Archives
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Accident by Design by E. C. R. Lorac
Accident by Design (Collins, 1950) by E. C. R. Lorac is the 34th appearance of Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald. Even with more than 45 books to her credit by this time, Lorac (real name Edith Rivett) demonstrates she’s not out of ideas. What’s left...
Copper Gold by Pauline Glen Winslow
The backs of dust jackets on older books are often filled with blurbs about the book in hand or the author’s earlier works but sometimes, especially the dust jackets of first editions or debut works, advertise the publisher’s other authors in that genre. It’s a...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Threepence to Marble Arch by Paul McGuire
Dominic Mary Paul McGuire (1903–1978) was an Australian author, Catholic activist, and diplomat, writing mostly poetry and nonfiction and for a few years crime fiction. His 16 mysteries were all published between 1931 and 1940, after which he pursued less frivolous...
And Did Murder Him by Peter Turnbull
Peter Turnbull used his certificate in social work in Glasgow for years before returning to Yorkshire, where he was born, to take up full-time writing. His crime fiction series includes one set in Yorkshire, one set in London, and one set in Glasgow. His Glasgow...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: X v. REX by Philip Macdonald
Philip Macdonald (1900-1980) was a British writer of more than 30 novels, dozens of short stories, and radio, television, and film scripts, nearly all of them in the crime fiction genre. He wrote under his name and as Oliver Fleming, Anthony Lawless, Martin...
The Big Thaw by Donald Harstad
Someone was looking for an older series to binge and I started listing my favorites. This one surfaced the second time I dredged my memory. These rural police procedurals are excellent and I do not understand why more readers aren't familiar with them. The Big Thaw...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: While the Patient Slept by Mignon G. Eberhart
Mignon G. Eberhart (1899-1996) was a creative author of mysteries and romantic suspense. Her long career began in 1929 with a mystery featuring Sarah/Sally Keate, a nurse in New York, who was Eberhart’s only series character. Keate featured in seven books. The rest...
Notice of Death by John Penn
John Penn is a joint pseudonym of Palma Harcourt (1917 - 1999) when she wrote with husband Jack H. Trotman. Harcourt wrote espionage thrillers under her own name. Under the Penn pseudonym she wrote more traditional detective stories. George Thorne, a...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Case of the Baited Hook by Erle Stanley Gardner
The Case of the Baited Hook (Morrow, 1940) is the last appearance of Sergeant Holcomb in the Perry Mason series by Erle Stanley Gardner (1889–1970). Holcomb is the typical bullying cop of the 1930s pulps, more brawn than brains, and Mason ran circles around...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Death Takes a Flat by Miles Burton
Death Takes a Flat (Collins Crime Club, 1940) by Miles Burton, one of the pen names of Cecil John Charles Street (1884-1964), is the 21st case of former military intelligence officer Desmond Merrion and Inspector Henry Arnold of Scotland Yard. Major Pontefract’s...
