Archives
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Lady Killer by George Harmon Coxe
George Harmon Coxe (1901-1984) was an American journalist turned crime fiction author of the hard-boiled school. He began writing for the mystery pulp magazines early and was earning enough to focus full time on them by the 1930s. He was a regular contributor to...
Looking Back at 2021
When I reviewed the list of books I completed in 2021, these are the titles that remain as distinctly memorable reads after multiple attempts to winnow. They are evenly divided between men and women writers. About two-thirds were published in this century and the...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Dishonest Murderer by Frances and Richard Lockridge
Frances Davis Lockridge (1896-1963) and Richard Lockridge (1899-1982) were journalists known mostly for their Mr. and Mrs. North mysteries. Some two dozen books about publisher Jerry North and his wife Pam with their good friend Lt. Bill Weigand of the New York...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Crime for Christmas by Lesley Egan
Barbara Elizabeth Linington (1921-1988) was an inexhaustible American author who wrote under the names Elizabeth Linington, Anne Blaisdell, Lesley Egan, Egan O'Neill, and Dell Shannon. She initially wrote radio and stage dramas and then turned to historical...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Murder of Cecily Thane by Harriette Ashbrook
Harriette Ashbrook (1898-1946) was a journalist and author from the Midwest, born in Kansas. She was a newspaper reporter for the Lincoln Journal before joining Harper’s as a publicist. From there she became the publicity director for the Coward-McCann Publishing...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Death Breaks the Ring by Virginia Rath
Virginia McVay Rath (1905-1950) was born in northern California near San Francisco and graduated from the University of California. She taught high school before marrying and beginning her literary career during which she published thirteen novels. She has two...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Shackles by Bill Pronzini
Bill Pronzini is a spectacularly high-volume author, having written more than 300 short stories and more than 100 novels. He’s also compiled a large number of anthologies of mystery, science fiction, and Western short fiction. But he’s mostly known as a writer of...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Murder in Black and White by Evelyn Elder
Evelyn Elder was a pseudonym used by Milward Kennedy, which was the writing name of Milward Rodon Kennedy Burge (1894 –1968). Burge was an English civil servant, journalist, literary critic, and author of crime fiction. He was London editor of the Empire Digest and...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: One Last Hit by Nathan Walpow
I was fortunate enough to see the Summer of Soul documentary released earlier this year, restored footage of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival and interviews with both singers and attendees. I had forgotten about some of the bands: Sly and the Family Stone in...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Case in the Clinic by E. C. R. Lorac
Between 1931 and 1959 Edith Caroline Rivett (1894–1958) published more than 70 mysteries under the names E. C. R. Lorac and Carol Carnac. Nearly all of the E.C.R. Lorac titles, about 45 of them, feature Chief Inspector Robert MacDonald, a Scot...
