Archives
Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman
Harry Kemelman (1908-1996) was a schoolteacher before World War II, worked in multiple government positions during the war and launched a freelance writing career afterwards. He began publishing in 1947 with the first of his short stories about New England college...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Murder of a Nymph by Margot Neville
The works of Australian sisters Margot Goyder (1896–1975) and Anne Neville Goyder Joske (1887–1966) have been on my reading list for awhile. Writing under the name Margot Neville, the pair wrote short stories, plays, and humorous novels before creating Detective...
The Mordida Man by Ross Thomas
I discovered Mike Lawson’s political thriller series about Congressional fixer Joe DeMarco a few years ago and have followed it ever since. His work is often compared to that of Ross Thomas (1926-1995), and I finally got around to finding a couple of books by...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: A Matter of Iodine by David Keith
Francis Steegmuller (1906–1994) was an American author of biographies, fiction, travel, and short articles for periodicals. He also translated a number of Gustave Flaubert’s writings, for which he is chiefly known. He won two National Book Awards—one in 1971...
Treasure Up in Smoke by David Williams
I am enamored of the Mark Treasure series by David Williams (1926-2003), 17 mysteries published between 1976 and 1993. Mark Treasure is Vice-Chairman of Grenwood Phipps & Co., merchant bankers of London. His actress wife Molly often accompanies him on his...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Crime in Kensington by Christopher St John Sprigg
Christopher St John Sprigg (1907-1937) was a versatile English writer of poetry, plays, short stories, detective novels, and aeronautics textbooks. In his mid-20s he became fascinated by Marxism and his writing from then on reflected this new interest. When the...
Carnaby and the Hijackers by Peter N. Walker
Peter Norman Walker (1936-2017) was a lifelong resident of North Yorkshire. He served as a police officer in the North Riding force for 30 years, upon which he based his crime fiction writing. In addition to publishing under his name, he also released books under...
Taking Detective Stories Seriously: The Collected Crime Reviews of Dorothy L. Sayers
Among her many talents Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957) was a crime fiction critic, reading and evaluating books weekly for the Sunday Times from 1933 into 1935. Seeking to make Sayers’ insights and observations available to the wider reading public, the Dorothy L....
Scoundrel by Bernard Cornwell
Bernard Cornwell is familiar to me as a fine writer of historical adventure. I have read nearly all of his Saxon Chronicles set from 866 A.D. to 937 A. D. His stories about the Napoleonic Wars are told through the eyes of British soldier Richard Sharpe. I was not...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Body Behind the Bar by Cecil Freeman Gregg
British author Cecil Freeman Gregg (1898-1960) was a chartered secretary and accountant like fellow Golden Age author and contemporary Richard Henry Sampson (1896-1973) who wrote under the name Richard Hull. Gregg published 42 mysteries between 1928 and 1960, with...
