Archives
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Our Second Murder by Torrey Chanslor
Torrey Chanslor was the pen name of Marjorie Torrey (1899-195?), a well-known illustrator of children’s books in the mid-1900s. Torrey received two Caldecott Honors for her work in 1946 and 1947. She also wrote a few books for children and two adult mysteries, the...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Five-Ring Circus by Jon Cleary
Jon Cleary (1917-2010) was an Australian writer, publishing about 50 novels in a range of genres. A number of them were adapted for film and television. His first book about Scobie Malone, a Sydney homicide inspector, appeared in 1966 and evolved into a series of...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Incredible Crime by Lois Austen Leigh
The Incredible Crime (Herbert Jenkins, 1931; Poisoned Pen Press, 2017) by Lois Austen Leigh (1883-1968) was the first of four mysteries written by the great-great niece of Jane Austen. All four were published during the 1930s in what seems to have been small print...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Death on the Cherwell by Mavis Doriel Hay
After reading another Golden Age mystery set at a university recently, I re-visited Death on the Cherwell by Mavis Doriel Hay (1894-1979). Originally published in 1935 by Skeffington & Sons, the same year as Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers, also set at...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Dead for a Ducat by Simon Shaw
Simon Shaw is an actor turned author and journalist. After a dozen or so years in theater, he released his first book about Philip Fletcher, an aging thespian convinced of his consummate acting prowess and disgusted with producers that overlook him. He helped his...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Gold Skull Murders by Frank L. Packard
Frank Lucius Packard (1877–1942) was a Canadian novelist who first worked as a civil engineer on the Canadian Pacific Railway, an experience that gave him plenty of material when he turned to writing. His most famous creation was an early superhero,...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Gideon and the Young Toughs by John Creasey
Gideon and the Young Toughs and Other Stories by John Creasey (1908-1973) writing as J. J. Marric (Crippen & Landru, 2022) is most welcome to this George Gideon fan. I discovered the series in the late 1960s and raced through them, seizing the new ones off the...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Triple Play by Elizabeth Gunn
I was sad to learn this week that Elizabeth Gunn, author of one of my all-time favorite mystery series, died on 30 August at the age of 95. Gunn led an eventful life, managing an inn with her husband in Montana and then traveling extensively. She had a private...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Defense Does Not Rest by Edna Sherry
Stark House kindly sent me an advance copy of their new reprint of two books by Edna Sherry (1885–1967), to be released in October. After writing serials and short stories for pulp magazines and collaborating on a play, Sherry turned to novels. Her first book...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The House of Godwinsson by E. R. Punshon
The House of Godwinsson (Gollancz, 1948; Dean Street Press, 2016) is the 25th book about policeman Bobby Owen written by Ernest Robertson Punshon (1872-1956). Through his long career Owen worked in London and in a more rural part of the country, gradually climbing...
