a pleasure to visit Albert Campion and his 1930s milieu exquisitely rendered by Margery Allingham (1904-1966). Like the classic poem 221B written...
