Archives
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Death in High Heels by Christianna Brand
Christianna Brand was the pseudonym of Mary Christianna Lewis (1907-1985), who also wrote as China Thomson, Annabel Jones, Mary Roland, and Mary Ann Ashe. She wrote mysteries, fantasy, short stories, and children’s books. The 2005 film Nanny McPhee is based on the...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Hard Liver by Anthony Weymouth
About a year ago I talked about one of the last Inspector Treadgold mysteries by Anthony Weymouth, the pseudonym of Ivo Geikie Cobb (1887-1953), a London physician and author. Cobb wrote a number of books on clinical topics and seven detective novels about...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Death Has Deep Roots by Michael Gilbert
Michael Francis Gilbert (1912–2006) was an English solicitor and well-known author of crime fiction. His legal career was interrupted by World War II, when he served with the British Army in north Africa and in Italy. His work includes more than 30 novels and 13...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Clubbed to Death by Ruth Dudley Edwards
After reading about the gentlemen’s club in Keep It Quiet by Richard Hull earlier this year (https://happinessisabook.com/fridays-forgotten-book-keep-it-quiet-by-richard-hull/), I checked for other mysteries in the same setting. Of course there is The...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Summer of the Danes by Ellis Peters
The Summer of the Danes (Mysterious Press, 1991) is the eighteenth book in the historical mystery series about Brother Cadfael, soldier turned herbalist and monk, written by Edith Pargeter/Ellis Peters. It is one of the last books about the Welsh Benedictine...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Desert Lake Mystery by Kay Cleaver Strahan
Kay Cleaver Strahan (1888-1941) was an American author who lived in Portland, Oregon. In 1918 she began contributing short stories to popular magazines. She was also a mystery novelist; her bibliography includes: Peggy Mary (1915), Something That Begins with...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Postman’s Knock by J. F. Straker
John Foster Straker (1904-1987) was an English author born in Kent and who served in World War II. During the war with time on his hands he began writing mysteries. He first published seven mysteries with Detective-Inspector Richard Aloysius Pitt from 1954 to 1961,...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Polo Ground 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 as the amateur...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Death in Desolation by George Bellairs
George Bellairs was the pseudonym of Harold Blundell (1902-1982), a Manchester bank manager as well as a freelance journalist. He published 57 popular classic police procedurals featuring Inspector Thomas Littlejohn of Scotland Yard between 1941 and 1980. He also...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Crossword Mystery by E. R. Punshon
I realized it had been quite awhile since I looked at the Bobby Owen detective mysteries by Ernest Robertson Punshon (1872-1956). I was a bit disappointed by the last one or two I read in the series so I thought perhaps I would have better luck with an early title....
