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Friday’s Forgotten Book: Fancy Dress Ball by J. Jefferson Farjeon
I am squeezing in one more holiday read before we store the decorations for another year. J. Jefferson Farjeon (1883-1955) was an English author and playwright. He was part of a literary family, the son of journalist, playwright, and novelist Benjamin Leopold...
Favorite New Books from 2025
I gave up on trying to narrow my list of books I really liked in 2025. I read more than 200 books this past year. It is not reasonable to assume that I only really liked 10 of them. Following is my list of books published in 2025 that struck me as outstanding in...
Lullaby by Ed McBain
Ed McBain was the crime fiction pseudonym of Evan Hunter (1926-2005), a U.S. author who wrote extensively under both names. He was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 1986 and was the first U.S. recipient of the Diamond Dagger from the British...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Murders near Mapleton by Brian Flynn
Celebrating the Christmas season with a double murder! Nothing is more festive than a host who walks out during dinner, a maid screaming in the library, and Scotland Yard at the front door. Brian Flynn (1885-1958) was an English writer who worked in a range of jobs...
Death by Bequest by Mary McMullen
Mary McMullen (1920-1986) was a pseudonym of Mary Reilly Wilson, mystery and suspense writer of some 20 books. She was the daughter of mystery writer Helen Reilly, known for books about Inspector Christopher McKee of the Manhattan Homicide Squad, and sister of...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Columnist Murder by Lawrence Saunders
Again, this week’s forgotten book serves two purposes. The Columnist Murder by Lawrence Saunders was originally published in 1931 by Farrar & Rhinehart, making it a Golden Age mystery. It was reprinted in January 2025 by Coachwhip Publications, adding it to the...
Dolly and the Singing Bird by Dorothy Dunnett
Dorothy Halliday Dunnett (1923-2001) was a Scottish author and portrait painter, known to readers mostly for her historical sagas about a 16th century Scottish lord and a 15th century European financier. A website about her run by a former chair of the Dorothy...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Mystery of the Cape Cod Tavern by Phoebe Atwood Taylor
So, this week’s forgotten book serves two purposes. The Mystery of the Cape Cod Tavern is indeed an older classic mystery originally published in 1934 by W. W. Norton and largely unfamiliar to most contemporary mystery readers. It was also re-issued by American...
The Knavish Crows by Sara Woods
The Knavish Crows (Collins, 1971) by Sara Woods may be the only Antony Maitland title I have not managed to read and collect over a long period of acquiring worn ex-library and tattered paperback copies of the series. It seems not to have been published in the...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Alarum and Excursion by Virginia Perdue
Another book this week from The Fifty Classics of Crime Fiction 1900-1950 series, edited by Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor. (See the entire list here: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/84989.50_Classics_of_Crime_Fiction_1900_1950) In the series preface...
