Archives
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Corpses in Enderby by George Bellairs
George Bellairs is a byword in the world of classic British crime fiction. The pseudonym of Harold Blundell (1902-1982), a Manchester bank manager as well as a freelance journalist, he published 57 popular classic police procedural mysteries featuring Inspector...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Through the Wall by Patricia Wentworth
Through the Wall by Patricia Wentworth (Lippincott, 1950) is the 17th (according to www.stopyourekillingme.com and Wikipedia) or 19th (Amazon and GoodReads) mystery featuring Miss Maud Silver, former governess and current successful private investigator. While...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Hunt with the Hounds by Mignon G. Eberhart
Mignon G. Eberhart, 1899-1996, was a prolific author of mysteries and romantic suspense. Her long career began in 1929 with a mystery featuring Sara/Sally Keate, a nurse in New York, who was Eberhart’s only series character. Keate featured in seven books. The...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Dogs of War by Frederick Forsyth
The Dogs of War by Frederick Forsyth (Viking, 1974) is the third of 18 thrillers from this reliable author of political intrigue and quite possibly my favorite. It is easy to forget about Forsyth’s earlier books because his stories are always set in the present or...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Music Tells All by E. R. Punshon
One of my great finds last year was the prolific Golden Age author Ernest Robertson Punshon (1872-1956). Writing as E. R. Punshon, he released 35 books featuring Bobby Owen, an Oxford-educated policeman who worked his way up through the Scotland Yard ranks. He...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Suddenly While Gardening by Elizabeth Lemarchand
Suddenly While Gardening (Walker, 1978) by Elizabeth Lemarchand (1906-2000) is the 10th mystery featuring Detective-Chief Superintendent Tom Pollard of New Scotland Yard and his partner Detective Inspector Toye. On a well-deserved vacation to a rural village...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: So Pretty a Problem by Francis Duncan
So Pretty a Problem by Francis Duncan (John Long, 1947) is one of the Mordecai Tremaine mysteries, either the third (Amazon) or the fifth (Stop, You’re Killing Me). Tremaine is a retired tobacconist whose choice of leisure reading is romance stories and whose hobby...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Henrietta Who? by Catherine Aird
Henrietta Who? by Catherine Aird (Macdonald, 1968) is the second book in the Calleshire Chronicles, featuring Inspector C.D. Sloan and his inept assistant DC Crosby. Calleshire is an imaginary county somewhere in England, quite large enough apparently to support...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Death in the Quadrangle by Eilis Dillon
Eilis Dillon (1920-1994) was a productive Irish author whose primary target audience was the young adult reader. She wrote 38 YA books as well as two plays, an autobiographical history, eight novels, and three mysteries, two featuring retired Professor Daly,...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Body Scissors by Jerome Doolittle
Body Scissors by Jerome Doolittle (Pocket Books, 1990) is the first of six political thrillers released between 1990 and 1995 featuring Tom Bethany, a former member of the Olympic wrestling team and a Vietnam vet, who describes himself as a security consultant but...