The Mourner by Richard Stark Donald Westlake (1933-2008) was an assiduous and creative author with about 100 crime fiction novels and dozens of short stories to his credit under various pen names including John B. Al…

In The Mourner career criminal Parker learns that someone has the gun he used to kill a few people, a gun that can be traced to him. In order to get it back, he has to steal a 15th century statuette, which is not as easy as it sounds. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/the-mourner-...

Friday’s Forgotten Book: Murder Breaks Trail by Eunice Mays Boyd While at Left Coast Crime in San Francisco, I visited The Bancroft Library at the University of California Berkeley, where most of the university’s special collections are housed, including a fabul…

Eunice Mays Boyd set her early mysteries in Alaska before it was a state. Her unlikely detective is mystery-reading retired grocer F. Millard Smyth. His first case takes place just before Pearl Harbor. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...

Friday’s Forgotten Book: Death of Mr. Gantley by Miles Burton Cecil John Charles Street (1884-1964) was a serving British army officer who attained the rank of Major. He was also a pillar of Golden Age crime fiction, writing under multiple names, producing fo…

An early mystery from Miles Burton in which an inheritance depends on the time of death. A pair of potential legatees are definitely suspicious. Other titles in the series have lovely dust jacket art, I can't imagine what happened to this one. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...

Friday’s Forgotten Book: Corpse at the Carnival by George Bellairs I am slowly working my way through the entire list of Littlejohn mysteries by George Bellairs. Bellairs was the pseudonym of Harold Blundell (1902-1982), a Manchester bank manager as well as a free…

Inspector Thomas Littlejohn hoped for a few days of leave on the Isle of Man but he's pulled into a local murder before he can unpack. Author George Bellairs retired to the island and it takes center stage in this book. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...

The Ringer by Dell Shannon Barbara Elizabeth Linington (1921-1988) was an astonishingly productive American author who wrote under the names Elizabeth Linington, Anne Blaisdell, Lesley Egan, Egan O’Neill, and Dell Shan…

Elizabeth Linington deviated from her usual plot when she incorporated a genealogical thread to this title in her Luis Mendoza series. It remains one of my favorites. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/the-ringer-b...

Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Footsteps That Stopped by A. Fielding Some two dozen mysteries were published under the name Archibald Fielding or A. Fielding or A. E. Fielding between 1924 and 1944. They are attributed to Dorothy Feilding (sic) about whom little is …

A forgotten author as well as forgotten books. Nothing much is known about Dorothy Feilding (sic) who wrote under the name A. Fielding. Her series investigator is Chief Inspector Pointer of Scotland Yard; his 3rd case is The Footsteps That Stopped. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 #FFB happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...

It took me a long time to understand that the teen narrator is an early unreliable narrator. She is so drawn into her own woes that the fact a killer is roaming her town means nothing to her, thus the murders and the investigation are pushed to the background. Lindop was innovative in her plotting.

Another Reprint Recommendation: I Start Counting By Audrey Erskine Lindop As long as we are talking about crime fiction that deserves to be reprinted, I want to mention one of my enduring favorites which has been long out of print. There is one first edition copy on eBay…

Kate Jackson on Crossexamining Crime wants classic crime titles that ought to be back in print. I'd love to see I Start Counting by Audrey Erskine Lindop re-issued. A 14-year-old girl with typical teen woes in the midst of a serial killing spree. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/another-repr...

Friday’s Forgotten Book: Murder with Relish by Guy Cullingford Constance Lindsay Dowdy Taylor (1907-2000) began publishing stories, poems, and articles for periodicals in 1928. Her marriage put her writing career on hold for several years. In 1948 her first de…

Constance Lindsay Taylor/Guy Cullingford's first book was a surprise. Murder with Relish used the familiar "wealthy old lady killed on her birthday" trope and added the family cook as detective and unusually detailed character analysis. I liked it! 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...

Wax Flowers for Gloria by Pat Flower Patricia Mary (Pat) Flower (1914–1977) was born in England and moved to Australia with her family when she was 14. She worked in an office and wrote radio plays and sketches during the 1940s. In th…

Pat Flower was a productive Australian author. Her first book featured Sydney Inspector Herbert Swinton, a kind but committed and hard-working detective. His sidekick writes mysteries on the side and has trouble keeping fact and fiction separate at times. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/wax-flowers-...

Friday’s Forgotten Book: Death Walked in Kashmir by M. M. Kaye Mary Margaret Kaye (1908-2004) was born in India, where her father was a civil servant. Her heart never left the country, even as she returned to England for an education and traveled with her Army…

Mary Margaret Kaye is best known for The Far Pavilions, that historical blockbuster, but she also wrote six mysteries, the first set in India in 1947. A fine mystery worked into a fascinating description of the last days of the Raj. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...

One Man’s Meat by Colin Watson One Man’s Meat is the ninth title in the Flaxborough Chronicles by Colin Watson. The series of 12 gently sardonic and clever police procedurals featuring Detective Inspector Walter Purbright and De…

Each time I read one of the Flaxborough Chronicles, I wonder why it has taken me so long to read it. These books are solid mysteries and positive gems of snark. This one is more complicated than the others I've read. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/one-mans-mea...

Friday’s Forgotten Book: Lay On, Mac Duff by Charlotte Armstrong Charlotte Armstrong (1905-1969) was a U.S. author of novels, short stories, and plays. She also worked in the advertising section of the New York Times and as a fashion reporter. She’s most well kn…

Charlotte Armstrong started out as a playwright and then turned to crime fiction. Her first three books were about a college history professor turned private investigator. In Mac Duff's debut, a parcheesi game turns lethal. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...

Murder Strikes Pink by Josephine Pullein-Thompson Josephine Pullein-Thompson (1924-2014) was the daughter of author Joanna Cannan and the sister of playwright Denis Cannan and authors Diana and Christine Pullein-Thompson. Cannan and her three daug…

I wasn't exposed to pony clubs as a child, so I found the background of Murder Strikes Pink fascinating. The victim was universally disliked so it was hard to narrow down the pool of suspects. happinessisabook.com/murder-strik... 📚⚡️ 📚💙

Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Bank Vault Mystery by Louis F. Booth Louis F. Booth (1903-1996) was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He became a civil engineer with a firm in New Jersey, and he wrote two mysteries when he lost his job on a large construction project d…

Louis F. Booth was a construction engineer who lost his job during the Great Depression and started writing mysteries instead. His first book is about the theft of $180,000 from a bank vault. That's about $4.5M in today's dollars. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 #FFB happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...

Stars for the Toff by John Creasey John Creasey MBE (1908–1973) was an English author of crime, romance, and western novels, who wrote more than six hundred books using some twenty-eight different pseudonyms. Of his many series char…

I read one of the later titles in the Toff series by John Creasey over the weekend. Creasey wrote 59 books about this gentleman detective. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/stars-for-th...

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Murder Mindfully by Karsten Dusse

From my 2025 favorites list. The next in the series is out in the UK this week. This first one will be released by Soho Crime in the US later in the year. I loved it! 📚⚡️ 📚💙 kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/2026/01/aubr...

Isn't it? And it's really funny. Mitchell could write a great scene.

Friday’s Forgotten Book: Printer’s Error by Gladys Mitchell My new year launched with a hundred good resolutions, most of which will falter before long. But before they do, I wanted to tackle a book by Gladys Mitchell (1901-1983). I tried reading her work y…

Gladys Mitchell was a prolific and creative writer. In Printer's Error, she manages to combine the ghoulish, a dismembered corpse, with the high comedy of a nudist colony. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...

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: In the series preface to Alarum and …

And then you might look at Alarum and Excursion by Virginia Perdue, which is also about someone who invented a substitute for gasoline. The inventor wants to donate the formula to the government but some people have other ideas.
happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...

Persons Unknown by Gwen Moffat Gwen Moffat (1924-???) was a British travel writer, mountain guide, and pioneering climber. Her nonfiction work covers travel destinations from Wales to the Himalayas, and she was the first woman t…

Gwen Moffat MBE was a mountaineer and travel writer. She also wrote some 16 mysteries about another climber named Miss Melinda Pink. All the books are set near or in mountains. In her 5th adventure she looks into a strange death in a village in West Wales. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/persons-unkn...

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, th…

One last holiday story.... Fancy Dress Ball by J. Jefferson Farjeon is set on New Year's Eve at the legendary Chelsea Arts Ball. Four separate threads converge unexpectedly well into the book when the plot becomes clear. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...

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…

My favorite books published in 2025. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/favorite-new...

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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 w…

The 87th Precinct rang in the New Year with a double child murder and a gang war over drug territories in Ed McBain's Lullaby (Morrow, 1989). 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/lullaby-by-e...

I remember really liking the books but, boy the violence can be graphic.

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 F…

Anthony Bathurst gets involved in the case of Sir Vernon Eustace who deserts his guests at Christmas dinner and disappears. Later the same evening his cross-dressing butler is found dead. Another reprint from Dean Street Press. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...

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 C…

Because nothing says Christmas like murder! Cheating Waldo decides to kill his wife on a holiday trip to Ireland so he can acquire her recent inheritance. As so often occurs at Christmas, his plans go awry. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/death-by-beq...

Classic Crime Reprints 2025: A List Here as promised is a list of the classic crime stories that have been reprinted during 2025. This list is here to help fill your TBR piles to bursting and it might also aid you in any nominations …

Voting for the 2025 Classic Crime Reprint of the Year is in full swing. To see a list of this year’s qualifying books and to vote, visit Kate Jackson's blog, Cross Examining Crime here: crossexaminingcrime.com/2025/12/02/c.... 📚⚡️ 📚💙

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 r…

The Columnist Murder by Lawrence Saunders makes good use of a telephone booth by hiding the victim there. Another reason to mourn the loss of phone booths. Fans of Broadway will want to look at this Golden Age mystery. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...