Archives
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Weekend at Thrackley by Alan Melville
Alan Melville (1910-1983) was a man of many parts, not least of which was an author. Weekend at Thrackley (Skeffington, 1934; reprinted by the British Library, 2018) was his debut mystery. In the introduction to the British Library’s release of this book, Martin...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: What Dread Hand? by Elizbeth Gill
I love mysteries set in theaters, so opened What Dread Hand? by Elizabeth Gill (Cassell & Co., 1932; reprinted by Dean Street Press, 2017) with great anticipation. Julia Dallas is the main character, a young woman newly engaged to Lord Charles Kulligrew, a...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Tipster by Gerald Verner
Gerald Verner (1897-1980) was born John Robert Stuart Pringle. He also wrote under the names Donald Stuart, Nigel Vane, Derwent Steele, and Thane Leslie. His literary output was prodigious: More than 120 books, many of which were adapted for films, radio, and stage...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Gently Between Tides by Alan Hunter
Alan Hunter (1922 – 2005) was born in Norfolk, England, where he lived most of his life. After working on his father’s farm and serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II, he became a bookstore manager before publishing his first novel Gently Does It...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: the Arsenal Stadium Mystery by Leonard Gribble
Leonard Reginald Gribble (1908-1985) was an incredibly prolific English writer, beginning in his twenties. Gribble also wrote as Sterry Browning, James Gannett, Leo Grex, Louis Grey, Piers Marlowe, Dexter Muir, Landon Grant, and Bruce Sanders. He wrote...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Rainy City by Earl Emerson
Earl W. Emerson was a firefighter in Seattle for over 32 years. He parlayed his law enforcement experience into crime fiction, winning the 1986 Shamus Award for best private eye novel for Poverty Bay (Avon Books, 1985), which was also shortlisted for the Anthony...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: A Trouble of Fools by Linda Barnes
The female private investigator, as opposed to the amateur sleuth, has been a relatively rare occurrence in crime fiction but she has popped up here and there. Loveday Brooke is an early "lady detective" created by Catherine Louisa Pirkis in 1894. Canadian writer...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Blue Murder by Harriet Rutland
Among the authors who tantalized readers with a few good mysteries and then disappeared is Olive Seers Shimwell (1901-1962) who published three mysteries under the name Harriet Rutland. She produced Knock, Murderer, Knock (Skeffington & Son, 1938); Bleeding...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Uncle Paul by Celia Fremlin
Celia Fremlin (1914–2009) was a British graduate of Oxford, Somerville College, same as Dorothy L. Sayers. She published two sociological books about the effects of the war on everyday people before turning to psychological thrillers that focused on domestic...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Patterns in the Dust by Lesley Grant-Adamson
Lesley Grant-Adamson is a British writer of mystery fiction. She wrote for magazines and newspapers before becoming a full-time freelancer. Besides crime novels, she has written television scripts, poetry, magazine articles, and short stories. Her...
