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Only Couples Need Apply - Doris Miles Disney
Jay & Gretchen are looking to relax after a series of “projects” they’ve finished in various states across the country. They find a charming furnished coach house in Connecticut after seeing an ad...
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FFB: The Crime in the Crystal - Robert Hare
THE STORY: Portrait painter Elton Cleeves sees a vision of his nephew he before the man is found dead. Cleeve’s vision showed his nephew grasping one wrist then holding the other arm outstretched...
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The Return of Theodore Terhune – and Book Giveaway!
I was delighted to go to my lobby and retrieve a pile of packages yesterday, including one big box from Moonstone Press. Inside were five copies of the latest Bruce Graeme books they have reprinted....
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FFB: Stormy Night - Christopher Hale
THE STORY: It was a dark and stormy night… Isn’t it always at some point in a crime novel? During this particular storm in upstate Michigan Dr. Lawrence Shuler is desperate to find his sister who went...
View ArticleAnd the Terhune Books Go To...
T he Pretty Sinister Books random drawing for the Theodore Terhune books took place a hour ago. Slight change in outcome... I randomly decided to award one book each to two people. Why not? More...
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FFB: The Man Who Slept All Day - Michael Venning
THE STORY: There’s a house party at Frank Faulkner’s -- come one, come all. But who exactly are these people? Why don’t they know one another? Faulkner is a stockbroker with expensive taste, but with...
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FFB: Golden Guilt – Francis Gerard
THE STORY: Sir John Meredith is off on another adventure involving kidnapping, revenge and another bizarre cult that hints at supernatural origins. In the prologue of Golden Guilt (1938) two men and...
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MOONLIGHTERS: Helen Knowland - Senator’s Wife with a Dark Imagination
Madame Baltimore (1949) received quite a bit attention when it was first published. First, its author is Helen Knowland, wife of a prominent California senator at the time. Second, the book itself was...
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FFB: At the Sign of the Clove & Hoof - Zoë Johnson
THE STORY: The Clove and Hoof is the hot spot in Larcombe for a pint of bitter, a good story and some laughs. It's also the focal point of a bizarre series of murders for the only connection the...
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IN BRIEF: The Bank with the Bamboo Door – Dolores Hitchens
In the introduction to Dolores Hitchens’ The Bank with the Bamboo Door (1965), another knockout reprint from Stark House Press, Curt Evans quotes Anthony Boucher’s book review. Boucher wrote of...
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FFB: By Death Possessed – Roger Ormerod
Photographer Tony Hines inherits a painting from his grandmother and takes to it to be appraised by experts on the Antiques Road Show (yes, the TV show). Dr. Margaret Dennis tells him that he has a...
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FFB: Pray for the Dawn - Eric Harding
THE STORY: The relatives of explorer and trader in African artifacts Nathan Claymole are summoned by invitation to visit him at his remote home isolated on a island surrounded by a torrential stream...
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FFB: Evidence Unseen - Lavinia R. Davis
Lavinia Davis apparently struggled her whole life to improve her writing and to be taken seriously. Primarily known for her children’s books she wrote five mystery novels for adults, two of which...
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FFB: The Silence of the Night - Roger Ormerod
THE STORY: Weary of the world of police work David Mallin is now in security work, his most recent assignment is to guard the artwork – in particular, a Chinese vase from the T’ang dynasty – at an...
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FIRST BOOKS: Dead Man's Float - Amber Dean
Set in a summer resort town on the shores of Ogg Lake Dead Man’s Float (1944) deals with the macabre drowning death of Bethine Coit who was married to ineffectual Chester a travelling salesman who...
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FIRST BOOKS: The Dead Take No Bows - Richard Burke
The Dead Takes No Bows (1941) gives us the origin of Quinny Hite, a former cop turned opportunistic private eye, two splendid plans – one of the scene of the crimes, the other of a gizmo used to carry...
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IN BRIEF: Man Who Cried All the Way Home – Dolores Hitchens
The Man Who Cried All the Way Home (1966) is a return for Dolores Hitchens to pure detective novel. What makes this novel all the more unusual is the detective. He is Chuck Sadler, a septuagenarian...
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FFB: The Man Whose Dreams Came True - Julian Symons
Confession #87: I am not a fan of Julian Symons. Years ago when I was a teenager my treasured copy of Murder Ink introduced me to hundreds of mystery writers I was eager to sample. In that seminal...
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LEFT INSIDE (again!): Mystery Writer Autographs
While I was sorting books and replacing books I've read back on shelves I was reminded that three books I recently bought were signed. In two cases this was not mentioned in the description when I...
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NEGLECTED DETECTIVES: Morrison Sharpe in Death Goes by Bus
Amateur sleuths are known for their idiosyncratic behavior, unusual occupations and sometimes arcane hobbies and pastimes. From the cultivation and care of Nero Wolfe’s orchids to Hercule Poirot’s...
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