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 group of books eligible for the Classic Crime Reprint of the Year Award, an annual event established by Golden Age expert Kate Jackson, otherwise known as the Armchair Reviewer. The 2025 voting process launched two weeks ago. This week and last week bloggers talk about one of the classic crime titles re-issued during 2025, then readers will have the opportunity to vote for one of them as their favorite of the year or nominate a title of their own. To see a list of this year’s qualifying books, visit Cross-Examining Crime here: https://crossexaminingcrime.com/2025/12/02/classic-crime-reprints-2025-a-list/.

Lawrence Saunders was the pseudonym of John Burton Davis (1893-1970) and Clare Ogden Davis (1892-1970). They created it by combining the maiden names of their mothers, Laurette (Saunders) Davis and Mary (Lawrence) Ogden. They were both journalists, State-side and European, and then collaborated on novels. The stories were first serialized in popular magazines such as Liberty, Collier’s, Ladies’ Home Journal, and Saturday Evening Post and then published as books. For more information about the pair, see the Texas State Historical Association website, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/davis-john-burton

The Columnist Murder is a lively narrative set in New York City amid the frenetic hustle and bright lights of Broadway. During the well-attended opening night of a musical revue, Tommy Twitchell, popular gossip columnist for the Evening Blade, is found shot in a telephone booth in the theatre lobby by an on-duty fireman, who was looking for cigarettes that hadn’t been put out completely. Twitchell’s knack for printing scurrilous tidbits and cracks about gangsters had worried his friends for some time; they wanted him to get a body guard. The suspects therefore were legion, but the young lady he had dumped for a new love and who was refusing to go was high on Inspector Maguire’s list, as was mobster Jack Jordan who had eyes for the new lady.

The fireman Nels Lundgren, a Scandinavian immigrant with hopes of making good in his adopted country, managed to stick around during the long night of evidence gathering and witness interviews, hoping to impress the police inspector enough for a transfer to the detective branch. Twitchell’s closest friends were also present, serving as translators of the theatre district and of Twitchell’s social circles to the inspector who was operating in strange territory.

Telephone booths make a great place to hide a body, at least for awhile; Leslie Wetzon discovered one in The Big Killing by Annette Meyers (Bantam, 1989). It’s a shame the booths have largely been done away with.

Tommy Twitchell closely resembles Walter Winchell, the famous syndicated columnist, and I suspect other characters are drawn from real life. The insight into behind-the-scenes theatre is informative, as is the commentary on the daily work of publishing a newspaper. The frazzled inspector gave Twitchell’s friends more latitude than normal out of desperation. The clues leading to the resolution appeared a little late in the narrative but overall the plot is interesting. The strongest parts of the story are the setting details.

Readers who like theatrical or journalist mysteries will want to look at this one.