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IN BRIEF: The Scarlet Circle - Jonathan Stagge
Like most mysteries featuring Dr. Hugh Westlake and his mischievous daughter Dawn The Scarlet Circle (1943) begins with one of the little girl's observations. One night she sees a strange pink light...
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FFB: Dead Man's Quarry - Ianthe Jerrold
A group of art students touring the Hereford-Wales border country on bicycle lose one of their party on a simple ride down a hill and begin to fear the worst in the opening chapters of Dead Man’s...
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Death Knocks Three Times - Anthony Gilbert
I seem to be on a roll in choosing my kind of detective novel. My first taste of the prolific --and sorely overlooked by me -- "Anthony Gilbert" (in reality Lucy Beatrice Malleson) was another delight...
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FFB: The Black Stamp - Will Scott
The Black Stamp (1926) was published in England as Disher - Detective (1925) and in it we are introduced to Will Disher, a corpulent, monocle wearing, consulting detective who probably would like to...
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"Oh, Oh, We're Halfway There!" - Updates and News
Not quite "Livin' on a Prayer" yet but I may be offering my prayers up to the book gods come this summer as more and more deadlines approach. Very, very busy this year.I've been holding back discussing...
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IN BRIEF: Last Seen Wearing…- Hillary Waugh
College Girl Missing!Three simple words that will turn many a head whether it be on a flyer taped to a street sign or emblazoned in 36 pt. type on a newspaper headline. It’s all too familiar to...
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FFB: TCOT Rolling Bones - Erle Stanley Gardner
If The Case of The Rolling Bones (1939) is any indication of how Gardner moved away from the rough and tough Perry Mason in the very first books to a Mason who is a combination of courtroom wizard and...
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NEWS FLASH! Dead Man's Quarry in paperback again!
I have been checking for the past two weeks to let you know when Dead Man's Quarry would be available for purchase again in paperback. After some rigamarole with Amazon.com the publisher finally got...
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Death Takes an Editor - Nigel Morland
For one reason or another in the world of popular fiction some publishers and agents suggest prolific authors resort to using pseudonyms, especially if they are trying out new characters or writing...
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FFB: Who Killed the Pie Man? - Phillips Lore
Leo Roi is a lawyer and a private eye at the same time. Oh now let me correct that. He calls himself an investigative attorney which really amounts to a lawyer who likes to spend most of his time...
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FFB: A Dog's Ransom - Patricia Highsmith
In the hands of other writers the simple story in A Dog’s Ransom (1972) might have been ripe material for low comedy. An anti-social misfit sends anonymous letters to randomly selected people he...
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FFB: Scarecrow - Eaton K. Goldthwaite
Scarecrow (1945) is a rather fine example of a post WW2 rural detective novel. Two plots unfold simultaneously in Eaton Goldthwaite's densely plotted noirish thriller. On the one hand there is the...
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Polly Put the Kettle On - Joan Fleming
Could this be the only nursery rhyme that Agatha Christie left untouched when she plundered the pages of Mother Goose for inspiration in plots and quaintly ironic titles? I think it's an unfortunate...
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FFB: Harlem Underground - Ed Lacy
Lee Hayes, the rookie patrolman protagonist of Harlem Underground (1965), has been summoned by his captain. He's sure that he is about to receive a promotion to detective for his recent nabbing of a...
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Constable Guard, Thyself! - Henry Wade
What's needed in any copy of Constable, Guard Thyself! (1934) -- at least for a poor ignorant US reader like myself -- is a list of characters with a chart explaining their police rank and where they...
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FFB: Picture of Millie - P. M. Hubbard
"I wish I could give you a proper picture of Millie," he said, "but I won't try, I don't think."There are many perceptions of Millie Trent, the carefree vivacious wife of Major Trent, who serves as...
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FFB: The Doors of Sleep - Thurman Warriner
"Once again, " Mr. Ambo said, "we seem to be exploring those uncomfortable fringes of the mind..."My Penguin paperback edition of The Doors of Sleep (1955) has a list of characters labeled "Present...
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FFB: Floral Tribute - C. E. Vulliamy
"Aged plagues! -- and yet you can't go to the length of sheer brutality in repelling them; and what is worse, one is driven to acts of desperate, obstinate, wearisome kindness (if that is the word) in...
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The Monkey's Raincoat - Robert Crais
Here’s a brief run down on Elvis Cole, the private eye super hero of The Monkey’s Raincoat (1987), for those of you unfamiliar with him. He’s a Viet Nam vet. He practices yoga, tai chi and tae kwan do....
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FFB: The Cat Saw Murder - D. B. Olsen
Well, I've done it. I've read a cat mystery for the first time in my life. And damned if I didn't enjoy it. It's a strange book, one of the earliest cat mysteries if not the utter first. Strange...
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