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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · 2d

Another fine mystery in Anthony Gilbert's The Black Stage (1945) with clues hidden in plain sight which I of course missed but Arthur Crook did not. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...

Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Black Stage by Anthony Gilbert

The Black Stage by Anthony Gilbert (Collins, 1945) is the 16th book about the redoubtable solicitor turned detective Arthur Crook. Published as Murder Cheats the Bride in the U.S., it is set immedi…

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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · 5d

Cat lovers might find a new mystery series on this list I compiled for Mystery Readers Journal more than two years ago. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/a-clowder-of...

A Clowder of Cat Mysteries

Originally published in Mystery Readers Journal, Volume 39, Number 4, Animals in Mysteries II, Winter 2023. That cats and mysteries go together like peanut butter and jelly or shoes and socks is ev…

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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · 9d

Nancy Barr Mavity was a well-known journalist who created a crime reporter named Peter Piper for her series of mysteries. In this one an hypnotic and conniving evangelist comes to a bad end. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...

Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Case of the Missing Sandals by Nancy Barr Mavity

Nancy Barr Mavity (1890-1959) was a U.S. journalist, author, and critic. Born Nann Clark Barr in Illinois, she was a reporter, feature writer, and book reviewer for the Oakland Tribune for more tha…

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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · 12d

Margaret Hinxman was a famous film critic who turned to crime fiction later. Her fourth book is about a journalist who had a lot in common with Hinxman, commuting from the south to London every day, except Hinxman didn't encounter murder on the train. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/the-corpse-n...

The Corpse Now Arriving by Margaret Hinxman

Margaret Hinxman (1924-2018) was a preeminent UK film critic who turned to writing crime fiction after a wildly successful journalistic career. Her obituary in The Guardian describes her cinematic …

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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · 16d

Ronald Knox was a founding member of the Detection Club and he wrote generally accepted rules for mystery authors. The Footsteps at the Lock is his second book about insurance investigator Miles Bredon. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...

Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Footsteps at the Lock by Ronald Knox

Ronald Arbuthnott Knox (1888-1957) was a British cleric and author. He was the son of the Bishop of Manchester. His brother Evoe was editor of Punch magazine and his sister Winifred Francis Knox Pe…

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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · 18d

Yet when I see responses to requests for suggestions of new authors to read, Barnard never seems to come up. He is simply too good to lose sight of.

aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · 19d

Robert Barnard seems to have slipped off the crime fiction reading radar, which is really unfortunate. I am looking at some of his lesser known books this week. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/death-of-a-p...

Death of a Perfect Mother by Robert Barnard

Since I began looking at overlooked or forgotten authors, I have found one writer after another whose work was popular during his or her lifetime and then at death it promptly vanished from discuss…

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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · 23d

The work of prolific author James Ronald is being reprinted by Moonstone Press. Volume 5 contains a novel, a novella, and a short story. The Dark Angel offers bigamy, extortion, blackmail, and murder, all in a briskly told story. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...

Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Dark Angel by James Ronald

James Jack Ronald (1905-1972) was a prolific writer of pulp fiction, mystery stories, and dramatic novels. Raised in Glasgow, Ronald moved to Chicago at seventeen where he worked in a variety of jo…

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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · 26d

Annette Meyers wrote about a pair of Wall Street recruiters who encounter murder. Leslie Wetzon and Xenia Smith make their first appearance in The Big Killing. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/the-big-kill...

The Big Killing by Annette Meyers

Annette Meyers was assistant to Broadway producer-director Harold Prince for sixteen years, and then she was an executive search and management consultant on Wall Street for as long. With her husba…

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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · Oct 3

Jan Gordon was half of a colorful duo of artists and writers who traveled extensively between the wars. He wrote 3 mysteries on a dare. The first is There's Death in the Churchyard, which incorporates stock characters into a lively story. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...

Friday’s Forgotten Book: There’s Death in the Churchyard by William Gore

Godfrey Jervis “Jan” (1882-1944) and Cora Josephine Turner (1879-1950) Gordon were artists and authors, painting in Paris before World War I and then traveling to Serbia to work with aid organizati…

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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · Sep 30

The first appearance of Inspector Pollard and Sergeant Toye is at a girls' boarding school, where one of the former students is killed during the annual reunion. The promising start of a good series. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/death-of-an-...

Death of an Old Girl by Elizabeth Lemarchand

Elizabeth Lemarchand (1906-2000) was a teacher in girls’ schools, becoming headmistress before her early retirement due to illness. She took up writing short stories and then detective novels, basi…

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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · Sep 26

Only if the books they read interest you. I joined a book group in my neighborhood and their selections don't appeal to me at all. So back to the internet for reading inspiration.....

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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · Sep 26

This week's forgotten book is a period piece from 1943. Rationing is in full swing and all of the characters drink from morning till night. Lt. Bill Grady solves the murder of a doctor while he is waiting for military orders. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...

Friday’s Forgotten Book: Pattern for Murder by Ione Sandberg Shriber

Elaine Mathilda Sandberg was born in Emeigh Run, Pennsylvania, on November 28, 1911, and relocated with her family to Akron, Ohio, in 1919. She died in Deerfield Beach, Florida, on 7 January 1987. …

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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · Sep 23

Laurence Gough set his Willows and Parker detective series in Vancouver, his hometown. The first book won an Arthur Ellis award for Best First Novel from Crime Writers of Canada. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/the-goldfish...

The Goldfish Bowl by Laurence Gough

In my search for Canadian crime fiction writers, I discovered Laurence Gough. Gough wrote 13 books in his series about Vancouver police detectives Jack Willows and Claire Parker. The first title is…

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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · Sep 19

I discovered recently that I missed some of the early books in the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series and I am checking them out of the library and reading them one by one. I will also be looking for my next Forgotten Friday book and reading it.

aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · Sep 19

Shakespearean scholar Gerald William Phillips composed a Holmes pastiche in the late 1920s, his only mystery. Horton Forbes is his investigator, schoolteacher Jack Kent is his Dr. Watson, and they both search for the killer of harmless Dr. Cheney. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...

Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Seven Black Chessmen by John Huntingdon

Gerald William Phillips (1884-1956) graduated from Oxford and took orders, then became a teacher and a Shakespearean scholar. The following biography is taken from the archives of Westminster Schoo…

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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · Sep 17

Anne Wingate AKA Lee Martin wrote 13 books about Fort Worth detective Deb Ralston, a frazzled mother of 3 with a full-time job and an unexpected pregnancy just to keep her life interesting. She is one of my all-time favorite sleuths. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/murder-at-th...

Murder at the Blue Owl by Lee Martin

Anne Wingate (Martha Anne Guice Wingate) (September 4, 1943 – September 2, 2021) wrote multiple mystery series, including one of my all-time favorites. Under the name Lee Martin, she created the me…

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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · Sep 12

Anthony Gilbert wrote a long series about solicitor Arthur Crook. Before that though there was a series about MP Scott Egerton, who wasn't quite as interesting. This week's forgotten book is the third. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...

Friday’s Forgotten Book: Death at Four Corners by Anthony Gilbert

Lucy Beatrice Malleson (1899-1973) was a British author most well known for her creation of Arthur G. Crook, an entertaining lawyer whose ethics do not bear scrutiny. Crook had some 50 adventures p…

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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · Sep 9

Margaret Reid Duncan Gilloran was a lawyer & crime fiction reader. After she retired, she began writing her own mysteries, 15 books about lawyer & private investigator Lennox Kemp. With Flowers that Fell is a convoluted case that seemed simple at first. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/with-flowers...

With Flowers that Fell by M. R. D. Meek

Margaret Reid Duncan Gilloran (1918–2009) was born in Scotland. She worked in an office for a few years before attending law school and practicing as a solicitor. After her retirement she combined …

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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · Sep 5

Cheapest option is on the reprint publisher's website, www.coachwhipbooks.com/mystery-auth.... The ebook is about $5; it won't have the introduction but it does have the entire text of the book, which is all I care about.

Mystery Authors (F)

Classic detective and crime fiction

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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · Sep 5

I was surprised how tight the plot was. I was not expecting it at all.

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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · Sep 5

Medora Field is best remembered for her history of antebellum mansions but she wrote two mysteries. The first is set in one of those old homes with creaking stairs and a hidden room and a surprisingly good mystery. #FFB 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg...

Friday’s Forgotten Book: Who Killed Aunt Maggie? by Medora Field

Medora Field (1892-1960) was born in Georgia and began her career at The Atlanta Journal Constitution where she wrote a weekly advice column. She was a close friend of Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949)…

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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · Sep 2

Contemporary crime fiction set during the early days of Hollywood was harder to find than I expected. These 14 mysteries are good whodunits and unintentional social histories. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/vintage-holl...

Vintage Hollywood Crime

Originally published in Mystery Readers Journal, Volume 40, Number 1, Spring 2024 Crime will occur in any field that generates large amounts of money, as Peter King had his Gourmet Detective explai…

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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · Aug 29

David Roberts wrote 10 books about Lord Edward Corinth & Verity Browne, strong similarity to Lord Peter Wimsey & Harriet Vane. The Corinth/Browne series is set during the tumultuous 1930s & reflects the political & economic uncertainty of the time. happinessisabook.com/fridays-forg... 📚⚡️ 📚💙

Friday’s Forgotten Book: Dangerous Sea by David Roberts

I don’t know that these books are forgotten as much as no one seems to have heard of them to begin with. After working as an editor at Chatto and Windus, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, and Michael O&#8…

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aubreynhamilton.bsky.social @aubreynhamilton.bsky.social · Aug 26

Sara Woods published ten books under other names. Where There's a Will by Anne Burton puts a bank manager on the trail of a killer to get the bank's customer out of jail. 📚⚡️ 📚💙 happinessisabook.com/where-theres...

Where There’s a Will by Anne Burton

British author Lana Hutton Bowen-Judd (1922-1985) was born and educated in Yorkshire, England. During World War II she worked in a bank and in a solicitor’s office. She married after the war and wi…

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