Archives
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Skeleton Coast Contract by Philip Atlee
James Atlee Phillips (1915-1991) was a colorful pulp fiction writer who also published under the name Philip Atlee. He worked as a journalist, traveled with overseas airlines, spent some time in the military, and had a stint in Hollywood, where he worked for John...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Mysteries of Africa edited by Eugene Schleh
Eugene Paul Anderson Schleh (1939-2007) received a Ph.D. in International Relations from Yale University. His dissertation was entitled Post-Service Careers of African World War Two Veterans: British East and West Africa with Particular Reference to Ghana and...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: the Beacon Hill Murders by Roger Scarlett
The Beacon Hill Murders (Doubleday Doran, 1930; Coachwhip, 2017) was the first of five mysteries by Roger Scarlet, the joint pen name of Dorothy Blair and Evelyn Page, who worked as editors at Houghton Mifflin before undertaking a collaborative writing career. See...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Suspect by L. R. Wright
Laurali Rose Appleby Wright (1939-2001) was a Canadian journalist, playwright, and author. She is best remembered for her series of mysteries about Staff Sergeant Karl Alberg of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, ranking officer of the RCMP detachment in the small...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck (Ross Thomas)
Ross Thomas (1926-1995) was an American author best known for his exquisitely written political thrillers. His first book The Cold War Swap won the 1967 Edgar for Best First Mystery and Briarpatch, one of his later stand-alone books, won the 1985 Edgar. He...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Murder a la Richelieu by Anita Blackmon
Anita Blackmon (1893-1943) had a varied literary career, publishing more than a thousand short stories and a range of longer fiction. She wrote two mystery novels, both set in her home state of Arkansas and featuring an acerbic older lady named Adelaide Adams....
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Appleby and Honeybath by Michael Innes
Michael Innes (1906-1994) was the pen name used by John Innes Mackintosh Stewart to write around 50 crime 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 Ginger Cat 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. The fourth one...
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...
