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Friday’s Forgotten Book: Madame Storey by Hulbert Footner
William Hulbert Footner (1879-1944) was born in Hamilton, Canada, and moved to New York before he was 20 years old. Eventually he settled his family in Calvert County, Maryland. He wrote books on travel and developed mysteries around two series detectives: one is...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Crime at the Noah’s Ark by Molly Thynne
The Crime at the Noah’s Ark is one of only six mysteries written by Molly Thynne and the first of three with the intriguing Dr. Constantine, a chess master. Originally published in 1931 by T. Nelson & Sons, this Golden Age classic was re-issued by Dean Street...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Dark Garden by E.R. Punshon
The Dark Garden by Ernest Robertson Punshon (Gollancz, 1941) is the sixteenth book in the saga of police detective Bobby Owen. Owen started out as a police constable in London and made his way up the ladder of Scotland Yard and then left London for the rural...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Hal’s Own Murder Case by Lee Martin
Anne Wingate (Martha Anne Guice Wingate) has written multiple mystery series, including one of my all-time favorites. Under the name Lee Martin, she created the memorable character of Deb Ralston, a detective on the Fort Worth police force, with three adopted...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Cinnamon Murder by Frances Crane
Frances Kirkwood Crane (1896-1981) wrote 26 mysteries between 1941 and 1965 with private investigator Pat Abbott and his wife Jean in the leading crime-solving role. The Abbotts were based in San Francisco but travelled constantly so the stories are set in a range...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Not Dead, Only Resting by Simon Brett
Simon Brett has been a mainstay of English crime fiction for 45 years. He has published some 60 volumes, in addition to writing for radio and television series. He received the Diamond Dagger Award from The Crime Writers’ Association in 2014 and the Order of the...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Appleby’s Answer by Michael Innes
Michael Innes (1906-1994) was the pen name used by John Innes Mackintosh Stewart to write around 50 mystery novels and collections of mystery short stories. He published contemporary fiction and literary criticism under his given name. He released around 35 books...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Gourmet Detective by Peter King
Peter King wrote eight books about the English chef turned food consultant Goodwin Harper between 1994 and 2003. According to Amazon, King was a Cordon Bleu-trained chef and a retired metallurgist who worked on the Apollo project for NASA. I haven’t been able to...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Straw Man by Doris Miles Disney
Doris Miles Disney (1907-1976) published nearly 50 mystery novels, most of which were stand-alone stories. She had three series characters: Jeff DiMarco, an insurance investigator; David Madden, a postal inspector; and Jim O’Neill, a Connecticut police detective....
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Black Beadle by E.C.R. Lorac
Edith Caroline Rivett (1894–1958) published more than 70 mysteries under the names E. C. R. Lorac and Carol Carnac between 1931 and 1959. Nearly all of the E.C.R. Lorac titles are about Chief Inspector Robert MacDonald, a Scot on the London...