Archives
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Slayground by Richard Stark
Donald Westlake (1933-2008) was an assiduous and creative author with about 100 crime fiction novels and dozens of short stories to his credit under various pen names. His fecund imagination earned him the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Innocent Bystander by Craig Rice
Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig (1908–1957) wrote a number of mysteries, short stories, and screenplays under the name Craig Rice after beginning her writing career as a journalist in 1930. She is mostly known for her comic mysteries with Jake Justus, a clueless press...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Unholy Writ by David Williams
Unholy Writ by David Williams (Williams Collins Sons, 1976) is the first of 17 mysteries published between 1976 and 1993 featuring Mark Treasure, Vice-Chairman of Grenwood Phipps & Co., merchant bankers of London, and his actress wife Molly. Treasure is clearly...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Murder Can’t Wait by Richard Lockridge
Frances Davis Lockridge (1896-1963) and Richard Lockridge (1899-1982) were journalists known mostly for their Mr. and Mrs. North mysteries. About 70 books form the lavish Lockridge oeuvre, released between 1936 and 1980. In addition to the books about the Norths...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Shakespeare Murders by A.G. MacDonell
Archibald Gordon Macdonell (1895 – 1941) was a versatile writer. His most famous book was England, Their England (1933), for which he is remembered today. Its description of England between the wars, especially of a village cricket match, is considered a...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Cornish Coast Murder by John Bude
Ernest Carpenter Elmore (1901–1957) was an English theatre producer and director who wrote more than 35 novels, 30 of which were crime fiction published under the pseudonym John Bude. The rest were released under his name. Writing as John Bude, most of the...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: There Came Both Mist and Snow by Michael Innes
There Came Both Mist and Snow by Michael Innes (Victor Gollancz, 1940) is the sixth mystery with Inspector John Appleby, who doesn’t appear in this mannered story of an upper class family until almost midway. The tale is told from the perspective of Arthur...
My Favorite Books of 2019
After some effort I managed to sort my reading in 2019 enough to identify 20 books that I really liked. Some of them reflect my renewed interest in Golden Age authors. In alphabetical order by the author's last name, here they are. The Shameless by Ace Atkins, 2019...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Murder on a Bad Hair Day by Anne George
Anne Carroll George (1927-2001) was best known to me as a cozy mystery writer, the creator of the eight Southern Sisters mysteries set in Birmingham, Alabama, released between 1996 and 2001. She was also short-listed for a Pulitzer, nominated in 1993 for her poetry...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Cry Guilty by Sara Woods
British author Lana Hutton Bowen-Judd (1922-1985) published 48 mysteries under the name of Sara Woods, three under the name Anne Burton, three under the name of Mary Challis, and three under the name Margaret Leek. Born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, she...