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Best Reads of 2023
I read right on through to the very end of 2023 and one of my final reads of the year made it onto my best of list, showing that compiling those lists before the end of December is not a good idea for me. Herewith are 20 books that stood out of all the books I...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Holiday Homicide by Rufus King
Rufus Frederick King (1893-1966) was an American crime fiction author. He wrote multiple series: the earliest with Reginald De Puyster, a sophisticated detective akin to Philo Vance; 11 novels about New York police Lieutenant Valcour from 1928 to 1939; another with...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Crime for Christmas by C. H. B. Kitchin
C.H.B. (Clifford Henry Benn) Kitchin (1895-1967) was a man of many talents. He became a solicitor in 1924, he was a farmer and a schoolmaster, and he made a good deal of money playing the stock market. He had eclectic interests, including botany, linguistics,...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Nobody Loves a Dead Man by Milton M. Raison
Milton M Raison (1903-1982) was an American writer better known for his radio, television, and film scripts than his books, although his first book was adapted for the big screen. For more about his career in movies, see his IMDb profile here:...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Black Camel by Earl Derr Biggers
The Black Camel (Grosset & Dunlap, 1929) by Earl Derr Biggers is the fourth of six mysteries Biggers wrote about Honolulu police officer Charlie Chan, a Chinese-American with eleven Americanized children. Inspector Chan’s appearances in a series of not...
Friday’s Forgotten Friday: Murder in Jackson Hole by Maude Parker
Maude Louise Parker Pavenstedt (1892-1959) was born in Galveston, Texas, and attended the University of Wisconsin. She began writing early and documented her experience as the wife of the United States Ambassador to Italy during the years of political unrest before...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Student Body by Nigel FitzGerald
Nigel FitzGerald (1906-1981) was an Irish actor who starred in detective films and served as president of the Irish Actor’s Equity Association for a time. He wrote a dozen mysteries between 1953 and 1967, all published by Collins. Only half of them were also...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars by Anthony Boucher
No one familiar with mysteries needs an introduction to Anthony Boucher. To be thorough however, quoting from Wikipedia: “William Anthony Parker White (1911–1968), better known by his pen name Anthony Boucher, was an American author, critic, and...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: An Abuse of Justice by Roger Parkes
I think I have someone in the UK Crime Book Club on Facebook to thank for mentioning Roger Parkes (1933-2008), who was a British screenwriter and a novelist. Primarily known for his work on British television, he also turned out about a dozen novels. The Dark...
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Walk the Dark Streets by William Krasner
William Krasner (1917–2003) was an American psychologist and mystery author. His service in the Army Air Corps gave him educational benefits under the G.I. Bill and allowed him to earn a bachelor's degree in psychology from Columbia University. He also studied...
